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Prompted by the shattering of the bonds between religion and the political order brought about by the Enlightenment, Jean-Jacques Rousseau devised a "new" religion (civil religion) to be used by the state as a way of enforcing civic unity. Emile Durkheim, by contrast, conceived civil religion to be a spontaneous phenomenon arising from society itself - a non-coercive force expressing the self-identify or self-definition of a people. In 1967, the American sociologist Robert Bellah rediscovered the concept and applied it to American society in its Durkheimian form. Ever since Bellah's publ

A critique of the civil religion thesis, identifying the most basic deficiencies of literature on this topic. An informative case study of civil religion in Pinochet's Chile substantiates the critique.

A standard interpretation of Durkheim's theory of individualism is that he advocated the rights and dignity of the individual, and a social order based on the principles of equality and justice. Contemporary scholars discuss his notion of individual rights in neutral terms, as if Durheim applied it equally to both sexes, ignoring the fact that women are excluded from Durkheim's vision of a just society. This article places Durkheim's theory of moral individualism and social justice in the context of his views on women, and offers a critique both of his theory and its present-day interpretation. It is argued that while Durkheim refers to the "individual" in generic terms, his approach to a just social order and universal rights is essentially articulated around the male individual. While Durkheim never problematized gender inequality, he strongly objected to class stratification and proposed practical solutions to lessen economic injustices and inequality.