God Bless America: - Season 1 Episode 8

 

S1E8: God Bless America

Welcome to the final episode of Church Historia Season 1!

This week we’re going to take a slightly different approach and about something more general to American Christianity. (Our primary case study is located in the South, so we’re not going too far afield.) 

In this episode we talk about civil religion and how it expresses itself in the United States. This conversation is important because American civil religion uses a lot of language that sounds similar to Christianity (e.g. God, Almighty, called to a specific purpose), but it is its own thing, with its own stories, symbols, rituals, and heroes. We believe that talking about civil religion and learning how it relates to Christianity and patriotism is important for us to have greater clarity about each of those things and to help us, as individuals, better understand our motivations and beliefs.

And thank you again for joining us on this journey! We hope you’ve found it enjoyable, thought provoking, informative and fun. We’d love to hear from you about what you enjoyed the most! If you haven’t already done so, we would love it if you left a review on your platform of choice and/or told a friend about our podcast. 

Keep any eye out in your email over the next few months, for some extra bonus content and announcements about future plans!

LISTEN NOW:

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LINKS TO LISTEN ON PODCAST PLATFORMS:

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1. Gaustad, Edwin S., and Mark A. Noll, eds. A Documentary History of Religion in America to 1877. Third Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003.

  2. Gaustad, Edwin, and Leigh Schmidt. The Religious History of America The Heart of the American Story from Colonial Times to Today. Revised Edition. New York: HarperOne, 2002.

  3. Griffith, Ruth Marie, ed. American Religions: A Documentary History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

  4. Albanese, Catherine L. America, Religions and Religion. 2nd ed. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth PubCo, 1992.

  5. ———. “Echoes of American Civil Religion.” The Immanent Frame, February 12, 2010. https://tif.ssrc.org/2010/02/12/american-civil-religion/.

  6. Bellah, Robert N. “Civil Religion in America.” Daedalus 134, no. 4 (September 2005): 40–55. https://doi.org/10.1162/001152605774431464.

  7. ———. “Cultural Barriers to the Understanding of the Church and Its Public Role.” Missiology: An International Review, XIX, no. 4 (October 1991): 462–7

  8. ———. “Reflections on Reality in America.” Radical Religion: A Quarterly Journal of Critical Opinion I, no. 3 & 4 (Summer & Fall 1974): 38–41, 43–45, 47–48.

  9. Beuttler, Fred W. “‘In God We Trust’ -- Interpreting Religion in the US Capitol.” In Forthcoming, Forthcoming. AASLH, Forthcoming.

  10. Cladis, Mark S. “Painting Landscapes of Religion in America: Four Models of Religion in Democracy.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 76, no. 4 (2008): 874–904.

  11. Clozel, Lalita. “An App Tells Painful Stories Of Slaves At Monticello’s Mulberry Row.” NPR, August 2, 2015. https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/08/02/428126511/an-app-tells-painful-stories-of-slaves-at-monticellos-mulberry-row.

  12. Fox, Margalit. “Robert Bellah, Sociologist of Religion Who Mapped the American Soul, Dies at 86.” The New York Times, August 6, 2013, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/07/us/robert-bellah-sociologist-of-religion-who-mapped-the-american-soul-dies-at-86.html.

  13. Geertz, Armin W. Review of Review of What Is Religion? Origins, Definitions, and Explanations, by Thomas A. Idinopulos and Brian C. Wilson. The Journal of Religion 81, no. 2 (2001): 343–46.

  14. Gehrig, Gail. “The American Civil Religion Debate: A Source for Theory Construction.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 20, no. 1 (1981): 51–63. https://doi.org/10.2307/1385338.

  15. Levinson, Sanford. “‘The Constitution’ in American Civil Religion.” The Supreme Court Review 1979 (1979): 123–51.

  16. Marvin, Carolyn, and David W. Ingle. “Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Revisiting Civil Religion.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 64, no. 4 (1996): 767–80.

  17. Toolin, Cynthia. “American Civil Religion from 1789 to 1981: A Content Analysis of Presidential Inaugural Addresses.” Review of Religious Research 25, no. 1 (1983): 39–48. https://doi.org/10.2307/3511310.

  18. Williams, Rhys H., and Susan M. Alexander. “Religious Rhetoric in American Populism: Civil Religion as Movement Ideology.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 33, no. 1 (1994): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.2307/1386633.


ABOUT CHURCH HISTORIA

Christianity is not an “or” religion.
The incarnation itself demands that we hold in tension that Jesus was both fully human and fully God.
Christianity is an “and” religion.

We think the variety within the Christian tradition is beautiful. We like to use the word tapestry to describe that diversity, the richness that helps us see and hold in tension and balance the “and” of Christianity. This tapestry, with its many shapes and colors across denominations, regions, and countries, helps us hold that tension in which we find ourselves.

Church Historia celebrates the tapestry of the Christian tradition through the lens of history. Hosted by church historian Stephanie Fulbright and church history enthusiast Leslie Eiler Thompson, this new podcast identifies people and places in the Christian tradition and uses their stories to discover new threads in the tapestry of Christianity.

For Christians and non-Christians alike, this journey through the past will help us see ourselves, our neighbors, and our present realities more vibrantly. Season 1, “Who Are Your People?” explores Southern Christian traditions and the history that frames them.

Sign up for the email list to get updates on Church Historia, and additional information when episodes release.

ABOUT THE HOSTS

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STEPHANIE FULBRIGHT
HOST, IN-PODCAST HISTORIAN,
AND TEA MISTRESS

Stephanie had an interest in history from a young age and fell in love with Church History in college. In 2017, Stephanie completed her Master of Theological Studies, in Public History of Religion, at Vanderbilt University. Her thesis, Contentious Histories: Why They’re Important and How to Tell Them Well, encourages those in reconciliation and community justice work to think about how history connects with the work they do.

A lifelong passion of Stephanie’s is sharing history and tools of historical thought with others, so we can experience the world around us more deeply and become better neighbors. Stephanie frequently teaches church history and Sunday School programs.

Stephanie can often be found with a cup of tea, a good book, and her Great Dane puppy, Mouse.

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LESLIE EILER THOMPSON
CO-HOST, PRODUCER,
AND IDITAROD EXPERT

With a math-teaching father and art-teaching mother, it’s no surprise that Leslie Eiler Thompson’s work often strikes a balance between craft and calculation. Highly creative, idiosyncratic, and multi-faceted, Leslie’s work finds itself taking shape in many forms - from storytelling and writing to podcast hosting (Someone Like Me Podcast) & producing (Tokens Podcast), to owning a creative marketing and publicity studio. There’s even some singing sprinkled into the mix.

Spending most of her childhood and adolescent years on a theatrical stage sparked an attitude of curiosity in Leslie, one which has developed into a call to humanize - to work with heart and to share with purpose and meaning.

Inspiration strikes Leslie in the English-Ivy covered hills just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. In 2020, Leslie got to experience the Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska, but that’s another story for another time.

 
Season 1Leslie Eiler Thompson