Mehr als „Opium des Volks“

This article first deals with the role of religion in the concept of “Leitkultur” and “identitarian politicization” of religions, whose representatives resort to religious affiliations to justify either a partial or complete closure of democracy as a form of society. This is followed by a discussion of the political significance of religion according to “Kantian republicanism”. It is shown that, according to this variant of political liberalism advocated by Jürgen Habermas, the answer neither to the aforementioned nor to other forms of politicization of religion can be the exclusion of religiously arguing citizens from the political opinion-forming and decision-making process. On the basis of his assumptions on the relationship between politics and religion, which are related to Kant's idea of “ethisches Gemeinwesen”, it is also made clear why, according to Habermas, the inclusion of religiously arguing actors in the public discourse under the condition of a deliberation filter should be seen as an important contribution to the preservation of democracy as an open society.