The preceding chapters have had texts by Habermas as their focus, and have had interpretation and explanation as their goal. They have thus served to make Habermas' views on religion accessible to philosophers and theologians, and to show some of the difficulties that arise if his theory is conscripted for theological use. Habermas is difficult to read, and theological commentary on his work, as distinct from engagement with it, is not plentiful. The previous chapters have tried to fill this gap by illuminating the plain sense of his texts. This chapter has a different aim, and is intended for a more narrowly theological readership. Philosophers outside the Christian tradition are invited to read this chapter slightly differently, and to approach its material as guests rather than as fellow travellers. Here I want to begin putting the previous discussions to work in an attempt to repair problems in contemporary theology.

Areas of expertise in theological work are increasingly specialised, and it is sometimes difficult to generate high-level discussion between specialisms. English-speaking theologians who read Habermas tend to be experts in Christian ethics; within this group they tend to read Kant, Rawls and MacIntyre. English-speaking theologians who read Barth tend to be experts in Christian dogmatics; within this group they tend to read patristic theology, Anselm, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin and Schleiermacher. Habermas is most interesting when he is introduced into discussions held by both these kinds of theologian, neither of whom tend to read Hegel, Schelling or Heidegger.