Religion and American Culture

Abstract: As a social historic phenomenon, religion has its own rules of emergence,development and extinction. It has always been playing noticeable roles inhuman history and social life. It is pervasive in culture and will have an impact on individuals and society. The paper tries to explore the roles that religion has played in american culture.

There is no doubt that religion is a major element in shaping character, culture, idea and value system. Religion is the soul of culture and culture is the form of religion. The reason why religion has power to shape culture and character is that religion is a symbol system that can evoke man’s deepest response. Religion is pervasive in culture and will have an impact on individuals and society. It has a privileged place in the morals and morale, moods and motivations that go into character development. The United States is a multi-religion country with a strong religious color. The influence of religion can almost be found everywhere in America. The paper will try to explore the roles that religion had played in American culture.

The United States is a country with dense religious atmosphere. According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2004 that about 41% of Americans attend religious activities once a week at least, which shows religion is the main carrier of American traditional value and forms an indispensable part of American culture. The research of religions is a vital category in the American research field. Without realizing the influences of religion, it’s hard to understand the thinking and behavioral pattern of American people. The most remarkable feature of American religion is its religious diversity. There are families of religions, and there are layers of deposit in the sequence of contributions. Catholic, and Protestant are the main ones. American Catholicism builds upon elements of the religion that came with Columbus and his successors, notably the priests and brothers who were chaplains during the conquest. There were three typical factors. The first were those who confronted the Native Americans with a two- or three- tiered outlook. They preached that above and beyond this life was a heaven of rewards and below it was a hell of punishments. Earthly life was only a way station to eternity, and their acts now colored their fate in life to come. Fear of hell and hope of heaven has long been used to encourage particular patterns of conducts and to discourage others. The second were those who came with a sense of mission. This sense of mission was not known in tribal religion, whose character was only tied to particular places and people. But the Catholic came in the spirit of a crusade. Their sense of mission authorized them to try to uproot old cultures, to undercut Indian patterns of character development, and to try to replace them with what was felt to be a superior system. They strove to educate and civilize the Indians into new patterns of conduct and character. Third, the Catholic contributed a sense of movement in history, a sense that it was shaping toward a climax. “Millennial” and utopian visions inspired the religious orders of the 16th century in their effort to reshape and fulfill history. Catholic vision of heaven and hell, a sense of mission, and a millennial world view all conspired in creating an imperial outlook in America. These attitudes live in much of American culture. It justified their conquest. They always thought that they are superior and want to impose their will on others.

Protestant also has great influence on American culture and character. Being Christian, protestant shared much of the Catholic scheme. They also believed in a two-tiered existence with a heaven or hell after life, and had a crusading spirit. While most of them came for their own religious freedom and economic betterment, they were highly conscious of the superiority of England and of the God of Protestant. They believed in transforming the landscape. They were always experiencing, turning wildness to garden, raw landscape to tilled soil, primitive tool to complex invention. They were never satisfied. They were sure that God called them to cultivate, and dominate over the earth. This kind of attitude has great influence on America’s diligence, innovative, and pioneering spirit. Beyond this attitude toward human transformation of the natural landscape, they brought a sense of the covenant. The covenant was a sort of agreement between a reliable God and a responsive and responsible people. What people did were destined, and as a sign of being chosen by God. But this did not turn them to fatalism. They found meaning in the day’s toil and went about working out the meaning of their special election. American character is marked by a sense of the endowment that comes to the work and doings of each day. One is to be a good steward of the earth, to make and invent, to earn and save and give, acting out a pattern of meaning and value that has divine endorsement. The idea of the covenant is the source of civil disobedience, because it carried both conservative and radical implications. In the first instance the idea called upon the people to submit to their rulers and to obey the laws of the land as the will of God. But inherent was also the principle that people had a right, a duty to disobey rulers when they acted in ways that violated the covenant with God and thus forfeited their authority. In addition, the Puritan had a special passion for organizing and being accountable. It also has influence on American architecture. Originally there was urge toward homogeneity. There were conflicts between different religions. Religious freedom and diversity were abnormal. Everything should be in the interest of a single source for character and culture. But this design was doomed and the pattern fell apart. People were free to choose which religious denomination they belonged to, and regard their own as the true or the best religious body and others to be less true. There could be integrity in the commitment of members to truth as many saw it without a need to persecute those lesser quality. It helped Americans drain off conflict into harmless channels. The public could be neutral, an no one was really hurt. This poses a contrast to the times when the officially true and privileged religious groups would be tempted to persecute the others. It was on this emergent field of competition that another innovation occurred, which was revivalism. Revivalism took a new form beginning with the first “Great Awakening”of the 1740s. Now one chose not only merely to heat up a faith already held, but to find for the first time, or to move by conversion from one religious group to another. They transformed Old Word religion and devised new religions. From this, we can also see the innovative character in Americans.

From what mentioned above, we can see that religion did play an important role inshaping of American culture and character.

References:

1.Datesman, Maryanne K., Joann Crandall, and Edward N. Kearny. 1997. The American Way: An Introduction to American culture. Prentice Hall Regents,

2.黄奕，马琼.1999.美国文化探奇.西安：西安交通大学出版社，