Ep. 0214: A Civil-Religious Civil War?

Is the USA currently in the early stages of sectarian conflict over its civil religion?

In this episode of the DHP, CJ rebroadcasts his 2016 Election Special on America’s Civil Religion (in order to review the concept of civil religion & its manifestation in the United States); this is followed by new material, reflecting on how CJ’s understanding of the American civil religion has changed somewhat since 2016. He then goes on to compare and contrast the current political conflicts in the US to the Protestant Reformation in 16th and 17th century Europe, as well as the pietist-vs-liturgical split in American Christianity in the 19th century, before wrapping up with some humble observations and suggestions for people who are (like CJ) nonbelievers in any civil religion & who want to weather the current conflicts as best they can.

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The Dangerous History Podcast is a member of the Recorded History Podcast Network, the Dark Myths Podcast Collective & LRN.fm’s podcast roster.

External Links

• Hardcore History Episode 48: Prophets of Doom
• Full text of “Civil Religion in America” by Robert Bellah, first published in the journal Daedalus in 1967
• “Religion, Morality, and American Politics” by Richard Jensen
• Classic George Carlin bit on why he doesn’t vote
• George Carlin on “Stupid Hat Shit” (Hilarious — talks about the fixation of both conventional religion & civil religion with headgear)
• Bob Dylan, “With God on Our Side” (An excellent, haunting, live recording of one of CJ’s favorite antiwar songs of all time; this song brutally exposes the American Civil Religion)
• “Election Outcomes Affect Testosterone Levels in Men” according to Scientific American
• Wikipedia’s summary of the United States Flag Code

CJ’s Picks: Amazon Affiliate Links

Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War by Harry Stout

The Cult of the Presidency, Updated: America’s Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power by Gene Healy

The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages, Revised and Expanded Edition by Norman Cohn

The Tailor King: The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptist Kingdom of Munster by Anthony Arthur

The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West by Niall Ferguson

The War of the World: A New History of the 20th Century (DVD)