Civil Religion in Political Thought

Contents

Contents Foreword Wilfred M. McClay vii Acknowledgments xi Introduction Ronald Weed & John von Heyking 1 One. The Legacy of Civil Religion in the History of Political Philosophy 1. Gods for the City and Beyond: Civil Religion in Plato’s Laws V. Bradley Lewis 19 2. Truth versus Utility: The Debate on Civil Religion in the Roman Empire of the Third and Fourth Centuries Matthias Riedl 47 3. The Humility of True Religion: Augustine’s Critique of Roman Civil Religion David J. Bobb 66 4. Forgiving Those Not Trespassing against Us: Hobbes and the Establishment of the Nonsectarian State Church Travis D. Smith 93 5. Civil Religion as Political Technology in Bacon’s New Atlantis David C. Innes 121 vi Contents 6. Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Civil Religion: Freedom of the Individual, Toleration, and the Price of Mass Authenticity Ronald Weed 145 7. Alexis de Tocqueville on “Civil Religion” and the Catholic Faith Douglas Kries 167 Two. The Enduring Relevance of Civil Religion in North America 8. Rational Theology: Thomas Jefferson and the Foundation of America’s Civil Religion Jeffrey Sikkenga 207 9. Unsettling Faith: The Radicalization of the First Amendment and Its Consequences Thomas F. Powers 236 10. The Personal Is (Not?) the Political: The Role of Religion in the Presidency of George W. Bush Joseph M. Knippenberg 262 11. Sacred Words, Fighting Words: The Bible and National Meaning in Canada, 1860–1900 Preston Jones 280 12. Civil Religion and Associational Life under Canada’s “Ephemeral Monster”: Canada’s Multi-Headed Constitution John von Heyking 298 Bibliography 329 Contributors 347 Index 349 ...