The Rhetoric of American Civil Religion

Symbols, Sinners, and Saints

Contributions by Kevin M. Coe University of Utah, David Domke, Jason A. Edwards Bridgewater State University, Theon Hill, Bethany Keeley-Jonker, John P. Koch, Angela M. Lahr, Catherine L. Langford, Eric C. Miller Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Penelope Sheets, Sarah A. Morgan Smith, Sher Afgan Tareen, Andrea Terry, Joseph M. Valenzano University of Dayton, Marissa Lowe Wallace, David Weiss David Weiss, University of New Mexico Edited by Jason A. Edwards, Joseph M. Valenzano University of Dayton

Publication date:

30 September 2016

Length of book:

248 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

239x157mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781498541480

The tie that binds all Americans, regardless of their demographic background, is faith in the American system of government. This faith manifests as a form of civil, or secular, religion with its own core documents, creeds, oaths, ceremonies, and even individuals. In The Rhetoric of American Civil Religion: Symbols, Sinners, and Saints, contributors seek to examine some of those core elements of American faith by exploring the proverbial saints, sinners and dominant symbols of the American system.

IntroductionWhat is Civil Religion?
Jason A. Edwards and Joseph M. Valenzano, III

1. The Exodus: The Textual Heart of American Civil Religion
Theon E. Hill

2. “Glory in the Fight:” Frederick Douglass and the Revival of Republican Civil Religion
Sarah A. Morgan Smith

3. Civil Religion as Communal Democratic Sentiment: An Emersonian Perspective
Andrea Terry

4. Lighting “Human Spirit Lamps”: Frances Willard, the Conscience of Reform, and American Civil Religion
Angela Lahr

5. Billy Graham’s Cold War Rhetoric: Evangelical and Civil Religious Revival
Marissa Lowe Wallace

6. In God (and Capitalism) We Trust: Identification Through Division in 1950s Civil Religion
Bethany Keeley-Jonker

7. Civil Religion as Christian Religion: Francis Schaeffer’s Liberal Fundamentalism
Eric C. Miller

8. Sinners and Saints: Public Memory, Civil Religion, and Citizenship at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
John P. Koch

9. Civil Religion or Mere Religion? The Debate Over Presidential Religious Rhetoric
David Weiss

10. Discovering Self in the Absence of Privacy: Race, Religion and the Imagined Bilalians
Sher Afgan Tareen

11. Barack Obama and the Expansion of American Civil Religion
Kevin Coe, David Domke, and Penelope Sheets

12. What Binds This Nation Together: Barack Obama’s Secular Messianic Style in His Second Inaugural Address
Catherine L. Langford

Index

About the Contributors

In this edited volume, Edwards (Bridgewater State Univ.) and Valenzano (Univ. of Dayton) offer a sampling of studies about civil religion to establish a contemporary starting point for understanding the topic. In 12 chapters, a variety of noted scholars discuss the elements, development, and literature regarding the different forms of civil religion. Authors examine a range of viewpoints and artifacts, including biblical texts, abolitionist rhetoric, presidential rhetoric, feminist perspectives, philosophical perspectives, and Islamic discourses. In a particularly intriguing chapter titled "Sinners and Saints," John P. Koch (Univ. of Puget Sound) discusses the relationship among public memory, civil religion, and the presidency of the US. There are myriad volumes covering the topic of civil religion; this book adds to the literature by establishing that this topic has not been readily defined by scholars, thus contributing toward a refining of how civil religion has been constructed and manifested in American culture. The book is a suitable companion reader and supplemental text for courses that examine the rhetoric of religion. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.