for eternity. St. Thomas AQUINASwrote in Summa Theo-
logicathat if a human law violated a higher natural law
or divine law, the Christian may disobey the lower law.
For example, because divine law defines food as cre-
ated to sustain life, if a starving man steals bread to
stay alive, he is not breaking the law. In NAZIGermany,
Dietrich BONHOEFFERand other Christians resisted the
FASCISTSon religious grounds and were executed by the
state.
In all theories of civil disobedience, the perpetrator
is expected to accept whatever punishment might
result from the action.
Further Readings
Bedau, Hugo Adam, ed. Civil Disobedience: Theory and Practice.
New York: Pegasus, 1969.
Gandhi, M. K. Non-Violent Resistance. New York: Schocken
Books, 1961.
Rawls, J. A Theory of Justice,chap. 6. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.
Singer, P. Democracy and Disobedience.Oxford, Eng.: Clarendon
Press, 1973.
Thoreau, Henry D. “Civil disobedience.” In Bedau, Walzer M.,
ed., Obligations: Essays on Disobedience, War and Citizen-
ship.Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970.
civil liberty/civil liberties
The fundamental RIGHTS and FREEDOMSnecessary to
full human life and political activity, especially liberty
of thought, belief, speech, expression, and association.
In United States CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, it is the body of
Supreme Court rulings (or decisions) relating to the
FIRST AMENDMENTrights to free speech, free press, free-
dom of religion, and free association or political
assembly to influence or criticize the government. The
idea is that these basic human rights and liberties are
given by God and nature and cannot be legitimately
taken away by a government; rather, part of a just state
is protecting those individual freedoms. A government
that violates those rights and liberties, for John LOCKE’s
British LIBERALISM, is TYRANNICAL, and the people can
overthrow it. If a STATEpunishes free speech or writing
with prison or fines or execution, if it persecutes reli-
gious groups or forbids citizens’ associations, it is
breaking the SOCIAL CONTRACTand violating God-given
NATURAL RIGHTS. Protection of civil liberties is most val-
ued and prominent in Britain, the United States, and
other Western democracies. The right to own private
PROPERTYand engage in free-market business is often
included in these liberties, so they often accompany
CAPITALISM. Civil rights are seen as a prerequisite to a
political democracy.Further Reading
Gellner, Ernest. Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and Its Rivals.
New Y ork: Allen Lane/Penguin Press, 1994.civil religion
A religion that worships the STATEor those things that
support the society and government. The value of the
religion is seen in terms of how it helps the nation
function in an orderly way—a religion that reinforces a
community’s social and cultural mores or ways. This is
contrasted with transcendent religions like CHRISTIAN-
ITY that worship a God apart from the nation and
above any particular society (see St. AUGUSTINE,
CATHOLIC).
Most ancient religions were tied to a particular
region and community, the Greek city-states each had
their own gods and dogmas that defined their region
as divinely made and directed, and this was reinforced
by regular celebrations and festivals that linked the
community with these deities. The idea that a tran-
scendent God created and loved all humanity and had
values above any particular culture was foreign to
these civil religions. From a Christian perspective,
such civil religion worships the state and is idolatry
(worshiping a false god). But even Christianity has at
times been captured by a particular country or govern-
ment, as in the Russian Orthodox Church.
The clearest expression of MODERN civil religion
is given by French philosopher Jean-Jacques ROUS-
SEAU, who coined the phrase civil religionin his book
The Social Contract(1762). In Rousseau’s definition,
which greatly influenced the deism of the French Rev-
olution, the key elements of a civil religion (which he
favored) were (1) that it will make citizens love their
duty to the state; (2) a concentration on teaching ethi-
cal behavior; (3) the conception of one mighty, intelli-
gent, and beneficent deity possessed of foresight and
providence; (4) the reality of life-after-death and the
reward of the virtuous and punishment of the wicked
in that afterlife; (5) the tolerance of all religions that
do not challenge the civil religion or undermine the
state. So, the value of civil religion is to produce
moral, orderly, dutiful citizens who will sacrifice for
the community. Any other religion is measured by
that standard of social usefulness. For Rousseau, this
civil religion was needed to keep a REPUBLICvirtuouscivil religion 61