Civil Religion and the History of Democratic Modernity

Probing the Limits of the Sacred and the Secular

Bibliographic Data

ID5013383
AuthorsTom Crook (0000-0002-2387-1699, Oxford Brookes University, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume4
Issue6
Pages376-387
Publication date2010-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligion Compass (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1749-8171 • E-ISSN: 1749-8171
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1749-8171.2010.00225.x
OpenAlexW1818358013
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited20

The aim of this essay is to introduce readers to recent work on the concept of ‘civil religion’, what might be regarded as the democratic variant of political religion. Ever since 1967, when the sociologist Robert Bellah published his article ‘Civil Religion in America’, the concept has been the subject of intense debate and ongoing refinement. The essay reviews the recent contributions of Marcela Cristi and Emilio Gentile. However, it also seeks to introduce readers to some old and recent work on the history of democratic modernity (including Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age ), which, it is argued, represents an alternative way of thinking about the sacred dimensions of ostensibly secular national republics. Given the increasing tendency to question the equation of modernity and secularity, the concept of civil religion is likely to be the subject of further scrutiny in years to come. The essay concludes by highlighting a key problem which still awaits satisfactory resolution: whether or not civil religions might be understood in relation to an underlying set of universal, anthropological needs

Democracy · Epistemology · Modernity · Political science · Politics · Scrutiny · Secularity · Sociology · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society in Latin America · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory

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