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Article: Civil Society, Civil Religion.
- Article from:
- Theological Studies
- Article date:
- June 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Theological Studies, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Shanks has written an interesting book about the role of religion in the maintenance of civil societies. He takes his readers on a learned interpretive tour of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Spinoza, Rousseau, Hegel, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Arendt, Weil, Levinas, and Patocka, among others, in an attempt to develop a civil theology for a civil practice of religion. In the undertaking S. produces a working model for a postliberationist social theology.
S. uses the familiar term "civil religion" but in a way that is intentionally different from Robert Bellah's usage. For S., civil religion is not a mere reflection and sanctioning of the congeries of official public ...