Origin of Term
Jean-Jacques Rousseau coined the term in chapter 8, book 4 of The Social Contract (1762), to describe what he regarded as the moral and spiritual foundation essential for any modern society. For Rousseau, civil religion was intended simply as a form of social cement, helping to unify the state by providing it with sacred authority. In his book, Rousseau outlines the simple dogmas of the civil religion:
- Deity
- life to come,
- the reward of virtue and the punishment of vice, and
- the exclusion of religious intolerance.
Italian Historian Emilio Gentile has studied the roots and development of the concept and proposed a division of two types of religions of politics: a civil religion and a Political religion.
Read more about this topic: Civil Religion
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