US Exceptionalism

It has been widely accepted that the secularization thesis is wrong because the most modern of all societies, the modern United States, remains profoundly religious. This chapter argues the US is not more substantially religious than Europe, and the Evangelical Revival and the American New Age or counterculture are better understood as cultural and political movements; they are religious only according to a very loose definition of religion. American religion has become a part of American capitalist society. The widespread prosperity gospel is better understood as inculcating the American dream of victory and achievement in the capitalist system. Many churches are thus effectively reduced to preaching motivation, self-help and fulfillment of potential. Christian universities illustrate the triumph of the modern scientific mindset, for the great majority have lost all but the most rudimentary reference to their original denominational supernaturalism in adopting the this-worldly cognitive style. The religion of President Obama is used to further illustrate the internal secularization of America’s Christianity.