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 of 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.
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