recognition tend to emphasize the relational and heteronomous char-
acter of our social world. Change and redefinition may notfinally
pertain only to persons but also to the redefinition of the relationship
between them. Acts of recognition establish a social bond which ties
people together so that each one can see herself as‘one person among
many persons’.^85 While religious recognitionfirst appears as a con-
version narrative, its long Latin tradition emphasizes the complex
social bond that enables relationships of love, trust, and mutual
service. In this manner, classical religious recognition and modern
political recognition embrace similar goals.
Does religious recognition lead towards the aims identified by
Honneth (section 1.2), namely, an equal respect for others and their
individual esteem according to their capabilities? This question is
challenging and may easily lead to anachronisms. The answer is
both yes and no, with numerous qualifications. The answer is no for
two reasons. First, religious recognition is so strongly concerned with
the self-preservation of the recognizer that the dimension of others
may not come sufficiently to notice. Second, religious recognition is so
greatly involved with the‘upward’and‘downward’directions that
equality, an essential component of respect, remains underdeveloped.
Both of these reasons need some qualifications. While self-
preservation dominates many recognition issues, religious texts
often assume a constitutive relationality of me and other persons in
which others are transformed in the process. The status and some-
times the personal identity of others are thus relevant to many
recognition issues. The present study argues that the relational con-
stitution of personhood is not Hegel’s invention but a classical com-
ponent of religious recognition.
Regarding the lack of equality in religious texts, one may note that
some aspects of respect and esteem are relevant in the‘upward’and
‘downward’recognitions as well. The individual esteem of God or the
beloved in premodern texts is not dramatically different from the
modern concept of individual esteem. It is to be granted, however,
that equal respect does not play a significant role in religious recog-
nition. Even in the modern paradigm of existential attachment, the
upward and downward dimensions prevail. This may be due to the
nature of religion as a quest for‘higher’truths. On the other hand, it
(^85) Ikäheimo 2014, 185.
248 Recognition and Religion