American Kairos

Washington National Cathedral and the New Civil Religion

Richard Benjamin Crosby (Associate Professor, Brigham Young University)

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English

Johns Hopkins University Press
18 April 2023

Religion: general; Church history; Political science & theory

A history of Washington National Cathedral and the theory of an American civil religion.

In 1792, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the first city planner of Washington, DC, introduced the idea of a ""great church for national purposes."" Unlike L'Enfant's plans for the White House, the US Capitol, and the National Mall, this grand temple to the republic never materialized. But in 1890, the Episcopal Church began planning what is known today as Washington National Cathedral.

In American Kairos, Richard Benjamin Crosby chronicles the history of not only the building but also the idea that animates it, arguing that the cathedral is a touchstone site for the American civil religion—the idea that the United States functions much like a religion, with its own rituals, sacred texts, holy days, and so on. He shows that the National Cathedral can never be the church L'Enfant envisioned, but it can be a starting point for studying the conflicts over belonging, ideology, and America's place in the world that define the American civil religion. By examining correspondence between L'Enfant, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and others, and by diving into Washington National Cathedral's archives, Crosby uncovers a crucial gap in the formation of the nation's soul.

While L'Enfant's original vision was never realized, Washington National Cathedral reminds us that perhaps it can be. The cathedral is one of the great rhetorical and architectural triumphs in the history of American religion. Without government mandate or public vote, it has claimed its role as America's de facto house of worship, a civil religious temple wherein Americans conduct some of their highest, holiest rituals, including state funerals and National Day of Prayer services.

By: Richard Benjamin Crosby (Associate Professor Brigham Young University)
Imprint: Johns Hopkins University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 21mm
Weight: 517g
ISBN: 9781421446424
ISBN 10: 1421446421
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 18 April 2023
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface: A Haunted House Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Pierre L'Enfant's Great Church for National Purposes 2. Henry Yates Satterlee's Westminster Abbey 3. The National Church in an Age of Nativism 4. Francis B. Sayre the Prophet and Mary Edgar Budde the Pastor 5. Philip Hubert Frohman's Fourth Dimension: A Close Reading of Washington National Cathedral 6. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Sacred Time 7. The Bush Presidents' Rock of Religious Faith 8. Civil Seership: The Revelatory Project of Cameron Partridge and Gene Robinson OR The Revelation of Matthew Shepard Conclusion: American Kairos Notes

Richard Benjamin Crosby (Provo, UT) is an associate professor of English at Brigham Young University.

Reviews for American Kairos: Washington National Cathedral and the New Civil Religion

In American Kairos, Richard Benajmin Crosby, an associate professor in the English department at Brigham Young University, examines what L'Enfant proposed and how successfully the cathedral has provided it. Crosby explains how the cathedral's identity has changed over time but concludes that because it is in the end a Christian, Episcopal church, the cathedral cannot fully be what L'Enfant envisioned. —Journal of the American Academy of Religion Crosby robustly identifies fractures and inconsistencies within American civil religion and shows how those divisions manifested within the cathedral's rhetorical careerAmerican Kairos: Washington National Cathedral and the New Civil Religion is an insightful book that deserves to be on the shelf of any serious scholar of political rhetoric, civil religion, and religious discourse in the United States. —Rhetoric and Public Affairs