American_Religion_美国宗教发展历程

Religion in America

In a Christian ['kristjən; -tʃən] world, many countries in the West have experienced declines in religious observance[əb'zə:vəns]and increases in secularization in the twentieth century. The United States, however, seems to be an exception. the U. S. still remains the most religious country in the Western countries. In comparison with European countries, America not only has a greater number of religious believers, but also enjoys a much higher church survey, The Economist reported that about 95 percent of Americans believed in God; four out of five believed in miracles ['mirəkl], life after death and the Virgin Mary birth; 6.5 percent believed in the devil['devəl]; 75 percent believed in angels; and nine out of ten owned a bible. Similarly, surveys by the Gallup Organization in the early 1990s indicated that among Americans under 30 years old, about 36 percent attended church on regular basis, while close to 47 percent of the people at or over 50 went to church once in a week.

Is America a religious culture, shaped by men who sought freedom of worship, with God constantly present in their minds even when the Church has become formalized? Or is it a secular culture with religion playing only a marginal role in men’s daily lives since the Untied States long time ago separated Church and State? To answer these two questions is no less than looking into the dynamics [dai'næmiks] of American culture and the complexity [kəm'pleksiti]of American society. The fact of the matter is that each of these questions can be answered affirmatively[ə'fə:mə'tivli]. America is as secular as a culture can be where

religion has played an important role in its origins and early growth, and has been interwoven [,intə'wəuvən]with the founding and meaning of the society. America is also as religious as a culture can be whose life goals are worldly and whose daily strivings revolve not around God but around Man. Secularization

While it is true that the United States in the most religious nation in the world, it is also true that much of religion in American has become a matter of private ethical convictions. Indeed, it is variously noted that American are active in secular affairs, that religious observations have been losing their supernatural or otherworldly character, that religion in America tends to be religion at a very low temperature, and that younger generations, as a rule, have less and less training in, or attachment to, religious doctrine. But on the other hand, militant anticlericalism, as noted previously, is lacking in the United States, and church membership, on the whole, is quite large. Furthermore, religion in modern America is given continued public and political approval, and even the nonrecent domestic debates over such issues as family values, abortion, juvenile delinquency, divorce, and same-sex marriage have in many ways provided fertile soil for the revitalization of religious force in the United States. The enormous influence the Religious Right has enjoyed over the past three decades if a case in point.