The Religious American

Abstract

The paper is in itself a statement of facts: that the American has always been a “homo religiosus”, and that religion has shaped the American character starting with the early construction of America and until the current 21st secular century. America today is still indebted to the Puritans’ utopian consciousness of a divine call to restore Paradise on earth. Mircea Eliade helps this reading of America, he himself an exiled that experienced the quest for the Center of the world and of the self. To the eyes of a Romanian, America of the past two decades has revealed a steady growing Eastern Orthodox Church rooted in unspoiled traditions and values, a path worthy of further exploring.