Religion und Freiheit. Zur emanzipativen Kraft der Transzendenz

This paper deals with the question on the importance of the idea of transcendence for the thinking and acting of humans. The author concludes that both freedom in its normativity as well as rationality in its coherence cannot abstain from reference to transcendence. This reference to transcendence - which in human history is also represented in religion in its different forms - will be examined on the basis of three philosophical and religious thinkers - Schleiermacher, Hölderlin and Kierkegaard. All three of them see religion as being important for modern achievements such as emancipation, maturity and freedom, but without neglecting its inherent ambivalence. Therefore their concepts of religion and transcendence have the potential to emphasize the self-understanding of humans. This potential is worth taking into account while scrutinizing the correlation of religion, freedom and emancipation with the intention of elucidating the function of religion for the understanding of reality.