This article refers to the broad concept of demythologization understood as a hermeneutic process referring mainly to religious-mythical messages. Demythologization aims to preserve and communicate the profound content of a religious statement by detaching it from its original, often anachronistic form and placing it in a form comprehensible to people living in a different cultural context. Among several contemporary thinkers continuing the tradition of broadly understood demythologization, Jürgen Habermas is of particular relevance to this article. Habermas points out that modern Western liberal societies are based on the modern concepts of democracy, individual freedom, and religious pluralism. The natural consequence of such social development is the process of secularization. In his 2001 speech Glauben und Wissen, Habermas points to religion as an essential ally of the liberal, civic state against the “alienating forces of modernity.” Religion, in his view, is an integral part of Western culture both in a historical-cultural sense and in the ever-present potential for meaning contained in religious language. Habermas advocates a translation of the moral intuitions contained in religious language into a secular language that would be acceptable to the public and that could help to build civic societies and civic attitudes. The concept of imago dei, which contains the universal truth of the unconditioned dignity of the human being, can serve as an example.
