In this second volume of his groundbreaking new work on the history of philosophy, Jürgen Habermas traces the development of Western thought from the reception of Platonism by early Christian thought, through the revolution in medieval philosophy and theology triggered by the rediscovery of Aristotle's works, up to the decoupling of philosophical and theological thought in nominalism and the Reformation that ushered in the postmetaphysical thinking of the modern age. In contrast to conventional histories that focus on movements and schools, Habermas takes the dialectic of faith and knowledge as a guiding thread for analysing key developments in the thought of major figures such as Augustine, Aquinas, Scotus, Ockham and Luther that constitute milestones in the genealogy of postmetaphysical thinking. A distinctive feature of Habermas' approach is the prominence he accords practical philosophy, and in particular legal and political ideas, and the corresponding attention he pays to social, institutional and political history, especially as these bear on the relationship between church and state. As a result, the central preoccupations of Christian thought are shown to be original responses to questions raised by the Christian worldview that exploded the framework of Greek metaphysical thinking and remain crucial for the self-understanding of contemporary philosophy. Far from raising claims to exclusivity, completeness or closure, Habermas's history of philosophy, published in English in three volumes, opens up new lines of research and reflection that will influence the humanities and social sciences for decades to come.

Jürgen Habermas is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt and one of the leading philosophers and social and political thinkers in the world today.

Abbreviations
 
IV. THE SYMBIOSIS OF FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE IN CHRISTIAN PLATONISM AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
 
1. Early Christianity: The Proclaiming and the Proclaimed Jesus
(1) The relationship of the early Christians to Judaism
(2) Jesus: self-image and teaching
(3) The Pauline interpretation of Christianity
 
2. The Encounter of Christianity with Hellenism in the Graeco-
Roman Environment of the Empire
(1) The spread of Christian congregations and worship
(2) The Roman Empire - the political and social environment
(3) In the field of tension between philosophical and religious
teachings
(4) Hellenization of Christianity?
 
3. Plotinus and Augustine: The Christian Transformation of
Platonism
(1) The foundation of absolute idealism: the concept of the One
(2) Christianity as the better philosophy: faith and knowledge
(3) The sinful will, experienced time and performative knowledge
 
4. Augustine and the Church between Institution of Salvation and
Secular Power
(1) The position of the state church in the Roman Empire
(2) World history and process of salvation
 
V. CHRISTIAN EUROPE: PROGRESSIVE DIFFERENTIATION OF SACERDOTIUM AND
REGNUM, FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE
 
1. Church, Society and State in 'Christian Europe'
(1) The Church as a formative force in early medieval Europe
(2) Christian reform movements, the Gregorian reform and the
differentiation of imperial and papal authority
 
2. The Challenges posed by Aristotle for Thirteenth-Century
Theology
(1) The delayed Christian reception of Aristotle in the High
Middle Ages
(2) The revolutionary conception of science of the 'Posterior
Analytics'
(3) The god of the philosophers and the god of Abraham
(4) The decoupling of practical reason from theoretical reason
 
3. The Answers of Thomas Aquinas
(1) The theological appropriation of Aristotelian basic concepts
(2) The modes of belief and knowledge
(3) Theology as a science
 
4. Ontologization of Aristotelian Ethics and Reconstruction of
Practical Philosophy
(1) From the theory of action to guidance of the will by practical
reason
(2) Ethics and the 'highest good'
(3) Sublation of 'politics' in the philosophy of the social
(4) 'Treatise on Law' and philosophy of law
 
VI. THE VIA MODERNA: PHILOSOPHICAL ORIENTATIONS FOR SCIENTIFIC,
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIO-POLITICAL MODERNITY
 
1. Ushering in a Paradigm Shift: Duns Scotus
(1) Rejection of the metaphysical concept of God - critique of the
analogia entis
(2) The transcendental-semantic turn of ontology
(3) God's omnipotence, contingency of nature and empirical
knowledge
(4) Freedom as self-commitment to the absolutely binding law
 
2. William of Ockham: The Janus Face of the 'Nominalist
Revolution'
(1) Critique of Duns Scotus and the limits of natural reason
(2) Discussion of numerical and personal identity
(3) Preparation of the mentalist turn
(4) The revolutionary political writings: poverty controversy and
church constitution
 
3. The Functional Differentiation of Law and Politics and a New
Form of Social Integration
(1) Differentiation of state and capitalist economy in Northern
Italy
(2) Marsilius of Padua on the relationship between church and
state
(3) Legal codification of politics and depersonalization of rule
 
4. A Functionalist Theory of State Power (Niccoló Machiavelli) and
New Legitimation Problems (Francisco de Vitoria)
(1) Abstract power and the conditions of its stabilization
(2) Politicization of natural law (Peasants' War) and founding of
European international law (in the course of the colonization
of 'heathen peoples')
 
VII. THE SEPARATION OF FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE: PROTESTANTISM AND
PHILOSOPHY OF THE SUBJECT
 
1. Luther's Break with Tradition and the Transformation of Theology
(1) The indulgences controversy and the doctrine of justification
(2) Sola fide and the transformation of theology
(3) The doctrine of the sacraments and the semanticization of the
sacred event
(4) The dispute with Erasmus and Luther's conception of freedom
 
2. Theological, Social and Political Orientations for Modern Rational
Law
(1) Luther on law, church and state, freedom of religion and the
right of resistance
(2) Calvinist doctrines of the right of political resistance
(3) Excursus on thinking in terms of natural law
 
3. The Context of the Rational Natural Law: Socio-Historical Dynamics and Scientific Development
(1) Trends towards the juridification of political rule
(2) From theology to natural science: Francis Bacon
(3) Descartes and Pascal
 
4. The Paradigm Shift to Philosophy of the Subject and the Resulting
Problem of the Justification of Binding Norms
(1) Thomas Hobbes
(2) Benedict de Spinoza
(3) John Locke
 
Second Intermediate Reflection: The Caesura of the Separation of
Faith and Knowledge
 
Notes
Bibliography
Overview: Volumes 1-3
Index