Bible's Influence On The Formation Of American Political Culture

This thesis is intended to explore the Bible's profound influence on the formationof American political culture since the colonial times of the America.Although nowadays the Christianity, Judaism, Moslemism and many other sectscoexist in United States, founded by immigrant Christians the United States of Americahas always held a special sentimentality and even superstitious awe for the religion of itsforefathers and its Scripture, the Bible. It was natural for the nation founders to applysome important ideas of the Bible to political field. As a result, the Bible' influencepermeated in American political culture from the beginning. Therefore, the Bible hasbeen the bedrock of American political culture. This unique historical condition servedas a prerequisite that the Bible was brought to bear on American political culture.This thesis confirms that the Holly Bible almost provided the United States with ablueprint during the formation of its political culture. Christianity, some key Christiannotions in particular, has been exerting persistent influence on the political actionsthroughout the history. Then, what influences have these notions been exercising onAmerican politics? And how did these Christian notions find their way into the politicalfield?The religious influence on politics mainly concentrates on two aspects; one is theinfluence of the religious ideas exercising on the development of American politics, theother is the religious groups' direct or indirect participation in politics, through whichthey can influence the governmental decision-making. This is the deliberate pressure which religious activities posed on the operations of politics. The thesis mainly focuseson the former aspect. The analyses make it clear that the forefathers of the US put thereligious thoughts into practice naturally and spontaneously. The thesis mainlyelaborates on two aspects, one is how certain ideas of the Bible effected the principle ofAmerican foreign policy, and the other is how the ideas of the Bible exert an influenceon the adoption of American polity. The two aspects not only form the main contents ofAmerican culture but also embody the typical feature of American culture. Two keyChristian notions exerted major influence on the American political culture; one is thenotion of "A City upon the Hill", which gave the American people a sense of missionand then laid a foundational principle for American foreign policy; the other is thenotion of "Covenant", which inspired the Founding Fathers of America to pursue anideal polity for the newly born nation.