Reasons For America's Exceptionalism

America has long been praised as being a prosperous country that has a special role on the stage of world politics. There is no doubt that America displays exceptionalism as a nation. However, there is debate over the reason for America’s exceptionalism, and Christians question how the church should respond to America’s exceptionalism. In chapter four of Migrations of the Holy, William T. Cavanaugh explains some of the theories surrounding America’s role as an exceptional nation. One theory in particular contends that the reason for this exceptionalism is America is based on Enlightenment ideals of freedom and human rights, which is not only a desire of citizens of the United States, but it is a universal desire of all people from all nations. Analysis of this theory will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of this argument in order to shed some light on the modern role of the United States and how the Christian church should respond. …show more content…
Freedom is not a good in itself, but it gives the structure that allows each person to individually acquire their own goods. The acquisition of these goods brings happiness to the beholder. In order to allow people to embrace their own goods instead of imposing certain goods on them, the state allows the individual to define for himself the transcendent power that is at the center of the public democracy. The state does not make the citizens commit to a specific god, but instead leaves an “empty shrine” that stands for any general transcendence that a citizen could image. This respect for individual interpretation of the transcendent is the key element that makes the democracy of America universal, and thus sought after by the