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Civil Religion and the History of Democratic Modernity: Probing the Limits of the Sacred and the Secular

The aim of this essay is to introduce readers to recent work on the concept of ‘civil religion’, what might be regarded as the democratic variant of political religion. Ever since 1967, when the sociologist Robert Bellah published his article ‘Civil Religion in America’, the concept has been the subject of intense debate and ongoing refinement. The essay reviews the recent contributions of Marcela Cristi and Emilio Gentile. However, it also seeks to introduce readers to some old and recent work on the history of democratic modernity (including Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age), which, it is argued, represents an alternative way of thinking about the sacred dimensions of ostensibly secular national republics. Given the increasing tendency to question the equation of modernity and secularity, the concept of civil religion is likely to be the subject of further scrutiny in years to come. The essay concludes by highlighting a key problem which still awaits satisfactory resolution: whether or not civil religions might be understood in relation to an underlying set of universal, anthropological needs.