Rhetorical Analysis Of Robert Bellahs Civil Religion Essay example

Although broad in nature, religion is complex and mysterious, yet pure. Simply put, religion represents supernatural beliefs, where traditions and ideologies vary greatly. However, religion is greater than that of a belief, but rather a way of life. According to Mary Fisher, author of Living Religions, religion is something of a sacred reality, serving as a significance and lifestyle for millions of people around the world (2). Nonetheless, figures such as E.B. Taylor, J.G. Frazer, Sigmund Freud, Émilie Durkheim, and Karl Marx have analyzed the mystery of faith, bringing new meaning and definition to the subject.

America succeeds through common religious beliefs of citizens. In Lincoln’s second inaugural address, he states that the majority of American citizens “pray to the same God”

Religion plays a major role in the day to day lives of the early settlers in America. So much so, that early colonial writers use it as a form of literary persuasion. John Smith and William Bradford were two such writers.

The act of defining religion has been a contentious issue in a wide variety of situations, particularly in the United States. The US is a nation that prides itself on religious inclusivity and freedom. There are consequences to this belief and tenant. Through the social, legal and moral structures of the United States, defining religion has become imperative. In The Impossibility of Religious Freedom, Winifred Sullivan outlines the legal implications of defining religion in the United States. In order for religious freedom to be protected by the American state, religion must be clearly defined. As a result, religious theory must be used to maintain some semblance of religious freedom in the United States. Likewise, Josh Dubler’s Down in

In this is paper I’m going to tell you about the religious freedom we have in America and how it’s uniquely American. There are many reason we have religious freedom in America, One being that it’s a law. I’m going to tell who wrote the bill of rights that made religious freedom a law and why they wrote it. I’ll tell you about the people who fight in war just to make sure we have this freedom among other freedoms. I’ll talk about how America is one place where we have a choose an say in our religion. I’m going to tell about the religions you can choose to be for example Christian.

Eastman, Roger (1999). The Ways of Religion An Introduction to the Major Traditions, 3rd edition. New York, Oxford University Press. Print

Many people tend to not fathom how religion plays such a powerful role within our world today. It even played a powerful role in the beginning of the United State hundreds of years ago when it was founded. Religion intertwined in the social development in America since the very beginning. We see religion animatedly in World War II, when many religious leaders risked their own lives to fight in a war that hurt so many people. In the book “The Religious History of America” by Edwin Gaustad and Leigh Schmidt, it is publicized that even two decades after the war, religion helped with sparking one of the most influential parts of America’s history. The Civil Rights Movement.

There exists a long held belief that the United States of America was founded on the principles and doctrinal views of Protestantism. Modern age Christians have scoured historical documents in an effort to provide evidence for a Judeo-Christian foundation in the nation’s republican framework. Likewise, their opponents have written lengthy dissertations and argued over various media outlets that Christian conclusions are unfounded. Yet despite their endless debate, religion, especially Christianity, has and continues to play a fundamental element of America’s cultural, societal, and political makeup. The Second Great Awakening, the religious revivalist movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, ignited not only a

Professor Diana Eck in Chapter One of “Introduction to a New America” highlights the emerging new religious climate in the United States. The United States has always been a country of many religious traditions due to the Constitutional right of Freedom of Religion. But since the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act, signed by President Johnson, America’s borders have seen a tremendous influx of individuals from around the world. There are one million new immigrants to the U. S. each year which has led the United States to become the most religiously diverse nation on earth. The percentage of foreign born Americans is now 10.4 percent, which is more than double what it was in 1970.

The phrase civil religion is derived from Bellah’s research shows that a majority of Americans embrace the fundamental

Furthermore, we can explore how different societies influence religion and utilize it to propagate their agendas while justifying their actions to still fit the core tenants of their religion.

To sum up, American civil religion was never secular, on the contrary, it borrowed particularly from the religious traditions in such a way that the average American saw no conflict between church and state. In this way, civil religion was able to build up without any anger conflict with the church’s powerful signs of national solidarity, and to mobilize deep levels of personal stimulation for the achievement of national goals. Civil religion describes ‘America’ as standing like a medium, or middle term, between ‘God’ and the American citizens. American civil religion, hence, is clearly involves in the most political issues of the day, and it appears via Presidential rhetoric speeches in many national events. We can further say that,

To develop this point, we first explore further the symbols that Bellah used in explaining civil religion. For instance, ‘God’ is undoubtedly the most central of these symbols in civil religion from the time of origin to the present day. In fact, Bellah noted that civil religion has a ‘God image’. It is in reality an empty category and it depends on the images of ‘God’ are generated by the traditional faiths, or the particularistic religious of the United States. In other words, Bellah pointed out that all American Presidents typically mentioned ‘God’ in their speeches and inaugurals, though no one of them alluded ‘Christ’ (except for George W. Bush). This civic notion of ‘God’ is more actively involved in human history and affairs. Therefore,

Professor Garnett argues that the approach of freedom for religion “best represents the American experiment in ‘healthy

Religion is the name given to a “relationship with God, and different groups of people have different Gods and belief systems” (Terhart & Schulze, 2008). Today there are 313 religions and denominations in the United States; from monotheists who believe in one God, to polytheists who believe in many Gods, to others who believe in no God, or a God as represented by animal spirits, alien groups, or psychoactive substances (ProCon.org, 2008). Christianity was the first religion that was brought to the world by European settlers and it became dominant religion of the United States throughout its history. Although Puritan practices was accepted under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, both James I and Charles I believed that their authority had