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TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ABSTRACT/ARGUMENT OUTLINE OF CHAPTERS SYNOPSES OF CHAPTERS THE CONSTRUCT I. THE AMERICAN CONTEXT -- OUR ELAN VITALE II. FUNCTION OF CIVIL RELIGION III. COMMUNITY AND INVENTION IV. DISCOURSE ON CIVIL RELIGION V. THE CONSTITUTION OF RELIGION THE INVENTION VI. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF RELIGION VII. LIBERTY AND ITS ANTITHESIS VIII. ELEMENTARY FORMS OF RELIGIOUS LIFE IX. MINIMAL UNITS OF RELIGIOUS BEHAVIOR X. CONSTRUCTION OF THE INVENTION XI. SURFING THE INVENTION NET THEOLOGY XII. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FAITH XIII. ASSOCIATION AND GEIST XIV. COMMUNITY AND SOCIETY XV. THE GENEALOGY OF AMERICAN CIVIL RELIGION ASSESSMENT XVI. DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA XVII. INVENTION PERFORMANCE XVIII. GEIST AND ANTI-GEIST XIX. LOST SOUL IN PURGATORY XX. THE CONSTRUCT AS ANALYTIC INSTRUMENT ADDENDUM FOOTNOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY BIOGRAPHY INDEX OF TABLES AND CHARTS For links to each chapter Go Here INTRODUCTION Since Robert Bellah began a discussion some thirty years ago resurrecting the idea of an American civil religion, the conceptualization has been tossed about in a variety of contexts. That is not to say that the notion is original to Bellah, for the idea has a long tradition in political discourse, both in terms of the construct generally and with reference to the American version of the invention. But at least one fundamental antinomy persists in the more contemporary consideration, and it is one that cuts to the heart of the rudimentary character of the American political experiment. It involves the dichotomy between contrasting visions of the political system itself. In the one tradition, governance is viewed as a necessary component structured as a bulwark against the character of man versus his potential that he might better be free toward its realization, while that limited government theology is in stark contrast to the other religious faith in government. Clearly not a new formulation of debate, it is one which has taken on renewed considerations and consequences in the contemporary setting with competing conceptions of this public faith struggling for hegemony in the discourse and the culture. Bellah has revised the debate in considerable degree with more recent discussion of the various 'languages' of the American political culture, but whatever validity such a turn may possess, it does not alter the value of contemplation of the civic culture as to its religiousity. We look around us in the contemporary world, or for that matter throughout history, and it is not difficult to view our situation as genuinely unique, if not blessed, in the United States. In some very concrete ways, America does constitute an exceptional case. That is not to be smug or to exercise snobbery or condescension toward others. It is not to be ethnocentric or xenophobic. Of course, there are probably unlimited examples of uniqueness, and these may be difficult to evaluate in terms of relative merit, but without ignoring or glossing over problems and even shortcomings which continue to ensnare us, we need not be suffering from unabashed conceit to hold ourselves in many respects the 'crown of creation.' We may see ourselves as a genuine 'city on a hill,' and whether that has become reality by design or fortune, there is more than a kernel of truth to the analogy. Politically, socially, economically, scientifically, and in other ways, including perhaps ethically, there is a qualitative distinction which has come to exist which in many respects sets us apart. And while it might be construed as vanity, and has on occasion approached that, and such sentiments even in some formulations may be less than becoming, it would be just as grievous a fault to overlook such characteristics, or even worse, to take them for granted and neglect them. Nor should that be taken as advocacy of foisting our ways upon others. Indeed, it is an ancient wisdom which, while it may not reject a certain missionary zeal, recognizes as well that it is not necessary to force that which is of value on others, for they will, in their own rational volition, adopt or adapt , if not 'steal' it for themselves. Indeed, Thomas Sowell has argued rather convincingly that the impact of so-called American imperialism has not been all negative, it having had much to do with the dimunition of slavery in the world, as well as even some of the more dilatory practices of male dominance and female denigration in some societies. Nor can it be argued that 'constructive engagement' had no impact on the changes which have taken place in South Africa, among other places. And none of that touches the impact of American economic influences on many parts of the world. But our 'peculiarity ' neither should be taken to be accidental or coincidental or haphazard. Lawful processes operate, the properties of which function in causative ways. Even the cultural relativism of the Prime Directive that Star Fleet must operate under does not neglect the utility of a scale of cultures. And in very real ways, not all of them always so positive as perhaps some of the banalities of our popular culture exhibit, the world has in some considerable manner become very 'Americanized,' and it is difficult, indeed, to attribute such tendencies to some sophisticated form of terrible cultural (or other) imperialism. If there are bases for harboring notions of such exceptionalism, there must also be causative factors undergirding such unique qualities. And as we move closer toward the new millennium, while we see much of the world staggered by poverty and conflict which could beset us, except perhaps by the grace of God, we also see not a little evidence that large segments of the world's teeming masses increasingly seem to put considerable stock in qualities they might deem flow from our experience. It may even be the case that some of these recognize what we, or at least some of us, do not. Ronald Reagan passes out Yankee caps to crowds in Japan as a celebration of this entire point. For it is neither trite nor without validity to suggest that the events at Lexington Green did represent a shot that was heard around the world. Both symbols and the substance they represent do mean things, and the project undertaken here is meant to reflect and to reflect upon all of this. It is at base a 'transparency' which enables us to 'x-ray' society so as to reveal the skeletal and anatomical structure of the specimen, which is itself a sort of skeleton key of our 'community.' "If you would inherit something from our forefathers," Goethe wrote in Faust, "you must win it again anew." There is a spectre that inspires the world -- it is the spectre of America. And it is a spectre possessed of a spirit which animates and invigorates it. This undertaking is built around the recognition of that spirit. It is intended as a fleshing-in of the corpus which cognizance of this portends. The anatomy is examined both for its structural and theological substance, as well as for the inter-relationship between them. There is a spirit that, in a word, was made flesh, and the anatomy to be examined here is the essence of that spirit, an American civil religion. ABSTRACT/ARGUMENT American civil religion is held here to be a much more substantive construct than thus far recognized. Not only is it identifiable, but it is also more foundational as an invention to our political culture than has been acknowledged. Further, there is a strong interrelationship between the forms of this socially constructed pattern and the belief systems of the citizenry. Both can be described and the mutual interdependence of each on the other readily examined and displayed. Both the methodology and the description employed are also valuable assets for political analysis. The greater symmetry pointed up here is that between structure and psyche in this country. Not a chicken and egg argument, these are mutually supportive and reinforcing, our civil religion functioning as a transmission device interconnecting them, an hydraulic plasma field transferring waves in both directions. An expansive definition of religion is suggested, identifying the construct as an invention promoting community. The typology of Wallace is utilized to identify the anatomy of the specimen, and a number of commentaries on both public faith and the American example are critically analyzed. A unique American faith is suggested, both in structure and in ideology -- or theology -- both systems transcending our historical experience, growing out of it, as a conscious design of the Framers, and forming it, as well, through our history. But it is a belief structure which holds that community a categorical imperative and is animated by a spirit or geist which reflects that. It is crucial for this project that it be recognized that we as a people possess a public philosophy, and our consciousness of it can only enhance both it and our understanding, but also that it is, in reality, even more than a philosophy. It has been raised in our experience beyond even the level of ideology to a veritable theology, and this faith exudes throughout our character, animating our endeavors. That spirit, not unlike the human soul, can be seen as inextricably bound up in a mystic mechanics with the corporeal manifestations of the 'body.' The effort here is one of identifying the skeletal and tissue structures of this construct and depicting the spirit that is both of and one with them. All of this may make us special and unique (exceptional) -- it does not make us privileged. As with every such instance, it sets responsibilities upon us, but that is implied in our conceptualization of community. It is also an emphatically moral order -- there is an essentially morally imperative character to capitalism, one which is exhibited, by design, in the system structured supportive of it. The invention identified as our civil religion is demonstrably just that. Our 'association,' so conceived and so dedicated, is our covenant, a contract which has made us, if not a chosen people in a promised land, a people of promise by choice. Nor is it a covenant broken, such musings, in fact, posing the real risk of the loss of our 'soul.,' with that new supposed 'covenant' being at the root of a great many of the social problems we have experienced. The force entailed in the promulgation of dependency not only undermines autonomy of individuals, but carries with it the prospect of subverting the public faith creating the potential for legitimation crisis. And, as a citizenry and as a discipline, our undertakings must be informed of both this actuality and promise, perhaps from the latter standpoint, if only that we might stand a little less between them and the sun. CHAPTER OUTLINES Click here to read chapter outlines CHAPTER SYNOPSES I. THE AMERICAN CONTEXT -- OUR ELAN VITALE Neither does rationality nor politics exist without symbols. Indeed, it is the nourished symbols which lead to both our comprehension of order in the universe and in the state. That is a remarkable task for such a differentiated and challenged society. This is a study of a fundamental aspect of the social glue of our unique social order, undertaken to identify the substance of that cement. The spirit of the society exists in a mutual interdependency with the institutional order, and taken together, approximate the civil virtue which is critical for any process of civilization, a 'chain of being' operative in the task of community and wealth creation which marks our city on a hill. II. THE FUNCTION OF CIVIL RELIGION A generalized statement of the methodology utilized here. The exceptional character of our society, a chosen people constructing a city on a hill in a promised land is to be searched to flesh-in the anatomy of this cohesive agent of public faith. A nation that thusly 'prays together, stays together.' III. COMMUNITY AND INVENTION Our history is described as the process of community development. A thesis is presented of a mutually interdependent theme of institutionally cultivating a spirit to engender the development of the national community. An elaboration is undertaken of Abbott's development of that 'social invention' both as a form in pursuit of community and as the construct might be applicable to the civil religion, with reference to both institutional and structural as well as philosophical/theological components. IV. DISCOURSE AND DEBATE: A SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE Utilizing Gail Gehrig's survey of the literature on civil religion in America, the schema developed there is expanded to other relevant studies and begins to outline both the theological characteristics and the ancillary minimal units of religious behavior of Wallace out of Durkheim relied on in this examination. V. THE CONSTITUTION OF RELIGION The discussion is centered on the methodology of comparative religion as a basis for both defining religion itself and for fitting the civil faith within that conceptualization. A body of authority is referenced as a basis for the subsequent construction of the anatomy of the civil religion. The section begins and concludes with the question of the problem of dual religiousity, a resolution of any possible conflict drawn from an institutional religious source which echoes fundamental characteristics of the civil religion articulated here, demonstrative of substantive accord around the concepts of interdependency, exchange, organic unity, association, etc., toward community. VI. THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF RELIGION Beginning with a discussion of the essential compatibility of social construction and volition, it is argued that both are critical for societal function, and that the role of civil faith in our socialization fostering creativity is lawful, not contradictory. The learned response is an efficiency mechanism. So, too, are the structures for support of that response. The basis of legal contract in such an establishment is considered against the discussion of the interrelationship of beliefs and structures and a review of some of the more critical commentary on political socialization, the role of public faith in that, and the connection between religion and regime. VII. LIBERTY AND ITS ANTI-THESIS The matter of the concept of man raised in the last section is next examined in the literature as identification of the philosophy ancillary to the forms so central to the faith's belief structure. Principally, Mises, Hayek, and Sowell are considered and contrasted on Smith's notion of 'concord' in opposition to the discordance of the fragmented society in which mutuality rejects self-interest, the kernel of republican civic virtue in Smith. The constitutional constraints structured to limit government and the myriad of interests circumscribed through its apparatus as defined in the Madisonian system is couched in the controversy over the nature of man and the alternative extra-constitutional 'plans' to 'engineer' the 'better' society. The challenge this presents in the forms of counter civic faiths and a legitimation crisis is also framed in terms of contract law and in the threat thus posed to the categorical imperative of capitalism. VIII. ELEMENTARY FORMS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE The intellectual development of Durkheim's postulation of universal functional units of religious behavior is presented as the basis for Wallace's schema out of them, and the functioning of a society's religion, inclusive of the civil religious construct, is connected to Durkheim's premise of such invention as a mystic mechanics of community. IX. MINIMAL UNITS OF RELIGIOUS BEHAVIOR The anatomy of religious behavior which Wallace has structured is built around some 13 minimal units which are described. These are 'organized' variously into 'cults' and 'religions of a society,' and the general method is presented and some remarks entered as to the theological implications of these structures -- the nexus of ritual and belief in the ritualized rationalization of belief, not the least of which involves maintenance of order and society. X. THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE INVENTION Exemplars of a variation of the minimal units schema are identified for our culture and a Gospel of Wealth Creation of the public faith is postulated as related, derivative, and ancillary. XI. SURFING THE INVENTION NET Examples of the minimal unit categories have been garnered from sundry literature dealing directly or indirectly with the American civil religion in the effort to 'flesh it in' as a more concrete reality. XII. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FAITH An effort is made to trace some of the influences of myriad aspects of some elements of English and other culture on the American political culture, from the evolution of representative government, the incipient capitalism of Hakluyt and Franklin, natural right on Hooker (who attributes power of government to the governed, as well), and Milton's vision of man, casting the American experiment in terms of such efforts to create a city of God or 'paradise' regained in which limited government is protective of human rights, and such in Locke reflective of those themes, but in stark contrast to Hobbes. But a differentiation is made between Locke and the spirit of the Framers on the issue of property and wealth posed between Lockean 'community' and Association. The distinction runs to the difference between the labor theory of value and the theory of labor power. This divergence, and that with Locke over the separate nature of civil magistry and religion in this aspect as requisite for the elevation of man, is followed through English 'libertarian' thought, Adam Smith's system of natural liberty, and the development of law out of Blackstone, along with Protestant/Puritan influences, an obvious antinomy of which is resolved therein, as it informed the developing American ethos and spirit, itself an experience of that gospel of wealth creation articulated earlier on, constituting what Dante and Milton and Franklin meant by the 'inner light.' XIII. ASSOCIATION AND GEIST Reiterating the set of tensions involving human nature, economies of scale, and character of governance, the unique hybrid of each encapsulated in the Madisonian system is juxtaposed against a range of philosophical problems in a reassertion of the theology of the faith. That belief system is linked to that of Dante, and the development traced as an essential character of our public faith. The association principle is identified as the American system in terms of the Hegelian Geist, a concept which is developed for its relevance, including importantly its own connection of the individual within the civic community, a relationship of mutuality with profound parallels ranging from its human ethos of mutuality and self interest, property guarantees, scale and specialization and division of labor and production approaching the theory of labor power, and a public institutionalization in pursuance of public utility as the end of public power, and in support of community. XIV. SOCIETY AND COMMUNITY Consideration of Gemeinschaft community and Gesellschaft society on Toennies is posed, the former intimating geist, verstehen, concordia, the later largely more a mere aggregation or artificial construct. Schmalenbach's 'sociological category of communion' is posited along with these, an the religious and economic character of the transubstantiation of society's transposition into community is proposed. Into this discussion, Carey's Association is elaborated on as a reflection of the conceptualization behind such terminology. The 'social union' of Rawls is counterposed to such, and the chapter proceeds through a discourse in presentation, examination, and critique of a collection of writings on this theme, the systems of Carey, Raymond, Peshine Smith, Lincoln and others constituting the theological underpinnings of the described transubstantiation in the geist of the categorical imperative of capitalism contrasted to the circumscription in Rawls, Kymlicka, Dworkin, and others. The political economy of the categorical imperative theology of the public faith is delineated as are the opposing presentations as to the estimation of human nature and elevation of the condition of man. XV. GENEALOGY OF AMERICAN CIVIL RELIGION ...traces the sources of the American legal and larger philosophy further to Blackstone in particular, identifying some key relevant aspects of the Commentaries, connecting it to the Constitution and the Declaration as construction of community. The key component of checks and balances to structure limited government to foster liberty for the benefit of society out of Blackstone and through the second Founding is discussed, the connection being a mutual accord. The Liberty/Liberal government tension has foundation in these sources in their perception of human nature, that of volitional but corruptible reason. The notion of mutual accord and intercourse was the substance of community, the essence of which required cultivated civic virtue. This is wolven together as the fabric of the structuring of our regime, held together by a social glue of republican virtue, into our constitutional order which is given an economic interpretation of this perspective. That interpretation is also traced through the development of our legal, court, and case law and history and through the exemplar of Lincoln, and through him, to Henry Carey, and other symbolic characters, with some comment of the importance of such symbolism. XVI. DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA Having specified the public faith, I now lay it as identified here beside Tocqueville for comparison. He has articulated very much the substance of the same civil religion as permeating the society, including notions of limited government and human volition and reason, building the self-interest individual into the community of mutuality through an economic mutuality, and warns extensively of danger posed to our system by the 'faith' of dependency, countering the enhancement of equality only through promotion of achievement. This is really a political economy of Tocqueville based in notions of wealth creation. Maintenance of public order, institutions, civic republics through the civil religion he identifies positions Tocqueville as a 'prophet' of our public faith. XVII. INVENTION PERFORMANCE The politicization of the judicial process is scrutinized both in terms of partisanship, but also judicial philosophies, with the conclusion that there is a struggle raging between what may be tantamount to the dueling civil religions or public faiths alluded to earlier here, the one being the judicial reconstitution or unconstitution, the other that described here with its categorical imperative. It is further argued that this struggle very much approximates the equality/achievement tension of Lipset, and from that, the commensurability of Lipset, Bellah, Hartz, and Diggins is argued. XVIII. GEIST AND ANTI-GEIST Problems of the misspecified liberalism and civil faith presented by Hartz are examined, including the semantic inversion of liberalism, the complaint against capitalism and wealth generation, rationality, and policy atrophy of delimited governance, which reach to an attack on Henry Carey's Association, as he poses an anti-Geist for the Geist. XIX. LOST SOUL IN PURGATORY Moving from Hartz to Diggins and on to such as Rawls and Kymlicka, a theology of the anti-geist is critically appraised. This 'antithesis of the American faith' that has led to the 'discontent of the American soul' is counterposed to the faith of Lincoln and Carey, et al, with the former's dim vision of human nature and disparagement of limited government. Dismissing mutuality of interdependence in association, Diggins' faith involves the very demons of Rousseau's undermined general will, seeking even to have governance cultivate his vision of civic republican virtue of general will, a process blocked by the limited government of the second Framing, rejecting as he does any notion of interest and virtue. The American soul for Diggins is thereby left in a netherworld of frustration comparable to a consignment to purgatory short of paradise. XX. THE CONSTRUCT AS AN ANALYTIC INSTRUMENT The legitimation crisis developing out of the Broken Covenant of Bellah juxtaposed over and against the Gospel of Wealth Creation of the civil religion as represented by Carey and Henry Ford is the point of this discussion. The 'mystic mechanics' of the later is considered in philosophical terms and with respect to its importance in policy debate. The cacophony of languages of Bellah is posed against the concord and association concepts of Adam Smith and Henry Carey, the later two represented as a Rosetta Stone or 'speaking in tongues' transcension of the problem suggested in the former, the social glue of civil religion pursuant of community being 'dissolved' by Bellah's new covenant. The Geist and anti-Geist are juxtaposed as 'two cities' locked in a cultural conflict that becomes a religious war in this context. Continue
