Paul James

God Bless America: From a National Covenant to the Global War on Terror

Introduction

God bless america: from a national covenant to the global war on terror. Examine religion's role in nation formation, from sacred covenants to legitimizing the postmodern state amidst global conflicts. Uncover continuities and discontinuities.

Abstract

Religion has always played a role in nation formation, and continues to do so even in these late-modern and post-sacred times. The overall argument of the essay is that the nation formation involves both deep continuities and radical discontinuities with sacredly conceived ways of life. It is not wrong to say that religious evocation is bound up in the will to power, but it is important to recognize that there are much larger social reasons why religion is linked to the name of the nation. This essay thus resonates with Ivan Strenski's article in this volume when he argues that processes of legitimation go deep into the past. However, it adds another claim: namely, that religious evocation works as an act of legitimation because of the very nature of the community (the nation) in whose name the evocation is made. Read though the flickering screen of the globalising and postmodernising nation state with all its contradictions, it is hard to see any continuities-of-form here. The continuities at most appear as surface content, and even then only as points of reference, a Jewish Bible, a Christian cross, a slab of engraved marble. However, the postmodern/late-modern nation has all the ontological vulnerabilities of the prior dominant forms of polity. Despite unprecedented technical power, it still has to legitimize itself, at one level, through basic categories of human existence such as embodiment, placement and temporal transcendence.

Review

This essay offers a compelling and nuanced exploration of religion's enduring, albeit complex, role in nation formation, even within supposedly post-sacred contexts. The core argument, positing both deep continuities and radical discontinuities between sacredly conceived ways of life and modern nationhood, is both timely and significant. The abstract skillfully navigates the delicate balance of acknowledging religion's entanglement with the "will to power" while insisting on larger social reasons for its linkage to national identity, resonating thoughtfully with Ivan Strenski's insights on historical legitimation. This critical approach promises to move beyond simplistic interpretations of secularization or purely instrumental views of religion. The paper's most intriguing contribution appears to be its claim that religious evocation functions as legitimation precisely "because of the very nature of the community (the nation) in whose name the evocation is made." This suggests a profound and intrinsic connection, rather than a mere superficial application. Despite the apparent fragmented nature of the "globalising and postmodernising nation state," where continuities seem reduced to mere surface content (a Jewish Bible, a Christian cross), the essay argues that these polities retain fundamental ontological vulnerabilities. They still require legitimation through basic categories of human existence like embodiment, placement, and temporal transcendence, which are often historically mediated through religious frameworks. This theoretical framework provides a sophisticated lens through which to view contemporary nationalisms. While the abstract lays out a rich theoretical landscape, a full appreciation of its arguments would benefit from the paper's detailed application of these concepts. The connection between the theoretical discussion of ontological vulnerabilities and the specific examples implied by the title, "God Bless America" and the "Global War on Terror," would need robust empirical and historical grounding. The abstract's dense theoretical language, while precise, suggests that the full essay must meticulously unpack terms like "post-sacred times," "flickering screen," and "ontological vulnerabilities" to ensure maximum clarity and accessibility. Nevertheless, this abstract promises an insightful and challenging intervention into the scholarship on religion, nationhood, and political legitimation.

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