A Critical Review On Universalism In American Culture

Americans may be regarded by peoples outside the U.S. as both "arrogant" and "benevolent" in that they always think of themselves as the Chosen People of God or the Savior of the world in intercultural communications and international relations. Guided by this feeling of Savior, Americans, more often than not, appear to be superior to other peoples on the one hand and actively take part in helping the chaotic countries and poor people around the world on the other. Obviously, people tend to see the question from various angles of politics, economy or even ideology, however, it is equally important to study it from the perspective of culture. Culturally speaking, the feeling of Savior originates from American idea of universalism which is one of the most important aspects in American deep culture that is worth studying. The idea of universalism is so deep-rooted in American culture that it incessantly influences American view of the objective world and influences the foreign cultural and other international strategies of the U.S. government as well.As the succession and development of European culture, American universalism is the direct outcome of the Religious Reform and American social reality. The study of American universalism will help to understand the nature of American culture and ideology, thus help to understand American standard of conduct and the standpoint of American foreign policy, which will result in the improvement of cultural sensitivity in communicating with American people and government. So, the problem of American universalism is mainly discussed from cultural angle.This paper consists of five parts: an introduction and four chapters. The "Introduction" and Chapter One, "The European Origins of American Universalism" provide basis for my thesis, while Chapter Two, "TheLocalization of Universalisra in America" and Chapter Three, "American Universalism in Practice" are the main concerns of my research. Chapter Four, "Is American Universalism a Myth?" serves as both conclusion and predictions.The opening part, "Introduction", starts with expatiating on the development of American culture to make it clear that American culture is the succession of European culture. The American mainstream culture originated from European culture which itself came from the Hebraic and Greco-Roman Cultures. The relationship between these cultures can be described as "inheriting" and "being inherited". In other words, the American culture took its shape by succeeding European cultural tradition combined with colonist wasteland culture while never stopped absorbing the reasonable elements of other cultures around the world. Since the founding of the United States of America, in as short as just a little over 100 years, it has become the most powerful country in the world. As the Americans are proud of their success, they attribute it to the superiority of their culture and regard themselves as Chosen People and America as Promised Land, trying to spread its culture to and help the "suffering" at every corner of the world, which is known as the universalistic feeling of Americans'.The first chapter, "The European Origins of American Universalism", offers a concise and to-the-point introduction of two senses of Universalism. Narrowly speaking, Universalism or Universal Salvation, holds that all souls will be saved by God and this universal redemption will be realized in the future, which implies that Christian ideology should be used to unify human thoughts and Christian creeds are bound to become the moral standards of all human beings, and in this sense, Christianity is universalistic by nature.Broadly speaking, Universalism is studied from the angle of modern western universalistic values. As the development of universal salvation, Universalism maintains that the future world will be unified under a set of universally accepted values, thinking that under this values, human couldestablish a universal civilization. Undoubtedly, this universally accepted values are based on Western culture and ideology.