Universalist Religions, the Identity of Liberal Democracy and the Horizon of Post-Secularism in Common Public Culture

This article Analyzes the weight of universalist religions with the identity of liberal democracy with it’s influence on common public arena. In addition to its liberal dimension, the triumph of democracy constitutes a turning point concerning the thought underlying the place occupied by religion in the public action of the so-called free and democratic society. It is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable religious phenomena of this century, that of a vision by the permanence of religion in the public arena. Unlike Islamic democracy, illiberal democracy, deliberative democracy and consociational democracy liberal democracy is defined by clearly identifiable variables such as: human rights, secularism and its corollary the separation of power, free and transparent election, political alternation, and increasingly decentralization. This was first established in Europe and North America, hence the frequent use of the term of ‘’western democracy”, often associated, and sometimes confused with it, before being exported to or imported in foreign societies. In this way, it illustrates the transformation of political model born in particular religious context into a universalizing norm. In the wake of recent work by Jürgen Habermas and Jean-Marc Ferry on the conditions and requirements of post-secular society, one where religion and public reason are no longer in a relationship of mutual exclusion but rather in a relationship of mutual recognition and documentary analysis, the aim is to show that universalist religions, notably Christianity and to a lesser extent Islam, fulfil a matrix function for liberal democracy. Far from being confined to the private sphere, religion is at the heart of a common public culture that aims to be democratic.