course’in the singular.^75 A similar duality can be observed with
regard to the present study. There is an overall intellectual history
of recognition that starts with Aristotle, continues in the Latin and
vernacular texts of Western Christianity, and reappears in a secular-
ized fashion in Fichte and Hegel. Within this overall history, three
different ways or paradigms of religious recognition can be identified.
(i) The conversion narrative emerges in late antiquity, (ii) the promise
of self-preservation permeates medieval and early modern times, and
(iii) the existential attachment is typical of modernity (see section
4.2). In addition to these, various minor forms are found. A legal
concept of recognition extends from international politics to the
early ecumenical movement (sections 3.5–3.6). Linguistic patterns
of ditransitivity lurk behind the idea of gift exchange (section 4.3).
From Ficino to Hegel, self-recognition is thought of in terms of
relational self-discovery (section 4.4).
4.5.1. Transforming AttitudeAs we have summarized our historical study in sections 4.1 and 4.2,
we need not repeat it here. Instead, this last chapter highlights some
connections between that and the broader social and philosophical
discussion on recognition. Let us start by emphasizing that religious
recognition is a strong attitude in our sources that changes
and transforms the person who recognizes. Normally, the object of
recognition, the recognizee, also undergoes a status change or a
cognitive change. Especially in older texts, recognition is a much
stronger attitude than toleration. While toleration is regarded in
terms of such permission or co-existence which does not question
the position of the one who tolerates,^76 recognition is described as a
self-transforming attitude.
Religious recognition is not an evolutionary phenomenon in the
sense that it develops from a less demanding and rudimentary form
towards more demanding conceptions. In this respect, too, it differs
from toleration. The ancient view of recognition, spelled out in the
LatinRecognitions(section 2.1), underlines the existential change of
values and norms in the event of religious conversion. When a person
‘recognizes the truth’in conversion, his mind changes. The object of
(^75) Ricoeur 2005; 2006. (^76) Forst 2003, 42–6.
242 Recognition and Religion