ABSTRACT
Tocqueville believed that Christianity was an inheritance of democracy. Tocqueville offers less a testable prediction than a melancholic prophecy. What Tocqueville was concerned about was what might be called the current of common ideas in democratic societies more generally. What he anticipated for these was a widespread drift from conventional Christianity to atomized pantheism. Finally, for Tocqueville it was axiomatic that 'democracy' meant more than just the rule of the people, politically defined. It meant the 'sovereignty of the people' in every area of life, religion included. And that meant an 'equality of conditions' in every area of life which such sovereignty implied, religion included, once again. The last point is important, for it identifies how Tocqueville had established an essential connection between the emergence of political and of civic equality; similarly, between civic equality and moral equality.
