ABSTRACT
Just over a decade ago I published an essay (1970) that I have never subsequently been allowed to forget. In that essay I suggested that there is such a thing as civil religion in America. My suggestion has roused passionate opposition as well as widespread acceptance. Opposition to the idea has shown little unity. Some of my opponents say there is no such thing, that I have invented something which does not exist; others say there is such a thing but there ought not to be; still others say there is such a thing but it should be called by another name, “ public piety,” for example, rather than civil religion. Unfortunately for me my supporters are in even greater disarray. The term civil religion has spread far beyond any coherent concept, or at least beyond anything I ever meant by it. Perhaps the commonest reaction is a puzzled, “ Yes, there seems to be something there, but what exactly is it?” Among professional specialists in American studies there is another reaction: “ We knew it all the time. What Bellah says is nothing new.” And then there is perhaps a vague reference to Tocqueville. But with one or two exceptions, little in the way of conceptual clarity has been forthcoming from specialists. I would like to try once again to clarify this most troublesome problem.
