ABSTRACT
The root of the dilemma in Herberg's eclecticism is that its parts moved in different, often contradictory directions. The smooth flow of Judaism and Christianity, of Democrats and Republicans, of existentialists and historicists, simply reflected a special time in American history: the 1950s. In this fashion, the attempt to establish a hyphenated American religion sadly deteriorates into apologetics that can only, and then with kindness, be called banal. Soviet communism becomes a substitute for impoverished religion, while American capitalism as surrogate for the American Way of Life serves a similar purpose. Herberg was as much a reflection as an analyst of a powerful strain toward consensus through pluralism in American thought and action. The Henry Luce notion of a pax Americana seemed to be in perfect keeping with the spirit of the times. For compounding the faith in American religion of Protestantism-Catholicism-Judaism was a faith in an American ideology of conservatism, pluralism, and historicism.
