13/14 American Religious History

1. Albanese Ch 11
The Public, the Civil, and the
Culture of the Center

2. Part Four: Oneness?
• Religion necessary for
national unity?
• The American
Experiment
• Who is an “American”?
• When does an
immigrant become
“American”?
• Public Protestantism
• Civil Religion

4. Public Protestantism
“The majority tradition acted
in subtle and not-so-subtle
ways to wear away the
sharp edges of
separateness and to bring
people toward
itself….Public
Protestantism has meant
acknowledged ways of
thinking and acting
supported by most
institutions in society”
(Albanese, 257).

5. Influential Roots
• Puritan school books
• Anglican establishment in South
• Puritans in New England and
Pennsylvania
• Colonial governments
• “Fit” between this-worldly ethic
and taming a wilderness
• Material progress and industrial
efficiency
• Success as God’s blessing
• Perfect for a developing nation

6. Adaptation
• Reform Jews move Sabbath to Sunday
• Catholics after Vatican II adopt a quick version
of Mass
• Mormons and Adventists similar in optimism
• Japanese Buddhists form a church (BCA)
• Middle class African Americans gravitate
towards denominations similar to mainline
• Asians convert to Christianity and form their
own churches

7. The Protestant Code
• Religious liberty
• Democratic equality
• Separation of church
and state
• Denominationalism
• Voluntaryism
• Activism
• Reductionism
• Anti-intellectualism
• Ahistoricism
• Moralism (jeremiads)

8. The Protestant Cultus
• Revivals
• Preaching
• Conversion

9. The Protestant Creed
• Individualism
– Independence
– Thrift
– Industry
– perseverance
• Higher (Divine) Law
• Millennialism
– Pre- (pessimism)
– Post- (optimism)
• Perfectionism
• Manifest Destiny

10. Civil Religion
Religious system related to
the state
Theocracy?
Attempt to create a nation-
state based on:
– English Puritanism
– Enlightenment ideals
– Symbols from U.S. history
How meaningful is this?

11. Civil Religion in Historical
Perspective
• Revolution
• Constitution
• George Washington
• Declaration of
Independence
• Fourth of July
• Novus ordo seclorum
• Memorial Day Parades
• Pledge of allegiance
• Battle Hymn of the
Republic

12. Structure of Civil Religion
• Creed: “chosenness” and “millennialism” to
be an example of democracy and to spread it
to others.
• Code: voting, activism, public service
• Cultus: Washington and Lincoln Monuments,
Mount Rushmore, Mount Vernon,
Independence Hall in Philly, Parades,
Fireworks, etc., etc.
• Community: citizenship based on natural
rights

13. Civil Religion into the Present
• Decline after WWII
• Robert Bellah’s The Sacred
Canopy (1967)
• Sidney E. Mead’s The Lively
Experiment (1963)
• Will Herberg’s Protestant
Catholic Jew (1955)
• The American Way of Life
• The American People
• “One Story” consensus
narrative
• Does it work anymore?

14. Cultural Religion
Based on the familiar features of American life
established after the Civil War: organized sports,
industrialization and corporations, immigrants, new
technologies, novels, musicals, movies, etc.
1. The American Ritual Calendar
2. American Sacred Stories
3. American Codes of Living

15. American Ritual Calendar
• Halloween
• Veteran’s Day
• Thanksgiving
• New Year’s Eve
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• President’s Day
• Memorial Day
• Flag Day/Fourth of July
• Valentine’s Day
• Mothers/Fathers Days

16. American Sacred Stories
• The good side will win
• The captive will be
rescued
• Criminals will get justice
• Trouble in paradise
• Justice through
righteous violence
• Sacrifice of personal
needs
• Suffering hero
• redemption

17. American Codes of Living
They provide guidelines and often come along with their
own “sacred” stories, “ritual” events, and “saints”…. Self-
reinforcing sub-cultures (ideologies, sentiments, beliefs,
values) that can substitute for or add to religious
experience in America:
1.Sports
2.Technology
3.Popular Psychology
4.Ideas of Nature

18. 1. Sports
• Training for the
‘game of life’
– Conflict
– Winners and
loosers
– Teamwork
– Rules of the
game
– Being a ‘good
sport’

19. 2. Technology
• Body as machine
• Corporate bureaucracies
– Efficiency
– Non-emotional (no drama!)
– Uniformity
– Standardization
– Consumerism
• People and “positions” are
expendable
• Complex world made “simple”
by automation
• Transhumanism: Religion of
Technology

20. 3. Popular (Pop-) Psychology
• Human Potential
Movement
• Humanistic Psychology
• Self-Actualization
• Therapy, Retreats,
Encounter Groups
• New Age Religion
• Self-help books,
Recovery

21. 4. Nature
• Wilderness as
extraordinary encounter
• Emphasis on health,
simplicity, ecology,
conservation
• Romantic Naturalism
• Eco-Psychology
• Outward Bound programs

22. Afterthoughts and Overview
• A “community of feeling”?
• Cultural religion is about the middle class
• Public Protestantism’s influence declining
• But still significant as Civil Religion
• And as Cultural Religion
– Public and Private
– Ordinary and Extraordinary
– When ethnic or organized religions fail, cultural religion will
pick up the slack***
• “In America, many religious centers meet, with the
one religion competing, finding allies, and combining
with the many in a variety of ways” (Albanese, 281).