Civil Religion in Political Thought Its Perennial Questions and Enduring Relevance in North America

The term 'civil religion' has become such an object of reflexive contempt among those who employ it that the term's analytical and descriptive purposes seem to have been forgotten... There are good reasons to be profoundly wary of civil religion. But there are equally good reasons to be respectful of it. These essays are alive to both sets of reasons.from the foreword

Civil religion has proven to be a religion that we cannot live without. It remains a persistent feature of most modern liberal societies, despite the apparent progress of religious toleration. Civil religion might have been a vestige of ages past, yet it persists even in contemporary North American political life, as is attested to by the consistent religious appeals of both George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The endurance of civil religion in modern liberal societies points to its significance as a political and theological problem of permanent concern.

There is a rich heritage of reflection on this problem that extends at least as far back as Plato's Laws. This volume includes essays on significant philosophical, theological, and political expressions of civil religion from a wide variety of sources in the Western intellectual and political tradition. With essays on ancient, medieval, and modern political philosophers, and essays on major statements and figures from the United States and Canada, this volume demonstrates why civil religion is an enduring political phenomenon.

The essays in this volume blend historical and philosophical reflection with concern for contemporary political problems. They show that the causes and motivations of civil religion are a permanent fixture of the human condition, though some of its manifestations and proximate causes have shifted in an age of multiculturalism, religious toleration, and secularization. These essays serve as a reminder that all political societies function within some unquestioned assumptions and commitments. The topic of civil religion turns our attention to the realm of action where human beings have little choice but to disclose the unexamined faith within which their lives unfold.