“Civil Religion,” “Religion of the Republic,” “Religion of Democracy,” “Social Religion” and “Common Faith” as Analytical Categories of the Sociology of Religion

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to outline the problem areas associated with the analytical categories of philosophical provenance, which are present in sociological interpretations. The political transformation in Poland initiated the debate about the role of the Church in a democratic system and building the ethos of the civil society. The religion of the republic, the religion of democracy, the religion of the American way of life, social religion, a common faith, public piety, public theocracy, political gnosis, religious nationalism, political mysticism, secular religion, and, finally, civil religion are just some of the terms by which the representatives of social sciences reveal the phenomenon of amalgamation sphere of political power and spheres of religious experience in the civil society. The analysis focuses on the categories which integrate religious phenomena with purely civic actions. It should be emphasized that in comparison with America,, in Spain and in Poland different models of civil religion were formed. In the United States a primary function of the political religion is to legitimize the state power, while in Spain and in Poland the Catholic religion desanctioned state structures. Using the ideas of Rousseau, Hoene-Wroński, Schmitt, Metz, Voegelin, Besancon and Bellah the author will try to determine the analytical and methodological functionalities of the socio-religious categories mentioned above. In the article the categories were linked to the data of nationwide omnibus survey from the series called Polish Attitudes and Values Measurement 2009 (n = 1346) and the Polish Attitudes and Values Measurement 2010.