Religion

Religion as a Conservative Force

Work in small groups to think of ways in which America can be said to have a civil religion.

Introductory reading on this topic can be found here:

Discover More Religion as conservative force

After writing their own outline of the conservative (with a small ‘c’) force ‘position’, pick up on the work of Robert Bellah, mentioned in the blog post. After feeding back to the rest of the class, the groups could consider the extent to which Britain has a civil religion. Is it to the same degree? What examples can they provide? To consolidate their knowledge, notes could centre on a series of appropriate images that they feel represent civil religion in the USA.

One feature that students may include is allegiance to a nation’s sports teams. As an extension reading task, they could be directed to Norman Tebbit’s ‘cricket test’, mentioned here:

Discover More Tebbit's cricket loyalty test hit for six


 

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