In a contribution to Bonds of Imperfection, Joan Lockwood O'Donovan examines varieties of nationalism and the neglected biblical and theological sources for understanding modern nations.
She identifies two strains of nationalism that have developed since the nineteenth century. The first, “romantic nationalism,” takes the nation “as a unique communal totality, at once natural and historical” that “gives rise to and morally justifies the sovereign state.” This totality is characterized and constituted by “a common language and ethnic inheritance—shared sentiments, mores, spiritual capacities, and historical memories—and a continuous relation to a particular soil” (278).
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