ABSTRACT
In this chapter I will, firstly, review a key controversy on the idea of “public religion” as a possible vehicle of a religious ethics of political participation. Secondly, I will illustrate a conceptual approach for defining the anthropological and philosophical basis of a religious ethics of political participation through bridging the tension between the real and ideal dimensions in human history. Thirdly, I will reexamine public religion as applied to Islam with regard to the chances of “cultural dialogue” in a European context. This chosen structure is important for two reasons: since ethics of political participation can no longer be contained within a nation-state oriented notion of citizenship, and because as the “secular continent” and the cradle of modernity, Europe is a crucial terrain for testing notions and practices of public religion, in particular in view of the inherited historical conflicts with Islam.
