American Christian Nationalism and the Meaning of “Religion”
American Christian nationalism highlights the entanglements of identity and power as they relate to the category of “religion.” Like many populist movements, Christian nationalism emerges out of a power-devaluation crisis stemming from the diminishment of White Christians’ social and political hegem...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Brill
2022
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In: |
Method & theory in the study of religion
Year: 2022, Volume: 34, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 64-85 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
USA
/ Christianity
/ Nationalism
/ Social identity
/ Power structure
/ New Christian Right
/ History 2000-2022
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RelBib Classification: | CG Christianity and Politics CH Christianity and Society KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history KBQ North America |
Further subjects: | B
Christian Nationalism
B definition of religion B Populism B Social Identity B Religion And Politics |
Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Summary: | American Christian nationalism highlights the entanglements of identity and power as they relate to the category of “religion.” Like many populist movements, Christian nationalism emerges out of a power-devaluation crisis stemming from the diminishment of White Christians’ social and political hegemony, coalescing around the affirmation that the US is a properly “Christian” nation. However, an examination of Christian nationalism reveals that the meaning of “Christian” within Christian nationalism cannot be captured by traditional measures of individual religiosity that tacitly presuppose that religion is essentially private, belief-focused, and non-political in nature, but must recognize that it expresses a complex social identity involving multiple social domains (e.g., race, gender, political ideology) and, as such, contests of power. This analysis is significant for religious studies because it suggests that religion is better approached analytically as an active process of socially-shared identity formation than as a belief system or Gestalt of individual religious practices. |
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ISSN: | 1570-0682 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Method & theory in the study of religion
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341533 |