A Jewish America and a Protestant Civil Religion: Will Herberg, Robert Bellah, and Mid-Twentieth Century American Religion
This essay reads Will Herberg's Protestant-Catholic-Jew alongside Robert Bellah's Civil Religion in America to illuminate how mid-century thinkers constructed, rather than merely observed, a vision of, and for, American religion. Placing Herberg in direct conversation with Bellah illumin...
| Published in: | Religions |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
MDPI
[2015]
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| In: |
Religions
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| Further subjects: | B
Will Herberg
B Civil Religion B Robert Bellah B Protestant-Catholic-Jew B Religion And Politics |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This essay reads Will Herberg's Protestant-Catholic-Jew alongside Robert Bellah's Civil Religion in America to illuminate how mid-century thinkers constructed, rather than merely observed, a vision of, and for, American religion. Placing Herberg in direct conversation with Bellah illuminates why Herberg's religious triptych depiction of America endured while his argument for an American Way of Lifethe prototype for Bellah's widely accepted idea of civil religionflailed. Although Herberg's American Way of Life and Bellah's Civil Religion resemble one another as systems built on but distinct from faith traditions, they emerged from intellectual struggles with two distinct issues. Herberg's work stemmed from the challenges wrought by ethnic and religious diversity in America, while Bellah wrote out of frustration with Cold War conformity. Both men used civil religion to critique American complacency, but Herberg agonized over trite formulations of faith while Bellah derided uncritical affirmations of patriotism. Bellah's civil religion co-existed with and, more importantly, contained Herberg's Protestant-Catholic-Jew triad and obscured the American Way of Life. In an increasingly diverse and divisive America, Bellah's civil religion provided a more optimistic template for national self-critique, even as Herberg's American Way of Life more accurately described the limits of national self-understanding. |
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| ISSN: | 2077-1444 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3390/rel6020434 |