Chapter 7: Civil Religion
Majority of people associate the word “religion” with major organized faiths that people have practiced for centuries. Traditional religions typically involve rituals, sacred texts, holidays, intimate beliefs held and practiced by a congregation. However, humans practice another form of religion, often unconsciously, which sociologists call civil religion. According to Johnstone (122), civil religion refers to secular forms of belief and ritual similar to those practiced in religion, such as political ceremonies. In social scientific context, the society matches cultural institutions with some kinds of social groups. For example, religion is a social embodiment in associations such as churches, the ceremonies in ...
