Defense Date
12-18-2020
Graduation Date
Spring 5-7-2021
Availability
Immediate Access
Submission Type
dissertation
Degree Name
PhD
Department
Communication and Rhetorical Studies
School
McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts
Committee Chair
Erik Garrett
Committee Member
Garnet Butchart
Committee Member
Richard Thames
Keywords
Second Amendment, Civil Religion, Hermeneutic Fundamentalism, gun rights, gun control
Abstract
The American approach to legal hermeneutics emerged from the covenant theology of the Puritans. American civil religion understands the Constitution to be based in natural laws: a secularized conception of God-given rights. To change the text would collapse the epistemological framework of the nation. When a nation sees its constitution as a sacred text, then the answer to contemporary problems cannot be to change that text; rather, it must be to return to the text with an even more fundamentalist hermeneutic. Both gun rights advocate Charlton Heston, and gun control advocate Barak Obama, argued their cases using a fundamentalist hermeneutic, drawing on American civil religious rhetoric.
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Corry, S. (2021). Civil Religion and the Second Amendment (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1972
Included in
Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Mass Communication Commons, Public Policy Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons, Rhetoric Commons, Social Influence and Political Communication Commons, Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons