10 minutes with … Robert Bellah

(UNDATED) Though he has written numerous books and articles, Robert Bellah knows he will always best be known as the author of “Civil Religion in America.” The seminal 1967 essay, which popularized Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s notion of shared cultural ideas, illuminated the subtext beneath cherished American myths and ideals. Chief among these, Bellah argues, is that […]

(RNS5-JAN28) Sociologist Robert Bellah introduced the notion of American civil religion in 1967. For use with RNS-10-MINUTES, transmitted Jan. 28, 2009. Religion News Service photo courtesy Robert Bellah.

(RNS5-JAN28) Sociologist Robert Bellah introduced the notion of American civil religion in 1967. For use with RNS-10-MINUTES, transmitted Jan. 28, 2009. Religion News Service photo courtesy Robert Bellah.

(UNDATED) Though he has written numerous books and articles, Robert Bellah knows he will always best be known as the author of “Civil Religion in America.”

The seminal 1967 essay, which popularized Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s notion of shared cultural ideas, illuminated the subtext beneath cherished American myths and ideals. Chief among these, Bellah argues, is that human rights are God-given, and America’s leaders are obliged to carry out God’s will.


Bellah talked about Abraham Lincoln, President Obama’s inaugural address, and why former President George W. Bush didn’t get (civil) religion. Some answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Some call Abraham Lincoln the Jesus of American civil religion-he freed the slaves, saved the country, and was killed on Good Friday,. Is that going too far?

A: His martyred death gave special meaning and salience to his life. But I think it’s not his death but his writings at crucial moments-the second inaugural address, the Gettysburg Address-that are the center of civil religion. One of the key things for me is that Lincoln held the nation under divine judgment, which went beyond jingoistic nationalism, and embodies the understanding of the founders that our relationship to God precedes our relationship to the nation.

Q: People have called the Gettysburg Address the New Testament of American civil religion. Do you agree?

A: Yes, if you look at the subtext of what Lincoln says: that unless we die we cannot be born again. It’s a very deeply Christian message without saying so explicitly.

Q: But Lincoln’s wife said he wasn’t a “technical Christian.”

A: People want to put Lincoln in all kinds of categories but he just doesn’t fit. He was a very complicated figure.


Q: President Obama’s inaugural address was heavy on civil religion. Do you think having a black president will shift our understanding of it?

A: I think there is significant overlap between Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama. (Wright is) an intelligent person who knows that this country has committed crimes. There is great hope and promise in this country and black theology, on the whole, has not abandoned that. Obama has picked up on that theme.

Q: What did you think of Obama’s inaugural address?

A: I’ve been reading it several times. I was a little disappointed for the lack of soaring rhetoric, but it really is a very serious sermon about what our problems are and where we are. It’s a balanced statement of implied criticism, but also of hope that we can rise to the best in our tradition.

Q: Why do you call it a sermon?

A: It’s a profound meditation on the highest ideas of our culture, ending with George Washington and those two words: hope and virtue. He’s talking about the Scripture of the American civil religion. He’s explicating it and telling us what it calls us to do. What else is that but a sermon?

It was also a recovery of civil religion from self-righteous nationalism. There are people who think we can do anything we want, that civil religion is about worshipping the nation, and that the divine will and the nation are fused. The phrase “under God” means “under God’s judgment, so you better watch out.”

Q: So, how does Obama’s inaugural speech compare with that of say, former President George W. Bush, when he talks about freedom being the gift of the Almighty?


A: That speech was so very close to identifying the United States with divine providence, so from my point of view it was an utter subversion of civil religion. Bush’s two inaugural addresses were horrid, so shallow. It was precisely the kind of civil religion that made me want to not use the term.

Q: What do you think of Obama using Lincoln’s phrase from the Gettysburg Address, a “new birth of freedom” as the theme of his inauguration?

A: Quite frankly, I’ve ambivalent about freedom in that kind of context-less way. Unless we give it a moral context, “freedom” is empty. What does it mean, freedom to do whatever you want? For middle-class Americans, freedom is a problem, not the answer. We have more freedom than at any other time in human history and no idea what to do with it.

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