{"title":"American civil religious rhetoric: putting assumptions to the test","authors":"Anthony Squiers, Matthew P. Arsenault","doi":"10.1080/14608944.2022.2064842","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper puts theoretical assumptions about the rhetoric of American Civil Religion (ACR) to the empirical test by analyzing a sample of Presidential election speech from 1960 to 2020. First, we quantify 14 motifs theorized to be part of ACR. Second, we examine the claim that ACR is a non-sectarian religion distinct from Christianity. Third, we consider if ACR is a persistent rhetorical phenomenon. Fourth, we investigate whether ACR articulation transcends partisan ideologies. We find that ACR is a non-sectarian religion which is distinct from Christianity, that it is a persistent rhetorical phenomenon, and that it transcends partisan lines. Nevertheless, we also find that some motifs previously theorized to be core tenets of ACR are conspicuously scant in the data examined.","PeriodicalId":45917,"journal":{"name":"NATIONAL IDENTITIES","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2022-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"NATIONAL IDENTITIES","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14608944.2022.2064842","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"POLITICAL SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
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Abstract
ABSTRACT This paper puts theoretical assumptions about the rhetoric of American Civil Religion (ACR) to the empirical test by analyzing a sample of Presidential election speech from 1960 to 2020. First, we quantify 14 motifs theorized to be part of ACR. Second, we examine the claim that ACR is a non-sectarian religion distinct from Christianity. Third, we consider if ACR is a persistent rhetorical phenomenon. Fourth, we investigate whether ACR articulation transcends partisan ideologies. We find that ACR is a non-sectarian religion which is distinct from Christianity, that it is a persistent rhetorical phenomenon, and that it transcends partisan lines. Nevertheless, we also find that some motifs previously theorized to be core tenets of ACR are conspicuously scant in the data examined.
期刊介绍：
National Identities explores the formation and expression of national identity from antiquity to the present day. It examines the role in forging identity of cultural (language, architecture, music, gender, religion, the media, sport, encounters with "the other" etc.) and political (state forms, wars, boundaries) factors, by examining how these have been shaped and changed over time. The historical significance of "nation"in political and cultural terms is considered in relationship to other important and in some cases countervailing forms of identity such as religion, region, tribe or class. The focus is on identity, rather than on contingent political forms that may express it. The journal is not prescriptive or proscriptive in its approach.
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