By: Samuel Kehoe
April 28, 2022
American self-conception is undergoing an identity crisis. A national reckoning with race, frustration with political and economic institutions, and the violent objection to the transfer of power that occurred on January 6, 2021, all cast haunting shadows of doubt on the notion of American exceptionalism. Building on prior scholarship regarding America’s civil religion, this paper uses recent presidential inaugural addresses to examine a changing American ethos. The analysis focuses on the conception of America’s divine legitimating mandate to be a “city on a hill” and the connection between democracy and national character in the twenty-first century.
Robert N Bellah. The Broken Covenant: American Civil Religion in a Time of Trial. (New York: Seabury Press, 1975.)
George W. Bush. “First Inaugural Address.” Speech, Washington, DC, January 20, 2001. The White House Archive.
Janell Fetterole and Richard Wike. “Global Public Opinion in an Era of Democratic Anxiety.” Pew Research Center, December 7, 2021.
Philip Gorski. American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present. (Princeton University Press, 2017).
Joseph R. Biden. “Inaugural Address.” Speech, Washington, DC, January 20, 2021. The White House.
Barack Obama. “First Inaugural Address.” Speech, Washington, DC, January 20, 2009. The White House Archive.
Donald J. Trump. “Inaugural Address.” Speech, Washington, DC, January 20, 2017. The White House Archive.
Samuel Kehoe (C’23) is an undergraduate student in Georgetown College majoring in government with minors in economics and religion, ethics, & world affairs. In addition to his academic focus on political theology and civil religion, Sam is managing director for the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service’s podcast, “Fly On the Wall,” and a trained actor with the Mask & Bauble Dramatic Society.
