The Rhetoric of American Civil Religion

Symbols, Sinners, and Saints

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

Not available to order

Publication date:

30 September 2016

Length of book:

248 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498541497

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

The symbols and rites of organized religion are the warp and woof, not only of America's political culture, but of language itself. Wherever there is the desire to obtain the elusive political ideal, there too we will find saints, sinners, and rest assuredly, dynamic symbols ready to unite, divide, and if necessary, conquer. "The Great Stereopticon" is no match for either the awe-inspiring god-term or the cultural demands of civic piety. The authors of this timely collection do a fine job reminding us that this remains the case, today more than ever. Well done.