This thesis seeks to build upon and provide a new interpretation of civil religion in the United States. In it, the history of civil religion from the 1960s, starting with Bellah, to the 2010s will be analyzed for any themes still used in the 2020s. Similarly, understanding what a religion is within this time frame will be broken apart and examined to see how it paralleled the evolution of political understanding. Building upon its history, the paper will break into four prominent chapters: Is American Democracy Like a Civil Religion?, Religious Characteristics in the American Government, American Democracy as a Civil Religion, and The Darkness of Civil Religion. Through this analysis, this thesis will definitively answer that the United States’ government is a civil religion.
","abstract_html":"<p>This thesis seeks to build upon and provide a new interpretation of civil religion in the United States. In it, the history of civil religion from the 1960s, starting with Bellah, to the 2010s will be analyzed for any themes still used in the 2020s. Similarly, understanding what a religion is within this time frame will be broken apart and examined to see how it paralleled the evolution of political understanding. Building upon its history, the paper will break into four prominent chapters: Is American Democracy Like a Civil Religion?, Religious Characteristics in the American Government, American Democracy as a Civil Religion, and The Darkness of Civil Religion. Through this analysis, this thesis will definitively answer that the United States’ government is a civil religion.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Serrano, José Andrés"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Religion, MA","degree_level":"Open Access Master's Thesis","degree_discipline":"School of Arts and Humanities","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Tyler Reny"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2023-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:40:22Z","subjects":["Civil religion","Conservative","American Democracy","Liberal","Polarization","Theoretical","Political Science","Religion"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/559","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Tyler Reny"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Serrano, José Andrés"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2023-10-23T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["School of Arts and Humanities"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Open Access Master's Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Religion, MA"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Civil religion","Conservative","American Democracy","Liberal","Polarization","Theoretical","Political Science","Religion"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/559"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This thesis seeks to build upon and provide a new interpretation of civil religion in the United States. In it, the history of civil religion from the 1960s, starting with Bellah, to the 2010s will be analyzed for any themes still used in the 2020s. Similarly, understanding what a religion is within this time frame will be broken apart and examined to see how it paralleled the evolution of political understanding. Building upon its history, the paper will break into four prominent chapters: Is American Democracy Like a Civil Religion?, Religious Characteristics in the American Government, American Democracy as a Civil Religion, and The Darkness of Civil Religion. Through this analysis, this thesis will definitively answer that the United States’ government is a civil religion.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Divine Democracy: Examining the Intersection of Religion and Politics in Civil Religion"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Tyler Reny"],"dc:creator":["Serrano, José Andrés"],"dc:date.available":["2023-10-23T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["This thesis seeks to build upon and provide a new interpretation of civil religion in the United States. In it, the history of civil religion from the 1960s, starting with Bellah, to the 2010s will be analyzed for any themes still used in the 2020s. Similarly, understanding what a religion is within this time frame will be broken apart and examined to see how it paralleled the evolution of political understanding. Building upon its history, the paper will break into four prominent chapters: Is American Democracy Like a Civil Religion?, Religious Characteristics in the American Government, American Democracy as a Civil Religion, and The Darkness of Civil Religion. Through this analysis, this thesis will definitively answer that the United States’ government is a civil religion.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/559"],"dc:subject":["Civil religion","Conservative","American Democracy","Liberal","Polarization","Theoretical","Political Science","Religion"],"dc:title":["Divine Democracy: Examining the Intersection of Religion and Politics in Civil Religion"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["School of Arts and Humanities"],"thesis:degree_level":["Open Access Master's Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Religion, MA"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:40:22Z"}