Library Catalog
Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

Religious Rhetoric and American Politics : The Endurance of Civil Religion in Electoral Campaigns / Christopher B. Chapp.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2012]Copyright date: ©2012Description: 1 online resource (192 p.) : 19 figures, 1 tableContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780801451263
  • 9780801465680
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 324.7 23
LOC classification:
  • BL2525 .C443 2016
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface -- 1. A Theory of Religious Rhetoric in American Campaigns -- 2. Religious Rhetoric in American Political History -- 3. Religious Rhetoric and the Politics of Identity -- 4. Religious Rhetoric and the Politics of Emotive Appeals -- 5. The Consequences of Religious Language on Presidential Candidate Evaluations -- 6. Civil Religion Identity and the Task of Political Representation -- 7. The Rhetorical Construction of Religious Constituencies -- Notes -- References -- Index
Summary: From Reagan's regular invocation of America as "a city on a hill" to Obama's use of spiritual language in describing social policy, religious rhetoric is a regular part of how candidates communicate with voters. Although the Constitution explicitly forbids a religious test as a qualification to public office, many citizens base their decisions about candidates on their expressed religious beliefs and values. In Religious Rhetoric and American Politics, Christopher B. Chapp shows that Americans often make political choices because they identify with a "civil religion," not because they think of themselves as cultural warriors. Chapp examines the role of religious political rhetoric in American elections by analyzing both how political elites use religious language and how voters respond to different expressions of religion in the public sphere.Chapp analyzes the content and context of political speeches and draws on survey data, historical evidence, and controlled experiments to evaluate how citizens respond to religious stumping. Effective religious rhetoric, he finds, is characterized by two factors-emotive cues and invocations of collective identity-and these factors regularly shape the outcomes of American presidential elections and the dynamics of political representation. While we tend to think that certain issues (e.g., abortion) are invoked to appeal to specific religious constituencies who vote solely on such issues, Chapp shows that religious rhetoric is often more encompassing and less issue-specific. He concludes that voter identification with an American civic religion remains a driving force in American elections, despite its potentially divisive undercurrents.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780801465680

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface -- 1. A Theory of Religious Rhetoric in American Campaigns -- 2. Religious Rhetoric in American Political History -- 3. Religious Rhetoric and the Politics of Identity -- 4. Religious Rhetoric and the Politics of Emotive Appeals -- 5. The Consequences of Religious Language on Presidential Candidate Evaluations -- 6. Civil Religion Identity and the Task of Political Representation -- 7. The Rhetorical Construction of Religious Constituencies -- Notes -- References -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

From Reagan's regular invocation of America as "a city on a hill" to Obama's use of spiritual language in describing social policy, religious rhetoric is a regular part of how candidates communicate with voters. Although the Constitution explicitly forbids a religious test as a qualification to public office, many citizens base their decisions about candidates on their expressed religious beliefs and values. In Religious Rhetoric and American Politics, Christopher B. Chapp shows that Americans often make political choices because they identify with a "civil religion," not because they think of themselves as cultural warriors. Chapp examines the role of religious political rhetoric in American elections by analyzing both how political elites use religious language and how voters respond to different expressions of religion in the public sphere.Chapp analyzes the content and context of political speeches and draws on survey data, historical evidence, and controlled experiments to evaluate how citizens respond to religious stumping. Effective religious rhetoric, he finds, is characterized by two factors-emotive cues and invocations of collective identity-and these factors regularly shape the outcomes of American presidential elections and the dynamics of political representation. While we tend to think that certain issues (e.g., abortion) are invoked to appeal to specific religious constituencies who vote solely on such issues, Chapp shows that religious rhetoric is often more encompassing and less issue-specific. He concludes that voter identification with an American civic religion remains a driving force in American elections, despite its potentially divisive undercurrents.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 02. Mrz 2022)