Rhetorical Analysis of Robert Bellahs Civil Religion

Rhetorical Analysis of
Civil Religion In America by Robert H. Bellah

Robert N. Bellah "Civil Religion In America" was written in the winter of 1967 and is

copyrighted by the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences from the issue

entitled "religion in America". In his writings Bellah Explains the idea and workings of Civil

Religion in the United States; this chapter was written for a Dædalus conference on American

Religion in May 1966. It was reprinted with comments and a rejoined in The Religious Situation.

Civil Religion is the idea that our own government has its own Devine right of worship and is

parallel to the writings of the Bible. It's the concept that the United States is its own religion as

a   form of Christianity complete with its own form of life beyond, rewards of virtue, and the

punishment of vice, and the exclusion of religious intolerance. But in order for a religion to be

plausible and become a success it needs a number if pivotal points that juxtapose some form of

existing religion. Abraham Lincoln was our Jesus messiah sacrificing himself for freedom and

new beginnings wail Washington is the Moses leading the people out of captivity; our sacred

documents like the old and new testaments are the constitution and bill of rights, The ritual

dates are the fourth of   July and labor day. Civil religion even has it's own monuments,

Commandments, guideline and followers.

Civil religion is a highly discussed topic in American history with many sides and many

views. One of the most dominant for civil religion is Jean-Jacques Rousseau, arguably the most
influential political philosopher of the last three centuries and whom Bellah bases much of his

findings on. Rousseau is viewed as almost a profit of the new religion and is placed here to

spread its word. And of corse like any new emerging idea it's main antagonists are Christian

followers who that see no connection... [continues]

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