Bedeutung Der Civil Religion Als Integrationsideologie In Den Vereinigten Staaten Von Amerika

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2004 im Fachbereich Politik - Region: USA, Note: 1,3, Helmut-Schmidt-Universität - Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg (Wirtschafts- und Organisationswissenschaften - Institut für Politikwissenschaften), Veranstaltung: Das politische System der USA, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Die USA fällt durch die starke multikulturelle Durchmischung ihrer Gesellschaft auf. Als klassisches Einwanderungsland hat sich in den USA seit der Landung der Mayflower im Jahr 1620 ein gesellschaftlicher und religiöser Pluralismus entwickelt, der auf der Welt seines Gleichen sucht. Unterschiedlichste ethnische Gruppierungen mit weit über 200 verschiedenen religiösen Glaubensrichtungen unterschiedlichster Art scheinen sich zu einer Nation und einem Staat zusammengefunden zu haben. Bei dieser starken Segmentierung drängt sich natürlich die Frage auf, was diese Nation zusammenhält. Wieso empfindet sich der Amerikaner als Amerikaner und was verbindet ihn mit seinem Mitbürger anderer Herkunft und andersartigem Glauben? Als Integrationsideologie für die Nation kann auf Grund des Pluralismus keine spezifische Glaubensbezeugung herhalten, es entstand der Begriff der „Civil Religion“. „Civil Religion“ als eine Art weltliche Religion, als amerikanische Ideologie, die auf bestimmten Glaubenssätzen, auf Ritualen und Symbolen beruht. Die „Civil Religion“ hat dazu geführt, dass die amerikanische Kultur und Politik durchsetzt ist von religiöser Rhetorik und Symbolik. Ob und in wieweit diese sogenannte „Civil Religion“ als Integrationsbasis, als gemeinsamer Wertekonsens dient und wie sie sich mit dem Grundsatz der Trennung von Staat und Ki rche verträgt, soll in dieser Hausarbeit erörtert werden. Zunächst wird die Bedeutung des Begriffes „Civil Religion“ näher beleuchtet. Dazu wird zunächst auf Jean-Jacques Rousseau eingegangen, der schon um 1760 in seinem vierten Buch des „Du contrat social“ das Phänomen der „réligion civile“ beschrieb, wobei viele der von ihm beschriebenen Merkmale auch heute noch auf den Begriff „Civil Religion“ zutreffen. Danach wird erläutert, wie Alexis de Toqueville in seinem Werk „De la Démocratie en Amérique“, welches er nach seiner Amerikareise im Jahre 1831 verfasste, als Erster die „Civil Religion“ in den USA beschreibt. Nach der Abhandlung dieser beiden Klassiker soll der Be griff „Civil Religion“ aus heutiger wissenschaftlicher Sicht beschrieben und dargestellt werden.

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Rhetoric / Elocution / Oratory, grade: 1,3, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, course: Allgemeine Rhetorik, language: English, abstract: Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has played a powerful role in shaping American public discourse over the centuries. It has become one of the central documents in the evolution of American civil religion - imbued with religious and biblical language and imagery, backed by the ethos of its orator, its rhetoric sanctifies the founding documents and itself becomes part of the canon of "holy writ" of American civil religion. This is all the more remarkable considering the fact that Lincoln was originally only supposed to deliver a few appropriate remarks at the dedication of the Gettysburg battlefield as a cemetery for the fallen soldiers. The main speaker, Edward Everett, had already given a long speech when Lincoln's turn came. The situation which thus presented itself to the orator posed a considerable challenge, as the audience was already weary. It is therefore all the more fascinating to see how Lincoln succeeded in his short, dense speech - which did not even give the photographer sufficient time to take his picture - in molding American identity by fusing "organic union with transcendent purpose by utilizing the religious symbolism of the Christian tradition" (White 97). This paper will examine how the Gettysburg Address came to be one of the central documents of American civil religion, which had a significant influence on all future public discourse.First, it will provide a brief discussion of Abraham Lincoln as an orator. This aspect is important insofar as it is necessary to determine what role his personal ethos played in the Gettysburg Address. The main part will offer a close reading of the Gettysburg Address, focusing on an in-depth analysis of the rhetorical strategies and stylistic devices Lincoln employs. This part is concerned especially with the ques

In the opinion of some historians the era of fascism ended with the deaths of Mussolini and Hitler. Yet the debate about its nature as a historical phenomenon and its value as a term of historical analysis continues to rage with ever greater intensity, each major attempt to resolve it producing different patterns of support, dissent, and even hostility, from academic colleagues. Nevertheless, a number of developments since 1945 not only complicate the methodological and definitional issues even further, but make it ever more desirable that politicians, journalists, lawyers, and the general public can turn to "experts" for a heuristically useful and broadly consensual definition of the term. These developments include: the emergence of a highly prolific European New Right, the rise of radical right populist parties, the flourishing of ultra-nationalist movements in the former Soviet empire, the radicalization of some currents of Islam and Hinduism into potent political forces, and the upsurge of religious terrorism. Most monographs and articles attempting to establish what is meant by fascism are written from a unilateral authoritative perspective, and the intense academic controversy the term provokes has to be gleaned from reviews and conference discussions. The uniqueness of this book is that it provides exceptional insights into the cut-and-thrust of the controversy as it unfolds on numerous fronts simultaneously, clarifying salient points of difference and moving towards some degree of consensus. Twenty-nine established academics were invited to engage with an article by Roger Griffin, one of the most influential theorists in the study of generic fascism in the Anglophone world. The resulting debate progressed through two 'rounds' of critique and reply, forming a fascinating patchwork of consensus and sometimes heated disagreement. In a spin-off from the original discussion of Griffin's concept of fascism, a second exchange documented here focuses on the issue of fascist ideology in contemporary Russia. This collection is essential reading for all those who realize the need to provide the term 'fascism' with theoretical rigor, analytical precision, and empirical content despite the complex issues it raises, and for any specialist who wants to participate in fascist studies within an international forum of expertise. The book will change the way in which historians and political scientists think about fascism, and make the debate about the threat it poses to infant democracies like Russia more incisive not just for academics, but for politicians, journalists, and the wider public.

The purpose of this volume is to identify and analyze the mechanisms and processes through which concepts and institutions of transcultural phenomena gain and are given momentum. Applied to a range of cases, including examples drawn from ancient Greece and modern India, the early modern Portuguese presence in China and politics of elite-mass dynamics in the People’s Republic of China, the book provides a template for the study of transcultural dynamics over time. Besides the epochal range, the papers in this volume illustrate the thematic diversity assembled under the umbrella of the Heidelberg Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context.” Drawing from both the humanities and social sciences, stretching across several world areas and centuries, the book is an interdisciplinary work, aptly reflected in the collaboration of its editors: a historian and political scientist.

This book is a history of everyday life and explains how and why Berlin became the symbolic capital of the Cold War. Paul Steege anchors his account of this emerging global conflict in the terrain of a city literally shattered by World War II.

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1, Ruhr-University of Bochum (Englisches Seminar), course: The Culture of the American Civil War, language: English, abstract: We are fortunate to have a lot of information about Schurz’s life and political career in the United States from his own pen – on the one side his Lebenserinnerungen (Reminiscences) and on the other side different letters he has written to his wife or his former fellow student Theodor Petrasch. But we also have to be careful with using these sources of information because one has to keep some aspects in mind. First, although Schurz claims that he has written down his Reminiscences only on request of his children and therefore only for them and his closer family and friends, he might still have had in the back of his mind that it would be published for a much larger audience as it was originally supposed to be. 1 Second, the same thought applies to the letters he has written to different people. He might already have know that he would turn so famous that his letters will be published and so he might have written down exactly the thoughts and stories the reader nowadays should read and remember. He might have reproduced only the world view the reader should get. I do not want to state that this compellingly is the fact, but one has to keep these assumptions in the back of his mind when relating to Schurz’s letters and Reminiscences. It is also important to know that all of the letters Schurz had received and written to his wife during his military service were lost in a fire. So we do not have as much information about that time as we do have about the time before and after that. In the following pages I want to take a closer look on the relationship between Abraham Lincoln and Carl Schurz. Both men influenced each other in a way that is not negligible. It was a complex relationship in which both men respected each other with similar aims and the same ability to persuade and inspire an audience. They also had their differences and especially these differences are interesting and let us gain an insight into the way the two friends coped with each other. After the most important facts about the lives of Lincoln and Schurz I will take a closer look at the first meeting of the two, the Presidential Election Campaign in which Schurz was extremely involved, the time after the election with Lincoln in office and the development of his friendship with Schurz, the Civil War in which Schurz took over a command and acted as correspondent from the front to Lincoln, and last Lincoln’s assassination and its impact on Schurz and the American people.

Abraham Lincoln's Political Faith sheds new light on how the Great Emancipator's personal trust in a living God shaped his vision for a new America."--Jacket.

The contributors of this volume seek to answer such questions as: 'How did the Germans overcome 'Germanic Ideology', or did they?' 'Why is there no libertarianism in Germany?' 'What do German conservatives wish to conserve?'. Emphasizing shared patterns of thought, the contributors trace the contours of political thought in a divided nation with a difficult past, and ion the shadow of the culture and political values of the United States.