Civil religion is a religion that worships the state or those things that support the society and government. The value of the religion is seen in terms of how it helps the nation function in an orderly way--a religion that reinforces a community's social and cultural mores or ways. This is contrasted with transcendent religions like Christianity that worship a God apart from the nation and above any particular society.

Most ancient religions were tied to a particular region and community, the Greek city-states each had their own gods and dogmas that defined their region as divinely made and directed, and this was reinforced by regular celebrations and festivals that linked the community with these deities. The idea that a transcendent God created and loved all humanity and had values above any particular culture was foreign to these civil religions. From a Christian perspective, such civil religion worships the state and is idolatry (worshiping a false god). But even Christianity has at times been captured by a particular country or government, as in the Russian Orthodox Church.

The clearest expression of modern civil religion is given by French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who coined the phrase civil religion in his book The Social Contract (1762). In Rousseau's definition, which greatly influenced the deism of the French Revolution, the key elements of a civil religion (which he favored) were (1) that it will make citizens love their duty to the state; (2) a concentration on teaching ethical behavior; (3) the conception of one mighty, intelligent, and beneficent deity possessed of foresight and providence; (4) the reality of life-after-death and the reward of the virtuous and punishment of the wicked in that afterlife; (5) the tolerance of all religions that do not challenge the civil religion or undermine the state. So, the value of civil religion is to produce moral, orderly, dutiful citizens who will sacrifice for the community. Any other religion is measured by that standard of social usefulness. For Rousseau, this civil religion was needed to keep a republic virtuous and orderly. Thomas Jefferson's appreciation of Christian ethics (or "the ethics of Jesus") as a support for the American democratic system follows this viewpoint. The standard for religious truth is how useful it is to society. A creed that makes people mystical or withdrawn from the world (or critical of the government) is to be suppressed. Hence, the Rousseauian French revolutionaries persecuted Christians, especially Catholics who objected to the new French government and supported the French monarchy and aristocracy.

In the 20th century, fascism is noted for its use of civil religion. Nazi Germany extolled "The State" and "The Leader" (Fuhrer) to a godlike status. Many German Protestants endorsed "Aryan Christianity," which viewed Hitler's regime and the modern German nation as God's instrument. This corruption of the church discredited the Christian faith.

In the United States of America, a kind of "civil religion" exists when Christianity is mixed with national patriotism and the line between God and country is blurred. The quasi-religious tones of certain national holidays, such as the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, afford a semblance of civil religion that identifies Americans as a "chosen people" of God, under his special providence and care, receiving unique blessings and protection so long as his people follow and obey his laws. Early American Puritan theology, with its covenant view of Christianity, its belief that they were to create "a city on a hill," a godly civilization as a beacon of hope to the world and work under special responsibilities to be faithful to God, became interwoven with America's civil religion. President Ronald Reagan skillfully employed rhetoric expressing this religious foundation of America in explaining contemporary Republican Party policy. The diversity and Evangelical character of most of American religion has limited this use of Christianity as a civil religion, and it retains its transcendent, universal quality among most American believers. So, for example, when a church or minister (as Marion "Pat" Robertson running for U.S. president) identifies religion too closely with politics, the American tradition of separation of church and state rejects that attempt to co-opt religion for purely political purposes.

A true civil religion has to be vague enough to gather broad support, so the traditional faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) are less serviceable for that purpose. A general ethical, monotheism emphasizing social morality, is more likely to become a civil religion. With the U.S. Constitutional guarantee of religious freedom and pluralism, such a uniform civil religion is less likely to exist.

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