While everyone should be free to observe their personal beliefs in private,

Rousseau suggests that the state also require all citizens to observe a public
religion that encourages good citizenship.

Rousseau suggests that there is a universal and natural justice that comes to
us from God, but that it is not binding. Evil people will not obey God's law,
and so we must set up positive, binding laws within society, or else those
who obey God's law will suffer at the hands of those who disobey it.
Remarking on the difficulty of finding such a person, Rousseau notes: "Gods
would be needed to give men laws."
There is no kind of social contract between a government and the rest of the
people, since the people do not surrender their power or will to the
government in the way that they do to the sovereign. The government is an
intermediary body that can be modified or disbanded according to the
sovereign will (or general will).
We should reiterate, however, that Rousseau does not insist that aristocracy
is always the best form of government. Democracy is better suited to small
states and monarchy to large states. His preference for aristocracy is based,
if anything, on a sense that moderate-sized city-states, such as his home city
of Geneva, are ideal. While monarchy is the best form of government for
large states, large states are hard to govern regardless of the form of
government.
The general will cannot be changed, but it can be subordinated to other wills,
notably the particular wills of each individual citizen. Even when the will of
all ceases to express the general will, the general will continues to exist,
however little it is heeded.
Rousseau's final topic for discussion is the controversial issue of civil
religion. In early societies, he suggests, the heads of each state were the gods

that that state worshipped, each state believing that its gods were responsible
for watching over its people. Christianity changed things by preaching the
existence of a spiritual kingdom that is distinct from any earthly kingdom.
Worshipping the Christian God does not necessarily ally one with any
particular state, and people of all states may worship this same God. As a
result, church and state cease to be identical and a tension arises between the
two.
Rousseau distinguishes three different kinds of religion. First, there is the
"religion of man," which is a personal religion, linking the individual to
God. Rousseau admires this kind of religion (and indeed professed to
practice it) but suggests that by itself, it will hurt the state. A pure Christian
is interested only in spiritual and other-worldly blessings, and will happily
endure hardships in this life for the sake of heavenly rewards. A healthy
state needs citizens who will struggle and fight to make the state strong and
safe.
Second, there is the "religion of the citizen," which is the official religion of
the state, complete with dogmas and ceremonies. This religion combines the
interests of church and state, teaching patriotism and a pious respect for the
law. However, it also corrupts religion, by replacing true, sincere worship
with official, dogmatic ceremony. It also breeds a violent intolerance of
other nations.
Third, there is the kind of religion that Rousseau associates with the Catholic
church, among others, which he condemns forcefully. In trying to set up two
competing sets of laws--one civil and one religious--it creates all sorts of
contradictions that prevent the proper exercise of any kind of law.
Rousseau recommends a compromise between the first two kinds of religion.
The sovereign, as he has already stated, only has power to determine matters
that are of public concern. So long as it does not disturb the public interest,
the people are free to worship whatever and however they please. However,
all citizens should also pledge allegiance to a civil religion with a very few
basic precepts: the existence of a God, the belief in an afterlife, justice for
all, the sanctity of the social contract and the law, and the prohibition of

intolerance, which should prevent friction between members of different

religions.
In Book II, Chapter 7, he suggests that lawgivers often invent supernatural
origins for the laws for a similar reason: if people believe that the laws came
from the gods, they will be less likely to violate them. His civil religion is
not very complicated. It is not caught up in a great deal of dogma, and is just
intended to ensure that the citizens remain productive and obedient. Still,
during an age when religion has been effectively divorced from the state in
most developed countries, the attempt to bring them back together might
seem uncomfortable.

Page 75: All justice comes from God, who is its sole source, but if we knew how to
receive so high an inspiration, we should need neither government nor laws
Page 141: it matters very much to the community that each citizen should have a
religion. That will make him love his duty..
Page 141: tolerance should be given to all religions that tolerate others, so long as
their dogmas contain nothing contrary to the duties of citizenship
Page 137: However, as there have always been a priest and civil laws, this double
power and conflict of jurisdiction have made all good polity impossible in Christian
States; and men have never succeeded in finding out whether they were bound to
obey the master or the priest.
Page 137: Of all Christian writers, the philosopher Hobbes alone has seen the evil
and how to remedy it, and has dared to propose the reunion of the two heads of the
eagle, and the restoration of political unity, without which no State or government
will ever be rightly constituted. But he should have seen that the masterful spirit of
Christianity is incompatible with his system, and that the priestly interest would
always be stronger than the State.
Page 138: no state has ever been founded without a religious basis
Page 138: religion of man and that of the citizen (civil

Page 138: third kind of religion Roman Chrisitianity two heads, bad, etc
Page 140: But I am mistaken in speaking of a Christian republic; the terms are
mutually exclusive. Christianity preaches only servitude and dependence.