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Chapter 12 - ‘A Nation under God’?

American Civil Religion between the Wall of Separation and Christian Nationalism

from Part IV - A Faustian Bargain?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2023

Tobias Cremer
Tobias Cremer
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

In Part IV (Chapters 12–15) the final case study of this book explores the relationship between right-wing populism and religion in the USA. It begins in Chapter 12 by discussing the historical background of the First Amendment, American civil religion, and the country’s history of white Christian nationalism and religious culture wars. Specifically, Chapter 12 shows how America’s civil religious tradition had historically been able to act as an important source of integration and prophetic criticism in American politics in spite of repeated challenges from white Christian nationalism on the one hand and secularist tendencies on the other. However, this chapter also explores how this integrative potential has been profoundly challenged by the rise of a new secular identity cleavage that increasingly superseded America’s old religious culture wars and prepared the grounds for the right-wing populist and identitarian politics of Donald Trump.

Keywords

civil religionChristian nationalismwall of seperationFirst AmendmentCapitol riotssecularisationsocial capitalreligionpolitics
Type
Chapter
Information
The Godless Crusade
Religion, Populism and Right-Wing Identity Politics in the West
 , pp. 183 - 194
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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