Civil Religion in Modern Political Philosophy : : Machiavelli to Tocqueville / / ed. by Steven Frankel, Martin D. Yaffe.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn State University Press Complete eBook-Package 2020
• MitwirkendeR: Behnegar, Nasser,; Carrese, Paul,; Frankel, Steven,; Herold, Aaron L.,; Muñoz, Vincent Phillip,; Quinn, Timothy Sean,; Radasanu, Andrea,; Ray, John,; Shiffman, Mark,; Szymkowiak, Aaron,; Vance, Kevin,; Yaffe, Martin D.,
• HerausgeberIn: Frankel, Steven,; Yaffe, Martin D.,
• Place / Publishing House: University Park, PA : : Penn State University Press, , [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 p.)

Inspired by Machiavelli, modern philosophers held that the tension between the goals of biblical piety and the goals of political life needed to be resolved in favor of the political, and they attempted to recast and delimit traditional Christian teaching to serve and stabilize political life accordingly. This volume examines the arguments of those thinkers who worked to remake Christianity into a civil religion in the early modern and modern periods.Beginning with Machiavelli and continuing through to Alexis de Tocqueville, the essays in this collection explain in detail the ways in which these philosophers used religious and secular writing to build a civil religion in the West. Early chapters examine topics such as Machiavelli’s comparisons of Christianity with Roman religion, Francis Bacon’s cherry-picking of Christian doctrines in the service of scientific innovation, and Spinoza’s attempt to replace long-held superstitions with newer, “progressive” ones. Other essays probe the scripture-based, anti-Christian argument that religion must be subordinate to politics espoused by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and David Hume, both of whom championed reason over divine authority. Crucially, the book also includes a study of civil religion in America, with chapters on John Locke, Montesquieu, and the American Founders illuminating the relationships among religious and civil history, acts, and authority. The last chapter is an examination of Tocqueville’s account of civil religion and the American regimeDetailed, thought-provoking, and based on the careful study of original texts, this survey of religion and politics in the West will appeal to scholars in the history of political philosophy, political theory, and American political thought.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Machiavelli, Christianity, and Civil Religion -- 2. How Francis Bacon’s New Organon Co-opts Biblical Theology for His New Atlantis -- 3. Leviathan’s Reconquest of the Christian Person for the State -- 4. Will Wonders Never Cease? Spinoza’s Critique of Miracles -- 5. Liberalism and Christianity: Locke’s Use of the Bible in the Second Treatise -- 6. Montesquieu’s Machiavellian Account of Civil Religion -- 7. Montesquieu and Christianity in the American Project: The Moderate Spirit of Religious Liberty -- 8. Hume on Church Establishments: History, Moderation, and Liberty -- 9. Rousseau’s Civil Religion “Problem” -- 10. How the Founders Agreed About Religious Freedom but Disagreed About the Separation of Church and State -- 11. Tocqueville on Religion and Democratic Character: Equality, Mediocrity, and Greatness -- List of Contributors -- Index