Abstract
In his critique of religion, Hume envisages forms of religious ritual disconnected from the superstitious “neurotic” mindset; he considers simple rituals fostering moderation. In this paper, I claim that one can profitably interpret Hume’s obsession with secular rituals, such as French highly ceremonial manners, in the sense of anxiety-soothing institutions that bind citizenry without the appeal to a civil religion, properly speaking. Let us call this path the Old Regime’s civil ritualism”. Overall, Tocqueville conceives rituals in a Humean spirit, as existential anxiety-soothing institutions. Moving beyond the Humean line of thought, he focuses on the ambiguous role of religious rituals in the context of democratic faith and the Christian civil religion that he deems appropriate for the US. Yet, he also detects novel forms of superstition firmly embedded in secular, democratic faith.
Highlights
The relation between religion and politics can be conceived in three different ways
He detects novel forms of superstition firmly embedded in secular, democratic faith
In the history of early modern political thought and philosophy ranging from Machiavelli to Rousseau through Spinoza, Bayle, and Hobbes, civil religion critically appropriates the pagan legacy and refers to “the civilizing/civicizing of religion—the domestication of religion for political purposes.” (Beiner 2012, p. 419)
Summary
The relation between religion and politics can be conceived in three different ways. One is in terms of strict separation that goes in theory even beyond the separation of the church and the state. Even if we side with Hume in rejecting as misguided any project of civilizing religion for civic purposes, the anxiolytic function of rituals goes beyond the religious dimension and gains prominence more as a cultural asset than a spiritual token. In the second section of this part, I further scrutinize Christian civil religion and Tocqueville’s interpretation of the modern public spirit and patriotism In this context, the novel forms of superstition attached to the majority’s credos and deference to its authority loom large. In Tocqueville’s approach, rests heavily on secular faith and Christian civil religion that bring about a blend of ancient and novel rituals, some of which are charged with superstitious and crypto-despotic elements. I scrutinize the common ground in the liberalism of Hume and Tocqueville alongside the differences regarding the civilizing role of a ritual-based culture for a stable social order
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