Patriotic Stained-Glass Windows and American Civil Religion

Stained-glass windows are a mechanism through which abstract ideas are communicated, often benefitting from their association with European Gothic cathedrals. When church windows include patriotic iconography, the patriotic themes conceivably benefit from this association. Between 1890 and 1950, many American churches installed stained-glass windows that contained patriotic symbols and images associated with American nationalism. Sward's research explores this phenomenon and argues that patriotic images represent a manifestation of American civil religion.