Abstract

KAWAUCHE, Thomaz. A santidade do contrato e das leis: considerações sobre a religião civil de Rousseau. Kriterion [online]. 2011, vol.52, n.123, pp. 31-47. ISSN 0100-512X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0100-512X2011000100002.

In the chapter about civil religion in the Social Contract, Rousseau uses expressions such as "sanctity of social contract and laws", "purely civil profession of faith", and even "civil religion" for alluding to the necessary, although conflicting, relation between Religion and Politics. This article aims at discussing this rhetoric device (that is similar to the figure of speech named oxymoron) from a more general point of view, based on the exposition of Contract's legislator speech procedure and of the similarities with Rousseau's speech procedure to conciliate the contradictory exigencies of Religion and Politics in the problem of laws' institution in State.

Keywords : Religion; politics; rhetoric; figure of speech.