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ORIGIN OF TERM Jean-Jacques Rousseau coined the term in chapter 8, book 4 of The Social Contract , to describe what he regarded as the moral and spiritual foundation essential for any modern society. For Rousseau, civil religion was intended simply as a form of social cement, helping to unify the state by providing it with sacred authority. In his book, Rousseau outlines the simple dogmas of the civil religion: SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION in Washington, D.C. is often used for state Funeral s for political leaders.]] In the Sociology Of Religion , civil religion is the Folk Religion of a Nation or a Political Culture . Civil religion stands somewhat above folk religion in its social and political status, since by definition it suffuses an entire society, or at least a segment of a society; and is often practised by Leader s within that society. On the other hand, it is somewhat less than an Establishment Of Religion , since established churches have official Clergy and a relatively fixed and formal relationship with the government that establishes them. Civil religion is usually practiced by political leaders who are laypeople and whose leadership is not specifically spiritual. Examples Such civil religion encompasses such things as:
and similar religious or quasi-religious practices. PRACTICAL POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY '' in Paris commemorates those who died in France 's wars.]] Professional commentators on political and social matters writing in newspapers and magazines sometimes use the term ''civil religion'' or '''''civic religion''''' to refer to Ritual expressions of Patriotism of a sort practiced in all countries, not always including religion in the conventional sense of the word. Among such practices are the following: Examples
RELATION BETWEEN THE TWO CONCEPTIONS These two conceptions (sociological and political) of civil religion substantially overlap. In Britain, where church and state are constitutionally joined, the monarch's coronation is an elaborate religious rite celebrated by the Archbishop Of Canterbury . In France, secular ceremonies are separated from religious observances to a greater degree than in most countries. In the United States of America, a president being inaugurated is told by the Constitution to choose between saying "I Do Solemnly Swear..." (customarily followed by "so help me God", although those words are not Constitutionally required) and saying "I do solemnly affirm..." (in which latter case no mention of God would be expected). HISTORY '', dedicated to Peace as a Goddess , embodied the civil religion of the Roman Empire .]] The first government to have an identifiable civil religion was the Roman Empire , whose first Emperor Augustus officially attempted to revive the dutiful practice of Classical Paganism . Greek and Roman Religion were essentially local in character; the Roman Empire attempted to unite its disparate territories by inculcating an ideal of Roman piety, and by a Syncretistic identifying of the gods of conquered territories with the Greek and Roman Pantheon . In this campaign, Augustus erected monuments such as the '' Ara Pacis '', the Altar of Peace, showing the Emperor and his family worshipping the gods. He also encouraged the publication of works such as Virgil 's '' Æneid '', which depicted "pious Æneas ", the Legend ary ancestor of Rome , as a role model for Roman religiosity. Roman historians such as Livy told tales of early Romans as morally improving stories of military prowess and civic virtue. The Roman civil religion later became centred on the person of the Emperor through the Imperial Cult , the worship of the Genius of the Emperor. The phrase "civil religion" was first discussed extensively by , belief in an Afterlife in which Virtue is rewarded and vice punished; and belief in Religious Tolerance . Beyond that, Rousseau affirmed that individuals' religious opinions should be beyond the reach of governments. In the 1950s and 1960s , scholars such as Martin E. Marty and Robert N. Bellah studied civil religion as a cultural phenomenon, attempting to identify the actual tenets of civil religion in the United States Of America , or to study civil religion as a phenomenon of Cultural Anthropology . Within this U.S. context, Marty wrote that Americans approved of "religion in general" without being particularly concerned about the content of that faith, and attempted to distinguish " Priest ly" and " Prophet ic" roles within the practice of American civil religion, which he preferred to call the ''public theology''. Bellah wrote that civil religion was "an institutionalized collection of sacred beliefs about the American nation." Bellah identified the American Revolution , the Civil War , and the Civil Rights Movement as three decisive historical events that impacted the content and imagery of civil religion in the United States. ISSUES displayed alongside the flag of the USA next to the pulpit in a church in California. Note the eagle and cross finials on the flag poles.]] Within the contexts of the Monotheistic , Prophet ic, Revealed faiths, civil religion can be problematic from a Theological perspective. Being identified with a political culture and a leadership Hierarchy of an existing society, civil religion can interfere with the Prophet ic mission of a religious faith. It is hard to make civil religion a platform for rebuking the Sin s of a people or its institutions, because civil religion exists to make them seem Sacred in themselves. The United States Of America , while a group of British Colonies , was settled in part by religious Dissenter s from the established Church Of England , who desired a civil society founded on a different religious vision. Consequently, there has never been a National Church in the United States and individual state churches have not existed in the United States since the early Nineteenth Century . Religious denominations compete with one another for allegiance in the public square. These facts have made public displays of religious piety by political leaders important to a large sector of the population; lacking an established church, they need public assurance of those leaders' religious beliefs. This assertive civil religion of the United States is an occasional cause of political friction between the U.S. and its allies in Europe , where (the literally religious form of) civil religion is often relatively muted. In the United States, civil religion is often invoked under the name of " Judeo-Christian tradition", a phrase originally intended to be maximally inclusive of the several Monotheism s practiced in the United States, assuming that these faiths all Worship the same God and share the same values. This assumption tends to dilute the essence of both Judaism and Christianity ; recognition of this fact, and the increasing religious diversity of the United States, make this phrase less heard now than it once was, though it is far from extinct. Some scholars have argued that the American flag can be seen as a main Totem of a national cult.Marvin and Ingle (1996), Arguing against mob violence and lynching, Abraham Lincoln declared in his 1838 Lyceum speech that the Constitution and the laws of the United States ought to become the ‘political religion’ of each American..Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois January 27, 1838 [http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/lyceum.htm REFERENCES SEE ALSO |
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