Philip Gorski - American Covenant

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AMERICAN COVENANT

AMERICAN
COVENANT

A HISTORY OF
CIVIL RELIGION
FROM THE
PURITANS TO
THE PRESENT

PHILIP
GORSKI

With a new preface by the author

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Princeton & Oxford

Copyright 2017 by Princeton University Press

Preface to the paperback edition copyright 2019 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press,
41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540

In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,
6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR

press.princeton.edu

Cover image EastVillage Images/Shutterstock

All Rights Reserved

First paperback printing with a new preface by the author, 2019
Paper ISBN 978-0-691-19167-6

Cloth ISBN 978-1-400-88500-8

eISBN 978-069-119386-1

The Library of Congress has cataloged the cloth edition of this book as follows:

Names: Gorski, Philip S., author.
Title: American covenant : a history of civil religion from the Puritans
to the present / Philip S. Gorski.
Description: Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016013496 | ISBN 9780691147673 (hardcover : acid-free paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Civil religionUnited StatesHistory. | United States
ReligionHistory.
Classification: LCC BL2525 .G667 2017 | DDC 306.60973dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016013496

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

This book has been composed in Miller

Printed on acid-free paper.

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION.
Prophetic Republicanism as Vital Center

CHAPTER 1.
The Civil Religious Tradition and Its Rivals

CHAPTER 2.
The Hebraic Moment: The New England Puritans

CHAPTER 3.
Hebraic Republicanism: The American Revolution

CHAPTER 4.
Democratic Republicanism: The Civil War

CHAPTER 5.
The Progressive Era: Empire and the Republic

CHAPTER 6.
The PostWorld War II Period: Jew, Protestant, Catholic

CHAPTER 7.
From Reagan to Obama: Tradition Corrupted and
(Almost) Recovered

CHAPTER 8.
The Civil Religion: Critics and Allies

CONCLUSION.
The Righteous Republic

PREFACE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION

E PLURIBUS UNUM: Out of many, one. That is Americas motto: to make a nation of nations and a people of peoples. And to do so again and again, as new nations and peoples arrive on Americas shores. That is one goal of the American experiment. It has never been easy.

Government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Not a government of, by, and for the few. And not a government of, by, and for just one of the peoples. But government of, by, and for all of the American people. Democracy, in a word. That is the countrys founding aspiration. Here, too, the reality has often fallen short.

Balancing unity with diversity in a democratic society is not easy, and for two reasons. First, because democracy tends to deepen diversity. Democratic freedoms (freedoms of conscience, speech, and association) inevitably lead to growing diversity (diversity of belief, opinion, and commitment)all the more so in a nation of immigrants such as ours. Second, because democracy requires unity. I do not mean complete unitythat is impossiblebut enough unity that the people and their leaders can work together to find solutions to their problems by peaceful means and, where this proves difficult, as it often does, to compromise with one another and tolerate those with whom they disagree rather than seeking to demonize or destroy them.

Unity-in-diversity plus government-by-the-people: that is Americas creed. How can the nation better live up to it? At present, two competing proposals frame the debate. This book advances a third.

Some on the secular left propose that we celebrate our diversity. In this account, each of us belongs to a particular community based on our personal identity. The identities in question are usually ones based on race, gender, or sexuality. (Notably, they are almost never based on religion or region, and only rarely on class, even though these are the most important sources of identity for a good many Americans.) Somehow, this celebration is supposed to result in unity, not only within these groups, but also between them, with everyone else cheering enthusiastically from the sidelines. To be sure, the multicultural creed has been successful in at least one important respect: it has brought greater recognition to less powerful groups within American society. But it has not generated much unity.

Some on the religious right propose that we make America Christian again. America was founded as a Christian nation, they claim. And it must become a Christian nation again. Or, barring that, at least a nation governed by Christians. (Ideally, by evangelical Protestants, it goes without saying, though perhaps with a little assist from conservative Catholics and Jews.) Just where the growing ranks of non-Christians and nonbelievers fit into this vision of unity is not clear. In truth, they dont, at least not as co-equal citizens. The Christianist creed does recognize the importance of unity. But it leaves little room for diversity.

Another answerthe one I argue for in this bookis that we rededicate ourselves to the American covenant, to a civic unity based on our founding ideals, the ideals of liberty, equality, union, and the general welfare. Civic unity need not conflict with our social or religious identities. But it is not based on them either. Rather, it is premised on the shared status of American citizenship, on membership in the oldest surviving republic in the world.

Civic unity is not the same thing as social unity. It does not mean that Americans will all feel warmly toward one another all of the time. Nor does it presume that they will agree with one another about everything. It does not even mean that they will agree about the meaning of our civic ideals. What Americans can and must agree upon is that these values form the heart of the national creed, and that arguing about them in good faith and seeking to harmonize them is the ultimate goal of American democracy. That is what civic unity means. Nothing more. But also nothing less.

Why worry so much about civic unity? Consider three alternatives: unity through authoritarian rule, diversity between warring tribes, democratic dysfunctionor some combination thereof. That is the everyday reality in many parts of the world, of course. And it is fast becoming the reality in the United States as well. Is this really what Americans want for themselves and their children?

It certainly is not what the Founders wanted. Well they knew that republican self-government often ends in tyranny or anarchy. That is why they labored so long and so hard to design political institutions that would be resistant to authoritarianism and tribalism. But they also knewand we should not forgetthat institutions alone are never enough to sustain a free government. Without a virtuous citizenry dedicated to democratic ideals, a citizenry that is willing to put country before party, and democracy before policy, at least some of the time, republican self-government cannot long persist. Whether the American Republic will survive the cold civil war in which it is now engaged, and whether the struggle will turn from cold to hot once again, as in Lincolns time, are open questions. The political temperature keeps rising.

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