The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere (A Columbia SSRC Book)

149 Pages·2011·0.64 MB·English

by  Judith Butler

The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere represents a rare opportunity to experience a B
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diverse group of preeminent philosophers confronting one pervasive contemporary concern: T
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what role does—or should—religion play in our public lives? Reflecting on her recent work R

concerning state violence in Israel-Palestine, judith butler explores the potential of reli- ET THE POWER of RELIGION

gious perspectives for renewing cultural and political criticism, while jürgen habermas, A
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best known for his seminal conception of the public sphere, thinks through the ambiguous .
legacy of the concept of “the political” in contemporary theory. charles taylor argues for IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE
a radical redefinition of secularism, and cornel west defends civil disobedience and eman-
cipatory theology. eduardo mendieta and jonathan vanantwerpen detail the immense TH
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contribution of these philosophers to contemporary social and political theory, and an after-
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word by craig calhoun places these attempts to reconceive the significance of both reli- OW
gion and the secular in the context of contemporary national and international politics. E
R
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f JUDITH BUTLER
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judith butler is the Maxine Eliot Professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Compara- E
L JÜRGEN HABERMAS
tive Literature at the University of California at Berkeley. Her books include Gender Trouble: IG
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Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Antigone’s Claim: Kinship Between Life and O CHARLES TAYLOR
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Death, and Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France. jürgen IN CORNEL WEST
habermas is a German philosopher and sociologist. His recent works include The Future of T EDITED AND INTRODUCED BY
H EDUARDO MENDIETA
Human Nature, The Divided West, and Between Naturalism and Religion: Philosophical Es- E
P JONATHAN VANANTWERPEN
says. charles taylor is a Canadian philosopher and professor emeritus of political science U
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and philosophy at McGill University and a recipient of the Templeton Prize and the Kyoto L AFTERWORD BY
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C CRAIG CALHOUN
Prize. His recent books include Varieties of Religion Today: William James Revisited, Mod-
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ern Social Imaginaries and A Secular Age. cornel west is Class of 1943 University Profes- H
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sor at Princeton University, where he teaches in the Center for African American studies R
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and the Department of Religion. His recent books include Democracy Matters: Winning the
Fight Against Imperialism and Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud.
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eduardo mendieta is professor of philosophy at the State University of New York, Stony O
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Brook, and the author of The Adventures of Transcendental Philosophy and Global Frag-
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ments: Globalizations, Latinamericanisms, and Critical Theory. jonathan vanantwerpen is L C
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director of the program on religion and the public sphere at the Social Science Research Coun- M S
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cil, a visiting scholar at New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge, and coeditor of B |
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Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age. craig calhoun is president of the Social Science A BI
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Research Council and University Professor of the Social Sciences at New York University. His U
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most recent works are Nations Matter: Culture, History, and the Cosmopolitan Dream and an O
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edited collection titled Robert K. Merton: Sociology of Science and Sociology as Science.
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Cover art: Megan Craig, Pit, 2007. A COLUMBIA|SSRC BOOK RIN
Cover design: Alejandro Largo TE
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS | NEW YORK H
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WWW.CUP.COLUMBIA.EDU U.S
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THE POWER OF RELIGION
IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE

The POWER
of RELIGION
in the
PUBLIC SPHERE
JUDITH BUTLER
JÜRGEN HABERMAS
CHARLES TAYLOR
CORNEL WEST
Edited and introduced by
Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen
Afterword by Craig Calhoun
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
A COLUMBIA / SSRC BOOK
NEW YORK
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2011 The Social Science Research Council
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The power of religion in the public sphere / Judith Butler . . . [et al.]; edited
with an introduction by Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen;
with an afterword by Craig Calhoun.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-231-15645-5 (cloth: alk. paper) —ISBN 978-0-231-15646-2
(pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Civil religion. 2. Religion and state. 3. Religion and politics.
I. Butler, Judith, 1956– II. Mendieta, Eduardo. III. VanAntwerpen,
Jonathan, 1970– IV. Title.
BL98.5.P69 2011
201'.72—dc22
2010028751
Casebound editions of Columbia University Press books are printed on per-
manent and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writ-
ing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for
Web sites that may have expired or changed since the book was prepared.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere
EDUARDO MENDIETA AND JONATHAN VANANTWERPEN 1
“The Political”: The Rational Meaning of a Questionable
Inheritance of Political Theology
JÜRGEN HABERMAS 15
Why We Need a Radical Redefi nition of Secularism
CHARLES TAYLOR 34
Dialogue: Jürgen Habermas and Charles Taylor 60
Is Judaism Zionism?
JUDITH BUTLER 70
CONTENTS
Prophetic Religion and the Future of Capitalist Civilization
CORNEL WEST 92
Dialogue: Judith Butler and Cornel West 101
Concluding Discussion: Butler, Habermas, Taylor, West 109
Afterword: Religion’s Many Powers
CRAIG CALHOUN 118
Index 135
vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This volume is the result of an event that was jointly sponsored by
three different institutions, with particular support and encourage-
ment from a number of individuals. Abbreviated versions of the essays
published here were fi rst presented at a public event in the historic
Great Hall of New York City’s Cooper Union. Held October 22,
2009, the event was cosponsored by New York University’s Institute
for Public Knowledge, the Social Science Research Council, and Stony
Brook University. Over a thousand people converged, queuing around
the block and eventually packing the Great Hall to listen to Judith
Butler, Jürgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, and Cornel West hold forth
and engage with one another for almost fi ve hours. In addition to this
volume’s four main chapters, edited transcripts of dialogues between
the authors are also reproduced here, interwoven between individual
contributions, as they were at the event itself. Craig Calhoun, our co-
organizer for the event, generously agreed to write an afterword.
We are especially grateful to our four authors for their participa-
tion in the public dialogue and for graciously writing and then editing
their texts and reviewing the transcripts of their extemporaneous
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
remarks. Without their willingness, generosity, and temerity, this book
would not have been possible. We are also indebted to Craig Calhoun,
who arranged fi nancial support for the public dialogue, and to Robert
Crease, Eric Kaler, and Nancy Squires at Stony Brook University, who
provided additional support and encouragement. We owe special
thanks to Ruth Braunstein, Samuel Carter, and Evan Ray of NYU (for
assistance in organizing the event); to Paul Price, Charles Gelman, and
Jessica Polebaum of the SSRC (for assistance with manuscript prepa-
ration and help with other details); to Matthias Fritsch, María Her-
rera Lima, David Kyuman Kim, and Max Pensky (for timely and help-
ful comments on an earlier version of our introduction); and to Wendy
Lochner of Columbia University Press (who made the volume’s publi-
cation an editorial priority). We are, above all, thankful to the more
than one thousand individuals who participated in a long and undeni-
ably epic event. This book is a testament to the vitality of the public
sphere, in its uniquely American incarnation.
viii
THE POWER OF RELIGION
IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE