Liberators for Colonial Anáhuac: A Rumination on North American Civil Religions

1999 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randi Jones Walker

Behold here the motives of that mysterious likeness which give merit to a comparison with Jesus in the work the Supreme Author confided to [Hidalgo]: to save the American people, the continent of Anáhuac!So spoke Padre Antonio Jose Martinez in 1832 in praise of Miguel Hidalgo on the tenth anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Mexico. That same year, Francis Gray extolled George Washington, the hero of another independence movement. Washington was the “Special instrument of divine providence for working out our political salvation, the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night which led us out of bondage.” Two new North American nations attempted to create a national identity and a useable mythology, side by side, if independent of each other. In this essay, I present a North American view of what could loosely be called civil religion.

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Runions

In her recent book Precarious Life, Judith Butler points out that not more than ten days after 9/11, on 20 September 2001, George W. Bush urged the American people to put aside their grief; she suggests that such a refusal to mourn leads to a kind of national melancholia. Using psychoanalytic theory on melancholia, this article diagnoses causes and effects of such national melancholia. Further, it considers how a refusal to mourn in prophetic and apocalyptic texts and their interpretations operates within mainstream US American politics like the encrypted loss of the melancholic, thus creating the narcissism, guilt, and aggression that sustain the pervasive disavowal of loss in the contemporary moment. This article explore the ways in which the texts of Ezekiel, Micah, Revelation, and their interpreters exhibit the guilt and aggression of melancholia, in describing Israel as an unfaithful and wicked woman whose pain should not be mourned. These melancholic patterns are inherited by both by contemporary apocalyptic discourses and by the discourse of what Robert Bellah calls ‘American civil religion’, in which the US is the new Christian Israel; thus they help to position the public to accept and perpetuate the violence of war, and not to mourn it.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 206
Author(s):  
Pål Ketil Botvar

The Norwegian National Day (17 May, also referred to as Constitution Day) stands out as one of the most popular National Day celebrations in Europe. According to surveys, around seven out of every 10 Norwegians take part in a public celebration during this day. This means that the National Day potentially has an impact on the way people reflect upon national identity and its relationship to the Lutheran heritage. In this paper, I will focus on the role religion plays in the Norwegian National Day rituals. Researchers have described these rituals as both containing a significant religious element and being rather secularized. In this article, I discuss the extent to which the theoretical concepts civil religion and religious nationalism can help us understand the role of religion, or the absence of religion, in these rituals. Based on surveys of the general population, I analyze both indicators of civil religion and religious nationalism. The two phenomena are compared by looking at their relation to such items as patriotism, chauvinism, and xenophobia. The results show that civil religion explains participation in the National Day rituals better than religious nationalism.


2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-256
Author(s):  
MICHAEL A. McDONNELL ◽  
WOODY HOLTON

Virginia, Britain's most populous and arguably most important North American colony, once seemed the perfect fit for the “consensus” interpretation of the War of Independence. Indeed, the percentage of white colonists who became loyalists was probably lower in Virginia than in any other rebelling colony. The widespread agreement on secession from Britain should not, however, be mistaken for social consensus. The reality was that revolutionary Virginia was frequently in turmoil. One of the most intriguing of the local insurrections broke out in the northern county of Loudoun just five months before the Declaration of Independence. In February 1776, the county erupted into a heated confrontation pitting gentlemen against their less wealthy neighbours. Lund Washington, who was managing Mount Vernon, warned his cousin, General George Washington, who was outside Boston training his fledgeling patriot army, that the “first Battle we have in this part of the Country will be in Loudon” – not against British soldiers, but against fellow patriots. Within a week, the revolutionary government in Williamsburg, the Committee of Safety, felt compelled to send troops to quell the disturbances. Yet, for months afterwards, gentry Virginians worried that their effort to suppress the rebellion had failed. In mid-May, Andrew Leitch told Leven Powell of Loudoun, “I really lament the torn and distracted condition of your County.” The “troublesome times,” as another gentleman called them, were slow to abate.


2002 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 586-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta L. Coles

This paper looks at a recent historical moment in which the American national identity was defined and contested in the public arena. The Persian Gulf crisis of 1990–91 presents a case in point in which official actors attempted to define the American character and in so doing prescribed particular actions necessary to fulfill what it means to be an American. President George Bush's discourse used the crisis to rejuvenate US prestige and American confidence. He described Americans as unique in esteemed values and America as the only country capable of leading the world. In so doing, he invited American participation in support for US military intervention. On the other side, the peace movement chose to emphasize American weaknesses, domestic problems, and the gullible nature of the American people. In so doing, it attempted to shame Americans into supporting the anti-war movement.


1998 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Smyth

This paper considers the ways in which discourses of abortion and discourses of national identity were constructed and reproduced through the events of the X case in the Republic of Ireland in 1992. This case involved a state injunction against a 14-year-old rape victim and her parents, to prevent them from obtaining an abortion in Britain. By examining the controversy the case gave rise to in the national press, I will argue that the terms of abortion politics in Ireland shifted from arguments based on rights to arguments centred on national identity, through the questions the X case raised about women's citizenship status, and women's position in relation to the nation and the state. Discourses of national identity and discourses of abortion shifted away from entrenched traditional positions, towards more liberal articulations.


1998 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronit Lentin

This paper argues that ‘Irishness’ has not been sufficiently problematised in relation to gender and ethnicity in discussions of Irish national identity, nor has the term ‘Irish women’ been ethnically problematised. Sociological and feminist analyses of the access by women to citizenship of the Republic of Ireland have been similarly unproblematised. This paper interrogates some discourses of Irish national identity, including the 1937 Constitution, in which difference is constructed in religious, not ethnic terms, and in which women are constructed as ‘naturally’ domestic. Ireland's bourgeois nationalism privileged property owning and denigrated nomadism, thus excluding Irish Travellers from definitions of ‘Irishness’. The paper then seeks to problematise T.H. Marshall's definition of citizenship as ‘membership in a community’ from a gender and ethnicity viewpoint and argues that sociological and feminist studies of the gendered nature of citizenship in Ireland do not address access to citizenship by Traveller and other racialized women which this paper examines in brief. It does so in the context of the intersection between racism and nationalism, and argues that the racism implied in the narrow definition of ‘Irishness’ is a central factor in the limited access by minority Irish women to aspects of citizenship. It also argues that racism not only interfaces with other forms of exclusion such as class and gender, but also broadens our understanding of the very nature of Irish national identity.


Author(s):  
Cesar Cuero

<p>La Academia Panameña de Medicina y Cirugía, se siente honrada, en resaltar la figura de uno de sus miembros distinguidos, el Académico Titular José Manuel Fábrega Sosa, MD, FACS, FSSO, APMC. Este distinguido cirujano, panameño, hizo sus estudios profesionales en la Universidad de Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana donde se graduó con honores siendo miembro de la Sociedad de honor AlphaEpsilonDelta. Continuó sus estudios de medicina en la George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC., donde obtuvo el grado de Medicina, graduándose también con honores siendo nombrado en la Sociedad de Honor de Medicina de los Estados Unidos, AlphaOmegaAlpha. Hizo su residencia en cirugía en el New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center y en Oncología Quirúrgica en el Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center de Nueva York. Ha sido Certificado y Recertificado por el American Board of Surgery. Fellow y ExGobernador del American College of Surgeons y Ex Presidente del Capítulo de Panamá del American College of Surgeons. Además de Fellow de la Society of Surgical Oncology. A nivel local, entre otros es Ex Presidente de la Academia Panameña de Medicina y Cirugía. Y Profesor Extraordinario de Cirugía, de la Facultad de Medicina, de la Universidad de Panamá. Presidente y miembro fundador de la Asociación Panameña de Cirugía Oncológica (APCO). Aparte de tener licencia en la República de Panamá, tiene licencia del estado de California y de Washington DC en los Estados Unidos. Recientemente, ha sido merecedor a un reconocimiento, reservado para pocos cirujanos destacados, en el mundo, ser reconocido como Honorary Fellow del American College of Surgeons (Colegio Americano de Cirujanos), luego de 43 años de brindar sus conocimientos para el cuidado y bienestar de sus pacientes. Cabe destacar que al presente Solo hay 487 cirujanos en el mundo entero que han recibido tal distinción. El Colegio Americano de Cirujanos otorga este honor cada año, a cuatro o cinco candidatos que han prestado servicios humanitarios, especialmente en el campo de la ciencia médica. Es el tercer panameño en recibir este reconocimiento; el primero en ser distinguido fue el doctor Augusto S. Boyd, en 1923; luego el neurólogo Antonio González Revilla, en 1973. La universidad de Cornell, de donde egresó, lo declaró exalumno meritorio y es el único egresado en recibir esa distinción. En Panamá; la Asamblea Nacional lo reconoció como ciudadano ejemplar y meritorio y el presidente de la república lo condecoró con la Orden Manuel Amador Guerrero en el “Grado de Gran Cruz”. Honrar, honra, y la Academia Panameña de Medicina y Cirugía, y La Revista Médica de Panamá, se enorgullecen de presentar a este ilustre panameño y latinoamericano.</p><p>ABSTRACT</p><p>The Panamanian Academy of Medicine and Surgery is honored to highlight the figure of one of its distinguished members, the Tenured Academician José Manuel Fábrega Sosa, MD, FACS, FSSO, APMC. This distinguished Panamanian surgeon did his professional studies at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana where he graduated with honors as a member of the AlphaEpsilonDelta Honor Society. He continued his medical studies at the George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC., Where he obtained a degree in Medicine, also graduating with honors and being named in the American Honor Society of Medicine, AlphaOmegaAlpha. He did his residency in surgery at New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center and in Surgical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He has been Certified and Recertified by the American Board of Surgery. Fellow and Former Governor of the American College of Surgeons and Former President of the Panama Chapter of the American College of Surgeons. In addition to Fellow of the Society of Surgical Oncology. At the local level, among others, he is Former President of the Panamanian Academy of Medicine and Surgery. And Extraordinary Professor of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Panama.</p><p>President and founding member of the Panamanian Association of Oncological Surgery (APCO). Apart from being licensed in the Republic of Panama, it is licensed by the state of California and Washington DC in the United States. Recently, he has been worthy of a recognition, reserved for few outstanding surgeons, in the world, being recognized as Honorary Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (American College of Surgeons), after 43 years of providing his knowledge for the care and well-being of your patients. It should be noted that there are currently only 487 surgeons worldwide who have received such a distinction. The American College of Surgeons awards this honor each year to four or five candidates who have provided humanitarian services, especially in the field of medical science. He is the third Panamanian to receive this recognition; the first to be distinguished was Dr. Augusto S. Boyd, in 1923, then the neurologist Antonio González Revilla, in 1973. Cornell University, where he graduated, declared him a meritorious alumnus and is the only graduate to receive that distinction. In Panama, the National Assembly recognized him as an exemplary and meritorious citizen and the President of the Republic decorated him with the Manuel Amador Guerrero Order in the “Grand Cross Degree”. Honor, honor, and the Panamanian Academy of Medicine and Surgery, and La Revista Médica de Panama, are proud to present this illustrious Panamanian and Latin American.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 1018-1054
Author(s):  
Dušan Ranđelović ◽  
Jelena Minić ◽  
Kristina Ranđelović

This paper was aimed at examining the structure and expression of national identity among secondary school students (N=568) in different towns in Serbia, its relation to self-esteem and achievement motive, as well as the differences regarding socio-demographic characteristics (sex and place of residence). The instruments used are the Scale of National Identity NAIT, the Global Self-Esteem Scale, and the Scale to Measure Achievement Motive MOP2002. The results have shown that the values of national identity are above the theoretical average and significantly higher than the values recorded among the adolescents in an earlier study. Among general characteristics of their own nation, secondary school students value culture more than history, character traits and state institutions (lowest-ranked in comparison to all other characteristics), finding that courage is the most pronounced individual characteristic, while the least pronounced one is hypocrisy. A positive correlation of national identity with self-esteem and achievement motive was obtained, whereas achievement motive is also a significant national identity predictor. Significant differences were found in the expression of national identity among secondary school students in relation to their place of residence (secondary school students from Belgrade have a higher level of national identity in comparison to their peers from Niš and Kosovska Mitrovica).


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-148
Author(s):  
ROBERT GILDEA

The question of ‘secularity’ (laïcité) has risen sharply up the French political agenda over the last twenty-five years. Ways in which it is defined and applied are hotly contested and lie at the nerve centre of wide debates about the nature of the Republic, French national identity and indeed of France's colonial past. According to an IFOP opinion poll in November 2015, 87 per cent of French people agreed that was important to respect laïcité at school, 84 per cent of respondents said that it was part of France's identity while 81 per cent thought that it was under threat in France. That said, they did not agree on what laïcité meant. For 32 per cent it meant separating religion from politics, for 27 per cent it meant ensuring liberty of conscience, while 17 per cent said it meant reducing the influence of religion in society. Historians, sociologists and political scientists as well as journalists and activists join battle on the question, and a selection of their recent contributions, from different angles and with different methodologies, are reviewed here.


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