The intended meaning of the term civil religion often varies according to whether one is a sociologist of religion or a professional political commentator. The following discussion includes both perspectives followed by a brief history of the concept.

Origin of term

Jean-Jacques Rousseau coined the term in chapter 8, book 4 of The Social Contract, to describe what he regarded as the moral and spiritual foundation essential for any modern society. For Rousseau, civil religion was intended simply as a form of social cement, helping to unify the state by providing it with sacred authority. In his book, Rousseau outlines the simple dogmas of the civil religion: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, (June 28, 1712 – July 2, 1778) was a Genevan philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. ... Social contract is a phrase used in philosophy, political science, and sociology to denote a real or hypothetical agreement within a state regarding the rights and responsibilities of the state and its citizens, or more generally a similar concord between a group and its members. ... Rousseau is a French surname. ...

Sociology of religion

The Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. is often used for state funerals for political leaders.

In the sociology of religion, civil religion is the folk religion of a nation or a political culture. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2272x1704, 1254 KB)I took this myself, it is colorful and I like it a lot. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2272x1704, 1254 KB)I took this myself, it is colorful and I like it a lot. ... Washington National Cathedral has been the site of three presidential state funerals: for Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald W. Reagan, Gerald R. Ford and a presidential burial in the cathedral: Woodrow Wilson. ... Nickname: Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., in relation to the states Maryland and Virginia Coordinates: Country United States Federal District District of Columbia Government  - Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D)  - City Council Chairperson: Vincent C. Gray (D) Ward 1: Jim Graham (D) Ward 2: Jack... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The sociology of religion is primarily the study of the practices, social structures, historical backgrounds, development, universal themes, and roles of religion in society. ... Folk religion consists of beliefs, superstitions and rituals transmitted from generation to generation of a specific culture. ... One of the most influential doctrines in history is that all humans are divided into groups called nations. ... Politics is the process by which groups make decisions. ... Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning to cultivate), generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ...

Civil religion stands somewhat above folk religion in its social and political status, since by definition it suffuses an entire society, or at least a segment of a society; and is often practised by leaders within that society. On the other hand, it is somewhat less than an establishment of religion, since established churches have official clergy and a relatively fixed and formal relationship with the government that establishes them. Civil religion is usually practiced by political leaders who are laypeople and whose leadership is not specifically spiritual. The word leadership can refer to: the process of leading. ... Establishment of religion refers to investing political power in a particular religious faith or body. ... Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. ...

Examples

Such civil religion encompasses such things as:

• the invocation of God in political speeches and public monuments;
• the quotation of religious texts on public occasions by political leaders;
• the veneration of past political leaders;
• the use of the lives of these leaders to teach moral ideals;
• the veneration of veterans and casualties of a nation's wars;
• religious gatherings called by political leaders;
• the use of religious symbols on public buildings;
• the use of public buildings for worship;
• founding myths and other national myths

and similar religious or quasi-religious practices. This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... The Taj Mahal, commissioned by the Muslim Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, as a mausoleum for his wife, Arjumand Banu Begum. ... // Most religions have religious texts they view as sacred. ... Veneration is a religious symbolic act giving honor to someone by honoring an image of that person, particularly applied to saints. ... A moral is a one sentence remark made at the end of many childrens stories that expresses the intended meaning, or the moral message, of the tale. ... This article or section needs additional references or sources to improve its verifiability. ... Taken during a Hindu prayer ceremony on the eve of Diwali. ... A founding myth is a story or myth surrounding the foundation of a nation-state. ... A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nations past. ...

Practical political philosophy

The Arc de Triomphe in Paris commemorates those who died in France's wars.

Professional commentators on political and social matters writing in newspapers and magazines sometimes use the term civil religion or civic religion to refer to ritual expressions of patriotism of a sort practiced in all countries, not always including religion in the conventional sense of the word. Arc de Triomphe The Arc de Triomphe is a monument in Paris that stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly the Place de lÉtoile, at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Paris Eiffel tower as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value, which is prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. ... This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. ...

Among such practices are the following:

Examples

• crowds singing the national anthem at certain public gatherings;
• parades or display of the national flag on certain patriotic holidays;
• oaths of allegiance, such as the Pledge of Allegiance used in the USA;
• ceremonies concomitant to the inauguration of a president or the coronation of a king;
• retelling exaggerated, one-sided, and simplified mythologized tales of Founding Fathers and other great leaders or great events (e.g., battles, mass migrations) in the past (in this connection, see also romantic nationalism);
• monuments commemorating great leaders of the past or historic events;
• monuments to dead soldiers or annual ceremonies to remember them;
• expressions of reverence for the country or the Constitution or the King;
• public display of the coffin of a recently deceased political leader.

It has been suggested that National holiday be merged into this article or section. ... An oath of allegiance is an oath whereby a subject or citizen acknowledges his duty of allegiance and swears loyalty to his monarch or country. ... Students reciting the Pledge at Rafael Weill Elementary School, San Francisco, California, April 20, 1942 prior to Japanese American internment (photo by Dorothea Lange) [1] The Pledge of Allegiance is a promise or oath of allegiance to the United States as represented by its national flag. ... The word mythology (from the Greek μυολογία mythología, from μυολογείν mythologein to relate myths, from μύος mythos, meaning a narrative, and λόγος logos, meaning speech or argument) literally means the (oral) retelling of myths – stories that a particular culture believes to be true and that use the supernatural to interpret natural events and... Founding Fathers are persons instrumental in the establishment of an institution, usually a political institution, especially those connected to the origination of its ideals. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The Taj Mahal, commissioned by the Muslim Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, as a mausoleum for his wife, Arjumand Banu Begum. ... The Oxford English Dictionary defines reverence as deep respect and veneration for some thing, place, or person regarded as having a sacred or exalted character. ...

Relation between the two conceptions

These two conceptions (sociological and political) of civil religion substantially overlap. In Britain, where church and state are constitutionally joined, the monarch's coronation is an elaborate religious rite celebrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury. In France, secular ceremonies are separated from religious observances to a greater degree than in most countries. In the United States of America, a president being inaugurated is told by the Constitution to choose between saying "I do solemnly swear..." (customarily followed by "so help me God", although those words are not Constitutionally required) and saying "I do solemnly affirm..." (in which latter case no mention of God would be expected). The Archbishop of Canterbury is the spiritual leader and senior clergyman of the Church of England, recognized by convention as the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with President of the United States oath of office. ...

History

The Ara Pacis, dedicated to Peace as a goddess, embodied the civil religion of the Roman Empire.

The first government to have an identifiable civil religion was the Roman Empire, whose first Emperor Augustus officially attempted to revive the dutiful practice of Classical paganism. Greek and Roman religion were essentially local in character; the Roman Empire attempted to unite its disparate territories by inculcating an ideal of Roman piety, and by a syncretistic identifying of the gods of conquered territories with the Greek and Roman pantheon. In this campaign, Augustus erected monuments such as the Ara Pacis, the Altar of Peace, showing the Emperor and his family worshipping the gods. He also encouraged the publication of works such as Virgil's Æneid, which depicted "pious Æneas", the legendary ancestor of Rome, as a role model for Roman religiosity. Roman historians such as Livy told tales of early Romans as morally improving stories of military prowess and civic virtue. The Roman civil religion later became centred on the person of the Emperor through the imperial cult, the worship of the genius of the Emperor. Ara Pacis detail; from a photo in Winstons Cumulative Cyclopedia of 1914. ... Ara Pacis detail; from a photo in Winstons Cumulative Cyclopedia of 1914. ... The Ara Pacis Augustae The Ara Pacis Augustae (Latin for Altar of Augustan Peace, and commonly shortened to Ara Pacis) is an altar to Peace, envisioned as a Roman goddess. ... Statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture A goddess is a female deity, in contrast with a male deity known as a god. Many cultures have goddesses. ... Motto Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR) The Roman Empire at its greatest extent, c. ... Motto Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR) The Roman Empire at its greatest extent, c. ... For other uses, see Augustus (disambiguation). ... Look up pagan, heathen in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The term Roman religion may refer to: Ancient Roman religion Imperial cult (Ancient Rome), Sol Invictus Mithraism Roman Christianity Category: ... Syncretism is the attempt to reconcile disparate, even opposing, beliefs and to meld practices of various schools of thought. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and their own cult and ritual practices. ... The Ara Pacis Augustae The Ara Pacis Augustae (Latin for Altar of Augustan Peace, and commonly shortened to Ara Pacis) is an altar to Peace, envisioned as a Roman goddess. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A bust of Virgil, from the entrance to his tomb in Naples, Italy. ... The Aeneid (IPA English pronunciation: ; in Latin Aeneis, pronounced — the title is Greek in form: genitive case Aeneidos): is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BC (between 29 and 19 BC) that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he... Aeneas flees burning Troy, Federico Barocci, 1598. ... Look up Legend in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Nickname: Motto: SPQR: Senatus Populusque Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Government  - Mayor Walter Veltroni Area  - City 1,285 km²  (580 sq mi)  - Urban 5... A portrait of Titus Livius made long after his death. ... The Imperial cult in Ancient Rome was the worship of the Roman Emperor as a god. ... In Roman mythology, every man had a genius and every woman a juno (Juno was also the name for the queen of the gods). ...

The phrase "civil religion" was first discussed extensively by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in The Social Contract. Rousseau defined "civil religion" as a group of religious beliefs he believed to be universal, and which he believed governments had a right to uphold and maintain: belief in a deity, belief in an afterlife in which virtue is rewarded and vice punished; and belief in religious tolerance. Beyond that, Rousseau affirmed that individuals' religious opinions should be beyond the reach of governments. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, (June 28, 1712 – July 2, 1778) was a Genevan philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. ... Look up deity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The afterlife, or life after death, is a generic term referring to a continuation of existence, typically spiritual, experiential, or ghost-like, beyond this world, or after death. ... Personification of virtue (Greek ἀρετή) in Celsus Library in Ephesos, Turkey Virtue (Latin virtus; Greek ) is moral excellence of a person. ... The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen guarantees freedom of religion, as long as religious activities do not infringe on public order in ways detrimental to society. ...

In the 1950s and 1960s, scholars such as Martin E. Marty and Robert N. Bellah studied civil religion as a cultural phenomenon, attempting to identify the actual tenets of civil religion in the United States of America, or to study civil religion as a phenomenon of cultural anthropology. Within this U.S. context, Marty wrote that Americans approved of "religion in general" without being particularly concerned about the content of that faith, and attempted to distinguish "priestly" and "prophetic" roles within the practice of American civil religion, which he preferred to call the public theology. Bellah wrote that civil religion was "an institutionalized collection of sacred beliefs about the American nation." Bellah identified the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Civil Rights Movement as three decisive historical events that impacted the content and imagery of civil religion in the United States. This does not cite any references or sources. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ... Martin Emil Marty (b. ... Robert Neelly Bellah is a sociologist at University of California at Berkeley and author of a number of books including Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... . ... In religion, a prophet (or prophetess) is a person who has directly encountered the numinous or the divine and serves as an intermediary with humanity. ... John Trumbulls Declaration of Independence, showing the five-man committee in charge of drafting the Declaration in 1776 as it presents its work to the Second Continental Congress The American Revolution refers to the period during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen Colonies that... This article is becoming very long. ... The civil rights movement in the United States has been a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all citizens of United States. ...

Issues

The Christian flag displayed alongside the flag of the USA next to the pulpit in a church in California. Note the eagle and cross finials on the flag poles.

Within the contexts of the monotheistic, prophetic, revealed faiths, civil religion can be problematic from a theological perspective. Being identified with a political culture and a leadership hierarchy of an existing society, civil religion can interfere with the prophetic mission of a religious faith. It is hard to make civil religion a platform for rebuking the sins of a people or its institutions, because civil religion exists to make them seem sacred in themselves. Download high resolution version (1760x1168, 523 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (1760x1168, 523 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The Christian Flag The Christian Flag is a flag designed to represent all of Christianity, see also Christendom, but flown mainly by Protestant churches in North America, Africa, and Latin America. ... In theology, monotheism (Greek μόνος(monos) = single and θεός(theos) = God) is the belief in the existence of one deity or God, or in the oneness of God. ... In religion, a prophet (or prophetess) is a person who has directly encountered the numinous or the divine and serves as an intermediary with humanity. ... Revelation is an uncovering or disclosure via communication from the divine of something that has been partially or wholly hidden or unknown. ... At Wikiversity you can learn more and teach others about Theology at: The School of Theology Theology finds its scholars pursuing the understanding of and providing reasoned discourse of religion, spirituality and God or the gods. ... A hierarchy (in Greek: , it is derived from -hieros, sacred, and -arkho, rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things or people, where each element of the system (except for the top element) is subordinate to a single other element. ... In religion, a prophet (or prophetess) is a person who has directly encountered the numinous or the divine and serves as an intermediary with humanity. ... Sin is a term used mainly in a religious context to describe an act that violates a moral rule, or the state of having committed such a violation. ... In various religions, sacred (from Latin, sacrum, sacrifice) or holy, objects, places or concepts are believed by followers to be intimately connected with the supernatural, or divinity, and are thus greatly revered. ...

The United States of America, while a group of British colonies, was settled in part by religious dissenters from the established Church of England, who desired a civil society founded on a different religious vision. State churches have not existed in the United States since the early nineteenth century. Religious denominations compete with one another for allegiance in the public square. These facts have made public displays of religious piety by political leaders important to a large sector of the population; lacking an established church, they need public assurance of those leaders' religious beliefs. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The term dissenter (from the Latin dissentire, to disagree), labels one who dissents or disagrees in matters of opinion, belief, etc. ... The Church of England is the officially established Christian church[1] in England, and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

This assertive civil religion of the United States is an occasional cause of political friction between the U.S. and its allies in Europe, where (the literally religious form of) civil religion is often relatively muted. In the United States, civil religion is often invoked under the name of "Judeo-Christian tradition", a phrase originally intended to be maximally inclusive of the several monotheisms practiced in the United States, assuming that these faiths all worship the same God and share the same values. This assumption tends to dilute the essence of both Judaism and Christianity; recognition of this fact, and the increasing religious diversity of the United States, make this phrase less heard now than it once was, though it is far from extinct. Some scholars have argued that the American flag can be seen as a main totem of a national cult.^[1] Arguing against mob violence and lynching, Abraham Lincoln declared in his 1838 Lyceum speech that the Constitution and the laws of the United States ought to become the ‘political religion’ of each American..^[2] World map showing the location of Europe. ... Judeo-Christian (or Judaeo-Christian) is a term used to describe the body of concepts and values which are thought to be held in common by Judaism and Christianity, and typically considered (sometimes along with classical Greco-Roman civilization) a fundamental basis for Western legal codes and moral values. ... In theology, monotheism (Greek μόνος(monos) = single and θεός(theos) = God) is the belief in the existence of one deity or God, or in the oneness of God. ... Taken during a Hindu prayer ceremony on the eve of Diwali. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. ... A totem is any natural or supernatural object, being or animal which has personal symbolic meaning to an individual and to whose phenomena and energy one feels closely associated with during ones life. ...

References

1. ^ Marvin and Ingle (1996), [1]
2. ^ Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois January 27, 1838 [2]