Assignment
A. There were nine elements in the Protestant Code. Please discuss the first two elements of this code in the colonies: religious liberty and democratic equality.
B. How did the separation of church and state lead to denominationalism and voluntaryism?
C. What is reductionism and non-intellectualism?
D. What is the Protestants' creed? Why was the individual always more important than the community?
E. Please describe the two models for civil religion that come to us from history.
F. How did some Americans interpret the success of the American Revolutionary War and the inauguration of our first president?
G. During the Civil War, how did some people interpret the success of the Union Army? And then the assassination of President Lincoln?
H. Discuss "manifest destiny" as an example of "millennial chosenness".
I. What is the creed of American civil religion?
J. What is the code of civil religion? What is a person obligated to do to demonstrate his or her loyalty to the state?
K. After World Wars I and II, after which Americans felt proud of their heroic actions, what happened later in the 20th and the 21st centuries to make them feel less proud?
L. Americans celebrate many holidays (holy days). Which holidays celebrate millennial themes: days which recall wars and sacrificial deeds on behalf of country? Which holidays honor close relationships? Why is Columbus Day offensive to some people?
M. What is the purpose of sacred stories?
N. What plot dominates the stories of film, stage, and literature? Why is this plot so important to us?
O. What is the code of conduct for everyday living that we get from sports?
P. What code for living do we get from technology?
Q. What code for living do we get from popular psychology, particularly in the human potential movement?
R. What code for living do we get from nature?
S. When the role of organized religion shrinks, what happens to cultural religion?