CHAPTER 11: The Public, the Civil, &

the Culture of the Center

• public Protestantism

• civil religion

• cultural religion

History of Public Protestantism

• Puritan foundationso 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

• revivalismo 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 actionso visiting national sites

o celebrating national holidays

Civil Religion to the Present

• decline of civil religion’s power

• scholarly interesto 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 evilo evil will be punished

• millennial themes

• individualism

American Codes of Living

• sportso contesting forceso teamworko hard work & sacrifice

• technologyo machine as modelo efficiencyo standardization

More American Codes of Living

• popular psychologyo human potential movemento happiness & creativityo self-help literature

• natureo symbol of purityo spontaneity & freedom

OVERVIEW of the “One Religion”

• Public Protestantismo equality, liberty, denominations & voluntaryism,

activism, moralism, simplicity, millennialism

• Civil Religiono nationalism, patriotism

• Cultural Religiono sports, technology, psychology, nature