JOÉZER CARVALHO DE CASTRO

This project is dedicated to examine the relationship between religion and politics in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's thought, starting from the formulation of two problems: what links religion to the discussions about the political body, and what are the limits to be established between the two spheres. In order to achieve this goal, and to obtain greater analytical acuity in the research, we will investigate a pair of concepts that, when articulated, form an important axis of Rousseau’s thought: first, theological intolerance and civil intolerance; and second, the natural religion developed by Rousseau in the Profession of Faith of the Vicar of Savoy of Emilio, and civil religion of Social Contract. To this end, we will adopt a conceptual path and methodological steps that seem to us to be fundamental for the development of the research. First, to investigate the presentation of the dogmas of civil religion as "feelings of sociability", and second, to examine the relationship between sociability and intolerance, present in the division between the positive and negative parts of the profession of civil faith.