Here is your essay on the practice of civil religion in Ancient Greek, Roman Cities and America.
America:
Civil Religion, a term popularized by sociologist Robert Bellah, is used to describe the relationship between religion and national identity in the United States. The basic theory maintains that an informal civil religion binds the American people to God.
This civil religion fosters national covenantalism— an ideal of unity and mission similar to that associated with more traditional faiths, which imbues American thought and culture with a sense of divine favor intrinsically tied to American political and social institutions and mores.
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According to the theology of this faith, God has chosen the American people for a unique mission in the world, having called the nation into being through divine providence during colonization and the American Revolution, and having tested its fortitude in the Civil War. Ultimately, according to the tenets of civil religion, God will ensure the spread of American values throughout the world.
Scholars who use the term “civil religion” understand the phenomenon to be the result of the partial secularization of major themes in American religious history. The concept has its roots in the Puritan conception of the Redeemer Nation, which was based on the theology of election and claimed that New England—and, later, American—society would carry out biblical, prophecy and set a godly example for humanity.
During the Revolutionary War some clergy built upon this idea in their sermons by claiming that patriot forces and political leaders alike endeavored to bring about a divinely ordained republic. These religious themes increasingly appeared in political forums, particularly in religious pronouncements of presidents and governors, public rituals—such as those associated with Memorial Day and Independence Day—and popular hymns and patriotic songs.
At the same time, the political strands of civil religion emerged in the postmillennial rhetoric of nineteenth century evangelical movements and social reform efforts. Civil religion was particularly important in shaping perceptions of the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address (4 March 1865), for example, illustrates both the strengths and weaknesses of the civil faith.
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Un-like other speakers of the time, Lincoln did not simply assume that God is with the Union but interpreted the war itself as a punishment on both sides for their part in the slave system. In other instances, partisans in the war used religious evidence to support their views.
The “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” for instance, identifies the will of God with the Civil War aims of the Union army. Similarly, Confederates and Unionists alike used biblical passages to support their views regarding war, slavery, and the condition of the polity.
The civil religion of the United States is not merely religious nationalism. In its theology and rituals, it stresses the importance of freedom, democracy, and basic honesty in public affairs. At its best, it has given the nation a vision of what it may strive to achieve and has contributed to the realization of significant social goals. At its worst, it has been used as a propaganda tool to manipulate public opinion for or against a certain policy or group.
Civil Religion in the Ancient Greek and Roman Cities:
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During the history of human societies, the explicit forms of gods of archaic Religion had emerged on account of certain circumstances. and religious understandings.
In both the Greek City-States, as well as, Roman City-States. Religious practices were held in the family first, thereafter in the city government. Each family of citizens belonging to these city-states had their own sacred fires and appropriate Rituals to propitiate their gods, maintain, use honour and renew this sacred fire.
However, there were two classes:
(i) The Class of patricians:
The class of patricians i.e. those who were the lords and masters of the land were considered the rightful citizens of the city- state. Only they had the right to participate in this civil Religion.
(ii) The Class of Plebians:
The classes of plebians or the serfs were not considered citizens and as such could not participate in the Ritual activity of propitiating their family Gods.
The plebians shared the religious ceremonies only, in case, they came under the protection of a patrician family in a client relationship, with the patrician family being the patrons. The most characteristic feature of archaic Religions was the presence of the strong two-class system. It was found amongst the Greek as well as later among the Roman city-states. The Religion of the two classes also were not the same.
It was the belief of the upper classes that they had higher religious expression. In the Greek mythology there is a dual system of gods as under:
(i) First, the gods who have obviously developed from the primitive Ritual divinities such as the mother earth, corn goddess of agricultural people and the lower classes.
(ii) Second, in the pantheon the Olympian gods of classical Greece imposed over the gods of the lower classes. The nature of these Olympian gods indicates the source of the conquerors who formed the upper class of the Greek society. They were the Aryans who invaded ancient Greece from the north. Evidently, civil Religion in the ancient Greek and later Roman society, as reflected in their respective mythologies, reveals the importance given to the state and citizens of that state.
Civil Religion in America:
It is in the American Society that Civil Religion in its most crystallized and evolved forms are found. The American society represents, in the most dramatic way the Religion of nationalism in the West during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The Religion of nationalism led to the rise of a political clarity in every country in Europe which was devoted to the nation.
(i) Children were now born into, and received their primary identities from the national states, as they had once been born primarily into the church.
(ii) Birth, marriage and death all became a concern of the civil stare. The civil government began to take charge instead of the church in the areas such as, family, school, and charity i.e. social welfare measures.
(iii) The great events like the birthdays of great political figures like Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln came to be celebrated as solemnly as the feasts of the Christian saints and martyrs were once celebrated.
(iv) The great events of historical significance for the nation were also given a religious regard. The fourth of July, as Fifteenth of August, is in our country, took on some of the same religious kind of significance as the Feast of the Nativity did in Christianity.
According to Nisbet, the American Civil Religion had its widely recognized theology. One complete with creed, catechism and dogma. In America, as in many other nations too, a complex Ritual surrounds the American flag and other symbols of national civil unity.
During this period, Protestants generally scorned the Catholics use of external adornments of faith such as, statues or idols of God, mural, portrait and so on. Yet they saw no harm in the use of these decorations where the worship of their nation was concerned. As such every public square has, at least, one status of some departed political saint.
Bellah has examined the way wherein Americans treat Religion on public occasions in community life. The inaugural speech of American presidents shows the great significance of civil Religion in America. The words and acts of the founding fathers of America, especially the first few presidents, shaped the form and tone of the civil Religion as it has existed ever since then. Much of this Religion is selectively derived from Christianity.
However, Presidents like George Washington, Adams or Jefferson have never mentioned Christ in their inaugural address nor have any of the subsequent presidents. Yet none of these Presidents have ever failed to mention God in their speeches. God of civil Religion is “unitarian” as well is on the austere side, related to order, law and right of people than to the question of salvation and love.
In his 20th January, 1961 inaugural speech Kennedy mentioned the name of God in two or three places. Similar references to God are also found in the speeches of other Presidents of America.
The references to the term God reveals that an essential irrelevant role is played by Religion in a secular society like America and that Religion has “only a ceremonial significance”.
Some observer of these proceedings might say that an American president has to mention God in his speech otherwise he will risk losing votes. An appearance of religiosity is a kind of unwritten qualification for the office of the American President.
Kennedy’s speech and his reference to God, raises some important questions regarding the issue of how civil Religion relates to the political society on the one hand and the private religious organization on the other. Kennedy, mentioned God only in a general sense. He did not use the name of Christ although he himself was a Catholic Christian.
Again the Christian Religion does not in any way concern the conduct of his public office. The principle of separation of church and state guarantees the freedom of religious belief and association as well as clearly segregates the religious sphere, which is private, from the political one, which is public. The reference to God in the president’s speech is justified as the separation of church and state does not rule out the religious dimension from the political spheres.
Although every citizen has specific elements of religious belief, the Americans in general have certain common elements of religious orientation. These common elements play a crucial role in the development of American institutions and provide a religious dimension for the whole fabric of American life, including the political sphere.