Why Christian Nationalism, and Why Now?

Was the academic interest in (or fear of) Christian nationalism that proliferated in the years between Trump’s first term and the Biden administration, brief though it was, a self-fulfilling prophecy?  Nationalism itself became a concern among scholars during the first Donald Trump presidency when MAGA populism was a clear volley against the thrust of a reigning liberal internationalism.  Some historians like Jill Lepore in This America: The Case for the Nation (2019) used the moment to remind U.S. historians that their academic fields originated precisely in the study of modern nation-states, even as she wanted to keep nationalism away from illegitimate appropriators. For much of Trump’s first administration, the preferred term was “white nationalism.”  After the January 6th riots, with the protesters’ use of religious images, the language shifted to “white Christian nationalism,” which then became merely “Christian nationalism” (whiteness assumed). Read Full Article »