Understanding Christian Nationalism

Perspectives on the Political Religion of Trump's America
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-08494-5
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 288 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Offering the first comprehensive, interdisciplinary account of what Christian nationalism in America is and isn’t, and how it became the political religion of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, the essays in this book describe the way Christian nationalism has embedded itself in American politics.

Understanding Christian Nationalism emphasizes that Christian nationalism’s sacralization of the US must be seen against the backdrop of American civil religion, which since the founding of the republic has represented the country in sacred terms that transcend political partisanship. By contrast, partisanship is central to the Christian nationalist enterprise. Although Christian nationalist politics can be found in the 19th century, the book shows that the Christian nationalism experienced in today’s America derives from the rise of the religious right in the late 1970s. Adapting civil religious language to advance the electoral success of the Republican Party, the religious right set the stage for the MAGA movement by promoting the restoration of a country dominated by White, heterosexual men, when Protestant Christianity enjoyed favored status as the country’s effective religious establishment. The collection makes clear that the use of religious language to characterize the US is not exclusively an expression of Christian nationalism. It also demonstrates that many Christian nationalists in America see themselves as part of an international movement to restore Christian values around the world.

Featuring essays that use historical methods, media analysis, survey data, interview and ethnographic observations, this book is essential to students, instructors, and readers in sociology, social theory, sociology of religion, cultural sociology, US history, and politics to understand the Christian nationalism integral to Trump’s appeal and electoral success.

Zielgruppe

Academic, Postgraduate, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Silk, Mark

Williams, Rhys H.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Nationalismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Soziale Gruppen & Klassen
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Religionssoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Freizeitsoziologie, Konsumsoziologie, Alltagssoziologie, Populärkultur
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Populärkultur
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religion & Politik, Religionsfreiheit
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Wirtschaftssoziologie, Arbeitssoziologie, Organisationssoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Gesellschaftstheorie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Making Sense of Christian Nationalism; Part 1: Historical Perspectives; 1. “Christian Nationalism” and “Civil Religion” in the Nineteenth Century; 2. One Nation Under God? The Rise and Decline of Civil Religion in Mid-Twentieth Century America; 3. A Restorationist Political Religion; 4. The Tea Party Movement as Gateway to White Christian Nationalism; Part 2: Key Religious Traditions; 5. Southern Baptists and the Evolution of White Evangelical Politics; 6. “Pick One of Those Pieces Up and Begin Again”: The New Integralism and the Persistence of a Dream of Christendom; 7. “God bless the Red, White, and Blue”: Eastern Orthodoxy and Internationalization of Christian Nationalism; 8. “A Vision for America That Includes All of Us”: Black Christian Universalism vs. White Christian Nationalism with a Meditation on Black Nation-Consciousness; Part 3: The Contemporary Scene; 9. You Got Your Political Religion in my Civil Religion! The Development of Christian Nationalist Belief Networks in the United States; 10. Religious Language in Progressive Politics: From Civil Religion to Moral Redistribution; 11. Civil Religion vs. Christian Nationalism: A Distinction with a Difference and Why it Matters; 12. How Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” Failed to Build Back the Old-Time Civil Religion; Conclusion: Looking Forward; Appendix

Über Autor(innen)

Mark Silk is Director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life and Professor of Religion in Public Life Emeritus at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. His most recent book, with Jerome A. Chanes, is The Future of Judaism in America (2023).

Rhys H. Williams is Professor Emeritus in Sociology from Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois and Visiting Scholar in Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His most recent book, with R. Haberski and P. Goff, is Civil Religion Today: Religion and the American Nation in the Twenty-First Century (2021).