Probably, but even the European version of Protestantism is a different animal than the holy roller variety that evolved on this side of the pond. As my wife, who was raised Lutheran, says, the Lutheran church is the Catholic church without the pope.
I think that European religiosity grew out of the organic social structures that developed there - the religion had to adapt to it. In the US, by contrast social structure and solidarity was basically a residual brought from the Old World (and in case of African slaves, even that little was not the case) - individualism was the name of the game, and religiosity again had to adapt to it. The distinctive anti-intellectualist bent of the US religiosity that sets it apart from European churches (Catholic and Protestant alike) was a response to the social conditions that prevailed in the colonies. Likewise, the feel-good-religiosity is an outgrowth of consumerism.
I think an important point of this discussion is that religion does not cause anything, it is merely a reflection of social structure and conditions and I think we both agree on that.
> It is intereresting to note how many secular thinkers
> in Catholic countries, especially France, were
> concerned with developing some sort of a
> secular substitute for Catholicism that would
> be able to perform the same sorts of functions
> like the ones that Wojtek describes. Saint-Simon,
> Comte, and Durkheim were all obsessed with
> this enterprise. Even a Marxist like Althusser,
> who came from a devout Catholic family, shared
> in this obsession.
A good point, indeed. I think the renewal of conventional religiosity in the US an indicator of the popular demand for "civic religion" which is in short supply.
Wojtek