“The dogmas of civil religion ought to be few, simple and exactly worded, without explanation or commentary,” wrote Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1762. “The existence of a mighty, intelligent and beneficent Deity, possessed of foresight and providence, the life to come, the happiness of the just, the punishment of the wicked, the sanctity of the social contract and the laws: these are its positive dogmas. It’s negative dogmas I confine to one, intolerance, which is part of the cults we have rejected.”

Those tenets of the civil religion that Rousseau laid out nearly 250 years ago seem appropriate guidelines for the Post-Dispatch’s new religion blog.

Rousseau coined the term civil religion to describe the necessary basics of belief that keep a civilization together in accord with a social contract the civilization lives by. And while we certainly intend to discuss such beliefs on this blog, we also liked the name Civil Religion because it…