Our Lord and Savior, Abraham Lincoln

By Anonymous

 

By: Kate Beck

 Bellah describes civil religion to have “its own seriousness and integrity and requires the same care in understanding that any other religion does” (Bellah 1: 1967). In the United States, Lincoln evokes emotions of gratitude, great loss, and also rebirth. “With the Civil War, a new theme of death, sacrifice, and rebirth enters the civil religion” (Bellah 1967: 10). Through memorials, celebrations and the general tone in which Lincoln is spoken and written about exudes “seriousness and integrity” required of religion, commemorating this death, sacrifice, and rebirth.


These two images feature Lincoln and Jesus’ death bed. Both are powerful images of loss and grief. The images are incredibly similar, both Lincoln and Jesus have someone holding their hand, the figure directly left of Lincoln with his hand on his face is in the exact same position as the figure in green to the right of Jesus in the corner, and they are the only two wearing white. These images symbolize the sacrifice of both Jesus and Lincoln, the loss and grief, and the rebirth due to both of their sacrifices. 


 The civil war stands at the “center of American History” (Mead 12: 1963). It is perceived as a redefining moment. The many people who died were portrayed as martyrs, as they died for the nation and the nation’s freedom. Although the civil war was an important moment in our history, it’s incorrect to see it as a complete rebirth or symbol of freedom. So why do we revere it as such? And why is Lincoln the martyr? Bellah speaks on civil religion prioritizing “honor” and “power” over knowledge (Bellah 17: 1967). Our misconstrued understanding of the civil war as a war fought for freedom and Lincoln as a pillar of freedom is the desire for honor. Civil religion prioritizes the symbolic meaning of the civil war and Lincoln over the facts. 

 

The death bed of the martyr President Abraham Lincoln. (December 31, 1864). Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images.

Christ after death, photo Jerusalem. JPG. (2020, October 29). Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. 

Bellah, Robert N. 1967. “Civil Religion in America.” Daedalus 96(1): 1-21.

Sidney Mead, "The Lively Experiment" (New York, 1963)

 

 

Comments

  1. Shelby GoodwinMarch 24, 2022 at 2:35 PM

    The way you placed these two images side by side was a really great way of solidifying Bellah's point about the similarities between Jesus Christ and Lincoln as symbols in American civil religion. I also appreciate how you draw upon the idea that civil religion encourages the kind of focus on symbolic honor and sacrifice prominent in American narratives of the Civil War, especially with respect to Lincoln's role. Your comment about how Lincoln's symbolic meaning is given precedence draws my mind to commemorative images of Lincoln, e.g. the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln is a hero in images like these. And most, if not all Americans are raised with this image of him -- far more often than we are accurately taught his role in slavery and white supremacy.

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