Chs 1–7 originally published in German © Suhrkamp Verlag, 1981, 1991, 1997.

First published in 2002 by Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

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Acknowledgments

This collection of Habermas' essays on religion has not previously appeared in one volume. The Introduction and chapter 8 (translated by Max Pensky) have been written especially for this volume. Full bibliographical details of the other chapters are given below. Each chapter in this volume has been presented as it was originally published. The decision to do this has necessarily entailed some inconsistencies of style and spelling between the chapters.

Chapter 1, “The German Idealism of the Jewish Philosophers,” first appeared as “Der deutsche Idealismus der jüdischen Philosophen,” in Philosophisch-politische Profile Erweiterte Ausgabe, pp. 39–64, © Suhrkamp Verlag, 1981. It was translated by Frederick G. Lawrence and published in English as Philosophical-Political Profiles (MIT, 1983 and Polity, 1986), pp. 21–43, © MIT, 1983.

Chapter 2, “On the Difficulty of Saying No,” first appeared as “Von der Schwierigkeit, Nein zu sagen,” in Philosophisch-politische Profile. Erweiterte Ausgabe, pp. 445–52, © Suhrkamp Verlag, 1981. This is a new translation by Max Pensky (© Polity, 2002).

Chapter 3, “Transcendence from Within, Transcendence in this World,” first appeared as “Transzendenz von innen, Transzendenz ins Diesseits,” in Texte und Kontexte, pp. 127–56, © Suhrkamp Verlag, 1991. It was translated by Eric Crump and Peter P. Kenny and was published in Don S. Browning and Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, eds., Habermas, Modernity, and Public Theology, Crossroad, 1992, pp. 226–50, © Don S. Browning and Francis Schüssler Fiorenza.

Chapter 4, “To Seek to Salvage an Unconditional Meaning Without God is a Futile Undertaking,” first appeared as “Zu Max Horkheimers Satz: Einen unbedingten Sinn zu retten ohne Gott ist eitel,” in Texte und Kontexte, pp. 110–26, © Suhrkamp Verlag 1991. It was translated by Ciaran P. Cronin and published in Justification and Application. Remarks on Discourse Ethics (MIT and Polity, 1993), pp. 133–46, © MIT Press, 1993.

Chapters 5 and 6, “Communicative Freedom and Negative Theology” and “Israel or Athens: Where does Anamnestic Reason belong?” appeared as “Kommunikative Freiheit und Negative Theologie” and “Israel oder Athen: Wem gehört die anamnetische Vernunft?” in Vom sinnlichen Eindruck zum symbolischen Ausdruck Philosophische Essays, pp. 112–35 and 98–111 respectively, © Suhrkamp Verlag, 1997. They were translated by Peter Dews and published in The Liberating Power of Symbols. Philosophical Essays, pp. 90–111 and 78–89 respectively, © Polity.

Chapter 7, “Tracing the Other of History in History. Gershom Scholem's Sabbati Ṣevi,” first appeared as “In der Geschichte das Andere der Geschichte aufspüren. Zu Gershom Scholems Sabbatai Zwi,” in Vom sinnlichen Eindruck zum symbolischen Ausdruck Philosophische Essays, pp. 73–83, © Suhrkamp Verlag, 1997. It was translated by Peter Dews and published in The Liberating Power of Symbols. Philosophical Essays (MIT and Polity, 2001), pp. 57–65, © Polity, 2001.

Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders, but if any has been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.