The Interdependence Of Religion In America

Historically, The United States of America were molded as a country with the intention of having a clear separation of the ‘Church’, referring to the Christian church, and the state. Evidently, religion has no cemented impact within the state – a governing body, however America is, arguably, not a state, but rather a combination of a nation-state; as many believe. A nation – a group of people with a shared identity, envelopes religion often, along with many other facets of humanity, being the connective/communal identity amongst ‘citizens’ within the nation or the nation-state. Consequently, the inevitable interdependence of religion within America is present, not ‘literally’ regarding Christianity itself as many know was contextually forced into many governments and societies, but rather as a reference/practice, to that of the Abrahamic religions, which Robert Bellah, religious studies theorist, ‘christens’ as Civil Religion.
Bellah, interprets the United States a nation, highlighting the uprising of the ‘Third Time of Trial’, which he relates this civil religion, elucidating America as “succumbing to that arrogance of power which has afflicted, weakened and in some cases destroyed great nations in the past” (Robert N. Bellah,