Herberg

It is not uncommon in a small country village with about 200 inhabitants to see the words 'Herberg' or 'Estaminet' over the doors of a dozen houses, in which beer is sold at a penny (or less) for a large glass, and where various throat-burning liquors of the _petit verre_ species can be had at the same price; and the result is that very often a great portion of the scanty wage paid on Saturday evening is melted into beer or gin on Sunday and

Bruges and West Flanders Am��d��e Forestier 1887

Referring to the experience of the typical immigrant, Herberg wrote that “not only was he expected to retain his old religion, as he was not expected to retain his old language or nationality, but such was the shape of America that it was largely in and through his religion that he, or rather his children and grandchildren, found an identifiable place in American life.”

American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010

In his bestselling book Protestant—Catholic—Jew, Will Herberg argued that the religious resurgence of that day resulted from the bond between ethnicity and religion that, having lain largely dormant for decades, resurfaced in the middle of the twentieth century.

American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010

For example, in a contemporary extension of the argument made by Herberg decades ago about a different collection of ethnic groups, many new immigrants reinforce their ethnic identity through their participation in religious organizations.

American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010

Will Herberg argued in his 1955 classic book Protestant—Catholic—Jew that religion was as much about identity as about faith, with denominations linked to specific immigrant flows.

American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010

Herberg undoubtedly overstated his case, as there were many other reasons for the heightened religiosity of the 1950s, but we nonetheless find it revealing that a best-selling author would look out at the religious bull market and conclude that ethnicity was behind the boom.

American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010

He looked at the same America as Herberg and famously lamented that “at 11:00 on Sunday morning when we stand and sing that Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation.”

American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010

In writing about the ethnic channels of American religion in the 1950s, Will Herberg expressed no concern about the racial divisions that inevitably resulted.

American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010

Interestingly, even though the immigrants of whom Herberg wrote came from different nations and thus had different ethnicities than current immigration flows, the intergenerational pattern he described persists.

American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010

As Herberg described it, members of immigrant groups turned to religion in order to reinforce their ethnic heritage while also remaining fully American.

American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010