A Preliminary Study Of Locke's Civil Religious Thought

Locke inherited and developed the theory of modern natural law,and was committed to harmonizing the relationship between politics and religion in the modern individualized society by means of "new philosophy",thus finding a reliable basis for human moral obligation.However,because of the contradiction between his new rationalized philosophical method and its epistemological premise,he can not confirm the validity of the moral natural law obligation through the senses and the natural reason.Locke handed over the executive power of natural law to everyone,in exchange for the triumph of natural rights,but made the natural law a void,and therefore had to completely lay the whole moral obligation on the idea of God with the right of reward and punishment.It exposes the failure of the whole modern political logic: pure reason can not form an organic civil society.This ultimately led Locke to find a natural law executor outside rationality.Although Locke did not say,but he acknowledged the necessity of a civil religion in his civil society.Modernity has brought about the separation and rationalization of religion and politics in modern society,but secularization is different from non religious education.As a pioneer of the modern world,Locke has never abandoned the traditional religious norms in his theory.His political philosophy has always had a dual dimension of enlightenment and reason,and two kinds of biblical and secular narration.Locke reinterpreted the Bible and reconstructed the doctrine of Christian faith.Instead of placing Christian faith under reason(Philosophical System)like Hegel,he devoted himself to maintaining the integrity and Transcendence of Christianity,making it independent,providing a transcendent dimension to the political society,establishing the credibility of God in the ethical and political effects it exerts in the hearts of people,which reacts to his empiricism.Locke’s civil religion seeks not only religious truth,but religion’s more effective help to virtue.From the present situation of contemporary rationalism and the crisis of modernity,it is difficult to succeed in organizing people through rational calculation.Locke tries to maintain a certain consistency between the classical and the modern,because,in his view,any trend of thought to extremes will be a threat to the fate of human beings.If Locke had accepted the form of free politics but abandoned its religious premise,it discarded the key nature of his thought,and this incomplete understanding would bring us unexpected results.Locke’s citizen religion solves the moral foundation of modern democracy,but to what extent can this kind of simplified version of Christianity,which draws away from the traditional beliefs,only have the meaning of semiotics,can maintain the loyalty of the people to the political body? At the same time,Locke forgot to answer another very important question: why an atheist can also abide by the contract.