Question

Can you please explain robert n bellah idea of civil religion in America.

Answer 1

• Civil religion, a term popularized by sociologist Robert Bellah, is used to describe the relationship between religion and national identity in the United States. The basic theory maintains that an informal civil religion binds the American people to God.
• Robert Bellah's essay works to compare and contrast the differences between private and public religion. A civil religion is not the same as the religion found in a church, a mosque, a synagogue, or a temple, especially in the case of American civil religion. However, it's definitely influenced by them, particularly in the case of Christianity. Throughout his essay, Bellah uses examples of religious language in famous speeches and writings by American thinkers to demonstrate:
• How the idea of God and the institution of the church have shaped the American civic consciousness.
• How theological ideas influence how we define and discuss what it means to be American.
• The ritual component of politics.
• That the public religious dimension involves belief in God, but it does not dictate that one must either practice or eschew religion.
• In short, civil religion is a) a set of metaphors, rituals, and ideas influenced by religion, and b) a process by which abstract ideas about God and human goodness become driving imperatives shared by every American. This process is also called reification.
• Civil religion means the implicit religious values of a nation that is expressed through public
  rituals, symbols and ceremonies on sacred days and at sacred places. The symbols could mean
  the country’s flag or the picture of a national leader or party. The sacred days could mean days
  of high importance and days when certain events had occurred in the past. The sacred places
  could be monuments, cemeteries, or places of national interest. National identity and religion
  has had a close association since the past. This is also the case the United States and the
  Britain.
• American Civil Religion centers on sacred, historical events like the American Revolution and the Civil War.He reckoned that the United States has its own series of saints and martyrs (such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln) and that an examination of founding documents and important inaugural addresses shows how it operates on the idea that it is a nation chosen by God.