Loyalty Oaths: The Creedal Affirmations of Constitutional Faith
Loyalty Oaths: The Creedal Affirmations of Constitutional Faith
This chapter presents an extended treatment of our feelings about a variety of oaths and affirmations. Oaths are a mixture of pure form and substantive content. Their formal nature may remind us of the “contentless” seals formerly used to give legal validity to contracts. Vows also signify a desire to be considered a member of a particular community and a willingness to remain within its boundaries. This chapter focuses on the American political community and its extraction of loyalty oaths attesting to a shared commitment to certain beliefs—usually involving the legitimacy of the state, its particular political structure, or its ideological aspirations. It also considers two other kinds of communities. One is the classical religious faith community. The other is the marriage by which two individuals join together in constituting a special kind of common enterprise.
Keywords: constitutional faith, civil religion, oaths, affirmation, American political community, religious faith, marriage
Princeton Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
