The Damned Neighbors Problem

Rousseau's Civil Religion Revisited

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3460199
AutoresMicah Watson, Micah J Watson (0009-0004-4844-9955, Calvin University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2019
Volumen10
Número6
Páginas349
Fecha de publicación2019-05-29
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaReligions (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
EditorialMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel10060349
OpenAlexW2947906694
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas12

Near the conclusion of The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau starkly proclaims that no state has been founded without a religious basis, and thus if he is right, every political community must grapple with the tension between the conflicting claims of the divine and the mundane. Because Christianity cannot solve this tension, Rousseau calls for a new religion, a civil religion. Whereas most of the academic treatment of civil religion follows various paths beginning with Robert Bellah's original 1967 article, this essay explores more deeply the contours of Rousseau's original articulation of the problem to which civil religion is his proposed solution. The essay concludes by suggesting that we can find important elements of Rousseau's approach still alive and well in American politics and culture today

Christianity · Civil Religion · Civil society · Epistemology · Political science · Politics · Social contract · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence · Religious studies · Rousseau and Enlightenment Thought