Civil religion in American public high schools

: the intersection of religion and politics among educators

Abstract

The concept of civil religion has been a point of rigorous debate within the academy since the publication of Robert Bellah’s 1967 article, ‘Civil Religion in America.’ While the concept has experienced a steady presence in the literature, there have been few attempts to locate its expression or function in the lived realities of individuals. This project employs a mixed-method approach to gather quantitative and qualitative data to shed light on participant orientations towards the civil religious tenets that are presented in the literature. Focusing on the views of public high school social studies teachers from across the US, this study explores their possible perception of America in transcendent terms, as well as their propensity to disseminate related ideas amongst students in their classrooms. The methodological approach used to gather and analyze the data from this study yielded findings that make a significant contribution to the sociology of religion, where gaps exist related to empirical research regarding civil religion. Via statistical analysis, this study identified a latent dimension that can be classified as ‘civil religious,’ that manifests itself in a host of relationships overlooked by the previous research and unreported in the available literature. In addition, this study has found that very few educators are invested in disseminating ideas associated with civil religion within the contexts of their public-school classrooms. This is a significant contribution to the literature, as it reveals what educators believe are their responsibilities in socializing youth. Finally, this thesis makes recommendations on topics and methods for future studies that seek to locate and explore civil religion and its tenets in the lived realities of individuals.

Date of Award	1 Dec 2019
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	King's College London
Supervisor	Marat Shterin (Supervisor)