| − | Bellah (1967) argues that American “civil religion”, which has no association with any religious denomination or viewpoint, has incorporated Memorial Day as a sacred event. The obligation both collective and individual to carry out God's will on earth is a theme that lies deep in the American tradition, Bellah argues. With the Civil War, a new theme of death, sacrifice and rebirth enters the civil religion. Memorial Day gave ritual expression to these themes, integrating the local community into a sense of nationalism. The American civil religion in contrast to that of France was never anticlerical or militantly secular; in contrast to Britain it was not tied to a specific denomination like the Church of England. Instead the Americans borrowed selectively from different religious traditions in such a way that the average American saw no conflict between the two, thus mobilizing deep levels of personal motivation for the attainment of national goals. | + | Bellah (1967) argues that American “civil religion”, which has no association with any religious denomination or viewpoint, has incorporated Memorial Day as a sacred event. The obligation both collective and individual to carry out God's will on earth is a theme that lies deep in the American tradition, Bellah argues. With the Civil War, a new theme of death, sacrifice and rebirth enters the civil religion. Memorial Day gave ritual expression to these themes, integrating the local community into a sense of nationalism. The American civil religion in contrast to that of France was never anticlerical or militantly secular; in contrast to Britain it was not tied to a specific denomination like the Church of England. Instead the Americans borrowed selectively from different religious traditions in such a way that the average American saw no conflict between the two, thus mobilizing deep levels of personal motivation for the attainment of national goals. |