Political Polarization and the Churches: Tocqueville on Religion, Democracy and the Future of Christianity
Critics decry what they see as an odd association in the 2016 election of Donald Trump and evangelical Christians who emerged as his most reliable base of support. Yet President Trump's popularity among evangelicals is not as remarkable as it may seem given the often-paradoxical relationship be...
| Published in: | Journal of interdisciplinary studies |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
[2018]
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| In: |
Journal of interdisciplinary studies
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| RelBib Classification: | CG Christianity and Politics KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history KBQ North America KDD Protestant Church |
| Further subjects: | B
Christians
B Evangelical Churches B Religion & Politics B United States B EVANGELICAL churches & politics B Polarization (Social sciences) B Trump, Donald, 1946- |
| Summary: | Critics decry what they see as an odd association in the 2016 election of Donald Trump and evangelical Christians who emerged as his most reliable base of support. Yet President Trump's popularity among evangelicals is not as remarkable as it may seem given the often-paradoxical relationship between religion and politics in the United States. Alexis de Tocgueville's warnings about the vulnerability of American Protestantism's prophetic voice to individualism and materialism may help to explain Trump's status as a "religious" president. Polls suggest that security concerns have eclipsed moral issues in importance for many American Christian voters. Such a transformation, Tocqueville believed, would undermine the nation's moral foundations. This concern led Tocqueville to admire the American principle of church-state separation and voice support for something akin to the "Protestant Principle," which promotes maintenance of prophetic distance between religion and politics to morally ground democracy. |
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| ISSN: | 2766-0508 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of interdisciplinary studies
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