Civil Religion
A Dialogue in the History of Political Philosophy

Civil Religion traces a continuing intellectual dialogue on the challenge posed to political and civic life by religion.

Ronald Beiner (Author)

9780521506366, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 October 2010

448 pages
24 x 16.1 x 2.9 cm, 0.75 kg

'Ronald Beiner does an excellent job of interpreting a dizzying number of works in the tradition, and everyone from undergraduates to seasonal readers of these texts will benefit from his readings … As the scope suggests, this book is an ambitious and ultimately impressive contribution to the history of political thought … Beiner is fully aware of the methodoligical assumptions inherent in his project, but a very helpful introduction and conclusion position him as a moderate and thoughtful presence between contextualism and Staussianism (each of which is given a fair hearing and indeed put to use when necessary). Jacob Abolafia, Political Studies Review

Civil Religion offers philosophical commentaries on more than twenty thinkers stretching from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. It examines four important traditions within the history of modern political philosophy. The civil religion tradition, principally defined by Machiavelli, Hobbes and Rousseau, seeks to domesticate religion by putting it solidly in the service of politics. The liberal tradition pursues an alternative strategy of domestication by seeking to put as much distance as possible between religion and politics. Modern theocracy is a militant reaction against liberalism, reversing the relationship of subordination asserted by civil religion. Finally, a fourth tradition is defined by Nietzsche and Heidegger. Aspects of their thought are not just modern, but hyper-modern, yet they manifest an often-hysterical reaction against liberalism that is fundamentally shared with the theocratic tradition. Together, these four traditions compose a vital dialogue that carries us to the heart of political philosophy itself.

Part I. Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau: Three Versions of the Civil Religion Project: 1. Rousseau's problem
2. The Machiavellian solution: paganization of Christianity
3. Moses and Mohammed as founder-princes or legislators
4. Re-founding and 'filiacide': Machiavelli's debt to Christianity
5. The Hobbesian solution: Judaicization of Christianity
6. Behemoth: Hobbesian 'theocracy' versus the real thing
7. Geneva Manuscript: the apparent availability of a Rousseauian solution
8. Social Contract: the ultimate unavailability of a Rousseauian solution
Part II. Responses to (and Partial Incorporations of) Civil Religion within the Liberal Tradition: 9. Baruch Spinoza: from civil religion to liberalism
10. Philosophy and piety: problems in Spinoza's case for liberalism (owing to a partial reversion to civil religion)
11. Spinoza's interpretation of the Commonwealth of the Hebrews, and why civil religion is a continuing presence in his version of liberalism
12. John Locke: the liberal paradigm
13. 'The gods of the philosophers' I: Locke and John Toland
14. Bayle's republic of atheists
15. Montesquieu's pluralized civil religion
16. The Straussian rejection of the enlightenment as applied to Bayle and Montesquieu
17. 'The gods of the philosophers' II: Rousseau and Kant
18. Hume as a successor to Bayle
19. Adam Smith's sequel to Hume (and Hobbes)
20. Christianity as civil religion: Tocqueville's response to Rousseau
21. John Stuart Mill's project to turn atheism into a religion
22. Mill's critics
23. John Rawls's genealogy of liberalism
24. Prosaic liberalism: Montesquieu versus Machiavelli, Rousseau, Nietzsche
Part III. Theocratic Responses to Liberalism: 25. Joseph de Maistre: the theocratic paradigm
26. Maistrean politics
27. Maistre and Rousseau: theocracy versus civil religion
28. Carl Schmitt's 'theocratic' critique of Hobbes
Part IV. Post-Modern 'Theism': Nietzsche and Heidegger's Continuing Revolt Against Liberalism: 29. Nietzsche, Weber, Freud: the twentieth century confronts the death of God
30. Nietzsche's civil religion
31. Heidegger's sequel to Nietzsche: the longing for new gods
32. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political ideologies [JPF], Political science & theory [JPA], History of ideas [JFCX], Social & political philosophy [HPS]