World Religions and Social ThoughtFrom Ernst Troeltsch and Max Weber to Jürgen Habermas and Hans Joas

This paper was drafted on occasion of Hans Joas’ 70th birthday, and published in German, in the book edited by M. Schlette, B. Hollstein, M. Jung and W. Knobl (2022), under the title Idealbildung, Sakralisierung, Religion. Beiträge zu Hans Joas’ Die Macht des Heiligen. After highlighting the contributions of Joas’ social philosophy, Wittrock shows the main traits of the history of social theory regarding the scientific research of world religions. This reconstruction places the questions asked and the answers provided within their historical context, while at the same time it identifies some persisting questions, such as the place and role of world religions compared to other religious phenomena, or that of the relationship between Christianity and Modernity. Further, a central asset of this article is the reconstruction of the sociological and philosophical understanding of the Axial Age. After these preparatory and reconstructive parts, Wittrock focuses his analysis upon the most recent works —until then— of Habermas and Joas regarding the discourse on the Axial Age, in order to show their tensions and inherent capabilities facing the current experiences of secularization and transcendence.