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The Role of Religion in Alexis De Tocqueville's ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE’S DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA Primrose Pratt Tishman, Doctor of Philosophy, 2004 Dissertation directed by: Professor Charles E. Butterworth Department of Government and Politics This study explores the influence of Montesquieu, Rousseau and Pascal on Tocqueville’s religious teaching to show that it has two components: (a) to provide for order in the disordered democratic state and (b) to satisfy a primordial human need for the eternal. The analysis follows Tocqueville’s own method of contrast and analogy to show how the harmonious combination of the teaching of the enlightenment with religion in America on the one hand and their discordant linking in France on the other produced opposite consequences for liberty. The study examines why Tocqueville insists that the mutual dependence of religion and liberty is more necessary in democracy than in aristocracy. Second, it demonstrates how Montesquieu’s teaching helps Tocqueville to explain the American religious phenomenon, which combines an equal fervor for material well-being with systematic piety. Third, it explores how Tocqueville modifies Rousseau’s teaching on opinion to promote religion as the appropriate source of moral authority in democracy. Fourth, it uncovers how Tocqueville combines selected elements of Rousseau’s natural religion with Montesquieu’s concept of virtue as enlightened interest and the moralistic language of Pascal to encourage religious habits that conform to the inclinations of the democratic intellect and sentiment. Finally, it explores how Tocqueville’s teaching can help thoughtful Americans deliberate about the moral issues that confront the U.S. today. Tocqueville’s teaching draws attention to the precarious position of liberty in egalitarian societies where the instinct for individual independence causes human beings to become amoral and apolitical. Equality induces them to become totally absorbed with the pursuit of material well-being and thus to direct all personal intellectual resources toward that goal, making common opinion the sole guide of reason in all other matters. Moreover, since laws usually reflect changing opinions Tocqueville affirms that religion -- the only fixed point around which human beings can orient themselves—must be used to sustain liberty by making it the foundation of public opinion. THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE’S DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA by Primrose Pratt Tishman Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2004 Advisory Committee: Professor Charles E. Butterworth, Chair Professor Herman Belz Professor Wayne McIntosh Professor Karol Soltan Professor Ronald Terchek ©Copyright by Primrose Pratt Tishman 2004 ii DEDICATION In memory of my beloved grandmother, Francine, whose unshakeable faith in the existence of God kindled in my soul a desire to love the good and the beautiful. «Le Seigneur fit pour moi des merveilles, Saint est Son nom.» French cantique (author unknown) iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank my mother who inspired my love of learning. Doyle Cloud deserves special thanks for his faith in my intellectual ability, which gave me the courage to pursue a graduate education while fulfilling the responsibilities of a demanding full-time career in the air cargo transportation industry as a government affairs representative. I want to thank Charles Butterworth who not only taught me to love virtue by his exemplary conduct but also provided consistent mentoring, encouragement, and the generous use of his office, without all of which it would have been impossible for me to accomplish my goal. Finally, I want to thank the remaining members of my committee who helped me throughout the course of my graduate studies and provided useful advice on narrowing the scope of this work. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ……………………………………………………………………….…… ii Acknowledgments …………………………………..……………………………..… iii Chapter I: Introduction…………………………………………………………… 1 Statement of Purpose…………………………………………………………. 1 How to Account for the Ambivalence in Tocqueville’s Religious Doctrine….. 7 The Structure and Objective of Democracy in America……………..……… 11 Chapter II Is Religion Solely A Means to Liberty in Tocqueville’s Political Philosophy or Is It Also an End in Itself?...................…...................... 34 How Tocqueville’s Religious Sentiments Integrate the Elements of a Mixed Intellectual Tradition……………………………………………………….... 36 How the Tension between Equality and Liberty in France Helped to Shape Tocqueville’s Political Doctrine…………………………………………….. 49 How for Tocqueville Religion Helps to Maintain an Equilibrium between Equality and Liberty………………………………………………………… 53 How Tocqueville Defines the Connection He Makes between Religion and Liberty……………………………………………………………………….. 60 Chapter III Montesquieu’s Influence on Tocqueville’s Religious Teaching: How Tocqueville Came to Identify American Beliefs with a Modified Republican Virtue………………………………………………….… 87 How Montesquieu Illuminates for Tocqueville that the Common Features America Shares with England Contribute to its Democratic Success……… 102 How Tocqueville Came to Proclaim that Religion is the Preeminent Political Institution of Modern Democracy………………………………..………… 121 Would Extending the Connection with England beyond Puritanism Have Hampered Tocqueville’s Ability to Make a Strong Case for Disestablisment In France?..............................................................................................…..... 135 Chapter IV How Tocqueville Adapts Rousseau’s Teaching on Opinion to Promote Religion as the Appropriate Source of Authority in Democracies for Unifying Men and Leading them to Moral Virtue…………………. 159 Why Tocqueville Expands his Theoretical Framework beyond Montesquieu to Rousseau in the Second Volume of Democracy in America……………. 164 How for Rousseau Reason Must Supplant Opinion if Man is to Achieve Moral Virtue in Society……………………………………...………….…. 176 v How for Tocqueville Opinion Reflects the Principles of Political Regimes: Under Equality Opinion Can Carry the Authority of Reason to Bring Man To Moral Virtue……………………………………………………………. 187 How Tocqueville’s View regarding the Significant Contribution Woman Can Make to Democratic Order is Modeled on Rousseau’s Teaching on the Subjection of Woman to Opinion……………………………………… 199 How Tocqueville Collapses Rousseau’s Dichotomous Teaching on Opinion to Show that an Enlightened Equality Steers Public Opinion Closer to Moral Law………………………………………………………. 217 Chapter V How Tocqueville Syncretizes the Teaching of the Enlightenment with the Moralistic Language of Pascal to Formulate a Religious Doctrine for Democracy…………………………………………… 235 How Tocqueville’s Condemnation of the Practices of the Catholic Church Recalls Rousseau’s Reasons for Censuring Religion……………... 237 How Tocqueville’s Reverence for Christianity and Advocacy for Disestablishment Suggest that he does not Wish to Establish a Civil Religion for Democracy and that Rousseau’s Natural Religion is a Closer Model for his Religious Doctrine………………………………………….. 245 How Tocqueville Draws a Connection between Poetry and Beliefs to Promote a Religious Doctrine Conformable to the Ideas and Sentiments Equality Fosters……………………………………………………………. 255 How Pascal’s Understanding of the Human Condition Enables Tocqueville to Establish a Religious Doctrine for Democracy that Integrates the Principles of the Enlightenment with the Basic Tenets of Christian Morality…………………………………………………………. 273 Chapter VI Conclusion………………………………………………………… 328 How Tocqueville’s Teaching Belies the Claim that Secularism is Desirable to Protect a Constitutional Right to Religious Freedom……….. 339 A Possible Tocquevillian Response to the Controversial Issues of Abortion and Same-sex Marriage………………………………………… 345 Appendices………………………………………………………………………... 361 Appendix A………………………………………………………………... 361 Appendix B………………………………………………………………… 367 Appendix C………………………………………………………………... 374 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..... 385 1 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Statement of Purpose This study argues that Alexis de Tocqueville’s view of religion, as it is articulated in his theory of democracy, combines the teachings of Rousseau, Pascal, and Montesquieu, with all of whom by his own admission he spends some time each day. “There are three men with whom I spend a little time each day; they are Pascal, Montesquieu and Rousseau.”1 These daily tête à têtes with men of disparate views on religion are undertaken by Tocqueville evidently for the purpose of finding an intersection of ethical ideas capable of providing a moral anchor to man to meet the challenges he faces in modern democracy.2 This study also argues that Tocqueville’s aristocratic and Catholic education plays a role in his penetrating understanding of the important place he insists religion ought to occupy in democratic society. However, it places greater emphasis on disentangling the intellectual influence of Pascal, Rousseau and Montesquieu on Tocqueville’s religious teaching. The lessons Tocqueville learns from them about the human condition, human nature and the generative principles of political regimes respectively provide an essential backdrop for understanding the nuances in his teaching on religion and morality. A review of the scholarly literature interpreting Tocqueville’s works reveals that most scholars, including inter alia, Jean-Claude Lamberti, Marvin
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