"God Bless America and No One Else:" Civil Religion in the Inauguration, 1993-2017

Szabad, Szabina (2018) "God Bless America and No One Else:" Civil Religion in the Inauguration, 1993-2017. BA/Bsc, Szegedi Tudományegyetem.

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Abstract

This paper examines the dimensions of the civil religious symbol system in the contemporary political discourse in the last 25 years, with particular attention the presidential inauguration addresses. In the first half of the paper, existing theories in relation to the civil religious symbol system are discussed and the symbols explored are placed into two categories: symbols which are rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition and symbols which are derived from the national history of the United States. The paper engages Robert N. Bellah’s article entited “Civil Religion in America,” in which the concept of civil religion was introduced to the academic community. The paper also uses Peter Gardella’s book American Civil Religion: What Americans Hold Sacred, in which new theories are established and a large number of civil religious symbols are explored in depth. The arguments in this paper are made in light of the content of both Bellah’s article and Gardella’s book. At the end of the paper, the observation is made that contemporary inauguration addresses contain a large amount of civil religious symbols both borrowed from the Judeo-Christian tradition and from the national history of the United States.

Institution

Szegedi Tudományegyetem

Faculty

Faculty of Arts

Department

Amerikanisztika Tanszék

Discipline

Humanities

Institute

Angol-Amerikai Intézet

Specialization

amerikanisztika

Supervisor(s)

Item Type:	Thesis (BA/Bsc)
Subjects:	06. Humanities
Depositing User:	szerkesztő BTK
Date Deposited:	2019. Apr. 29. 07:14
Last Modified:	2019. Apr. 30. 06:18
URI:	https://diploma.bibl.u-szeged.hu/id/eprint/74425

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