Civil Religion Today: Religion and the American Nation in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

The concept of civil religion is, perhaps unbeknownst to some, of enduring interest for scholars of law and religion. Major constitutional debates over the separation of church and state derive from practices of civil religion, such as invoking God in the national motto (“In God we trust”) or Pledge of Allegiance (“one Nation, under God”), the practice of beginning public meetings with prayer, and displayingmonuments of the Ten Commandments outside public courthouses, among others. Of course, these issues have all led to landmark Establishment Clause cases that have variously attempted to articulate the appropriate relationship between religion and government. Despite the clear implications, the concept of civil religion is often relegated to academic sociology discussions. It is fitting, then, that the contributions in Civil Religion Today: Religion and the American Nation in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Rhys H. Williams, Raymond Haberski Jr., and Philip Goff, should recapitulate this important concept and discuss its application—and critiques—in the present day. As Haberski, Williams, and Goff acknowledge in the introduction, civil religion is a term with many definitions: “it can often appear to mean almost anything to anyone at any time” (3). In fact, Arthur Remillard makes a compelling case that we should not talk of a singular American civil religion and instead study “America’s civil religions” (77). Academics have used the term variously to refer to the sacred beliefs that Americans have about the state, the use of religious practices in public settings, the adoption of quasi-religious expressions of patriotism, a commonbelief in the utility of religion, and a sense of shared religious values among the American people. Other definitions and usages abound. However, nearly all discussions about civil religion in the American context point back to Robert Bellah, whose 1967 essay “Civil Religion in America” popularized the term.1 The contributions in this edited volume are, rightfully, no exception, as the authors make extensive use of Bellah’s original and later conceptualizations of civil religion and revisit its place in society fifty years later.