Religion and Civil Religion

Lecture by Dr. Nikolas K. Gvosdev

In addressing the question of "what constitutes American civil religion," we must first have a clear picture of what constitutes a "religion." Examining the various religions that exist among human beings, we can begin to identify shared characteristics that would therefore have to be present in any "civil religion" for it to be so defined.

1. Beliefs which cannot be proven rationally but require faith to be accepted as true or correct. These would include beliefs in a transcendent deity; destiny or fate; a sense of chosen-ness.
2. A call for the individual to achieve greater things through transforming participation in the belief system.
3. Mechanisms for registering membership in the faith community and to differentiate between members and non-members and to distinguish between active and inactive (lapsed) members.
4. Ritualistic behaviors that serve both as signs of membership within the community as well as provided common bonds among community members
5. A sense of sacred time and sacred space: days of the year that are consecrated as well as locations or places that hold especial meaning
6. A set of rituals that cover all the key stages of life from birth to death
7. A set of sacred texts, history, and personages with an emphasis on proof-signs of the truth and validity of the faith
8. A popular canon derived from the texts and history that quickly and easily serves to remind the hearer of the key values (slogans, quotes, etc.)
9. Practitioners or interpreters of the faith who communicate with the membership and serve to educate them in the relevant precepts

The great monotheistic religions of the world are jealously exclusive in their prerogatives, but it is important to remember that exclusivity is not necessarily a feature of all religious systems. Many religions are syncretic--that is, they borrow from other faith systems and traditions, and others allow their members to hold multiple beliefs. Syncretic faiths are therefore capable of absorbing the language and iconography of other beliefs and even to give to the practitioners of other faiths recognition as valid practitioners for their own faith as well. In other words, a syncretic faith is prepared to recognize and tolerate even the claims and followers of exclusivist religions, seeing in them truth and validity. This can be seen, for example, in the way that some Hindus have incorporated the teachings and personages of the Buddha and Jesus Christ into their practice of Hinduism. However, even when a syncretic religion borrows something from another faith, usually one would expect that, over time, the syncretic faith will begin to alter or adjust the borrowing, so that something distinctive will emerge.

The degree to which a civil religion tends to be syncretic depends to a great extent upon the composition of the population. The more homogenous the population, the less syncretic the civil religion (and in a state where the entire population professes the exact same belief, civil religion may be indistinguishable from the "private" religion espoused by the population.). Since a civil religion seeks to encompass the entire society, it tends to be a religion of the "lowest common denominator", focusing on those elements that bring the society together in shared belief and seeking to minimize distinctions which might arise.

In a country with a state religion, private religion and civil religion are fused together and there is no distinctiveness to either. Civil religion emerges when there is no single exclusive religion promoted by the state. Some civil religions may evolve (in some cases out of traditions and customs that originated when there was a state faith that are retained even after disestablishment), others may be deliberately engineered, either to provide a sense of unity among the population or to displace earlier beliefs.