Does America Need a Civil Religion?


The late sociologist Robert Bellah argued that American civil religion had become an "empty and broken shell" by the turn of the twenty-first century. Is it a concept worth reviving? Would re-imagining it help us move beyond the culture wars toward greater national cohesion? How might faith communities contribute to a newly imagined civil religion that addresses the challenges we face today?

Contributors to the conversation include Gus diZerega, David Dykes, Russell Arben Fox, Mark Galli, Anne Howard, Peter Laarman, and Jacqueline Lewis.

The Patheos Public Square is produced in partnership with Christianity Today and the Progressive Christian Initiative.

Patheos Archives

TOPICS

Patheos regularly hosts a variety of symposiums and series on current events and trending topics. Open the list below for a full offering of our topical pages featuring curated columns, blogs, and articles by subject.

PUBLIC SQUARE

In the Public Square, we connect the timely and the timeless and host conversations about some of the most important questions in life. For a full list of topics featured in our Public Square open the list below.