在《社會契約論》當中，盧梭一方面讚許霍布斯是唯一一位看出政教分離流弊的基督教哲學家，另一方面又認為他的宗教理論存在著基本的錯誤。這樣的見解帶來一個詮釋霍布斯的問題：為什麼霍布斯會採取政教合一這種為盧梭所接受的主張？盧梭又是基於何種立場，反對霍布斯對宗教的看法？本文嘗試從盧梭對於公民宗教（civil religion）的看法出發，比較二者的差異之處。本文將指出，雖然盧梭基於自己的公民宗教觀點，同意霍布斯政教合一的論點。然而出於對基督教的不同詮釋，他認為真正的政教合一應該是將宗教置於政治之下，而霍布斯雖然扭轉了宗教指導政治的趨勢，卻沒有正確認識宗教的本質應該是協助鎔鑄共同體意志。在這種政教合一的體系中，盧梭認為霍布斯並沒有徹底解決宗教與政治間的衝突
In his 'Of Social Contract', Jean-Jacques Rousseau described Thomas Hobbes as the only person who clearly saw the evil of and the remedy for the separation of church and the state. Rousseau, however, also criticised Hobbes for his misjudgement that the spirit of Christianity could be compatible with politics. In this article I argue that Rousseau made such a judgement out of his idea of civil religion. According to his understanding of civil religion, Rousseau agreed with Hobbes that religion and politics should be united. But in Rousseau's point of view, Hobbes was wrong in the sense that the way he united religion and politics ignored the fact that the essence of religion is a supplement to forge a political community.
