The American Way of Faith

Compromise, innovation, and tradition define American religion.
One might assume that the divide in American Christianity is simply between liberal and conservative theologies. But such a framework would be misleading. As Christians consider social services and sexual purity, universal salvation and individual redemption, they are often forced to straddle theological and political divides. Religious pluralism has led to a general smoothing-over of denominational, theological, and political differences, with most groups converging in a broad middle ground where pragmatic compromises are common.
America’s Religious Roots
While America’s constitutional culture has precluded the formation of a central church, the country has remained overwhelmingly religious. Rev. Peter J. Gomes, a professor at Harvard Divinity School, explained, “Whether we have legitimate religious views or not, we feel we ought to. [Americans] look at everything with a religious point of view.”
Sarah Johnson, a religion professor at Gustavus Adolphus College, concurred, telling the HPR that “there is a religious way which [Americans] want more than they do in Europe.” She cited prayer at the presidential inauguration as proof of Americans’ comparatively deeper religious aspirations; invocations of divine guidance are seen as unnecessary in many other highly developed nations. But that sort of broad-based, ecumenical public Christianity is as American as apple pie.
Liberals and Conservatives
Still, even as Christian denominations have given their stamp to this sort of public religion, there are big theological and political fractures within the American Christian community. John Corrigan, author of Religion in America and a professor at Florida State University, told the HPR that “the strongest division would be between liberal Protestants and those who categorize themselves as conservative Evangelicals.”
Rev. John Page, a chaplain at Harvard, clarified that conservatives put an “emphasis on salvation in a very starkly individual context,” while liberals tend to focus on “universal salvation and the communal bringing-about of the Kingdom of God.”
Page acknowledged that the political labels of “liberal” and “conservative” can roughly be aligned with these two different theologies. Nevertheless, both Corrigan and Page pointed out that theological liberalism and conservatism do not always translate into predictable political positions.
In the recent health care debate, for instance, many religious liberals advocated universal health insurance, while religious conservatives criticized the possibility that it might be used to pay for abortions. This battle raged perhaps most strongly within the Catholic Church, but behind the scenes, the divide was not so clear-cut. The Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious called both for an abortion ban and for universal health care, and the NETWORK council of nuns described their support for the bill as “the real pro-life stance.” Thus, even theological allies can differ politically and describe their policy recommendations with reference to the same set of religious convictions. And by the same token, theological enemies (like nuns and liberal Protestants) can find occasional common ground in politics. In the broad center of American public religion, there is plenty of room for compromise and coalition-building.
Stemming the Secular Tide
Although religiosity has remained consistently higher in America than in Europe, the rise of secularism seems to present a challenge to the American way of faith. The proportion of Americans identifying as Christian has dropped from 86 to 70 percent, while the proportion of people identifying with no religion has more than doubled. Yet one should not declare the death of American Christianity too soon.
Gomes told the HPR that religion “moves tidally.” He continued, “There are generations where faith-based stuff is the hottest you can get and then it recedes and then comes back.” Johnson reported that “a lot of the people who are talking about themselves as non-religious or non-affiliating are 20-something, our younger generation.” She wondered, “Will they stay unaffiliated or will they go back to church? We don’t know.”
Page, meanwhile, expects a maturation on both sides of the political and religious divide. He hopes that there will be a diversification and expansion of what it means to be a religiously active American. “The sort of lock-step two-issue conservative right has already been dead—or dying—for ten years,” Page said.
But even as religious differences become less singleminded, certain divisions will probably remain in place. It seems probable that American Christianity will continue to straddle the line between liberal and conservative, between striving for community and seeking individual salvation, for generations to come.
Richard Kelley ’10 and Jordan Monge ‘12 are Contributing Writers.
Photo Credit: Flickr (mulmatsherm and euthman)