Abstract
This paper will discuss the place of religion in Machiavelli's thought.' The traditional and generally accepted interpretation presents Machiavelli's religion as a belief system whose value is determined by its functional utility to the state. In this he is said to resemble Cicero,2 Montesquieu,3 and Tocqueville,4 among others. This view is based on the proposition-one that is now fundamental to a modem understanding of Machiavelli-that his political theory develops a without moral, theological, and religious foundations (what Benedetto Croce5 calls the autonomy of politics and Sheldon Wolin6 the autonomy of political theory). Students of Machiavelli who ascribe to him an instrumentalist theory of religion rest their interpretation on this conception of politics: a distinction is established between religion viewed as religio, and religion conceived asfides, where the former is used to develop and cement social bonds and the latter is a faith based on a transcendent truth. A reading of the texts shows that Machiavelli discusses various kinds of religion. He refers, for example, to multiple forms of Christianity, such as primi-
Published Version
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