This book offers the first in-depth treatment in English language of Habermas's long-awaited
work on religion Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie published in 2019. Charting the
contingent origins and turning points of occidental thinking through to the current
postmetaphysical stage the two volumes provide striking insights into the intellectual streams
and conflicts in which core components of modern self-understanding have been forged. The
encounter of Greek metaphysics with biblical monotheism has led to a theology of history as
salvation expanding in bold arcs from Adam's Fall to Christ and the Last Judgement. The
reconstruction of key turns in the relationship between faith and knowledge ends however with
locating the uniqueness of religion in ritual and defining reason as inherently secular. The
book exposes the sources and trajectories analysed by Habermas with great erudition to
different assessments in biblical studies theology and philosophy of subjectivity. Apart from
Paul and Augustine key lines of continuity are identified in the Gospels early patristic
theology Duns Scotus and Schleiermacher that retain the internal connection of faith to
autonomous freedom.
