Habermas Seeks The Transformation And Its Enlightenment

Habermas is the main representative of the second generations of the Frankfurt School. He is one of the world’s most influential philosophers. His theory invol ves a variety of knowledge and disciplines. In recent years, however, he has pai d close attention to religious issues and has discussed them frequently. This is not only for his theoretical depth requirements, but also his response to the human condition in the development of globalization in the21st century.Habermas has always been concerned about religious issues. He never gave up thinking about it. After entering the21st century, conflicts between countries d ue to different cultural and religious beliefs are more and more intense. Especial ly, the events of September1lth,2001, demonstrated the extremely tense relation s between religion and secular society, which leads Habermas’s attention to religiou s issues.This article is based on Habermas’ major works. It presents the developmen t of Habermas’early view of religion through the collections of his religious disc ourses in the early works. In the analysis of Marx’s and the Frankfurt School’s vie ws of religion, I try to find the starting points of Habermas’ view of religion. H abermas inherited the predecessors’spirit of criticism. Habermas criticized religion in his early writings.World witnessed great changes in the latter half of the twentieth century, su ch as World War II, disintegration of the Soviet Union, and other historical event s. Especially the "9·11" events happened in the beginning of the new centur y, and other wars have a religious background, resulting in Habermas called for a review of the role of religion. He affirmed the connotation and positive value in religion. He believes that religion should continue to exist in the post-secular society and that reason should actively occupy the religious connotations. Religio n should be equally involved in the discussions and solving the secular problem by translating religious language into a secular language the public can understand. The dialogue between Habermas and Ratzinger is the best practice on his propos al, which open the dialogue of reason and religion.This article explains that religion is an important resource of Habermas’ theory, and taps the contemporary significance of religion in the real world.