Abstract
Deliberacija oziroma kritična, odprta, vključujoča in argumentirana javna razprava
o stvareh javnega interesa je ključen mehanizem demokratične politične ureditve.
Po prepričanju zagovornikov deliberativne demokracije, kot je Jürgen Habermas,
deliberacija prispeva k doseganju boljše in pravičnejše družbe. Prispevek analizira
prepletenost razvoja te politične vrednote v evro-atlantskem svetu s protestantizmom
in njegovim razvojem. Novejša raziskovanja zgodovine protestantizma in
politične zgodovine demokracije kažejo kompleksno, a zgovorno sliko: kljub prisotnosti
religijskih konzervativnih tendenc v protestantizmu se zdi, da je za družbe,
v katerih je protestantizem postal prevladujoča religijska kultura, postala značilna
precejšnja mera svobode raziskovanja, verovanja in debatiranja. To dejstvo je bilo
delno rezultat naključnih zgodovinskih dogodkov, delno pa notranjih teoloških
impulzov v protestantski misli.
Deliberation as critical, open, inclusive and argument-based discussion about matters
of public interest is a crucial mechanism of a healthy democracy. According to
deliberative democracy defenders, like Jürgen Habermas, deliberation contributes
to achieving a better and more just society. The present essay analyses the intertwinement
between the development of this political value in the Euro-Atlantic
world on the one hand, and Protestantism and its development on the other. Recent
works in the history of Protestantism and the political history of democracy paint
a complex, but powerful picture: despite the religious conservative tendencies in
Protestantism, it seems that a notable measure of freedom of research, belief and
debate could be found in the societies where Protestantism had become a dominant
religious culture. While this development is partly a result of contingent historic
events, it also had much to do with internal theological impulses within the Protestant
thought.