The Civil Religious Dimension: Is It There?

Abstract

This study seeks the empirically elusive dimension of civil religion which has been suggested by Bellah and others. It is done against the backdrop of previously established orientations to church religion. Items designed for both civil and church religious dimensions are factor analyzed and obliquely rotated. In contrast to previously unsuccessful efforts with less direct techniques, civil religion clearly emerges as a distinct factor, separate from other types of religious commitment dimensions. While civil religion correlates positively with religious experience, belief, and behavior, it distinguishes itself from the church religious dimensions in a pair of positively related, higher order factors. Investigating the social meaning of religion entails a thorough examination of the varieties of religious experience. Two approaches to Americans' religious orientations have stimulated both research and controversy. The first approach inquires into the dimensionality of church religion while the other investigates the separation of civil and church religion. Dimensions of religion have been studied often since work by Lenski and by Glock. Despite the title of Lenski's study, The Religious Factor, he conceptualizes and empirically distinguishes four religious factors or dimensions. Glock (a, b) conceptualized five ways in which persons may be religious. Research by Clayton, Faulkner and DeJong, Fukuyama, Glock et al., King, King and Hunt (a, b) and Stark and Glock demonstrates the distinctiveness and utility of such dimensions. Some of the most common are belief, behavior, and experience. Since Bellah's seminal article, the concept of civil religion has also received much attention (Cherry; Cole and Hammond; Coleman; Cutler; Demerath; Neuhaus; Stauffer; Wilson). However, only a few empirical investigations (Lipsey and Clelland; Thomas and Flippen) have been done on civil religion. Considering the paucity of civil religious research and the wealth of research on orientations to church religion, this study will try to establish, empirically, the concept of civil religion and to examine it within the context of several previously established facets of religiosity. The idea of civil or civic religion, which can be traced at least as far back as Rousseau, remained present but submerged in the sociological mainstream in the works of Comte and Durkheim (Wallace) and gradually surfaced in the work of Shils and Young, Warner, Yinger, and Hammond. Finally, this theme emerged as a