Am I the only one troubled by the iconography in many churches of the US flag? When I wrote about, and gave an example of Civil Religion last week, it was not well received. Here is what Prof. Philip Gorski who has specialized in studying Civic Religion said about the early church:
In the standard genealogy, the term “civil religion” is attributed to Rousseau and traced to the Romans, sometimes via Machiavelli (Hughey 1983; Rouner 1986; Shanks 1995; Cristi 2001; Parsons 2002). While the peoples of Rome enjoyed a great deal of religious freedom, they were nonetheless obligated to take part in the civic rituals of the Empire (Scheid 2003). These demands, it should be noted, were of a purely ritual character. They did not involve a confession or creed of any kind, as regarded the efficacy or meaning of the rituals. The refusal of the early Christians to take part in the Roman cult was one of the principal reasons, perhaps the principal reason, why they were subject to periodic persecutions. Nor did the Christianization of the Empire bring an end to religious persecution; it simply shifted their target — from the Christians to the “pagans”
This was actually the subject of one of my earliest blog posts. It seems almost quaint that the early church was so concerned about such a trivial matter--and that is the problem, for the confusion of the state with God is a common error among Christians. This should not be a surprise as this was a common mistake throughout history.
For those interested in this subject and who wish to go a little deeper, here is an interview with professor Gorski.
Since I have meditating on this lately, you can no doubt expect more posts on this subject.