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During my trip to Spain, my friend Bryan Hernandez introduced me to the phrase “Civil Religion.”
I find this term very interesting.
In comparison to most words, the meaning of “civil religion” is particularly amorphous. However, in general, it refers to the collective beliefs and rituals practiced by the political culture of a group of people. Wikipedia gives some good examples such as “the veneration of past political leaders,” “the veneration of veterans,” and “the use of the lives of leaders to teach moral ideals.”
Civil Religion can and does also include more traditional religious practices that make their way into a political belief system (such as the invocation of God at various places here in the US); we can observe religious belief systems merging with political belief systems in many places. The way in which traditional religious beliefs and rituals become a part of our civil religion explicitly points to a powerful concept (which is at the core of the phrase): governance and political states are built on belief systems.
This leads us to a very interesting framework for analyzing government and culture at large–analyzing them as belief systems. And belief systems do have intrinsic characteristics, functions, and mechanisms that we should explore.
-Kevin
6.29.2010
