I always find it amusing when our British cousins, being a bit older and often wiser, look at the American scene and feel compelled to give us a gentle reminder or serious lecture. In this case it is a sage reminisce on the Founding Fathers, religion, and politics. The chiding was prompted by the usual [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Civil Religion'
Catholic Justices Serve Their Master Well
April 7th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Civil Religion, Power
The Catholic boys club that is the United States Supreme Court really outdid themselves in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn (April 4, 2011), a case in which Arizona citizens challenged a state law giving tax credits to those who donate to “school tuition organizations.” These organizations provide scholarships to private schools. Because nearly [...]
Tags:Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization·Arizona law·canard·Catholic·Catholic schools·Civil Religion·Dahlia Lithwick·Establishment Clause·Garrett Epps·judicial bias·judicial ethics·Justice Kagan·justices·legal fiction·parochial schools·religious schools·separation of church and state·sophistry·Supreme Court·tax break·tax credit·United States Supreme Court·Winn
The Holy Constitution
November 9th, 2010 · No Comments · Civil Religion, Daily Devolutions
As Samuel Freedman observes in this article on American politics, religious faith often blends with nationalistic faith to form a kind of civil religion:
“God’s words, the concept of godly government, are woven into the warp and woof of the fabric of our nation and this Constitution. It’s rightly called the Miracle in Philadelphia.”
Mr. Manship’s own [...]
Tags:bible·Civil Religion·Constitution·founding fathers·James Renwick Manship·literalism·nationalism·Samuel Freedman·Stanley Fish·Tea Party
Slouching Toward Berlin
October 13th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Civil Religion, Economy, Power
Watching Germany grapple with its rough beast is sort of like cultural voyeurism — outsiders are weirdly fascinated even as Germans seem unsure of how to proceed. Two recent articles in Spiegel offer powerful reminders that gawking, a paradoxical product of attraction and revulsion, can be unsettling.
The first, by Frank Hornig and Michael Sontheimer, discusses [...]
Tags:Berlin·Bethlehem·Civil Religion·eschatology·Frank Hornig·Fuhrer·German History Museum·Germany·Hitler·Ian Kershaw·Jews·Michael Sontheimer·Muslims·National Socialism·nationalism·Nazi·Ole Reissmann·racism·rough beast·salvation·schadenfreude·The Second Coming·uncivil religion·W.B. Yeats·weltanschauung·xenophobia
America’s Civil Religion
September 29th, 2010 · No Comments · Civil Religion, Power
In a previous post, I outlined what the sociologist Robert Bellah calls “civil religion,” and its elaboration by Carolyn Martin and David Ingle in their classic article, “Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Revisiting Civil Religion.” Now, Lexington over at The Economist has posted on “The Perils of Constitution Worship.” Lexington notes that Americans in general [...]
Tags:Blood Sacrifice and the Nation·Carolyn Martin·Civil Religion·David Ingle·deification·founding fathers·Lexington·mythology·nationalism·original intent·Robert Bellah·sacred national texts·Tea Party·The Perils of Constitution Worship
Christian America and Religious Intolerance
August 11th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Atheism, Axial Age, Civil Religion, Emotions
In an odd article that attempts to situate Anne Rice’s very public proclamation that she is leaving the Catholic Church within the larger context of American Christianity, Los Angeles Times religion reporter William Lobdell makes two apparently contradictory claims:
American Christianity is not well, and there’s evidence to indicate that its condition is more critical [...]
Tags:American Christianity·Anne Rice·atheists·Catholic Church·Christian diversity·Christian God·Christian nation·Christianity in America·Christopher Hitchens·Civil Religion·Cordoba Center·evangelicals·exclusivism·Ground Zero·intolerance·Islam·Islamic center·Max Fisher·mosque·Muslim·nationalism·Pew Forum·religious diversity·religious freedom·sacred space·Stephen Merino·unaffiliated·United States·William Lobdell
Ground Zero is “Sacred Ground”
July 21st, 2010 · 1 Comment · Civil Religion, Definitions, Emotions, Power
In yesterday’s post on the religion of nationalism, I noted that Ground Zero is sacred ground for the believer-patriots of American national religion. If you questioned this assertion, doubt no more — the GOP has produced an incendiary video which declares that Ground Zero is “sacred ground” and that an Islamic mosque cannot be built [...]
Tags:American national religion·blasphemy·Christian America·Civil Religion·Ground Zero·Islam·jihad·Kill the Ground Zero Mosque video·Muslims·nationalism as religion·patriot·patriotism·radical Islam·sacred ground·sacred site
Nationalism as Religion
July 20th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Civil Religion, Classifications, Cultural Evolution, Definitions, History, New Religions, Power, Ritual
In a previous post, Religious Wars and Nationalism, I discussed two factors that play a major role in group cohesion. The first factor, which played a dominant role for the majority of human evolution, was extended and fictive kinship. This is what primarily held groups together during the Paleolithic. After the Neolithic Revolution, another factor [...]
Tags:Benedict Anderson·Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Revisiting Civil Religion·Carolyn Marvin·Civil Religion·David Ingle·Durkheim·group cohesion·group identity·group level selection·guardians of faith·high priests·hymnals·Imagined Communities·kinship·liturgy·nationalism·Neolithic Revolution·Paleolithic·patriotism·patriots·religion·religiosity·religious violence·ritual leaders·ritual objects·Robert Bellah·sacred places·sacred texts·saints·temples·totemism·totems
Religious Wars and Nationalism
July 18th, 2010 · No Comments · Cultural Evolution, Economy, Evolutionary Adaptation, Evolutionary Byproduct, History, Power
Over at HuffPo Religion, Matt Rossano has written a thought provoking piece — which some may find surprising — on the relationship between war and religion. In Why Religion Does Not Equal War, Rossano begins with the common knowledge that religious differences often lead to war, or that religious differences are often used to justify [...]
Tags:aggression·Arabs·Civil Religion·conflict·Cyrus the Great·Darius the Great·Egyptian pharaoh·God & War: An Audit & An Exploration·god-kings·Greek-Persian wars·Greg Austin·group cohesion·Israelis·Jews·kinship·Matt Rossano·Muslims·nationalism·religion·Religious War Audit·religious wars·Thom Oommen·Todd Kranock·war·Why Religion Does Not Equal War·Xerxes the Great
The Many Functions of Religions
May 17th, 2010 · 6 Comments · Axial Age, Civil Religion, Cognition, Cultural Evolution, Evolutionary Adaptation, Evolutionary Byproduct, History, Morality, Ritual, Shamanism
There is a long history of assessing — and attempting to explain — religion in a functional manner. Marx and Engels figured that the function of religion was to disguise the realities of the underlying economic system and palliate the suffering of the laboring masses. Durkheim thought that the function of religion was to enable [...]
Tags:Civil Religion·Durkheim·Engels·ethics·Freud·function of religion·Marx·morals·Philip Goldberg·proximate cause·Robert Bellah·Thomas Hobbes·transcendence·ultimate cause
