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American Civil Religion: the History and Evolution of a Sociological Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1979 American Civil Religion: The iH story and Evolution of a Sociological Concept Gail Gehrig Loyola University Chicago Recommended Citation Gehrig, Gail, "American Civil Religion: The iH story and Evolution of a Sociological Concept" (1979). Dissertations. Paper 1867. http://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/1867 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1979 Gail Gehrig AHERICAN CIVIL RELIGION: THE HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF A SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPT by Gail Gehrig A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Loyola University of Chicago in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 1979 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Appreciative acknowledgments are made to the following individuals for their assistance and advice concerning this study: Dr. Robert J. McNamara, Rev. Thomas M. Gannon, S.J., and Dr. Ross P. Scherer. ii VITA The author, Gail Gehrig, is the daughter of Dick Simms Gehrig and Letittia Mason Gehrig. She was born on October 25, 1946, in Kansas City, Missouri. Her elementary education was obtained in the public schools of Lexington, Missouri. Her secondary education was obtained at Lee's Summit High School, Lee's Summit, Missouri, where she graduated in 1964. In September, 1964, she entered the University of Mis­ souri, and in August, 1968, received the degree of Bachelor of Arts with a major in sociology. In September, 1968, she was granted an assistantship in sociology at the University of Missouri. In August, 1969, she was awarded the Master of Arts in Sociology. In June, 1969, she was granted an assistantship from the Institute for Community Studies in Kansas City, Missouri. In August, 1969, she became Instructor of Sociology at Lewis University, Romeoville, Illinois. Currently she is Associate Profe~sor of Sociology at Lewis University. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . ii VITA iii LIST OF FIGURES . vii CONTENTS OF APPENDIX . viii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION . 1 Models of American Civil Religion . 2 Basic Propositions . 10 PART I. THE INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF CIVIL RELIGION II. THE FOUNDATIONS: ROUSSEAU AND DE TOCQUEVILLE 13 III. THE CIVIL RELIGION OF AMERICAN RELIGIOUS HISTORIANS . 22 Protestant Civic Piety . 23 Sidney Mead's Transcendent Universal Religion of the Nation . 30 The History of American Folk Religion: Martin Marty . 34 Conclusion . 40 PART II. THE SOCIOLOGICAL TRADITION IV. FOLK RELIGION 43 W. Lloyd Warner . 43 Will Herberg 49 Conclusion 54 iv v. THE TRANSCENDENT CIVIL RELIGION OF ROBERT BELLAH . 57 The Definition of American Civil Religion . 58 The History of American Civil Religion . 61 The Functions of American Civil Religion 62 Conclusion . 72 VI. THE RESPONSE TO BELLAH 76 Theoretical Response . 77 Empirical Response . 91 Conclusion . 96 VII. THE NEED FOR CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION 99 PART III. AMERICAN CIVIL RELIGION AND AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS VIII. THE DIFFERENTIATION OF AMERICAN CIVIL RELIGION FROM M1ERICAN DENOMINATIONS AND AMERICAN POLITICS . 106 Theoretical Studies . 107 Empirical Studies . 120 IX. THE FUNCTIONS OF AMERICAN CIVIL RELIGION . 126 Religion as a Source of Integration . 127 American Civil Religion and Integration . 129 Religion as a Source of Legitimation 139 American Civil Religion and Legitimation 141 Religion as a Source of Prophecy 145 American Civil Religion and Prophecy . 147 Conclusion . 156 X. AMERICAN CIVIL RELIGION AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS . 159 American Public Education . 160 Voluntary Associations . 174 The Economy . 178 Conclusion . 183 v PART IV. THE EVOLUTION OF CIVIL RELIGION XI. THEORIES OF RELIGIOUS EVOLUTION 186 The Concept of Secularization in Theories of Religious Evolution . 188 Selected Theories of Religious Evolution 193 Evaluation of the Theories of Religious Evolution . 215 XII. THE ~lERICAN CASE 219 American Civil Religion and the Judicial System . 225 Conclusion . 234 XIII. CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH 235 Church-Sponsored Civil Religion: Modern Great Britain . 236 State-Sponsored Civil Religion: Restor- ation Japan . 245 Secular Nationalism: Modern Soviet Union . 252 Conclusion . 257 PART V. CONCLUSION XIV. CONCLUSIONS AND REC0Ml1ENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH . 2 6 3 REFERENCES 275 APPENDIX 285 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Types of American Civil Religion . 37 2. Generality of Civil Religious Values . 73 3. Personal and Societal Civil Religion . 81 4. Bellah's versus Penn's Typology of Civil Religion: Parallel Perspective .... 83 5. Bellah's versus Penn's Typology of Civil Religion: Synthetic Perspective ..... 84 6. Bellah's Stages of Religious Evolution . 111-112 7. Significant Court Cases Related to Religion and the Public Schools . .. 165-166 8. Relationship bet'iveen Religious Pluralism, Societal Complexity, and Legal Development . 222 9. Hypothesized Relationship between Religious Pluralism, Institutional Differentiation, and Differentiated Civil Religion . 224 10. Coleman's Typology of Civil Religion . 259 vii CONTENTS OF APPENDIX Page APPENDIX Civil Religion Items Used in the Analysis of Ronald Wimberly, Donald Clelland, Thomas Hood, and C. M. Lipsey (1976:893) . 285 viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Civil religion, a term first used by Rousseau, refers to the religious dimension of the polity. Civil religion in American society, or American civil religion, has been the subject of an extensive field of literature generated by American philosophers, historians, theologians, social scien­ tists, poets, and novelists since the inception of the nation. Stimulated by the work of Robert Bellah, the concept of Amer­ ican civil religion has recently generated interest among American sociologists, leading to a sociological debate on American civil religion. The debate is wide-ranging, begin­ ning with disagreement about the definition of American civil religion and its existence in American society. Among sociol­ ogists who accept the assumption that American civil religion exists, there is still considerable controversy over the historical origin and continued development of American civil religion. There is also fierce debate raging on such issues as the structural differentiation of American civil religion from other social institutions and on the functions (if any) performed by American civil religion. The major objective of this study is to examine the social science literature on American civil religion in an attempt to order the literature into a coherent, comprehensive, and logical set of definitions 1 2 and assumptions open to empirical examination. In order to arrive at a set of sociological propositions concerning Amer­ ican civil religion, the sociological literature will be highlighted and selectively reviewed, with representative studies examined as typical of a particular model of American civil religion. The purpose of this study is not to assemble a patchwork quilt comprised of every piece ever written about American civil religion. The purpose is to construct a rep­ resentative theoretical map of the most significant American civil religion studies and to glean from these studies a set of propositions which would be testable by sociological methods. Models of American Civil Religion The first objective of this analysis, addressed in parts I and II, is to define the central concept of American civil religion. ~1uch of the intellectual debate surrounding the concept of American civil religion is based upon a lack of consensus for a precise definition. Richey and Jones (1974:14) report "at least five broad, and to some extent interrelated meanings of civil religion" in the literature: folk religion, transcendent universal religion of the nation, religious nationalism, democratic faith, and Protestant civic piety. The five meanings of American civil religion can be seen as models, and will be used collectively as a device for ordering the literature. Because the five models are not mutually exclusive, some studies contain elements of 3 more than one model, but the majority of the studies can be usefully classified as representative of a particular model. Folk Religion Folk religion is a civil religion conceived of as emerging from the daily life experiences and expressions of the American populace. The major functions of civil reli­ gion according to the folk religion model are legitimation of cultural values and social integration. Alexis de Tocque­ ville's two-volume work, Democracy in America (1966), con­ tains one of the first intellectual developments of American folk religion. During his contact with the American people in the 1830s, Tocqueville observed that a fusion of demo­ cratic and moral principles was expressed in the daily behav­ ior and customs of Americans. Tocqueville's ensuing model of democratic, republican religion assumed that liberty, law, morality, and religious belief were symbiotically related in American society, serving as a basis for social cohesion. A classic sociological analysis of American folk religion is found in W. Lloyd Warner's (1961) examination of the Memorial Day celebrations in an American city. Warner's folk religion is a functioning set of civic rituals which are socially integrating and identity-reinforcing for citizens. A more controversial
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