Post-Secular? Post-Political? Support for Religious Expression in the American Public Sphere

• In Event: 454 - Regular Session. Political Culture 2

Abstract

Americans disagree about the appropriate role of religion in public life. More Americans than ever are non-religious, but surveys also find renewed support for public religious expression. Accordingly, some scholars predict growing polarization as pro-secular and pro-religious factions emerge, but other theorists predict growing cultural consensus built on non-particularistic moral language. We use data from a new, nationally representative survey to identify four sets of preferences that Americans hold regarding religion’s appropriate role in the public sphere, and use these orientations to assess theories of polarization and consensus. We find that about four in ten Americans hold ideological positions that are not open to compromise, and that the other six in ten with more moderate views often agree about religion’s proper role in policy, but are ideologically divided over symbolic religious expression. Drawing on Giddens’s theories of modern self-identity and the politics of authenticity, we argue that this ideological split reflects a politicization of public religious language that undermines recent optimistic theories of religious pluralism, and we discuss the effects of this politicization on the symbolic construction of public discourse.

Authors

• Jack Delehanty, University of Minnesota

• Evan Stewart, University of Minnesota