Abstract:

Some of the socio-political events that occur from time to time in America show that there are problems at the level of social consensus. This study aims to reveal the transformation of American civil religion and the contradictions within it. In this context, the subject of the study is the transformation of American civil religion in the historical process. First, Jean Jacques Rousseau's and Emile Durkheim's understanding of civil religion is discussed. Then, Marcela Cristi's distinction between Durkheimian/cultural/sociological civil religion and Rousseauian/political/ideological civil religion is explained. To evaluate American civil religion based on this distinction, firstly, American nation-building and the formation of American nationalism are mentioned. Then, the adventure of American civil religion is evaluated through the difference made by Cristi. The study adopted an interpretive approach based on a literature review using a qualitative research method. Rituals and cultural values developed in the historical process were utilized. The theory on which the study will be built is discussed with the phenomenological approach; case studies and artifact analyses are included. As a result of the study, it has been determined that American civil religion showed the characteristics of cultural civil religion until the American Civil War, evolved into political civil religion after the Civil War and that political civil religion has flaws in terms of inclusiveness of all segments of society; these flaws continue to be determinant in American politics today.

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