Toward a Contextualized Concept of Civil Religion

Abstract

A new definition of civil religion is needed because there are almost as many definitions as there are writers on the subject. By combining two existing concepts it can be shown that most existing definitions of civil religion are related. The two concepts are religious pluralism versus monoculture and public versus private religion. The first takes into consideration that civil religion will look different in a mono-religious country than in a multi-religious country. The second makes a distinction between civil religion at a rhetorical level (e.g. speeches) and at a personal level (individual religiosity). Although there are many different definitions of civil religion, the differences can be reconciled if the religious situation and the analytical level are taken into consideration. Hopefully this will make future discussions and analyses of civil religion more comparable.

Civil Religion

“…The wide-ranging discussions over what, exactly, civil religion is eventually led Bellah himself to lament the concept's muddied analytic usefulness (Bellah, 1980). Luchau (2009), in fact, has suggested that there are as many definitions of civil religion as there are scholars discussing it. This panoply of definitions renders a clear or essentialist definition of civil religion somewhat challenging, as there is no shortage of concepts to sift through.…”

“…with divine -or otherwise ultimate -realities" (Moseley quoted in Hammond et al, 1994: 18). While Bellah specifically understood civil religion as involving reference to the nonoffensive presence of a divine being (i.e., God) and as serving an integrative role for society, these specific elements of civil religion have become less important to more recent conceptions (Luchau, 2009). Cristi and Dawson (1996) suggest that understandings of civil religion, at least in the American context, tend to view civil religion as 'existing quasi-independently' of both the state and church, focusing on a sacralized 'set of core values, like liberty, justice, charity and freedom,' being 'carried' by various rhetorics and rituals of the American polity and people.…”

“…For example, rather than focus on the 'content' of civil religion, Luchau (2009) focuses on the ontological aspects of civil religion. He draws on Göran Gustafsson (1984) and Demerath and Williams (1985) to suggest that there are two main poles of civil religion: civil religion as phenomenon and civil religion as rhetoric.…”

“…institutionalized in a collectivity," which he termed 'American civil religion.' The phrase 'civil religion' was borrowed from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the influential eighteenth-century political philosopher, who suggested a topdown, sacred morality imposed by the state on its citizens (Demerath and Williams, 1985;Luchau, 2009). Rousseau was less convinced than either English 'social contract' theorists or his French Enlightenment colleagues that reason and selfinterest would be adequate to hold together a society -particularly to bind the masses to the state.…”

Power and Influence of Islam-Based Political Parties in Bangladesh: Perception versus Reality

“…In effect, we consider this national identity as the civil religion of Bangladesh. Luchau (2009) argues that civil religion as a concept mainly comes out of secularist principles. He points out that civil religion emerges as a solution to the problem of 'societal legitimization' and it is based on the assumption that institutional religions are no longer succeeding in legitimizing and/or integrating the current society.…”