Abstract

Barack Obama, like many American presidents, uses religious language extensively in his rhetoric. In order to communicate his ideas, Obama draws upon the rhetoric of his predecessors, the Civil Rights Movement, and his own personal experience. Using the thought of Charles Taylor and Paul Ricoeur as a guide, this thesis provides an analysis of Obama's rhetoric, placing it within the context of the religious- political belief systems of "American civil religion" and African-American Christian political theology. Obama makes reference to the founding documents of the country and "traditional American values" in order to further the argument that the "change" promised in his campaign amounts to a renewal of American society along the lines of the deepest ideals of the country's founding.