Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation

by Michael J. Gorman

otherwise) are signs of divine blessing and protection, and in the common belief that God is on the side of the powerful. At the same time, however, civil religion is not exclusively the property of empires and superpowers; it is also to be found in former empires, would-be superpowers, ordinary states, and even poor, developing nations. Human beings seem to have a need to attribute a sacred, or at least quasi-sacred, character to their political bodies, their rulers, and the actions of those entities. One tragic but frequent result is the sacralization of one’s own people, whether nation, race, or tribe, and the demonization of the other. Out of such religion comes a culture of hatred and even violence. We know far too many examples of this in modern times. Civil religion does not require an established (state) church, religion, or cult in order to exist, or even to thrive. It can therefore flourish even in places where there is technically a separation of “church” and “state.” It can flourish whether or not the majority of the country’s inhabitants perceive the country to be a Christian (or Jewish, Islamic, etc.) state. The United States (where I make my home), for example, has its own form of civil religion. We may speak both of its ideology—actually, its theology—and of its practices, which are of course related. Parallels to some of these features of civil religion exist elsewhere. The Theology/Ideology of American Civil Religion in the Beginning of the 21st Century43...