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Robert N. Bellah

Civil in America Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021

While some have argued that Chris- ing an end as well as a beginning–signi- tianity is the national faith, and others fying renewal as well as change. For I that church and synagogue celebrate have sworn before you and Almighty God only the generalized religion of “the the same solemn oath our forebears pre- American Way of Life,” few have real- scribed nearly a century and three quar- ized that there actually exists alongside ters ago. of and rather clearly differentiated from the churches an elaborate and well-in- 1 Why something so obvious should have es- stitutionalized in America. caped serious analytical attention is in itself This article argues not only that there is an interesting problem. Part of the reason is such a thing, but also that this religion– probably the controversial nature of the sub- or perhaps better, this religious dimen- ject. From the earliest years of the nineteenth sion–has its own seriousness and in- century, conservative religious and political groups have argued that Christianity is, in fact, tegrity and requires the same care in the national religion. Some of them have from understanding that any other religion time to time and as recently as the 1950s pro- does.1 posed constitutional amendments that would explicitly recognize the sovereignty of Christ. ennedy’s inaugural address of Janu- In defending the doctrine of separation of K church and , opponents of such groups ary 20, 1961 serves as an example and a have denied that the national polity has, in- clue with which to introduce this com- trinsically, anything to do with religion at all. plex subject. That address began: The moderates on this issue have insisted that the American state has taken a permissive and We observe today not a victory of party indeed supportive attitude toward religious but a celebration of freedom–symboliz- groups (tax exemption, etc.), thus favoring reli- gion but still missing the positive institutional- ization with which I am concerned. But part of Robert N. Bellah, Elliott Professor of the reason this issue has been left in obscurity Emeritus at the University of California, Berke- is certainly due to the peculiarly Western con- ley, has been a Fellow of the American Acade- cept of religion as denoting a single type of col- my since 1967. This essay appeared in the Winter lectivity of which an individual can be a mem- 1967 issue of “Dædalus.” At the time of its publi- ber of one and only one at a time. The Durk- heimian notion that every group has a religious cation, Bellah was professor of sociology at Har- dimension, which would be seen as obvious in vard University. southern or eastern Asia, is foreign to us. This obscures the recognition of such dimensions in © 2005 by the American Academy of Arts our society. & Sciences 40 Dædalus Fall 2005 The world is very different now. For It might be argued that the passages Civil religion in man holds in his mortal hands the pow- quoted reveal the essentially irrelevant America er to abolish all forms of human poverty role of religion in the very secular soci- and to abolish all forms of human life. ety that is America. The placing of the And yet the same revolutionary beliefs references in this speech as well as in for which our forebears fought are still at public life generally indicates that re- issue around the globe–the belief that the ligion has “only a ceremonial signi½- rights of man come not from the generosi- cance”; it gets only a sentimental nod ty of the state but from the hand of God. which serves largely to placate the more unenlightened members of the commu- And it concluded: Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 nity, before a discussion of the really Finally, whether you are citizens of Ameri- serious business with which religion ca or of the world, ask of us the same high has nothing whatever to do. A cynical standards of strength and sacri½ce that we observer might even say that an Ameri- shall ask of you. With a good conscience can president has to mention God or our only sure reward, with history the ½- risk losing votes. A semblance of piety nal judge of our deeds, let us go forth to is merely one of the unwritten quali½- lead the land we love, asking His blessing cations for the of½ce, a bit more tradi- and His help, but knowing that here on tional than but not essentially different earth God’s work must truly be our own. from the present-day requirement of a These are the three places in this brief pleasing television personality. address in which Kennedy mentioned But we know enough about the func- the name of God. If we could under- tion of ceremony and in various stand why he mentioned God, the way societies to make us suspicious of dis- in which he did it, and what he meant to missing something as unimportant be- say in those three references, we would cause it is “only a ritual.” What people understand much about American civil say on solemn occasions need not be religion. But this is not a simple or obvi- taken at face value, but it is often indica- ous task, and American students of reli- tive of deep-seated values and commit- gion would probably differ widely in ments that are not made explicit in the their interpretation of these passages. course of everyday life. Following this Let us consider ½rst the placing of the line of argument, it is worth considering three references. They occur in the two whether the very special placing of the opening paragraphs and in the closing references to God in Kennedy’s address paragraph, thus providing a sort of may not reveal something rather impor- frame for the more concrete remarks tant and serious about religion in Ameri- that form the middle part of the speech. can life. Looking beyond this particular speech, It might be countered that the very we would ½nd that similar references to way in which Kennedy made his refer- God are almost invariably to be found in ences reveals the essentially vestigial the pronouncements of American presi- place of religion today. He did not refer dents on solemn occasions, though usu- to any religion in particular. He did not ally not in the working messages that the refer to Jesus Christ, or to , or to president sends to Congress on various the Christian church; certainly he did concrete issues. How, then, are we to in- not refer to the . In fact, terpret this placing of references to his only reference was to the concept of God? God, a word which almost all Americans

Dædalus Fall 2005 41 Robert N. can accept but which means so many using the word God at all? The answer Bellah different things to so many different is that the separation of church and people that it is almost an empty sign. state has not denied the political realm Is this not just another indication that in a religious dimension. Although mat- America religion is considered vaguely ters of personal religious belief, wor- to be a good thing, but that people care ship, and association are considered so little about it that it has lost any con- to be strictly private affairs, there are, tent whatever? Isn’t Eisenhower report- at the same time, certain common ele- ed to have said, “Our government makes ments of religious orientation that the no sense unless it is founded in a deeply great majority of Americans share. felt religious faith–and I don’t care what These have played a crucial role in the Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 it is,”2 and isn’t that a complete negation development of American of any real religion? and still provide a religious dimension These questions are worth pursuing for the whole fabric of American life, because they raise the issue of how civil including the political sphere. This pub- religion relates to the political society, lic religious dimension is expressed in on the one hand, and to private religious a set of beliefs, symbols, and that organization, on the other. President I am calling the . Kennedy was a Christian, more speci½- The inauguration of a president is an cally a Catholic Christian. Thus, his gen- important ceremonial event in this reli- eral references to God do not mean that gion. It reaf½rms, among other things, he lacked a speci½c religious commit- the religious legitimation of the lightest ment. But why, then, did he not include political authority. some remark to the effect that Christ is Let us look more closely at what Ken- the Lord of the world or some indication nedy actually said. First he said, “I have of respect for the Catholic church? He sworn before you and Almighty God did not because these are matters of his the same solemn oath our forebears pre- own private religious belief and of his scribed nearly a century and three quar- relation to his own particular church; ters ago.” The oath is the oath of of½ce, they are not matters relevant in any di- including the acceptance of the obliga- rect way to the conduct of his public tion to uphold the Constitution. He of½ce. Others with different religious swears it before the people (you) and views and commitments to different God. Beyond the Constitution, then, the churches or denominations are equally president’s obligation extends not only quali½ed participants in the political to the people but to God. In American process. The principle of separation of political theory, sovereignty rests, of church and state guarantees the freedom course, with the people, but implicitly, of religious belief and association but at and often explicitly, the ultimate sover- the same time clearly segregates the reli- eignty has been attributed to God. This gious sphere, which is considered to be is the meaning of the motto “In God we essentially private, from the political trust,” as well as the inclusion of the one. phrase “under God” in the pledge to the Considering the separation of church flag. What difference does it make that and state, how is a president justi½ed in sovereignty belongs to God? Though the will of the people as expressed in majori- 2 Quoted in Will Herberg, Protestant-Catholic- ty vote is carefully institutionalized as Jew (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1955), 97. the operative source of political authori-

42 Dædalus Fall 2005 ty, it is deprived of an ultimate signi½- can tradition, namely the obligation, Civil religion in cance. The will of the people is not it- both collective and individual, to carry America self the criterion of right and wrong. out God’s will on earth. This was the There is a higher criterion in terms of motivating spirit of those who founded which this will can be judged; it is pos- America, and it has been present in sible that the people may be wrong. The every generation since. Just below the president’s obligation extends to the surface throughout Kennedy’s inaugural higher criterion. address, it becomes explicit in the clos- When Kennedy says that “the rights ing statement that God’s work must be of man come not from the generosity of our own. That this very activist and non- the state but from the hand of God,” he contemplative conception of the funda- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 is stressing this point again. It does not mental religious obligation, which has matter whether the state is the expres- been historically associated with the sion of the will of an autocratic monarch Protestant position, should be enunciat- or of the “people”; the rights of man are ed so clearly in the ½rst major statement more basic than any political structure of the ½rst Catholic president seems to and provide a point of revolutionary le- underline how deeply established it is in verage from which any state structure the American outlook. Let us now con- may be radically altered. That is the ba- sider the form and history of the civil re- sis for his reassertion of the revolution- ligious tradition in which Kennedy was ary signi½cance of America. speaking. But the religious dimension in political life as recognized by Kennedy not only The phrase civil religion is, of course, provides a grounding for the rights of Rousseau’s. In Chapter 8, Book 4, of The man which makes any form of political Social Contract, he outlines the simple absolutism illegitimate; it also provides dogmas of the civil religion: the exis- a transcendent goal for the political pro- tence of God, the life to come, the re- cess. This is implied in his ½nal words ward of and the punishment of that “here on earth God’s work must vice, and the exclusion of religious intol- truly be our own.” What he means here erance. All other religious opinions are is, I think, more clearly spelled out in outside the cognizance of the state and a previous paragraph, the wording of may be freely held by citizens. While the which, incidentally, has a distinctly bib- phrase civil religion was not used, to the lical ring: best of my knowledge, by the founding Now the trumpet summons us again– fathers, and I am certainly not arguing not as a call to bear arms, though arms for the particular influence of Rousseau, we need–not as a call to battle, though it is clear that similar ideas, as part of the embattled we are–but a call to bear the cultural climate of the late eighteenth burden of a long twilight struggle, year in century, were to be found among the and year out, “rejoicing in hope, patient in Americans. For example, Franklin writes tribulation”–a struggle against the com- in his autobiography: mon enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, I never was without some religious prin- disease and war itself. ciples. I never doubted, for instance, the The whole address can be understood existence of the ; that he made the as only the most recent statement of a world and govern’d it by his Providence; theme that lies very deep in the Ameri- that the most acceptable service of God

Dædalus Fall 2005 43 Robert N. was the doing of good to men; that our played a constitutive role in the thought Bellah souls are immortal; and that all crime will of the early American statesmen. be punished, and virtue rewarded either Kennedy’s inaugural pointed to the here or hereafter. These I esteemed the religious aspect of the Declaration of essentials of every religion; and, being Independence, and it might be well to to be found in all the we had in look at that document a bit more close- our country, I respected them all, tho’ ly. There are four references to God. The with different degrees of respect, as I ½rst speaks of the “Laws of Nature and found them more or less mix’d with oth- of Nature’s God” which entitle any peo- er articles, which, without any tendency ple to be independent. The second is Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 to inspire, promote or con½rm morality, the famous statement that all men “are serv’d principally to divide us, and make endowed by their Creator with certain us unfriendly to one another. inalienable Rights.” Here Jefferson is locating the fundamental legitimacy of It is easy to dispose of this sort of posi- the new in a conception of “high- tion as essentially utilitarian in relation er law” that is itself based on both clas- to religion. In Washington’s Farewell sical natural law and biblical religion. Address (though the words may be The third is an appeal to “the Supreme Hamilton’s) the utilitarian aspect is Judge of the world for the rectitude of quite explicit: our intentions,” and the last indicates Of all the dispositions and habits which “a ½rm reliance on the protection of lead to political prosperity, Religion and divine Providence.” In these last two Morality are indispensable supports. In references, a biblical God of history vain would that man claim the tribute of who stands in judgment over the world , who should labour to subvert is indicated. these great Pillars of human happiness, The intimate relation of these reli- these ½rmest props of the duties of men gious notions with the self-conception and citizens. The mere politician, equally of the new republic is indicated by the with the pious man ought to respect and frequency of their appearance in early cherish them. A volume could not trace all of½cial documents. For example, we ½nd their connections with private and public in Washington’s ½rst inaugural address felicity. Let it simply be asked where is the of April 30, 1789: security for property, for reputation, for It would be peculiarly improper to omit life, if the sense of religious obligation des- in this ½rst of½cial act my fervent suppli- ert the oaths, which are the instruments cations to that Almighty Being who rules of investigation in the Courts of justice? over the universe, who presides in the And let us with caution indulge the sup- councils of , and whose providen- position, that morality can be maintained tial aids can supply every defect, that His without religion. Whatever may be con- benediction may consecrate to the liber- ceded to the influence of re½ned educa- ties and happiness of the people of the tion on minds of peculiar structure, rea- a Government instituted son and experience both forbid us to ex- by themselves for these essential purpos- pect that National morality can prevail in es, and may enable every instrument em- exclusion of religious principle. ployed in its administration to execute But there is every reason to believe that with success the functions allotted to his religion, particularly the idea of God, charge.

44 Dædalus Fall 2005 No people can be bound to acknowledge the civil religion is not only rather “uni- Civil religion in and adore the Invisible Hand which con- tarian”; he is also on the austere side, America ducts the affairs of man more than those much more related to order, law, and of the United States. Every step by which right than to salvation and love. Even we have advanced to the character of an though he is somewhat deist in cast, independent nation seems to have been he is by no means simply a watchmak- distinguished by some token of providen- er God. He is actively interested and in- tial agency . . . . volved in history, with a special concern The propitious smiles of Heaven can for America. Here the analogy has much never be expected on a nation that disre- less to do with natural law than with Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 gards the eternal rules of order and right ancient Israel; the equation of America which Heaven itself has ordained . . . . The with Israel in the idea of the “American preservation of the sacred ½re of liberty Israel” is not infrequent.4 What was im- and the destiny of the republican model plicit in the words of Washington al- of government are justly considered, per- ready quoted becomes explicit in Jeffer- haps, as deeply, as ½nally, staked on the ex- son’s second inaugural when he said, “I periment entrusted to the hands of the shall need, too, the favor of that Being American people.

Nor did these religious sentiments re- “that Almighty Being who rules the universe,” main merely the personal expression “Great Author of every public and private of the president. At the request of both good,” “Invisible Hand,” and “benign Parent houses of Congress, Washington pro- of the Human Race.” refers to God as “Providence,” “Being who is supreme claimed on October 3 of that same ½rst over all,” “Patron of Order,” “Fountain of Jus- year as president that November 26 tice,” and “Protector in all ages of the world should be “a day of public thanksgiving of virtuous liberty.” Jefferson speaks of “that and prayer,” the ½rst Thanksgiving Day In½nite Power which rules the destinies of the under the Constitution. universe,” and “that Being in whose hands we are.” Madison speaks of “that Almighty Being The words and acts of the founding whose power regulates the destiny of nations,” fathers, especially the ½rst few presi- and “Heaven.” Monroe uses “Providence” and dents, shaped the form and tone of the “the Almighty” in his ½rst inaugural and ½nal- civil religion as it has been maintained ly “Almighty God” in his second. See Inaugu- ever since. Though much is selectively ral Addresses of the Presidents of the United States from 1789 to Harry S. Truman derived from Christianity, this religion 1949, 82d Congress, 2d Session, House Docu- is clearly not itself Christianity. For one ment No. 540, 1952. thing, neither Washington nor Adams nor Jefferson mentions Christ in his in- 4 For example, Abiel Abbot, pastor of the First augural address; nor do any of the sub- Church in Haverhill, Massachusetts, delivered sequent presidents, although not one of a Thanksgiving sermon in 1799, Traits of Resem- 3 blance in the People of the United States of America them fails to mention God. The God of to Ancient Israel, in which he said, “It has been often remarked that the people of the United 3 God is mentioned or referred to in all inaugu- States come nearer to a parallel with Ancient ral addresses but Washington’s second, which Israel, than any other nation upon the globe. is a very brief (two paragraphs) and perfuncto- Hence our american israel is a term fre- ry acknowledgment. It is not without interest quently used; and common consent allows it that the actual word God does not appear until apt and proper.” Cited in Hans Kohn, The Idea Monroe’s second inaugural, March 5, 1821. In of (New York: Macmillian his ½rst inaugural, Washington refers to God as Publishing Co., 1961), 665.

Dædalus Fall 2005 45 Robert N. in whose hands we are, who led our fa- tarian nor in any speci½c sense Christ- Bellah thers, as Israel of old, from their native ian. At a time when the society was over- land and planted them in a country whelmingly Christian, it seems unlike- flowing with all the necessaries and ly that this lack of Christian reference comforts of life.” Europe is Egypt; was meant to spare the feelings of the America, the promised land. God has tiny non-Christian minority. Rather, led his people to establish a new sort of the civil religion expressed what those social order that shall be a light unto all who set the precedents felt was appro- the nations.5 priate under the circumstances. It re- This theme, too, has been a continu- flected their private as well as public ous one in the civil religion. We have al- views. Nor was the civil religion sim- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 ready alluded to it in the case of the Ken- ply “religion in general.” While gener- nedy inaugural. We ½nd it again in Presi- ality was undoubtedly seen as a virtue dent Johnson’s inaugural address: by some, as in the quotation from Frank- lin above, the civil religion was speci½c They came here–the exile and the strang- enough when it came to the topic of er, brave but frightened–to ½nd a place America. Precisely because of this spec- where a man could be his own man. They i½city, the civil religion was saved from made a covenant with this land. Con- empty formalism and served as a gen- ceived in justice, written in liberty, bound uine vehicle of national religious self- in union, it was meant one day to inspire understanding. the hopes of all mankind; and it binds us But the civil religion was not, in the still. If we keep its terms, we shall flourish. minds of Franklin, Washington, Jeffer- What we have, then, from the earliest son, or other leaders, with the exception years of the republic is a collection of be- of a few radicals like Tom Paine, ever felt liefs, symbols, and rituals with respect to to be a substitute for Christianity. There sacred things and institutionalized in a was an implicit but quite clear division collectivity. This religion–there seems of function between the civil religion no other word for it–while not antithet- and Christianity. Under the doctrine of ical to and indeed sharing much in com- religious liberty, an exceptionally wide mon with Christianity, was neither sec- sphere of personal piety and voluntary social action was left to the churches. But the churches were neither to control 5 That the Mosaic analogy was present in the the state nor to be controlled by it. The minds of leaders at the very moment of the birth of the republic is indicated in the designs national magistrate, whatever his private proposed by Franklin and Jefferson for a seal religious views, operates under the ru- of the United States of America. Together with brics of the civil religion as long as he Adams, they formed a committee of three dele- is in his of½cial capacity, as we have al- gated by the Continental Congress on July 4, ready seen in the case of Kennedy. This 1776, to draw up the new device. “Franklin pro- posed as the device Moses lifting up his wand accommodation was undoubtedly the and dividing the Red Sea while Pharaoh was product of a particular historical mo- overwhelmed by its waters, with the motto ‘Re- ment and of a cultural background dom- bellion to tyrants is obedience to God.’ Jeffer- inated by of several vari- son proposed the children of Israel in the wil- eties and by the Enlightenment, but it derness ‘led by a cloud by day and a pillar of ½re at night.’” Anson Phelps Stokes, Church has survived despite subsequent changes and State in the United States, vol. 1 (New York: in the cultural and religious climate. Harper, 1950), 467–468.

46 Dædalus Fall 2005 ntil the Civil War, the American civil politically, that did not spring from the Civil U religion in religion focused above all on the event of sentiments embodied in the Declaration America the Revolution, which was seen as the ½- of Independence.7 nal act of the Exodus from the old lands The phrases of Jefferson constantly echo across the waters. The Declaration of in Lincoln’s speeches. His task was, ½rst Independence and the Constitution were of all, to save the Union–not for Amer- the sacred scriptures and Washington ica alone but for the meaning of Ameri- the divinely appointed Moses who led ca to the whole world so unforgettably his people out of the hands of tyranny. etched in the last phrase of the Gettys- The Civil War, which Sidney Mead calls burg Address. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 “the center of American history,”6 was But inevitably the issue of slavery as the second great event that involved the the deeper cause of the conflict had to be national self-understanding so deeply faced. In the second inaugural, Lincoln as to require expression in the civil reli- related slavery and the war in an ulti- gion. In 1835, Tocqueville wrote that the mate perspective: American republic had never really been tried, that victory in the Revolutionary If we shall suppose that American slav- War was more the result of British pre- ery is one of those offenses which, in the occupation elsewhere and the presence providence of God, must needs come, but of a powerful ally than of any great mil- which, having continued through His ap- itary success of the Americans. But in pointed time, He now wills to remove, and 1861 the time of testing had indeed that He gives both to the North and South come. Not only did the Civil War have this terrible war as the woe due to those by the tragic intensity of fratricidal strife, whom the offense came, shall we discern but it was one of the bloodiest wars of therein any departure from those divine the nineteenth century; the loss of life attributes which the believers in a living was far greater than any previously suf- God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do fered by Americans. we hope, fervently do we pray, that this The Civil War raised the deepest ques- mighty scourge of war may speedily pass tions of national meaning. The man who away. Yet, if God wills that it continue un- not only formulated but in his own per- til all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s son embodied its meaning for Ameri- two hundred and ½fty years of unrequited cans was . For him the toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of issue was not in the ½rst instance slavery blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by but “whether that nation, or any nation another drawn with the sword, as was said so conceived, and so dedicated, can long three thousand years ago, so still it must endure.” He had said in Independence be said “the judgements of the Lord are Hall in Philadelphia on February 22, true and righteous altogether.” 1861: But he closes on a note if not of redemp- All the political sentiments I entertain tion then of reconciliation–“With mal- have been drawn, so far as I have been able ice toward none, with charity for all.” to draw them, from the sentiments which With the Civil War, a new theme of originated in and were given to the world death, sacri½ce, and rebirth enters the from this Hall. I have never had a feeling, 7 Quoted by Arthur Lehman Goodhart in Allan 6 Sidney Mead, The Lively Experiment (New Nevins, ed., Lincoln and the York: Harper & Row, 1963), 12. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1964), 39.

Dædalus Fall 2005 47 Robert N. civil religion. It is symbolized in the life to try Abraham and to purify him for his Bellah and death of Lincoln. Nowhere is it stat- purposes. This made Mr. Lincoln humble, ed more vividly than in the Gettysburg tender, forbearing, sympathetic to suffer- Address, itself part of the Lincolnian ing, kind, sensitive, tolerant; broadening, “New Testament” among the civil scrip- deepening and widening his whole na- tures. Robert Lowell has recently point- ture; making him the noblest and loveli- ed out the “insistent use of birth im- est character since Jesus Christ . . . . I be- ages” in this speech explicitly devoted to lieve that Lincoln was God’s chosen one.9 “these honored dead”: “brought forth,” With the Christian archetype in the “conceived,” “created,” “a new birth of background, Lincoln, “our martyred Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 freedom.” He goes on to say: president,” was linked to the war dead, The Gettysburg Address is a symbolic and those who “gave the last full measure of sacramental act. Its verbal quality is reso- devotion.” The theme of sacri½ce was nance combined with a logical, matter of indelibly written into the civil religion. fact, prosaic brevity. . . . In his words, Lin- The new symbolism soon found both coln symbolically died, just as the Union physical and ritualistic expression. The soldiers really died–and as he himself was great number of the war dead required soon ready to die. By his words, he gave the establishment of a number of na- the ½eld of battle a symbolic signi½cance tional cemeteries. Of these, the Gettys- that it had lacked. For us and our country, burg National Cemetery, which Lin- he left Jefferson’s ideals of freedom and coln’s famous address served to dedi- equality joined to the Christian sacri½cial cate, has been overshadowed only by act of death and rebirth. I believe this is a the Arlington National Cemetery. Be- meaning that goes beyond sect or religion gun somewhat vindictively on the Lee and beyond peace and war, and is now estate across the river from Washing- part of our lives as a challenge, obstacle ton, partly with the end that the Lee and hope.8 family could never reclaim it,10 it has subsequently become the most hallowed Lowell is certainly right in pointing out of the civil religion. Not only the Christian quality of the symbolism was a section set aside for the Confeder- here, but he is also right in quickly dis- ate dead, but it has received the dead of avowing any sectarian implication. The each succeeding American war. It is the earlier symbolism of the civil religion site of the one important new symbol to had been Hebraic without being in any come out of World War I, the Tomb of speci½c sense Jewish. The Gettysburg the Unknown Soldier; more recently it symbolism (“ . . . those who here gave has become the site of the tomb of an- their lives, that that nation might live”) other martyred president and its sym- is Christian without having anything bolic eternal flame. to do with the Christian church. , which grew out of the The symbolic equation of Lincoln Civil War, gave ritual expression to the with Jesus was made relatively early. Herndon, who had been Lincoln’s law 9 Quoted in Sherwood Eddy, The Kingdom of partner, wrote: God and the American Dream (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1941), 162. For ½fty years God rolled Abraham Lin- coln through his ½ery furnace. He did it 10 Karl Decker and Angus McSween, Historic Arlington (Washington, D.C.: Decker and Mc- 8 Ibid., 88–89. Sween Publishing Co., 1892), 60–67.

48 Dædalus Fall 2005 themes we have been discussing. As calendar for the civil religion. The pub- Civil religion in Lloyd Warner has so brilliantly analyzed lic school system serves as a particularly America it, the Memorial Day observance, espe- important context for the cultic celebra- cially in the towns and smaller cities of tion of the civil rituals. America, is a major event for the whole community involving a rededication to In reifying and giving a name to some- the martyred dead, to the spirit of sacri- thing that, though pervasive enough ½ce, and to the American vision.11 Just when you look at it, has gone on only as Thanksgiving Day, which incidental- semiconsciously, there is risk of severe- ly was securely institutionalized as an ly distorting the data. But the rei½cation Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 annual national holiday only under the and the naming have already begun. The presidency of Lincoln, serves to inte- religious critics of “religion in general,” grate the family into the civil religion, so or of the “religion of the ‘American Way Memorial Day has acted to integrate the of Life,’” or of “American ” have local community into the national cult. really been talking about the civil reli- Together with the less overtly religious gion. As usual in religious polemic, they Fourth of July and the more minor cele- take as criteria the best in their own re- brations of and the birth- ligious tradition and as typical the worst days of Washington and Lincoln, these in the tradition of the civil religion. two holidays provide an annual ritual Against these critics, I would argue that the civil religion at its best is a genuine 11 How extensive the activity associated with apprehension of universal and transcen- Memorial Day can be is indicated by Warner: dent religious reality as seen in or, one “The sacred symbolic behavior of Memorial Day, in which scores of the town’s organiza- could almost say, as revealed through tions are involved, is ordinarily divided into the experience of the American people. four periods. During the year separate rituals Like all religions, it has suffered various are held by many of the associations for their deformations and demonic distortions. dead, and many of these activities are connect- At its best, it has neither been so gener- ed with later Memorial Day events. In the sec- ond phase, preparations are made during the al that it has lacked incisive relevance last three or four weeks for the ceremony it- to the American scene nor so particu- self, and some of the associations perform pub- lar that it has placed American society lic rituals. The third phase consists of scores of above universal human values. I am not rituals held in all the cemeteries, churches, and at all convinced that the leaders of the halls of the associations. These rituals consist of speeches and highly ritualized behavior. churches have consistently represented a They last for two days and are climaxed by the higher level of religious insight than the fourth and last phase, in which all the separate spokesmen of the civil religion. Rein- celebrants gather in the center of the business hold Niebuhr has this to say of Lincoln, district on the afternoon of Memorial Day. The who never joined a church and who cer- separate organizations, with their members in tainly represents civil religion at its best: uniform or with ½tting insignia, march through the town, visit the shrines and of An analysis of the religion of Abraham the hero dead, and, ½nally, enter the cemetery. Lincoln in the context of the traditional Here dozens of ceremonies are held, most of them highly symbolic and formalized.” During religion of his time and place and of its these various ceremonies Lincoln is continually polemical use on the slavery issue, which referred to and the Gettysburg Address recited corrupted religious life in the days before many times. W. Lloyd Warner, American Life and during the Civil War, must lead to the (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), conclusion that Lincoln’s religious convic- 8–9.

Dædalus Fall 2005 49 Robert N. tions were superior in depth and purity to It is certainly true that the relation be- Bellah those, not only of the political leaders of tween religion and in America his day, but of the religious leaders of the has been singularly smooth. This is in era.12 large part due to the dominant tradition. As Tocqueville wrote: Perhaps the real animus of the reli- gious critics has been not so much The greatest part of British America was against the civil religion in itself but peopled by men who, after having shaken against its pervasive and dominating off the authority of the Pope, acknowl- influence within the sphere of church edged no other religious supremacy: they

religion. As S. M. Lipset has recently brought with them into the New World a Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 shown, American religion at least since form of Christianity which I cannot bet- the early nineteenth century has been ter describe than by styling it a democrat- predominantly activist, moralistic, and ic and republican religion.16 social rather than contemplative, theo- The churches opposed neither the Rev- logical, or innerly spiritual.13 Tocque- olution nor the establishment of demo- ville spoke of American church religion cratic institutions. Even when some of as “a political which power- them opposed the full institutionaliza- fully contributes to the maintenance of tion of religious liberty, they accepted a democratic republic among the Amer- the ½nal outcome with good grace and icans”14 by supplying a strong moral without nostalgia for an ancien régime. consensus amidst continuous political The American civil religion was never change. Henry Bargy in 1902 spoke of anticlerical or militantly secular. On American church religion as “la poésie the contrary, it borrowed selectively du civisme.”15 from the religious tradition in such a 12 Reinhold Niebuhr, “The Religion of Abra- way that the average American saw no ham Lincoln,” in Nevins, Lincoln and the Gettys- conflict between the two. In this way, burg Address, 72. William J. Wolfe of the Epis- the civil religion was able to build up copal Theological School in Cambridge, Mas- without any bitter struggle with the sachusetts, has written: “Lincoln is one of the greatest theologians of America–not in the church powerful symbols of national technical meaning of producing a system of solidarity and to mobilize deep levels of doctrine, certainly not as the defender of some personal motivation for the attainment one denomination, but in the sense of seeing of national goals. the hand of God intimately in the affairs of na- Such an achievement is by no means tions. Just so the prophets of Israel criticized the events of their day from the perspective of to be taken for granted. It would seem the God who is concerned for history and who that the problem of a civil religion is reveals His will within it. Lincoln now stands quite general in modern societies and among God’s latter-day prophets.” The Religion of Abraham Lincoln (New York: n.p., 1963), 24. 16 Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 311. Later he says, “In the United States even the religion 13 , “Religion and of most of the citizens is republican, since it American Values,” in The First New Nation submits the truths of the other world to private (New York: Basic Books, 1963). judgment, as in politics the care of their tempo- ral interests is abandoned to the good sense of 14 , Democracy in America, the people. Thus every man is allowed freely to vol. I (New York: Vintage Books, 1954), 310. take that road which he thinks will lead him to heaven, just as the law permits every citizen to 15 Henry Bargy, La Religion dans la société aux have the right of choosing his own govern- Etats-Unis (: A. Colin, 1902), 31. ment” (436).

50 Dædalus Fall 2005 that the way it is solved or not solved God will not favor everything that we Civil religion in will have repercussions in many spheres. do. It is rather our duty to divine his will. America One needs only to think of France to I cannot help but believe that He truly un- see how differently things can go. The derstands and that He really favors the was anticlerical to undertaking that we begin here tonight.17 the core and attempted to set up an anti- The civil religion has not always been Christian civil religion. Throughout invoked in favor of worthy causes. On modern French history, the chasm be- the domestic scene, an American Legion tween traditional Catholic symbols type of ideology that fuses God, country, and the symbolism of 1789 has been and flag has been used to attack noncon- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 immense. formist and liberal ideas and groups of American civil religion is still very all kinds. Still, it has been dif½cult to use much alive. Just three years ago we par- the words of Jefferson and Lincoln to ticipated in a vivid reenactment of the support special interests and undermine sacri½ce theme in connection with the personal freedom. The defenders of slav- of our assassinated president. ery before the Civil War came to reject The American Israel theme is clearly be- the thinking of the Declaration of Inde- hind both Kennedy’s New Frontier and pendence. Some of the most consistent Johnson’s Great Society. Let me give just of them turned against not only Jeffer- one recent illustration of how the civil sonian democracy but Reformation reli- religion serves to mobilize support for gion; they dreamed of a South dominat- the attainment of national goals. On ed by medieval chivalry and divine-right March 15, 1965 President Johnson went monarchy.18 For all the overt religiosity before Congress to ask for a strong vot- of the radical right today, their relation ing-rights bill. Early in the speech he to the civil religious consensus is tenu- said: ous, as when the John Birch Society at- Rarely are we met with the challenge, not tacks the central American symbol of to our growth or abundance, or our wel- democracy itself. fare or our security–but rather to the val- With respect to America’s role in ues and the purposes and the meaning of the world, the dangers of distortion are our beloved nation. greater and the built-in safeguards of The issue of equal rights for American the tradition weaker. The theme of the Negroes is such an issue. And should we American Israel was used, almost from defeat every enemy, and should we double the beginning, as a justi½cation for the our wealth and conquer the stars and still shameful treatment of the Indians so be unequal to this issue, then we will have characteristic of our history. It can be failed as a people and as a nation. overtly or implicitly linked to the idea of For with a country as with a person, manifest destiny which has been used to “What is a man pro½ted, if he shall legitimate several adventures in imperi- gain the whole world, and lose his own alism since the early nineteenth century. soul?” And in conclusion he said: 17 House, U.S. Congressional Record, March 15, 1965, 4924, 4926. Above the pyramid on the great seal of the United States it says in Latin, “God has 18 See Louis Hartz, “The Feudal Dream of the favored our undertaking.” South,” in The Liberal Tradition in America (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1955).

Dædalus Fall 2005 51 Robert N. Never has the danger been greater than a central symbol in the civil religion Bellah today. The issue is not so much one of from the beginning and remains so to- imperial expansion, of which we are day. This symbol is just as central to the accused, as of the tendency to assimilate civil religion as it is to Judaism or Chris- all governments or parties in the world tianity. In the late eighteenth century which support our immediate policies this posed no problem; even Tom Paine, or call upon our help by invoking the no- contrary to his detractors, was not an tion of free institutions and democratic atheist. From left to right and regardless values. Those nations that are for the of church or sect, all could accept the moment “on our side” become “the free idea of God. But today, as even Time has Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 world.” A repressive and unstable mili- recognized, the meaning of the word tary dictatorship in South Vietnam be- God is by no means so clear or so obvi- comes “the free people of South Viet- ous. There is no formal creed in the civ- nam and their government.” It is then il religion. We have had a Catholic pres- part of the role of America as the New ident; it is conceivable that we could Jerusalem and “the last hope of earth” have a Jewish one. But could we have an to defend such governments with treas- agnostic president? Could a man with ure and eventually with blood. When conscientious scruples about using the our soldiers are actually dying, it be- word God the way Kennedy and Johnson comes possible to consecrate the strug- have used it be elected chief magistrate gle further by invoking the great theme of our country? If the whole God sym- of sacri½ce. For the majority of the bolism requires reformulation, there American people who are unable to will be obvious consequences for the judge whether the people in South Viet- civil religion, consequences perhaps of nam (or wherever) are “free like us,” liberal alienation and of fundamentalist such arguments are convincing. Fortu- ossi½cation that have not so far been nately, President Johnson has been less prominent in this realm. The civil reli- ready to assert that “God has favored gion has been a point of articulation be- our undertakings” in the case of Viet- tween the profoundest commitments of nam than with respect to civil rights. the Western religious and philosophical But others are not so hesitant. The civ- tradition and the common beliefs of or- il religion has exercised long-term pres- dinary Americans. It is not too soon to sure for the humane solution of our consider how the deepening theological greatest domestic problem, the treat- crisis may affect the future of this articu- ment of the Negro American. It remains lation. to be seen how relevant it can become for our role in the world at large, and In conclusion it may be worthwhile to whether we can effectually stand for relate the civil religion to the most seri- “the revolutionary beliefs for which our ous situation that we as Americans now forebears fought,” in John F. Kennedy’s face, what I call the third time of trial. words. The ½rst time of trial had to do with the The civil religion is obviously involved question of independence, whether we in the most pressing moral and political should or could run our own affairs in issues of the day. But it is also caught in our own way. The second time of trial another kind of crisis, theoretical and was over the issue of slavery, which in theological, of which it is at the moment turn was only the most salient aspect of largely unaware. “God” has clearly been the more general problem of the full in-

52 Dædalus Fall 2005 stitutionalization of democracy within complex and multiple sources. For Ken- Civil religion in our country. This second problem we nedy, it was not so much a struggle America are still far from solving though we have against particular men as against “the some notable successes to our credit. But common enemies of man: tyranny, pov- we have been overtaken by a third great erty, disease and war itself.” problem which has led to a third great But in the midst of this trend toward crisis, in the midst of which we stand. a less primitive conception of ourselves This is the problem of responsible action and our world, we have somehow, with- in a revolutionary world, a world seeking out anyone really intending it, stumbled to attain many of the things, material into a military confrontation where we Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 and spiritual, that we have already at- have come to feel that our honor is at tained. Americans have, from the begin- stake. We have in a moment of uncer- ning, been aware of the responsibility tainty been tempted to rely on our over- and the signi½cance our republican ex- whelming physical power rather than periment has for the whole world. The on our intelligence, and we have, in part, ½rst internal political polarization in the succumbed to this temptation. Bewil- new nation had to do with our attitude dered and unnerved when our terrible toward the French Revolution. But we power fails to bring immediate success, were small and weak then, and “foreign we are at the edge of a chasm the depth entanglements” seemed to threaten our of which no man knows. very survival. During the last century, I cannot help but think of Robinson our relevance for the world was not for- Jeffers, whose poetry seems more apt gotten, but our role was seen as purely now than when it was written, when exemplary. Our democratic republic re- he said: buked tyranny by merely existing. Just Unhappy country, what wings you after World War I we were on the brink have! . . . of taking a different role in the world, Weep (it is frequent in human affairs), but once again we turned our back. weep for the terrible magni½cence of Since World War II the old pattern the means, has become impossible. Every president The ridiculous incompetence of the since Roosevelt has been groping toward reasons, the bloody and shabby a new pattern of action in the world, one Pathos of the result. that would be consonant with our pow- er and our responsibilities. For Truman But as so often before in similar times, and for the period dominated by John we have a man of prophetic stature, Foster Dulles that pattern was seen to be without the bitterness or misanthropy the great Manichaean confrontation of of Jeffers, who, as Lincoln before him, East and West, the confrontation of de- calls this nation to its judgment: mocracy and “the false philosophy of When a nation is very powerful but lack- communism” that provided the struc- ing in self-con½dence, it is likely to behave ture of Truman’s inaugural address. But in a manner that is dangerous both to it- with the last years of Eisenhower and self and to others. with the successive two presidents, the Gradually but unmistakably, America pattern began to shift. The great prob- is succumbing to that arrogance of power lems came to be seen as caused not sole- which has afflicted weakened and in some ly by the evil intent of any one group of cases destroyed great nations in the past. men, but as stemming from much more

Dædalus Fall 2005 53 Robert N. If the war goes on and expands, if that jor symbols of the American civil reli- Bellah fatal process continues to accelerate until gion. There seems little doubt that a suc- America becomes what it is not now and cessful negotiation of this third time of never has been, a seeker after unlimited trial–the attainment of some kind of power and empire, then Vietnam will viable and coherent world order–would have had a mighty and tragic fallout precipitate a major new set of symbolic indeed. forms. So far the flickering flame of the I do not believe that will happen. I am United Nations burns too low to be the very apprehensive but I still remain hope- focus of a cult, but the emergence of a ful, and even con½dent, that America, genuine transnational sovereignty Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 with its humane and democratic tradi- would certainly change this. It would tions, will ½nd the wisdom to match its necessitate the incorporation of vital power.19 international symbolism into our civil religion, or, perhaps a better way of put- Without an awareness that our nation ting it, it would result in American civil stands under higher judgment, the tradi- religion becoming simply one part of a tion of the civil religion would be dan- new civil religion of the world. It is use- gerous indeed. Fortunately, the prophet- less to speculate on the form such a civ- ic voices have never been lacking. Our il religion might take, though it obvious- present situation brings to mind the ly would draw on religious traditions Mexican-American war that Lincoln, beyond the sphere of biblical religion among so many others, opposed. The alone. Fortunately, since the American spirit of civil disobedience that is alive civil religion is not the worship of the today in the and American nation but an understanding the opposition to the Vietnam war was of the American experience in the light already clearly outlined by Henry David of ultimate and universal reality, the re- Thoreau when he wrote, “If the law is organization entailed by such a new situ- of such a nature that it requires you to ation need not disrupt the American civ- be an agent of injustice to another, then il religion’s continuity. A world civil reli- I say, break the law.” Thoreau’s words gion could be accepted as a ful½llment “I would remind my countrymen that and not a denial of American civil reli- they are men ½rst, and Americans at a gion. Indeed, such an outcome has been late and convenient hour”20 provide the eschatological hope of American civ- an essential standard for any adequate il religion from the beginning. To deny thought and action in our third time of such an outcome would be to deny the trial. As Americans, we have been well meaning of America itself. favored in the world, but it is as men that we will be judged. Out of the ½rst and second times of Behind the civil religion at every point trial have come, as we have seen, the ma- lie biblical archetypes: Exodus, Chosen People, Promised Land, New Jerusalem, 19 Speech of Senator J. William Fulbright of Sacri½cial Death and Rebirth. But it is April 28, 1966, as reported in The New York also genuinely American and genuinely Times, April 29, 1966. new. It has its own prophets and its own martyrs, its own sacred events and sa- 20 Quoted in Yehoshua Arieli, and Nationalism in American Ideology (Cam- cred places, its own solemn rituals and bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, symbols. It is concerned that America 1964), 274. be a society as perfectly in accord with

54 Dædalus Fall 2005 the will of God as men can make it, and a Civil religion in light to all the nations. America It has often been used and is being used today as a cloak for petty interests and ugly passions. It is in need–as is any living faith–of continual reformation, of being measured by universal stan- dards. But it is not evident that it is in- capable of growth and new insight. It does not make any decision for us. It Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/134/4/40/1828995/001152605774431464.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 does not remove us from moral ambigui- ty, from being, in Lincoln’s ½ne phrase, an “almost chosen people.” But it is a heritage of moral and religious experi- ence from which we still have much to learn as we formulate the decisions that lie ahead.

Dædalus Fall 2005 55