“Civil religion” is an expression used to point to a diverse set of phenomena, interpretations, and normative theories regarding the relationship between religion, politics, and civic morals. The birth of the idea can be traced to the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract (1762), but modern usage began in 1967 with Robert N. Bellah's essay “Civil Religion in America.” Since then, the fitness and the depth of the idea for representing and understanding modern societies has been repeatedly discussed in sociology, political theory, and political science.