Civil Religion Today: Religion and the American Nation in the Twenty-First Century. Edited by Rhys H. Williams, Raymond Haberski, Jr., and Philip Goff

Abstract

More than fifty years after Robert Bellah’s “Civil Religion in America” made its appearance in the 1967 Winter issue of Daedalus, co-editors Rhys H. Williams, Raymond Haberski, Jr., and Philip Goff, introduce a prominent and multidisciplinary cadre of scholars in Civil Religion Today, to consider the term, “American civil religion (ACR),” and its usefulness for binding Americans together as we contend with new and different sets of structural, cultural, and social clefts happening in the United States. Thinking critically and conceptually about civil religion, contributors make bold moves “beyond Bellah,” capturing “changes in religion [and] American politics” and showing the extent to which civil religion can be expressed “ideologically” and/or “culturally” (pp. 9–10). More than one essay fits into both categories, while also highlighting the analytical and prescriptive nature of Bellah’s concept of civil religion. In the volume’s first section, Philip Gorski’s essay exemplifies both ideological and cultural ways of thinking about civil religion. Gorski draws upon his seminal work, American Covenant, distinguishing civil religion from the other two political and theological traditions—religious nationalism and radical secularism. He writes about a “cultural” civil religious tradition as “a shared language for articulating our common dreams” while simultaneously an “ideological” tradition that “rearticulat[es] the founding traditions more universally” (pp. 19, 23). Mark Silk’s informative read on religion’s role in the infancy of the United States showcases religion’s role as one of “civic utility,” and Rosemary R. Corbett’s essay complexifies the tradition by pointing to the influence of Catholic social thought and commitment to the common good via sacrifice (beyond military) and community service.