Politics as Religion

In: Journal of church and state: JCS, Band 48, Heft 4, S. 872-873

Abstract

For Gentile, the Enlightenment in the person of Rousseau, following on the division and weakening of Christianity, realized that even agnosticism or atheist humanism needed heroes, myths, symbols, and rituals in order to hold the minds and especially the hearts of the people. Gentile's analysis of totalitarianism as a 'political religion' as opposed to a 'civil religion' shows how these regimes attempted to offer the populace the Kingdom of Heaven on earth while eliminating God, or replacing God with the mythic charismatic leader.