The Broken Covenant: American Civil Religion in Time of Trial

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University of Chicago Press, Aug 15, 1992 - History - 198 pages
This Second Edition represents Bellah's summation of his views on civil religion in America. In his 1967 classic essay "Civil Rights in America," Bellah argued that the religious dimensions of American society—as distinct from its churches—has its own integrity and required "the same care in understanding that any religion."

This edition includes his 1978 article "Religion and the Legitimation of the American Republic," and a new Preface.
 

Selected pages

Contents

I Americas Myth of Origin
1
II America as a Chosen People
36
III Salvation and Success in America
61
IV Nativism and Cultural Pluralism in America
87
V The American Taboo on Socialism
112
VI The Birth of New American Myths
139
Religion and the Legitimation of the American Republic
164
Notes
189
Copyright

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About the author (1992)

Robert N. Bellah, an American sociologist, received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1955 and teaches at the University of California at Berkeley. He is best known for his work on community and religion. Although he has written on religions in nonwestern cultures, he has focused much of his research on the notion of civil religion in the West. To Bellah, American society confronts a moral dilemma whereby communalism competes with individualism for domination. His most important book, Habits of the Heart (1985), considers the American character and the decline of community. Bellah holds that the radical split between knowledge and commitment is untenable and can result only in a stunted personal and intellectual growth. He argues for a social science guided by communal values.

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