A new era in the relationships of public sphere and religion

Relations of public sphere and religion constitute one of the main problems of the modern conceptions of the public sphere. Modern public sphere emerging on the mental background of Enlightenment ideals and on the basis of the bourgeois class has considered religion as a phenomenon of private sphere. According to this, the public sphere is an intermediary institution between society and the state where a public community discuss the issues concerning about the society with a style of rational and critical reasoning and all participants are convinced and they have a mutual consensus. The style of reasoning valid in the public sphere is a rational style of reasoning, because of this social actors who have minds that religious and based on religion are not able to participate in public discussions, inasmuch as any consensus on religious matters is not possible, social factors who have religious, ethnical, cultural differences have to live these identities in the private sphere. Public sphere must be an area defined by the principles such as reconciliation, objectivity, rationality and secularism. However, there has been a continuing tension between these principles and principles of secularity and totality of life that religions have inherently. The boundaries between public and private spheres has been disappeared increasingly in today’s societies. Thus, the issues described as a special can turn into the public, the issues described as the public can turn into a special. In this process, religion may emerge as a founder element of the public. Also transitivity between the secular and the religious ones has been increasing constantly in the platform of everyday life and the theories of secularization based on the positivist approach have been reconsidered. Even J.Habermas who developed one of the first theoretical approaches about the public sphere and insisted on the secularity of the public sphere, has reconsidered the relationship between the public sphere and religion. The general approach proposed for today’s societies is that religion is not no longer merely considered as a special case and today, it is necessary for religions to enter the public sphere. Entry of religion into the public sphere as a constituent element can be interpreted as a contribution to the pluralism and diversity of the public sphere. Key Secularization. Words: Public Sphere, Religion, Private Sphere