Answering Habermas

In thinking about how Jurgen Habermas has tried to philosophically deal with what has been missing since the Enlightenment began to reject faith and religion---(see “An Unawareness of What Is Missing” By J. Karpowicz in “Modern Age,” Winter 2014)---I think Habermas should be given credit for this since many modern thinkers don't seem to see anything missing.

Habermas wants the religious side of life to accept the authority of natural reason, while secular reason must not judge the truths of faith. Christianity has found a way to do this (Thomism), but not Islam which seems to subordinate all of life to the sacred law of sharia, and not by reason (although I could see their idea of high reasoning more like the Gnostic “nous,” or Holy Spirit).

But the reason of Habermas, like Enlightenment reason, has no God-goal or faith in reaching Godhood to which human virtues can be directed, so Habermas loses the idea of the classical virtues of high truth, goodness and beauty in religio-philosophy, which seems to lead only to following along with the Enlightenment goals of avoiding pain, and seeking pleasure, individualism, success in this world, etc.

Here is the way my religious philosophy answers Habermas:

The Spirit-Will can aid in keeping the passions and desires in check, and the evolutionary virtues can be involved in ennobling human beings as we evolve toward the zenith of truth, goodness and beauty, which is Godhood, rather than pursuing only the Enlightenment goals of avoiding pain, and seeking pleasure, individualism, success in this world, etc.

Faith is retained in the faith we have in reaching the highest goal of the activating Spirit-Will, which is Godhood, and the faith we have in the direction of the Spirit-Will-To-Godhood. Natural Law can be retained in following the order of nature and the drive to successful survival and reproduction, which leads to the zenith of the success of these things at the zenith of evolution, which is Godhood. Outside natural selection and evolution help shape the sacred activation of life from within.

But the Spirit-Will-To-Godhood must not be confounded with the Soul or Mind-Soul, which in human beings is found by non-attachment to passions and desires so as to dwell in the Mind-Soul only, the Father Within, the God Within, which needs to be seen as only a symbolic-experience of the Godhood reached in material/supermaterial evolution. The path to the Mind-Soul can be reached in the Involutionary Inward Path which needs to be synthesized with the Evolutionary Outward Path to real Godhood.  This defines the Twofold Path, which can join the divided world.

We don't have to separate reason into practical and contemplative, or into nous, logos and phronesis, as the Greeks and their followers did, practical reason regarding survival and evolution on earth can be used in social strategies, but social strategies lead to thinking about ways to reach ultimate success in the natural order, which is the Godhood-goal of the Spirit-Will.

Modern living can become involved with religious living as we arrange our social structures (which can include democracy and humanism) and seek social virtues directed toward our continual evolution to the highest truth, goodness and beauty, and ultimately Godhood, which is the zenith of the virtues and the zenith of life in the cosmos. Faith and reason, religion and science can this way be joined in the modern world replacing what has been missing since the Enlightenment.