CHAPTER 11:
The Public, the Civil, &
the Culture of the Center
• public Protestantism
• civil religion
• cultural religion
History of Public Protestantism
• Puritan foundations
o New England textbooks
o early American leaders
o legal privileges
o ethic of progress
& efficiency
The Protestant Code
• religious liberty
• democratic equality
• denominationalism
• voluntaryism
• activism
The Protestant
Code
• reductionism
• nonintellectualism
• ahistoricism
• moralism
Protestant Cultus
• revivalism
o sacred space & time
o hymns & sermons
o prayers & testimonies
o active search for conversion
Protestant Creed
• individualism
• higher law
• millennialism
• perfectionism
Models for Civil Religion
• Hebrew
o nation bound by unity
• Roman
o empire built on manyness
History of Civil Religion
• New England Puritanism
• Revolutionary War
• Constitution
• “manifest destiny”
Structure of Civil Religion
• creed of chosenness & millennialism
• code of civil action
• cultus of patriotic actions
o visiting national sites
o celebrating national holidays
Civil Religion to the Present
• decline of civil religion’s power
• scholarly interest
o Robert Bellah’s “Civil Religion”
o Sidney Mead’s “Religion of the Republic”
o Will Herberg’s “American Way of Life”
Cultural Religion –
American Ritual Calendar
• Halloween
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas
• New Years Day
• Valentine’s Day
Cultural Religion –
American Sacred Stories
• television, film, literature
• common pattern:
o good will defeat evil
o evil will be punished
• millennial themes
• individualism
American Codes of Living
• sports
o contesting forces
o teamwork
o hard work & sacrifice
• technology
o machine as model
o efficiency
o standardization
More American Codes of Living
• popular psychology
o human potential movement
o happiness & creativity
o self-help literature
• nature
o symbol of purity
o spontaneity & freedom
OVERVIEW of the “One Religion”
• Public Protestantism
o equality, liberty, denominations & voluntaryism,
activism, moralism, simplicity, millennialism
• Civil Religion
o nationalism, patriotism
• Cultural Religion
o sports, technology, psychology, nature