Berger has elsewhere described a vision of the human construction of a 'sacred cosmos.'(1967) Such
constructs are reified and separated from the individual during objectification, and when they begin to
diminish in potency as industrial society and differentiation develop, socialization takes place by a similar
process. It is both at the social level as religion loses its legitimizing influence and at the level of
individual consciousness as such interpretation of the self and the world diminish. While this privatization
emerges as the disorganizing differentiation actually forms a new possibility for multiple modes of
reorganization, both religious and non-religious. The cultural religion of Berger arises out of the shared
values of this world and it promotes societal integration, while its manifestations within the polity of
political religion further functions as a mechanism of social control, (1961) and must be very generalized
to arch over the denominational pluralism and nonestablishment of religion in America. The folk religion
of Berger consequently is much more of a national ideology than it is a transcendent faith. Luckman goes
somewhat further (1967) in his view, somewhat echoed in Fenn (1970,1972), of the class cohesive nature
of the subjective forms of religion which evolve irrevocably with industrialization. It may not be clear that
the folk religion in Berger and Luckman is fully constituted as a civil religion in its rather individualized
existence, but it does offer an alternative given traditional religion's erosion. And the non-traditional
status of this folk religion suggests problems not only for applying the analysis to civil religious forms
which are spun across existing denominational sets, but also for accepting their assessment completely
given the apparent maintenance of vitality of such sets. Nevertheless, the 'religious construction of reality'
represents an important conceptualization for this project. Richard Fenn (1978) has taken the idea of
religious evolution a step further in contending that while the process of secularization or differentiation
gives impetus to civil religion, as the progression continues, this construct will also fade as individuals
become disengaged from corporate life. As the symbols become tarnished in their failure at engendering
unity, the new myth is unmasked and collapses. He seems set on the consideration of the construct in the
past tense, as he sees the general dissolution of morality based social order in a privatization toward
anomie. 

     For David Martin (1978), there are 'general cultural frames' of major historical episodes through which
the pattern of differentiation/secularization occurs toward disruption of cultural and religious
relationships, and in the American case, this has resulted in civil religion emerging as a mechanism of the
maintenance of social order. It is a derivative of the traditional denominational faith and is generalized
enough to overarch them, though this is not necessarily a weakness and may, indeed, portend vibrancy.
An essential characteristic which seems pervasive throughout the several theories of religious and civil
religious evolution is the proposition that the pattern of differentiation which they follow closely adheres
to the overall direction of the cultural evolution of society. If Coleman (1970) and Hammonds'  (1974)
estimations of the American case as a unique differentiated civil religion are followed, Gehrig contends
that this "points to legal systems as institutional carriers of civil religion."(18)  Coleman and Hammond
(1974), in fact, specifically hypothesis that "the judiciary  has adapted the task of articulating the
collective moral architecture," (1974;129) and trace such developments as a Supreme Court construction
of the 'moral architecture,' even as its language is found outside the courtroom. 

     It is quite apparent that Bellah has played an instrumental role in the discourse on civil religion, and as
important as that contribution has been, there are key junctures in his analysis which can shed some light
on some of the problems which emerge from his system. In VARIETIES OF CIVIL RELIGION (1980),
co-authored with Hammond, some of this comes into view. Perhaps foremost among these is the
assumption of a non-material, purely spiritual character of religion, and particularly, of Christianity.
They, indeed, make that assertion, per se, and as a basic point in their analysis. But this is, in fact, so
much an oversimplification as to be quite erroneous. Religion, and that includes Christianity, does not
abide such limitations. Generally, that is indicative of a much too confined domain for religion in society
and may exude a western bias, but even in that area, from Weber's ethic to filoque, the constrained
definition is a problem let alone in considering the civil religion. Bellah's project grew out of his fifties'
work on religion in Tokogawa Japan, a logical place for the development of the idea of a civil religion. A
kernel of the construct is present by the early sixties in his writing about the evolution of religion, and the
definitive statement of the proposition of an American 'Shinto' came in Daedalus in 1967. Following that,
there have been a string of articles around the notion, along with at least two major treatises, BROKEN
COVENANT in 1975 and, together with Hammond, VARIETIES OF CIVIL RELIGION in 1976, which
is fundamentally an argument for the role of the invention as a force for the legitimation of American
society very much in terms of the evolution of the legal system:
	"The legal order in some significant measures becomes a substitute for the
	religious order ... and thus sets the stage for the emergence  of civil religion,"(19)

in portion due to 'modernization' such as industrialization, but very much in response to the pluralism of
our society. The Covenant book has been already referenced in the above discussion of academic
discourse.

     As might be anticipated for a nation so 'filled' with religion, the literature relative to civil religion is
suitably vast. From "Grand Old Deity" in PSYCHOLOGY TODAY (22:4 ,20  April 88) to Peter Williams'
POPULAR RELIGION IN AMERICA, it also has varying degrees of relevance for this examination.
Some of this material bears consideration primarily because it inevitably had some impact on the effort,
but no pretense is offered that this represents a comprehensive listing of the relevant research or that such
consideration as is offered is not perhaps unintentionally so selective in its treatment as to do some
violence to the author's intent.

 
    There may be room for a civil religion on Bellah's model in Peter Williams' piece, but this is not the
primary locus of his term popular religion, the former "diffused through the culture at large, and pops up
in such occasions as football games, school assemblies, and Memorial Day picnics," (20) as this is more
extra-official, 'extra-ecclesiastical' religion, or as he refers to it at one point, the 'Little Tradition' of the
people as opposed to the official 'Great Tradition' of the elite (21) as set forth in Redfield (1953).

     But Williams does not hold in regard to the functioning of religion, or other constructs, in society that:
	"All of a culture's aspects become significant, since each holds a  place in a matrix
	that is indissolubly linked up with all the others. Each aspect potentially implies all
	the rest,"  (22)
and suggests that:
	"A symbolic act comes to be 'religious' when it is interpreted as part of a wider
	system of meaning,"(23)
but he wonders if such 'vestigial' behavior is closer to neurosis than to religion, recalling Freud's
admonishment of religion as 'collective neurosis,' concluding that the branding of any  predominant
behavioral patterns as heuristic is highly suspect:
                "Religion, then, may be tentatively defined as a system of symbolic beliefs and
	actions -- myths, rituals, and creeds and their supporting social structures -- 
	which provides its adherents with a coherent interpretation of the universe. 
	Religion is, moreover, a social phenomenon."(24)

     It operates as part of a universal 'drive for order and security' which marks human culture, and though
he cites Weberian modernization and differentiation as well as Durkheim's 'society as god' (25) in his
discussion of American folk  religion, he does not turn specifically to the civil religion until far along in
his text. (26) In the interim, he places folk religion in the gap between the great and small traditions,
dividing it into three parts:

		1) A symbol core from the great tradition
		2) System of elaboration/interpretation on these themes
		3) A third concentric circle of general beliefs and practices
		     (they once made 'sense' but now exist almost in a 'half-life')  (27)
                                                                                                                                                                     
     
There is also a rather uniform typology offered by Williams around the pattern of:
		1) food
		2) health/medicine
		3) life cycle
		4) the dead
		5) the future
		6) evil and misfortune  (28)


This last category seems somewhat expanded in the discussion entered into regarding totem and taboo,
and the attribution of special qualities in some traditional faiths of angels, saints  --  including patron
saints of localities. The dynamics of this pattern of symbolic behavior, connected to problems of daily life,
also provides legitimacy for a social group. (29) It is only after extended examination of all manner of ex-
officio popular folk faiths that civil religion is addressed.
     It was the pluralism of religious faith in the colonies which led to the grievances in the Declaration as
to the attempt at installation of an Anglican bishopry in North America, and the civil religion was almost
a conscious design of the Framers bent, perhaps of necessity, on that pluralism of tolerance and
differentiation, but not secularism.(30) With establishment and as this disestablishment became
institutionalized, the new nation drew upon its dual intellectual heritage of Puritanism and Enlightenment
(a much too limited perspective) to construct the innovation:
	" ... the Puritan interpretation of historic  collective purpose was by no means
	confined to New England. (Jefferson and Franklin, in fact, had proposed Exodus
	motiffs for the new Great Seal). The Puritan self-interpretation of a nation in covenant
	with God was a powerful one in that it provided a supernatural legitimation ... as well
	as a vocabulary and ritual for periodic affirmation of communal symbols and values ...
	The frequent days of  fast and thanksgiving declared by the Continental Congress 
	during the Revolution stood in unbroken continuity with Puritan practice." (31)
     And the Enlightenment intellectual spirit, if it was opposed to traditional religion, provided its own
contribution, from Rousseau's term 'civil religion' to a shared commitment to 'civic virtue.' Imagery of the
period was vital, from the Liberty Tree to the cult of Washington (and later of Lincoln),  and such became
the staples of the larger symbolic system that evolved, in good measure, for Williams, as an impact of the
common school with its McGuffey readers equipping a generation with a set of values which included the
work ethic, moderation if not temperance, belief in providence (though the reader was filled with a variety
of less 'illuminated' virtue from racism to sexism). (32) There was an ecumenical character which marked
the endeavors as the symbols had to be very generalized to be superimposed on the pluralist society.
According to Williams,

	"The informal strategy of Evangelicals to circumvent this difficulty was 
	to propagate the 'secondary' rather than the 'primary' symbols of Protestantism.
	If they could not teach dogma, they could at least inculcate the values,
	the implications for daily living, that were derived from these 'primary symbols.'
	Collectively, these values came to constitute the 'American Way of Life.'" (33)

     Such individual values as the sanctity of private property and the work ethic were underscored by what
Williams calls a 'canon' of  'sacred' songs. But Key (Star Spangled Banner), Smith  (My Country 'Tis of
Thee), Howe (Battle Hymn), and Bates (America the Beautiful) are all depicted as witting agents of this
Protestant design.(34) Not only is the public education system portrayed in the same light, but even its
athletic activities are a repository of the effort in their achievement orientation and their accompanying
ritual. There are described both clerics and laity in the population. Further, this Protestant tribalism "is
even more apparent in ... war."(35) Somehow, all this explains how World War II documentaries like
"Why We Fight" had an obligatory roll-call of soldiers exhibiting ethnic diversity. One might well wonder
what the author would say about such tribalism in view of the proliferation of Operation Desert Storm
sweat-shirts just a few years ago, but the disturbing  aspects of the implications which genuinely
undermine the moment of this book do not detract from the actuality of the allusions to symbol  and ritual
in the public faith, although the appearance of Adam Weiskopf in Washington's place and wearing his
Masonic apron might be anticipated at any turn. Williams concludes his excursion in an even more
speculative realm, but the expression that what he sees as a new universal culture which is merging will
be "collective rather than individual; and socialist rather than capitalist" ... and "humanizing," not
"oppressive" (36) in the new 'global village' with some useful observations. There is an extended
discussion of the role which  Reader's Digest has played in communicating, endorsing, even
apotheosizing  "American middle-class culture."(37) (But there is similar treatment of the National
Enquirer!) Celebrities have taken on the role for us of Olympian gods.

     What really guiles about Williams' effort is the trivialization of some rather serious business. One can
share some his intrepidations concerning popular culture without equating even Disney to Rod McKuen. 
It is likewise debatable that, however one wishes to classify them, greeting cards "function to fill the
symbolic vacuum left by the disappearance of the Catholic sacraments."(38) And one can note the
liturgical calendar of America or the impact of motion pictures on the culture short of Eric Segal's Love
Story  being raised to inspirational level.
     The examination of Wilson's "The Status of  'Civil Religion' in America" is more valuable. For
example, recalling Warner's Memorial Day article, he repeats that author's proposal for a 'national
calendar' of sacred days, and then goes on to describe something of the religious character of the capital
city, and the pilgrimages so many make there.(39) The symbolism of civil ceremony extends across the
country, but while Wilson  suggests a common belief structure, he does not elaborate, adding later that
such betrays a certain western bias, anyway.(40) This is echoed as well by Bellah, though Wilson's
reference to the Sunday mail delivery debate of the 1820's is not. It is not clear, however, that his step
from Madison to the assessment that there is no place "for a formal civil religion within the American
social order,"(41) while there very much is for 'civic piety' fails by the very criterion of western bias he
himself has raised.
     His assessment thus is that Bellah (for me) has not made a thoroughly convincing argument (42) in
concluding:
	"That certain symbols, ceremonies, and patterns of behavior within contemporary 
	American society (as within any society, past or present) are widely experienced 
	by individuals and groups as religious is a proposition which incontrovertible. But
	it is equally the case that in the United States these phenomena are not accorded
	the kind of status appropriate to a religion."(20)

But that position in Smith's THE RELIGION OF THE REPUBLIC  limits the conceptualization far too
much. By that standard, a great deal of the earth's 'religions' do not qualify as that. Anthropology has
suggested a broader focus not so delimited.



*This sampling of the literature of civil religion is quite representative, and it should suffice for purposes
of the examination undertaken here, but the extent of the discussion can be demonstrated by a substantial
cataloguing of at least some of the other relevant literature, detailed  exposition on which would be largely
duplicative, but which have been looked to in preparation for this examination:

Thurman Arnold has described SYMBOLS OF GOVERNMENT and THE FOLKLORE OF
CAPITALISM;  Kenneth Burke has written about THE LANGUAGE OF SOCIAL ACTION; John Berger
has added THE SACRED CANOPY to the other work referenced here; James and Curtis Borhak have
discussed A SOCIETY OF BELIEF; PEARL HARBOR GHOSTS has been offered by Thurston  Clarke;
Ernest Cassier has written both LANGUAGE AND MYTH and THE MYTH OF THE STATE;
SPECTRUM AND RITUAL is a joint effort of d'Aquilli and Laughlin; Terrence and Kennedy Deal have
examined THE CORPORATE CULTURE;  COMMUNICATION AND THE SOCIAL ORDER by Hugh
Duncan is complemented by his SYMBOLS OF SOCIETY; two works by Murray Edelman are POLITICS
AS SYMBOLIC ACTION  and THE SYMBOLIC USES OF POLITICS; Jack Fruchtman has done a
study of THOMAS PAINE AND THE RELIGION OF NATURE; Clifford Geertz contributed "Religion
As A Cultural System" in the anthology ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF
RELIGION edited by Bunton and "Centers, Kings and Charisma" to Ben-David and Clark's CULTURE
AND ITS CREATORS; THE RITES OF PASSAGE is a discussion entered by Arnold von Gennap; John
Girling has explored MYTHS AND POLITICS IN WESTERN SOCIETIES; PRESENTATION OF SELF
IN EVERYDAY LIFE is an Erring Goffman effort; NATIONALISM; A RELIGION was written by
Carlton Hayes; Hess and Tourney  wrote THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL ATTITUDES IN
CHILDREN and Fred Greenstein had done CHILDREN AND POLITICS; William James has considered
THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE;  Christel Lane, THE RITES OF RULERS; THE
MAKING OF RELIGION is written by Andrew Lang; Claude Levi-Strauss wrote THE SAVAGE MIND;
SYMBOLS AND SENTIMENTS is a book by Joan Lewis; Konrad Lorenz' "Ritualized Fighting" is
included in THE NATURAL HISTORY OF AGGRESSION by Carthy and Ebliny; Harvey Mansfield's
AMERICA'S CONSTITUTIONAL SOUL should be included; Manlinowski did what is often considered
to be a classical study, MAGIC, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION; Sally Moore and Myerhoff studied
SYMBOL AND POLITICS IN COMMUNAL IDEOLOGY while MASS POLITICS AND THE
POLITICAL LITURGY OF NATIONALISM was done by Moore alone; in Honigman's anthology
HANDBOOK OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY is found Nancy Munn's "Symbolism
in Ritual Context;" RITE, DRAMA, FESTIVAL, SPECTACLE was written by John MacAloom; Lord
Raglan's efforts included THE ORIGINS OF RELIGION and THE HERO; A STUDY IN TRADITION,
MYTH, AND DRAMA; in POLITICAL SPEAKING edited by Paine is Ian Rodger's  "Rhetoric and Ritual
Politics;" Sandoz' POLITICAL THEORY, RELIGION, AND THE AMERICAN FOUNDING;
HISTORICAL METAPHORS AND MYSTICAL REALITIES is a discussion by Marshall Sahlins; THE
PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE SOCIAL WORLD was penned by Alfred Schutz; FACES OF
NATIONALISM: NEW REALITIES AND OLD MYTHS is by Boyd Shaker; Peter Shaw wrote
AMERICAN PATRIOTS AND RITUALS OF REVOLUTION; James Siegal, THE RAPE OF GOD; Lee
Sproud's "Belief and Superstition" is found in the HANDBOOK OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
which was edited by Nystron and Starbuck; Daniel Sperber is credited with RETHINKING
SYMBOLISM; and in Maquet's collection ON SYMBOLS IN ANTHROPOLOGY is Milton Singer's 
"Emblems of  Identity;" ROOTS OF RITUAL, an anthology by Shaughuessy has among its collection
Converse's  "The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics" and "Ritual and Development of Social 
Structure" by Christopher Crocker; Victor Turner has three relevant titles, FOREST OF SYMBOLS, THE
RITUAL PROCESS, and DRAMAS, FIELDS, AND METAPHORS; Gary Wills wrote UNDER GOD:
RELIGION AND AMERICAN POLITICS; Sean Wilentz has examined  RITES OF POWER; and John
Whiting added "The Socialization Process of Personality" to F.L.K. Hsu's  PSYCHOLOGICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY  and Whiting with Irvin Child wrote CHILD TRAINING AND PERSONALITY.









Among journal articles of particular relevance are Ronald Reagan's Revival by Adams (Sociological
Analysis 48:17);  Ritual in Political Campaign Discourse (QJS 63:219-32),  Political Sanctification (Soc
Sci Inf 14:79-106),  Civil Religion and Public Morality (JP 44:106-133), and Myth, Ritual, and Political
Control (J of Communication 30:166-70), all by Bennett; Bloch's Symbols, Songs, and Dances, etc. (Am
Soc Res 42:220); Collective Bargaining: Ritual or Reality by Blum (HBR 39:6); Cobb and Elder's
Political Uses of Symbolism (APQ); Cohen's Political  Symbolism (Annual Rev of Anth 8:87-113);
Edelman's Escalation and Ritualization of Political Conflict (ABS 13:731-46);  Priestly Functions of the
Presidency by Fairbanks (PSQ 11:214-32); Galbraith's Conventional Signs  (Spectator 205: 174-5);
Gamoran's Civil Religion in American Schools (Soc Anal 235-56); Rhetoric of Jimmy Carter   by Hahn
(PSQ 14:265-88); Houghland's Attitudes Toward Nativity Scenes on Public Property (Soc Anal 53:299-
308); Dramatizing the Ideology of Revolution: Virginia  by Issac ( WMQ 33:357-85); Jordan's Family
Politics: Tom Paine and Killing the King (JAH 60:294-308); Protest Uses of Symbolic Politics by
Kowalewski (SSQ 61:95-113); If the State Functions As A Religion...  by Lipsitz (APSR 62:527-53); 
Lindsey's The Godlike Man Versus the Best Laws  (Rev of Pol 53:488); Lukes' Political Ritual and Social
Integration (Soc 9:289-308); Mann's The Spirit's New Errand (Daedalus 96:99); Twenty Years After
Bellah by Mathieson (Soc Anal 50(2):129-146); Local Budgeting:Decision-Making or Ritual?  by Olsen
(Scand Pol Sci 5:85-118); Ordner's On Key Symbols (Am Anth 75:1338-46);  Pocock's Ritual, Language,
and Power (PS 16:3-31); Reeves and Bylund wrote Anonymity and the Rise of Universal Occasions for
Religious Ritual: Extension of Durkheim's Theory (JSSR 31(2):113-30); Oaths, Autonomic Ordeals, and
Power by Roberts (Am Anth 67:186-212); The Democratization of George Washington By Schwartz 
(ASR 56:221); Reformation, Carnival, ... by Scribner (Soc His 3:303-29); Shils' Ritual and Crisis (Phil
Trans Royal Soc 251:447-50);  the Symposium Has There Been A Reagan Revolution in Theology (Christ
Cent 105:275); Tonkin's Masks and Power (Man 14:237-48); Ungar's Civil Religion and the Arms Race
(Can Rev of Soc and Anth 28:4); Weinstein's  Development of the Concept of the Flag ... (Child Devel
28-167-174); Wimberly's Civil Religion and the Choice for President: 1972 (Soc Forces 59(1):44) and
Political Use of Religion:Case Study of the 1972 Presidential Campaign (Rev of Pol 37:490-512);
Winter's  Elective Affinities Between Religious Beliefs and Ideologies of Management in Two Eras (AJS
79(5):1134); On Benjamin Franklin by Winthrop (NAR (1857) 175:334-63); Civil Religion in the Age of
Reason:Thomas Paine of Liberalism, Redemption, and Revolution (Soc Res 54:447); Civil Religion in an
Uncivil Society by Williams and Demerath (Annals AAPSS 480-154) and their  Religion and Social
Process in An American City (ASR 56:417); and Woodram and Belle's Race, Politics, and Religion in
Civil Religion Among Blacks (Soc Anal 49(4):353-367).

While it should not by any means be supposed that these 100 books and articles do not have important
commentary of relevance to the considerations of this project, in most cases they reflect elaboration or
expansion on some of the more rudimentary themes discussed here. As such, they represent somewhat
evidentiary material in support of basic propositions examined. They help emphasize the scope and
importance of the civil religion invention.

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