Samuel F. Müller

Aufenthalt

Oktober 2013-September 2014

Forschungsthema

»Religion in Modern Societies as Challenge to Critical Theory«

Projektbeschreibung

The research I will be conducting in Bad Homburg concerns the role of religious worldviews andrntraditions in modern societies. To achieve the wider aim of developing a critical vocabulary suited torncomprehend »religion« from within the »secular« framework of critical theory, I will develop andrncompare the following conflicting perspectives:rnOn the one hand, I will explore to what extent religious worldviews and traditions are prone tornfunction as societal forces that purport to foster solidarity, universal justice, and meaning for one’srnindividual life, but actually aid modes of inequality, injustice, and social exclusion. On the otherrnhand, I will discuss the contrasting question of how traditions of faith can encapsulate experiencesrnand radical reinterpretations of the world that have the potential to instigate societal emancipation.rnHence, while the first question aims to rethink and reinvigorate a discussion on the conceptualrnconnections between »religion« and »ideology,« it is the second question, which might provernchallenging to the secular self-perception of the critical theorist.rnTo answer these questions, my research draws from Jürgen Habermas’s critical social theory.rnHabermas’s wide-ranging body of philosophical and sociological work, as I interpret it, givesrngrounds for both substantiating a »critique of religion,« while leaving open the possibility to think ofrn»religion as critical instance« in modern societies.

Wissenschaftliches Profil

Samuel F. Müller ist Doktorand am Fachbereich Politikwissenschaft an der New School for Social Research in New York. Sein Dissertation trägt den Titel: »›Judeo-Christian Mysticism‹ and ›BourgeoisrnReligion‹: Reconstructing ›Religion‹ in Jürgen Habermas’ Critical Social Theory, from The Absoluternand History to The Theory of Communicative Action«. Sein Studium der Sozialwissenschaften schloss er mit einem Diplom der Humboldt Universität ab und erhielt außerdem die Abschlüsse M.A. und M.Phil. in Politikwissenschaft an der New School for Social Research.

Veröffentlichungen (Auswahl)

Fallacies in Cultural Translation (in Vorbereitung).