📘Lexicon Entry: Christian Nationalism
Contemporary Movements | April 8, 2025
Definition
Christian Nationalism is a political ideology that fuses Christian identity with national identity, advocating for privileged status of Christianity within national life and policies. It asserts that America was founded as a Christian nation, should be governed as a Christian nation, and that its laws and institutions should explicitly reflect particular interpretations of Christian values and teachings.
Key Characteristics
Fusion of identities: Merging Christian and American identities as effectively inseparable
Revisionist history: Selective reading of American founding as explicitly Christian
Preferential status: Advocacy for Christianity's privileged position in law and culture
Boundary enforcement: Defense of cultural and physical borders against perceived threats
Apocalyptic framing: Portrayal of cultural and political conflicts in cosmic, good-versus-evil terms
Power orientation: Focus on achieving and wielding dominant cultural and political power
Selective biblicism: Deployment of scriptural passages to justify nationalist positions
Historical Context
While drawing on longer traditions of American civil religion and religious nationalism, contemporary Christian Nationalism emerged more distinctly in the late 20th century. It developed partly in reaction to secularizing trends in American society, the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, and changing demographics that threatened the cultural dominance of white Protestant Christianity.
Key historical developments include:
The rise of the Moral Majority and Religious Right in the late 1970s
The culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s
Post-9/11 emphasis on Christian identity in opposition to Islam
Tea Party movement's fusion of religious and economic conservatism
Intensification during the Trump era with explicit "take back America" rhetoric
Democratic Theory Analysis
Political theorist Yascha Mounk offers important analysis of Christian Nationalism within the context of broader challenges to liberal democracy. In his work on populism and identity politics, Mounk identifies Christian Nationalism as part of a pattern where particular group identities are positioned as the "real people" whose will should override institutional constraints and minority protections.
As Mounk argues in The People vs. Democracy, this approach fundamentally challenges liberal democratic norms by prioritizing the perceived interests and values of a particular group over the principles of equal citizenship and rights. Christian Nationalism exemplifies what Mounk terms "democracy without rights"—a majoritarian approach that claims democratic legitimacy while undermining the liberal protections that make genuine democracy possible.
While Mounk's analysis primarily addresses right-wing populism, his framework helps us understand how Christian Nationalism represents a specific religious manifestation of the broader phenomenon of illiberal democracy—where democratic procedures are invoked to legitimize policies that undermine the rights and status of those outside the defined majority.
Spectrum of Expression
Christian Nationalism exists on a spectrum from "soft" to "hard" forms:
Soft Christian Nationalism involves general approval of Christianity's cultural influence, support for public religious expressions, and belief in America's special relationship with God. This milder form may express concern about secularization without advocating explicitly theocratic policies.
Hard Christian Nationalism actively seeks Christian dominance in law, politics, and culture. It typically advocates for policies that privilege Christianity, restrict religious minorities, and enforce particular interpretations of Christian morality through legislation. It often frames political opposition in apocalyptic terms as enemies of God's purposes for America.
Theological Analysis
Christian Nationalism exhibits several theological mutations identified in Dominative Christianism:
Disordered Nationalism: It elevates national identity above theological identity, effectively subordinating Christian commitments to nationalist goals. National interests become the primary lens through which scripture and tradition are interpreted.
Binary Apocalypticism: It frames political and cultural conflicts in stark good-versus-evil terms, with little room for nuance, complexity, or legitimate disagreement. Political opponents become not just wrong but evil enemies of God's purposes.
Practical Atheism: While verbally affirming Christian belief, it functionally ignores Jesus's teachings about enemy love, care for strangers, and the dangers of wealth and power when these conflict with nationalist goals or cultural preferences.
Tribal Epistemology: It creates closed information systems where truth claims are evaluated primarily by whether they support nationalist narratives rather than by evidence, consistency, or broader Christian wisdom.
Practical Application
Think of Christian Nationalism like a GPS system that has been reprogrammed to mark certain landmarks as sacred while recalculating routes to avoid others, regardless of the actual terrain. Users of this system come to see the distorted map as the territory itself, making it difficult to navigate the actual landscape.
Christian Nationalism manifests in religious contexts when:
National symbols like flags are given prominent places in worship spaces
Patriotic songs and pledges are incorporated into worship services
Military service is celebrated as specifically Christian vocation
Political candidates are endorsed from pulpits based on nationalist policies
American historical figures and events are incorporated into religious narratives
National security concerns are prioritized over biblical commands regarding strangers
Economic or military dominance is interpreted as evidence of divine favor
Theological Alternative
The constructive alternative to Christian Nationalism is not disengagement from civic life but rather a theologically grounded approach called Prophetic Patriotism. This approach maintains genuine love for one's country while holding it accountable to higher moral and theological standards. It expresses civic engagement through a primary commitment to God's kingdom that transcends all national identities, allowing for both appreciation of a nation's virtues and prophetic critique of its failures.
Related Terms
Disordered Nationalism
Prophetic Patriotism
Civil Religion
Identity Synthesis
This lexicon entry was last updated on April 8, 2025