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Le degré de développement d'une discipline ne dépend pas seulement de facteurs internes, mais également de facteurs exter nes. Ces dernières années, cette pensée a trouvé son expression dans une discipline relativement nouvelle: la sociologie des scien ces. L'analyse sociologique des sciences sociales est cependant en retard sur celle des sciences exactes et en ce qui concerne la socio logie des religions, elle vient à peine de naitre. Un dépouillement de cinq revues, parmi les plus importantes consacrées à la sociolo gie des religions, montre que quelques thème seulement y sont traités, et de façon fort succincte. Quelques questions serviront de point de départ pour démontrer l'importance d'une pareille analyse.

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The topic of Civil Religion as introduced by Robert N. Bellah - which can be described as any set of beliefs and rituals, related to the past, present and/of future of a nation - has widely met response. This probably is because it deals with Issues such as the legitimacy of the political process, the legitimacy of societal institutions and the meaning and destiny of society, issues widely felt as problematic. The topic has also been criticized, it then is interpreted as an uncritical justification of the state's power, as a remainder and parasite of christianity. The value of these criticisms is examined here as well as other, theoretical, criticisms which suggest that the argument is based on an inadequate model of society, i.e, the consensus model. In the end, some questions for research are raised in brief.