Abstract

The article deals with the politics of secularism as an essential component of modern democracy, confronting the contributions of three major contemporary political philosophers about religion and public life. I present, first, Charles Taylor’s characterization of secularist regimes as attempts to secure the basic principles of the modern moral order. Next, I argue that John Rawls’s growing interest in the relation between religion and democracy led him to an even more inclusive view of public reason. Thirdly, I show that Jürgen Habermas preserves a distinction between faith and knowledge that proves essential to grasping the debate over the place of religion in the public sphere. All three thinkers are concerned with the appropriate forum for the basic political language of the secular state. In a nutshell, my interpretation highlights a much greater proximity between Habermas and Rawls regarding political justification, on the one hand, and between the former and Taylor concerning the normative basis for the secular state, on the other hand, than their various interventions seem to indicate.