Lost in Translation? Talking Religion at School and in the Public Space

The concept of translating religious arguments into secular language, famously advocated by Jürgen Habermas, is central for the contribution of religions within public discourse and has been widely adopted for Public Theology. However, in contexts of education and where only little acquaintance with religious practice can be presupposed, reconstruction of religion by means of rational arguments is often unconvincing, since the very idea of seeing one’s life in a horizon of transcendence is unfamiliar. Hence, complementary approaches are needed to make religious arguments understandable beyond the borders of a particular religion. By discussing exemplary cases, the paper argues that, in specific contexts, aesthetic experience can contribute to the accessibility of religious belief in public.