Abstract
Civil or political religion is the subject of this essay. As to the question, what is civil religion, perhaps an example rather than a definition will bring us closer to the heart of the matter. Re ligion in America became civil religion some time before the Revolution, when the multiplicity of religious sects became more concerned with teaching men to conduct themselves in this world in a decent and orderly fashion than in preparing them for a world to come. Alexis de Tocqueville noted this transformation of the otherworldly character of traditional Christianity into civil religion in his Democracy in America; there he observes that the Americans regularly speak of the necessity of belief, but almost always in terms of its utility as opposed to its truth. Tocqueville speaks of religion in America under the subtitle: Religion Considered as a Political Institution and How It Powerfully Contributes to the Maintenance of a Democratic Re public Among the Americans.
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