The religion of the social contract defining and denying civil religion

Type :

Term papers

Pages :

4 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

07/15/2009

Category :

Philosophy & literature

Sub category :

Humanities/philosophy

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Summary :

Introduction
The limitations
The religion of man or Gospel Christianity
Multitude of religions factions
Conclusions
Work's cited

Abstract

Throughout his work On the social contract, Rousseau attempts to describe a societal system in which sovereign rule is found within the collective will of the people. Within this system, he argues, freedom is linked to morality and essentially humanity. This freedom exists as a civil freedom in that an individual can only be free if he is bound to the social contract and the general will. In Book 4, Chapter 8 of this work, Rousseau addresses the topic of religion in his ideal society. It is in this section that Rousseau seeks to provide a type of "civil religion" that adheres to the extensive framework that has been established in the previous books. While Rousseau is successful in explicating the deficiencies of several religious systems and theologies, he ultimately falls short of determining anything more than an obscure standard by which an acceptable civil religious system should be judged.

In order to discuss the extent to which Rousseau altogether falls short of providing a reasonable standard for civil religion, we must first understand how religion fits (if at all) within his social construction. By having even a simple understanding of his social contract theory, it should be quite easy to see why a multitude of religious factions within a single nation-state would prove disastrous (assuming, of course, that at least one of these factions affects the social behaviors of its followers), or at the very least, ineffective as a sovereignty.