Civil Religion in Political Thought: Its Perennial Questions and Enduring Relevance in North America
Let's start by noting a substantial ambiguity in the meaning of the term civil religion. In his “Dissertation sur la politique des Romains dans la religion,” Montesquieu celebrated the Romans for their exemplary capacity to “put the gods in submission to politics,” and to “fashion religion for...
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| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2011
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| In: |
A journal of church and state
Year: 2011, Volume: 53, Issue: 3, Pages: 472-474 |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Let's start by noting a substantial ambiguity in the meaning of the term civil religion. In his “Dissertation sur la politique des Romains dans la religion,” Montesquieu celebrated the Romans for their exemplary capacity to “put the gods in submission to politics,” and to “fashion religion for the sake of the state” as opposed to a disposition of “the state for the sake of religion.” This captures very directly the sense of civil religion as the political appropriation or political instrumentalization of actual world religions. This is the dominant signification of the term when one refers, for instance, to the civil religion of Machiavelli or Hobbes or Rousseau. |
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| ISSN: | 2040-4867 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: A journal of church and state
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jcs/csr066 |