Concept
Civil religion
Overview
Civil religion, also referred to as a civic religion, is the implicit religious values of a nation, as expressed through public rituals, symbols (such as the national flag), and ceremonies on sacred days and at sacred places (such as monuments, battlefields, or national cemeteries). It is distinct from churches, although church officials and ceremonies are sometimes incorporated into the practice of civil religion. Countries described as having a civil religion include France and the United States. As a concept, it originated in French political thought and became a major topic for U.S. sociologists since its use by Robert Bellah in 1960.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Every religion, therefore, being attached solely to the laws of the State which prescribed it, there was no way of converting a people except by enslaving it, and there could be no missionaries save conquerors. The obligation to change cults being the law to which the vanquished yielded, it was necessary to be victorious before suggesting such a change. So far from men fighting for the gods, the gods, as in Homer…
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The social contract & discourses
The chapter “CIVIL RELIGION” is titled for Civil religion; the author is tied to Civil religion in the knowledge graph.
The circle of sacred objects cannot be determined, then, once for all. Its extent varies infinitely, according to the different religions. That is how Buddhism is a religion: in default of gods, it admits the existence of sacred things, namely, the four noble truths and the practices derived from them.[65]
Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
States what Civil religion is.
Of the direct effect of religion, one may give as an instance a common occurrence in Italy, namely, that of a thief being allowed to replace what he has stolen through the medium of his confessor, who makes this the condition of his absolution. Then think of the case of an oath, where religion shows a most decided influence: whether it be because a man places himself expressly in the position of a mere _moral…
Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays of Schopenhauer
Close in meaning to Civil religion; the term itself is not named.
Philosophers who discussed Civil religion
Related ideas
- Ritual
- Washington, D.C.
- French Revolution
- Afterlife
- Polis
- Hinduism
- Vice
- India
- Indian religions
- Cult of Reason
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Livy
- Polytheism
- The Social Contract
- American Revolution
- Marxism–Leninism
- Western world
- Religion in ancient Rome
- Nationalism
- Nation
- Paris
- Political philosophy
- Paganism
- Religious text
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Confucianism.