chapter 11: the public, the civil, & the culture of the center public protestantism civil...
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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
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