Bellah and Civil Religion

Question 1

Civil religion

Answer 1

A civil religion is said to occur when a secular activity or movement takes on the functions of religion and people follow it in the same way as a conventional religion.

Question 2

Overview

Answer 2

Bellah shows that even in an apparent secular society there are religious forces at work that unite people. He argued that a faith in Americanism was an overarching civil religion that appealed to all Americans, whether Jew, Muslim, Catholic, Protestant or atheist.

It generates widespread loyalty to the nation state and is even linked to a belief in the supernatural eg believing that a God will favour Americans over others. It is evident in the patriotic song ‘God bless America’, the swearing of oaths of allegiance to God by American Presidents and ‘In God We Trust’ on American coins. This faith in Americanism helps to unite the American people in group activities.

Question 3

Political ideology

Answer 3

In the last 100 years some people have followed political ideologies like they would a religion; they have lived according to specific political principles, used symbols to show their political allegiance and supported charismatic political leaders. This can be seen in communist North Korea; it claims to be an atheist state but communism is practiced as a civil religion as the people worship past and present leaders and live according to a rigid communist ideology that claims to be the absolute truth.

The concept of a civil religion supports the functionalist argument that religion is an essentialist feature of society. Eg society will always have a need to follow a belief system and come together as a group. This concept can also be applied to other secular activities such as in the way people show their support for the Royal Family in the UK.

Question 4

A03

Answer 4

based on theoretical assumptions

Wilson states Bellah was just describing features of American life