Essay On Ecclesiastical Despotism

In short, disestablishment is the most literal form of separation of Church and State; it prohibited the state from funding or establishing a religion. This was a continuation of the fight for the freedom on conscience. James Madison was very influential in this fight, “Religion was not invented by human policy” thus he argued that it should never be subjected to human policy (Maddison, 120). Maddison expresses that a person’s religion is to be determined by his own conviction and conscience, “and it is the right of every man to exercise it” (Maddison, 118). Freedom of religion, the first amendment, existed before disestablishment, but in it’s entirety was dependent on disestablishment. Establishment was achieved through imposing taxes on

citizens to support officially recognized churches, or other attendance requirements. Disestablishment was a large part of what gave the first amendment it’s truth in reality, and led to the more concrete separation between the government and the church. Disestablishment is important because it aided the government in being uninvolved in religion, but also strengthened the church in allowing it to exist outside of government control and allowing for the freedom of conscience: the only way to find the most righteous path. Disestablishment was significant because it created a sort of competition, rather than pluralism, between most proximately different sects of Christianity. Since all religions were tolerated there was an intense effort to convert. Disestablishment also led to fears of atheism which was stereotyped as leading to anarchy and a loss of moral consciousness among the population.

Ecclesiastical Despotism

Ecclesiastical Despotism is the concept of religious control and conformity.

It is the concept of a single entity within the Church ruling with absolute power. This entity is not limited to a signal priest or religious figure it may also be a group and thus create an oligarchical structure. This is important because religion can often mobilize people, although when the church become authoritarian and totalitarian is can be dangerous.

Benevolent

Crusade

The benevolent crusade was an attempt to stabilize society through religion; specifically, through Christianity. The Benevolent Crusade was during an era of Christianization in the United States during the Second Great Awakening. This crusade was namely led by Lyman Beecher. This was significant because it led to the creation of missionary society, and social reform. The benevolent crusade led campaigns supporting abolition, temperance and women’s rights.

Judeo-Christian tradition

The Judeo-Christian tradition came to be one of the defining characteristic of American civil religion. The meaning of this tradition is based on the belief in the biblical God of Israel in conjunction with the Ten Commandments and Biblical moral laws. It is based in universal rather than relative morality. It plays into the concept of Manifest Destiny in America, and the belief that America must answer morally to God rather than to the corporeal governments. This concept doesn’t rely on a claim that Judaism and Christianity are identical; but rather that there are ample intersections between the values in the Torah and the Christian Bible. The majority of the Christian Bible is based on Jewish scripture, and as a result Jewish and Christian teaching are based on the same sacred text.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal”

This is one of the most notable phrases in the Declaration of Independence and one of the founding principles that the USA stands on.

Although, this phrase was not and still doesn’t reign completely true in the United States. This phrase in the constitution was written while Slavery was still a thriving institution. The use of the phrase “self evident” implies a certain obvious nature to equality, although the reality didn’t meat this expectation. This phrase was often used in reform movements, namely in the women’s suffrage movement. Elizabeth Cady Stanton often quoted this phrase to illustrated American’s commitment to equality, yet it’s inherent contradictions to making its values reality. She used this quote to drive her avocation for women’s suffrage, abolition and social reform noting that all peoples have rights and privileges under the

law.

Bible Communism

Bible communism came to be in the Oneida religious utopian community founded in 1848 and led by John Humphrey Noyes. The community was an American experimental community based on perfectionism and Bible communism. It thrived on intensive communal living and working based on the teachings of the Bible. It supports complex marriage which involves multiple partners and encourages loving all partners of the community; Noyes argued that conventional marriage was not an institution of the Kingdom of Heaven and must give place to complex marriage. In this community, they performed a “heavenly reconstruction of society” and reform of the industrial system. Noyes also believed that Socialism without religion was impossible without a base of religion. He believed that using his system of extended familial ties had the capacity to remove selfishness from society and thus create a perfect community on an imperfect Earth. As of 1879, the community dissolved.

Exodus Narrative

The Exodus narrative was most prominent during the Antebellum period in America. This narrative conceptualizes the tendency for both slaves and slave-owners to draw upon traditional biblical stories to form their respective identities, in addition to forming their purpose in America. This narrative was part of the founding myth that America used to build up it’s motives in the international arena; that the US had inherited the divine covalent, making American God’s New Israel. Through this narrative, the journey across the Atlantic was equivocated to the Exodus; in which the Israelites exited Egypt. This was a significant narrative because it contributed the the conflated American identity. It was the root of American exceptionalism and uniqueness and contributed to the belief in America’s providence to be a beacon of liberty to the rest of the world.

Neo-Orthodox Theology

Neibuhr brothers.
The Neo-Orthodox Theology was founded in the belief that God had sovereignty and there inherently existed an ethical gap between God and humanity; this idea was founded by the Niebuhr brother. This ideology operated under the assertion that God speaks to humans, giving them laws and obligations that humans must respond to in order to exist. In this theology God reveals himself through Jesus’s freedom, love and forgiveness; although there is the inherent existence of human sin that all humans possess. It was a proponent of Christian realism. This theology was very critical of the demoralizing effects of the rise of industrial capitalism that was on the rise in the USA. It was used as the religious basis for many social reform movements including worker’s rights and unionizing.