The Different Forms of Christian Nationalism
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The Different Forms of Christian Nationalism
Christian nationalism is not a single, unified ideology or organization. The scholarship, surveys, journalism, theological commentary, and historical research collected on this subject describe a range of movements and attitudes that connect Christianity with national identity, political authority, public institutions, or ideas about the proper character of the nation. Researchers disagree about how broadly the term should be defined and how Christian nationalism should be measured, making distinctions among its different forms especially important.
Some approaches define Christian nationalism primarily as a political theology that seeks a privileged position for Christianity in national life. Others study it as a social identity, a collection of attitudes measured through surveys, a political movement, a form of religious nationalism, or a set of practices involving organizations, political mobilization, symbols, rituals, and public policy.
The boundaries of the concept are also disputed. Christianity, religious conservatism, patriotism, Christian political participation, civil religion, and support for Christian moral values are not necessarily identical to Christian nationalism. The sources collected on the subject repeatedly distinguish between ordinary religious participation in politics and stronger claims that Christianity should receive special recognition, authority, or institutional preference within government and national life.
Charismatic Dominionism and the New Apostolic Reformation
One important form of Christian nationalism comes from charismatic and Pentecostal political theology. Research on the New Apostolic Reformation describes networks emphasizing contemporary apostles and prophets, spiritual warfare, divine authority, and the transformation of social institutions.
A concept frequently associated with this movement is the Seven Mountains Mandate. The framework identifies major areas of society—commonly government, education, media, business, family, religion, and arts or entertainment—as spheres in which Christians should exercise influence or leadership.
This charismatic form differs significantly from older Reformed or Calvinist versions of Christian nationalism. Its emphasis on prophecy, apostleship, spiritual warfare, revival, and supernatural transformation gives it a distinctive theological foundation even when its political objectives sometimes overlap with other Christian nationalist movements.
Calvinist Nationalism, Reconstructionism, and Theonomy
A second major stream grows from Reformed Protestant political theology. Christian Reconstructionism, associated historically with figures such as R. J. Rushdoony, argues that biblical principles should provide the foundation for civil and legal institutions.
Theonomy, closely related to Reconstructionism, emphasizes the continuing relevance of biblical law for political society. Contemporary Reformed debates also include broader arguments for Christian nationhood, Christendom, confessional government, and the recovery of older Protestant understandings of political authority.
Not every contemporary Reformed Christian nationalist accepts Reconstructionism or theonomy. The source material therefore presents Calvinist or Reformed nationalism as a family of related approaches rather than a single doctrine. Disagreement exists within Reformed Christianity itself over nationhood, religious establishment, political authority, ethnicity, historical Protestantism, and the proper relationship between Christianity and government.
Catholic Integralism and Postliberalism
Catholic integralism represents another distinct political-theological tradition. Integralists generally favor a closer relationship between political authority and the Catholic Church than exists under conventional liberal church-state arrangements.
Contemporary integralism has developed alongside a broader Catholic postliberal movement. Postliberal thinkers criticize aspects of modern liberalism, particularly individualism and religious neutrality, and often argue that government should pursue a substantive conception of the common good.
Integralism and postliberalism are not interchangeable. Postliberalism contains a wider range of positions, while integralism more specifically concerns the relationship between temporal political authority, religious truth, and the institutional church.
The Catholic tradition therefore differs substantially from both charismatic dominionism and Protestant Reconstructionism even where all three question conventional understandings of religious neutrality or church-state separation.
White and Racialized Christian Nationalism
A substantial body of research focuses specifically on white Christian nationalism. These studies examine circumstances in which Christian national identity becomes intertwined with white racial identity, racial solidarity, immigration attitudes, national belonging, historical narratives, or beliefs about cultural membership.
Research in this area distinguishes white Christian nationalism from Christian nationalism generally. The two terms should not automatically be treated as synonyms.
Studies of Black, Hispanic, and other nonwhite populations demonstrate that Christian nationalist attitudes also appear outside white communities. Their meanings, however, may differ because religious history, racial experience, denominational affiliation, political identity, and understandings of national belonging differ across populations.
Research comparing racial groups consequently cautions against assuming that identical answers to Christian-nationalism survey questions necessarily reflect identical political or theological motivations.
Gender, Family, and Social Identity
Christian nationalism has also been studied through gender, family structure, sexuality, parenthood, and demographic identity.
Some research examines relationships between Christian nationalism and ideals of masculinity, patriarchal family authority, parental control, abortion policy, pronatalism, homeschooling, and education. Other studies investigate whether these associations vary according to race, gender, sexual identity, religious tradition, or economic position.
Pronatalist research provides one example of these distinctions. Scholars have differentiated general support for increasing birth rates from forms of pronatalism motivated by concern about the demographic future of particular religious, racial, cultural, or national groups.
These findings reinforce the broader conclusion of the collected literature that Christian nationalism intersects with other social identities rather than operating independently from them.
Civil Religion, Christian Traditionalism, and Christian Statism
American civil religion has long incorporated references to God, national purpose, sacred history, public prayer, national ceremonies, and religious language without necessarily advocating formal Christian government.
For this reason, scholars debate where civil religion ends and Christian nationalism begins.
Some research distinguishes religious traditionalism from Christian statism. Religious traditionalism may emphasize Christianity's cultural importance and the strength of Christian institutions within civil society. Christian statism places greater emphasis on the government itself using political authority to promote, recognize, or privilege Christianity.
Symbolic expressions occupy another ambiguous area. Biblical language, national prayer, religious monuments, historical references, flags, national covenants, and claims that the country has a divine mission can function as civil-religious symbols without necessarily representing a complete program of Christian nationalism.
Context, political purpose, and the role assigned to government therefore become important when distinguishing these categories.
Populist, Authoritarian, and Conspiratorial Variants
Another group of studies examines the relationship between Christian nationalism and populism, authoritarian attitudes, conspiracy beliefs, perceptions of cultural threat, political leadership, and distrust of institutions.
These characteristics are analytically distinct. Christian nationalism is not simply another word for authoritarianism, populism, or conspiracism. Research instead examines the circumstances under which these attitudes overlap and the mechanisms that may connect them.
Some studies focus on perceived threats to Christianity or national identity. Others examine attitudes toward political leaders, democratic norms, voting, policing, guns, political violence, civil liberties, or unequal treatment of political and religious in-groups and out-groups.
At the same time, scholars critical of overly broad definitions argue that Christian nationalism should not be treated as an all-purpose explanation for every form of right-wing politics, authoritarianism, religious conservatism, or political conflict.
Institutional and Public-Policy Expressions
Christian nationalism can also be examined through institutions and public policy rather than primarily through individual beliefs.
The source material discusses controversies involving public schools, Bible instruction, religious displays, the Ten Commandments, official prayer, religious-liberty policy, homeschooling, educational curricula, government commissions, and organized legislative campaigns.
Project Blitz is one example examined in this literature. Researchers have studied coordinated attempts to advance state legislation involving religious displays, schools, religious exemptions, and other church-state questions.
Education has become an especially important field of study. Researchers examine curriculum, parental authority, school governance, competing interpretations of American history, religion in public education, and the relationship between educational activism and broader political movements.
Institutional expressions therefore provide another way to analyze Christian nationalism beyond measuring individuals' responses to survey questions.
Political Mobilization and Movement Networks
Some scholarship treats Christian nationalism not simply as an ideology but as a form of political mobilization.
From this perspective, churches, advocacy organizations, political activists, conferences, media networks, religious leaders, candidates, donors, congregations, and informal religious networks can help translate ideas about Christian nationhood into collective political action.
This approach also highlights differences between ordinary survey respondents who express Christian-nationalist attitudes and activists belonging to organized theological or political movements.
A person classified as a Christian-nationalism sympathizer in a public-opinion survey therefore should not automatically be assumed to belong to the New Apostolic Reformation, Christian Reconstructionism, Catholic integralism, or any other organized movement.
Survey Categories and Measurement
Survey research has become one of the principal methods for studying Christian nationalism in the United States.
The Public Religion Research Institute, for example, classifies respondents into categories such as Christian nationalism Adherents, Sympathizers, Skeptics, and Rejecters based on answers concerning Christianity, American identity, and government.
Other scholars use different question batteries or conceptual models. Some researchers have challenged widely used measurements, arguing that questions may sometimes capture conventional religiosity, political conservatism, racial identity, patriotism, or other attitudes in addition to nationalism.
Measurement remains one of the central debates in the field. Researchers therefore differ not only over the consequences of Christian nationalism but also over precisely who should be classified as a Christian nationalist.
Regional, Racial, and Denominational Variation
Survey research shows substantial variation across states, regions, religious traditions, racial and ethnic groups, educational levels, age groups, and political identities.
The meaning of Christian-nationalist language can also vary across communities. Black Americans, white evangelicals, Hispanic Protestants, Catholics, mainline Protestants, religiously unaffiliated Americans, and members of other religious communities may interpret claims about Christianity and national identity through different historical and theological experiences.
This variation makes it difficult to describe everyone classified as a Christian nationalist as belonging to a single political constituency or holding an identical worldview.
Regional studies similarly demonstrate that support, opposition, and interpretations of Christian nationalism vary geographically.
Global Forms of Christian Nationalism
Christian nationalism is not exclusively an American phenomenon.
Comparative scholarship examines religious nationalism in Europe, Africa, and other regions. Research on Finland, Zambia, and African democracies demonstrates that ideas developed in the American context cannot simply be transferred unchanged to other countries.
In Zambia, for example, scholars have examined how North American Reconstructionist and charismatic ideas have interacted with local Christian political traditions. Research covering African countries has used survey data to examine relationships between Christian nationalism and attitudes toward democratic government.
European research likewise identifies forms of Christian nationalism shaped by secularization, multiparty politics, established churches, national history, and cultural Christianity.
Comparative research therefore suggests that Christian nationalism is best understood within specific national, historical, denominational, and political contexts.
Internal Christian Debate
Christian nationalism is also the subject of extensive disagreement among Christians.
Catholic, evangelical, Reformed, mainline Protestant, Pentecostal, and other Christian writers disagree over whether Christian nationalism represents a legitimate political theology, a distortion of Christianity, a poorly defined academic category, or a label applied too broadly to conventional Christian political activity.
Some Christian critics argue that nationalism can subordinate universal Christian commitments to national, racial, ethnic, or partisan identity. Others defend forms of public Christianity or Christian nationhood while rejecting the label Christian nationalism. Still others explicitly defend Christian nationalism or related ideas such as Christendom, integralism, or confessional government.
Denominational discussions demonstrate that debates over Christian nationalism are not simply conflicts between religious and secular Americans. They also represent disagreements within Christianity concerning political power, religious liberty, national identity, democracy, pluralism, history, and the meaning of Christian public witness.
Distinguishing Christian Nationalism From Related Ideas
The diversity of the literature makes several distinctions particularly important.
Christianity is a global religion encompassing a wide range of theological and political traditions and is not synonymous with Christian nationalism.
Christian political participation refers broadly to Christians participating in civic and political life and can occur across the political spectrum.
Religious conservatism generally concerns theological, moral, or cultural beliefs and does not by itself establish a nationalist political ideology.
Patriotism describes attachment or loyalty to one's country and does not necessarily imply that national identity should be defined according to Christianity.
Civil religion uses religious language and symbolism to interpret national identity but can be pluralistic rather than exclusively Christian.
Christian nationalism more specifically concerns attempts to connect Christianity with national identity, political authority, governmental preference, or claims concerning who properly belongs to the nation. Even within that broad definition, however, substantial disagreement remains over boundaries and measurement.
Conclusion
The research collected on Christian nationalism shows that the term encompasses several overlapping but distinct phenomena rather than one homogeneous movement.
Charismatic dominionism and the New Apostolic Reformation emphasize apostleship, spiritual warfare, and institutional transformation. Reformed Christian nationalism draws from Calvinist political theology, Reconstructionism, theonomy, and ideas of Christendom. Catholic integralism develops from a separate Catholic understanding of church, state, political authority, and the common good.
Other forms are organized less by denomination than by social identity or political expression. These include white and racialized Christian nationalism, civil-religious and symbolic nationalism, Christian statism, populist or authoritarian variants, gendered and familial expressions, organized political movements, and public-policy campaigns.
International research adds further variation by showing how Christian nationalism changes when it develops within different religious traditions, political systems, and national histories.
For these reasons, understanding Christian nationalism requires attention to theology, race, class, gender, denomination, institutions, political organization, national history, survey methodology, and the distinction between private religious belief and governmental power. Treating every expression of Christianity in politics as Christian nationalism can obscure these differences just as much as treating all forms of Christian nationalism as a single unified ideology.
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Typologies, Definitions, Measurement, and Conceptual Debates
On Christian Nationalism
| Jesse Smith and Jonathan Tran | Religious Studies Review | September 5, 2026
Reviews recent scholarship on Christian nationalism and examines disputes over the concept, its definition, measurement, and usefulness for describing different religious-political movements.
Christian Nationalism as a Social Identity
| Donald P. Haider-Markel et al. | Public Opinion Quarterly | July 4, 2026
Approaches Christian nationalism as a social identity and examines how identification with a Christian nation may differ from simply holding conservative religious or political attitudes.
Moving Away from Extreme Views of Religion and Politics: A Dynamic Civil Religion
| Douglas L. Koopman and Amy E. Black | Cambridge University Press Blog | June 3, 2026
Examines civil religion as an alternative framework for understanding relationships among Christianity, national identity, patriotism, pluralism, and stronger forms of Christian nationalism.
How Americans Feel About Religion’s Influence in Government and Public Life
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 14, 2026
Surveys Americans about religion in public life, church-state relations, Christian influence on government, and differing understandings of what a Christian nation would mean.
Not Everything Is Christian Nationalism
| Chris Butler | Christianity Today | May 5, 2026
Argues for distinguishing Christian nationalism from ordinary Christian political participation, religious conservatism, patriotism, and other forms of public religious engagement.
The Weakness of Anti-Christian Nationalism: When Religiously Inclusive Orientations Can’t Increase Tolerance
| Paul A. Djupe and Brooklyn Walker | Politics and Religion | March 26, 2026
Develops the concept of anti-Christian nationalism and tests whether religiously inclusive orientations consistently produce greater tolerance toward political and religious out-groups.
Notions of ‘Christendom’ Often Miss the Mark – Medieval Europe’s Ideas About Faith and Power Were Not So Simple
| The Conversation | Religion News Service | March 12, 2026
Uses medieval history to complicate modern appeals to Christendom and shows that historical relationships among Christianity, political authority, and national identity varied considerably.
Defending Critical Epistemology: The Case of Christian Nationalism and Christofascism
| Steven Foertsch | Sociological Forum | December 29, 2025
Examines conceptual debates surrounding Christian nationalism and the more contested label of Christofascism, focusing on how scholars define and analyze religious-political movements.
Partisan and Racial Sorting of Christian Nationalism, 1996–2022: Backlash and Counter Backlash on the (White) Secular Left and Religious Right
| Jesse Smith | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | December 26, 2025
Traces changes in Christian nationalist attitudes over several decades and argues that growing partisan polarization partly reflects simultaneous sorting on the religious right and secular left.
Measurement and Conceptualization of Christian Nationalism: A Critical Examination and Alternative Approach
| Jesse Smith and George Yancey | Review of Religious Research | May 21, 2025
Critically evaluates common measures of Christian nationalism and proposes an alternative approach intended to separate nationalism more clearly from conventional religiosity.
The Varieties of American Christian Nationalism
| Nilay Saiya | Politics and Religion | May 13, 2025
Identifies three major theological forms in contemporary American public life: charismatic dominionism, Calvinist nationalism, and Catholic integralism, while examining their differences and areas of cooperation.
Christian Nationalism Across All 50 States: Insights from PRRI’s 2024 American Values Atlas
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 4, 2025
Maps Christian nationalist attitudes by state and divides respondents into adherents, sympathizers, skeptics, and rejecters, illustrating gradations rather than a single uniform constituency.
Religious Nationalism Around the World
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | January 28, 2025
Compares religious nationalism internationally and shows how the relationship between religion, citizenship, national identity, and government varies substantially among countries.
Old Wine in New Wineskins: Christian Nationalism, Authoritarianism, and the Problem of Essentialism in Explanations of Religiopolitical Conflict
| Jesse Smith | Sociological Forum | December 2024
Questions explanations that treat Christian nationalism as a self-contained cause and examines its overlap with authoritarianism, political identity, religion, and longer-standing social conflicts.
Christianity’s Place in Politics, and “Christian Nationalism”
| Chip Rotolo, Gregory A. Smith, and Jonathan Evans | Pew Research Center | March 15, 2024
Shows that Americans who favor greater Christian influence in public life hold a range of positions, from support for Christian values to much stronger forms of official governmental preference.
New Study Finds Christian Nationalists to Be More Complex Than Media Portrayals
| Jack Jenkins | Religion News Service | December 18, 2023
Reports on research suggesting that people categorized as Christian nationalists vary substantially in religious practice, political attitudes, race, and other characteristics.
Christian Nationalism and the Project of Christian Political Theory: A Review Essay of The Case for Christian Nationalism by Stephen Wolfe
| Michael J. DeMoor | Philosophia Reformata | September 13, 2023
Analyzes Stephen Wolfe’s Reformed Christian nationalist theory and considers how it relates to older Christian traditions of political theology, nationhood, and governmental authority.
Who Are the Christian Nationalists? A Taxonomy for the Post-Jan. 6 World
| Bob Smietana | Religion News Service | January 6, 2023
Offers a journalistic taxonomy of several currents commonly grouped under Christian nationalism and distinguishes organizations, activists, theological movements, and broader cultural sympathizers.
Views of the U.S. as a “Christian Nation” and Opinions About “Christian Nationalism”
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | October 27, 2022
Documents the different meanings Americans attach to the idea of a Christian nation, ranging from cultural and moral influence to explicit legal or governmental preference for Christianity.
What Is Christian Nationalism?
| Paul D. Miller | Christianity Today | February 3, 2021
Provides a Christian political theorist’s definition of Christian nationalism and distinguishes nationalism from patriotism, Christianity, conservatism, and ordinary participation in democratic politics.
Charismatic Dominionism, the New Apostolic Reformation, and Seven Mountains
American Dominion Traces Deep Roots of Seven Mountain Mandate
| Steve Rabey | Baptist News Global | July 15, 2026
Discusses research tracing the Seven Mountain Mandate, a charismatic dominionist framework calling for Christian influence or control within government, education, media, business, family, religion, and the arts.
Christian Nationalism: Primer on an American Heresy
| Craig L. Nessan | Currents in Theology and Mission | June 17, 2026
Surveys several historical and theological strands feeding Christian nationalism, including Christian Reconstructionism, the New Apostolic Reformation, civil religion, and the Seven Mountain Mandate.
A Timely Talk on Christian Nationalism
| Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) | Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) | May 7, 2026
Discusses the New Apostolic Reformation and its belief in contemporary apostles, spiritual dominion, and the transformation of social institutions while distinguishing the movement from Christianity generally.
Top 24 Leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation in the U.S.
| Frederick Clarkson and André Gagné | Religion Dispatches | April 2, 2026
Profiles prominent figures associated with the New Apostolic Reformation and describes the movement’s apostolic governance, spiritual-warfare ideas, international networks, and Seven Mountain strategy.
Our Man at the Top: How the Seven Mountains Mandate and Paul Weyrich’s Last Testament Have Shaped the Presidency of Donald Trump
| Hanne Amanda Trangerud | Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses | November 22, 2025
Compares the Seven Mountain Mandate with a conservative political strategy associated with Paul Weyrich and examines similarities in organization, leadership, and approaches to institutional change.
Yang Scholars 2025: Christian Nationalism in Global Perspective
| Nilay Saiya | Harvard Divinity School | March 5, 2025
Explains charismatic dominionism and the New Apostolic Reformation alongside Calvinist nationalism and Catholic integralism, placing the American movements in a broader international context.
The Genesis of Christian Nationalism
| Phoebe Petrovic | ProPublica and Wisconsin Watch | October 26, 2024
Traces historical networks behind contemporary Christian nationalism, including Christian Reconstructionism, the religious right, charismatic movements, and the development of the Seven Mountain Mandate.
New Apostolic Reformation Dominionism: A Threat to Our Freedom
| Peter Montgomery | People For the American Way Foundation | October 24, 2024
Presents an advocacy organization’s analysis of NAR dominionism, emphasizing the movement’s Seven Mountain theology and its efforts to transform cultural and political institutions.
A Reporter’s Guide to the New Apostolic Reformation
| Frederick Clarkson and André Gagné | Religion Dispatches | May 23, 2024
Provides a detailed guide to NAR history, terminology, leadership structures, apostles and prophets, dominion theology, spiritual warfare, and the movement’s multiracial and international character.
The Quiet Rise of Christian Dominionism
| Keri Ladner | The Christian Century | September 22, 2022
Traces dominionist thought from R. J. Rushdoony’s Reconstructionism to the charismatic New Apostolic Reformation and explains important theological differences between those two streams.
Calvinist Nationalism, Reconstructionism, and Theonomy
The Roots of Christian Nationalism
| Richard Conville | Baptist News Global | June 25, 2026
Examines historical and theological roots of Christian nationalism and considers how older Reformed and dominionist ideas have influenced contemporary political theology.
Americanizing the Reformation: American Christian Nationalism, History, and Selective Memory
| Micah Oosterhoff | Journal of the American Academy of Religion | April 20, 2026
Examines post-2016 Calvinist Christian nationalism and competing uses of the Protestant Reformation and Puritan history among Reformed Christians who support or reject nationalist political projects.
What Is Christian Reconstructionism — and Why It Matters in US Politics
| Art Jipson | The Conversation / SeattlePI | January 13, 2026
Introduces Christian Reconstructionism, theonomy, R. J. Rushdoony, biblical law, and the movement’s argument that civil society should be structured according to its interpretation of Christian scripture.
Correcting Common Misconceptions About Christian Nationalism
| Greg Carey | Word&Way | September 10, 2025
Emphasizes ideological diversity within Christian nationalism and discusses distinctions among charismatic, Reformed, and other currents rather than treating the phenomenon as a unified movement.
Is America a Christian Nation?
| Mariya Manzhos | Deseret News | August 16, 2025
Examines Doug Wilson and debates surrounding a Reformed vision of Christian political order, providing a case study of one contemporary Calvinist approach to Christian nationalism and Christendom.
Review of The Case for Christian Nationalism
| Jeff Straub | Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary | April 15, 2025
Reviews Stephen Wolfe’s explicitly Reformed argument for Christian nationalism and discusses its concepts of Christian nationhood, political authority, social customs, and national identity.
The Case for Christian Nationalism
| Bradford Littlejohn | Ethics and Public Policy Center / The Gospel Coalition | April 1, 2023
Analyzes Stephen Wolfe’s retrieval of historic Protestant political theology and distinguishes those arguments from some of the book’s more contemporary nationalist prescriptions.
A Tale of Two Books, One Podcast, and the Contest Over Christian Nationalism
| Paul D. Miller | Christianity Today | December 20, 2022
Contrasts two competing Protestant treatments of Christian nationalism and highlights disputes over nationhood, ethnicity, political authority, religious establishment, and Christian political participation.
Mere Christendom
| Douglas Wilson | Blog & Mablog | July 5, 2021
Presents Wilson’s own argument for a distinctively Christian civil order, providing a primary-source example of a contemporary Reformed or Christendom-oriented political theology.
Christian Reconstructionism: Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence
| Frederick Clarkson | Political Research Associates | March 1, 1994
Provides an early detailed account of Christian Reconstructionism, theonomy, biblical law, R. J. Rushdoony, and the movement’s influence beyond its relatively small number of formal adherents.
Catholic Integralism and Postliberal Forms
Introduction to OJLR Special Issue: The New Catholic Integralism and Religious Anti-Liberalism
| Paul Billingham and Joshua Hordern | Oxford Journal of Law and Religion | July 16, 2026
Introduces contemporary Catholic integralism as a revived political theology favoring a closer relationship between church and state and situates it within broader debates over religious anti-liberalism.
Catholics Should Debate “Postliberalism”
| Salvatore Cordileone | National Catholic Register | June 22, 2026
Discusses Catholic postliberalism and its critique of individualistic liberalism, illustrating an important Catholic debate that overlaps with but is broader than integralist Christian nationalism.
Glad You Asked: What Is Integralism?
| The Editors | U.S. Catholic | November 22, 2024
Introduces Catholic integralism and explains its preference for a closer relationship between political authority and the Catholic Church than exists under conventional American church-state arrangements.
What Is Postliberalism? How a Catholic Intellectual Movement Influenced JD Vance’s Political Views
| Peter Smith and Michelle R. Smith | Associated Press / PBS NewsHour | September 4, 2024
Explains the Catholic postliberal movement, including its support for stronger governmental action in pursuit of a substantive vision of the common good and its relationship to integralist thought.
What the Downfall of the Papal States Can Teach Today’s Catholic Integralists
| Jeffrey von Arx, S.J. | America | July 18, 2024
Uses the history of the Papal States to examine Catholic integralism and the historical experience of combining ecclesiastical and governmental authority.
Two Forms of Catholic Nationalism
| James M. Patterson | Law & Liberty | May 25, 2023
Distinguishes competing traditions within American Catholic nationalism and places contemporary neo-integralist arguments in a longer historical debate over Catholic accommodation to American political institutions.
Catholic Integralism Rejects Liberalism. Should We Be Skeptical?
| Gloria Purvis with Jason Blakely | America | February 15, 2023
Explains integralism’s rejection of liberal individualism and its preference for political authority oriented toward Catholic conceptions of social and religious order.
Catholic Liberalism and the Liberal Tradition
| Kathleen A. Brady | Notre Dame Law Review | 2023
Examines contemporary Catholic critiques of liberalism and gives particular attention to integralism as one of the most developed Christian alternatives to the liberal state.
A Better Way to Think About the Debate About Church, State and Integralism
| Bill McCormick, S.J. | America | October 17, 2022
Discusses Catholic arguments over separation versus integration of spiritual and temporal authority and places contemporary integralism within a longer theological debate.
What Is Catholic Integralism?
| Steven P. Millies | U.S. Catholic | October 14, 2019
Provides an accessible explanation of contemporary Catholic integralism, its conception of the common good, and its claim that political authority should recognize and promote religious truth.
Pentecostal, Reformed, and Catholic Political Theologies
One and a Half Cheers for Integralism: Liberalism’s Broken Promises and the New Draw of the Confessional State
| Francis J. Beckwith | Journal of Religion, Culture & Democracy | July 1, 2026
Evaluates Catholic integralism and the attraction of confessional-state theories among Christians dissatisfied with liberal political institutions.
Letters—May 2026
| First Things Editors and Correspondents | First Things | May 2026
Includes exchanges debating Christian nationalism, political theology, Christian political power, national identity, and competing understandings of the relationship between church and state.
For Doug Wilson's Neighbors, CNN Documentary a Reminder Moscow Is Christian Nationalism's Ground Zero
| Religion News Service Staff | Religion News Service | March 24, 2026
Examines the Christian community built around Doug Wilson in Moscow, Idaho, as a localized example of Reformed Christian political and cultural ambitions.
The Case for Christian Nationalism
| R. R. Reno | First Things | March 5, 2026
Presents an argument sympathetic to Christian nationalism and discusses national solidarity, public Christianity, liberalism, and the political role of Christian cultural traditions.
Christian Nationalism Is Nationalism: Biblical Analogy as Political Theology in Contemporary Zambia
| Naomi Haynes | Wheaton College | January 26, 2026
Uses Zambia to examine how biblical concepts and Christian political language can be adapted into a national political theology outside the United States.
On the “Nation” of Christian Nationalism
| Peter J. Leithart | First Things | April 12, 2024
Examines competing Christian understandings of nations, peoples, political communities, and nationalism from a theological perspective.
The Strange World of Catholic ‘Integralism’ — and Christian Nationalism
| Jack Jenkins | Religion News Service | April 3, 2024
Introduces contemporary Catholic integralists and discusses how their church-state vision resembles and differs from Protestant forms of Christian nationalism.
The Dog Whistle of “Christian Nationalism”
| Gillian Richards Augros | The Heritage Foundation | May 9, 2023
Presents a conservative critique of the way the term Christian nationalism is applied and argues that some uses blur distinctions between nationalism and conventional Christian political participation.
The Particularly Pentecostal Flavor of Mayra Flores' Christian Nationalism
| Erica Ramirez | Religion News Service | July 11, 2022
Examines a Pentecostal expression of Christian nationalism and highlights theological and cultural differences between charismatic and more traditional evangelical political movements.
History, Identity, and Christian Nationalism: An Augustinian Alternative
| Gregory W. Lee | Wheaton College Center for Applied Christian Ethics | 2021
Contrasts Christian nationalist understandings of history and national identity with an Augustinian approach to political community and Christian belonging.
Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Social-Identity Variants
The End of White Christian Nationalism
| Philip S. Gorski | Religious Studies Review | September 5, 2026
Reviews debates over white Christian nationalism and the changing racial, religious, and political coalitions associated with Christian nationalist ideas.
Progressive Christian Mobilization and the Discourse of White Christian Nationalism
Examines how progressive Christians understand, discuss, and mobilize in response to white Christian nationalism, underscoring the diversity of Christian political identities.
In God We Trust: Christian Nationalism, Political and Ethno-Racial Identities, and Distrust of Immigrants
| Christopher H. Seto | Sociology of Religion | May 24, 2026
Examines how Christian nationalism interacts with political and ethno-racial identities in shaping attitudes toward immigrants, helping distinguish religious nationalism from race alone.
Culture Wars and Classism: Christian Nationalism, Economic Position, and Americans’ Approval of Inequality
| Samuel L. Perry and Andrew L. Whitehead | Social Forces | April 24, 2026
Examines how Christian nationalism interacts with economic position and finds that its relationship with approval of economic inequality varies according to respondents’ income.
How Christian Nationalism Affects Views on Immigration
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | March 30, 2026
Examines immigration attitudes among Christian nationalism supporters and highlights differences associated with respondents’ racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Republicans, Southerners, Trump Backers Most Likely to Support Christian Nationalist Ideas
| Religion News Service Staff | Religion News Service | February 17, 2026
Reports state, regional, religious, and partisan differences found in contemporary polling on Christian nationalist beliefs.
The Gathering Storm in the Evangelical Field: Education, Christian Nationalism, and Racial Inequality
| David Sikkink | Sociology of Religion | November 3, 2025
Examines differences among evangelicals and finds that education and Christian nationalist beliefs help explain divergent interpretations of racial inequality.
Religion Is Sometimes Raced: Christian Nationalism as In-Group Protection
Investigates circumstances in which Christian nationalism functions as a racialized group identity and shows how race can alter the political meaning of Christian nationalist attitudes.
How Christian Nationalist Rhetoric Can Influence Elections Across Race
| Allyson Shortle and Michael R. Fisher Jr. | Public Religion Research Institute | August 12, 2025
Studies reactions to Christian nationalist rhetoric among different racial groups and argues that the political meaning of such rhetoric varies rather than operating identically across populations.
How Christian Nationalism Promotes White Supremacy: An Examination of Racial Stereotypes
| Samuel L. Perry | Sociology of Race and Ethnicity | July 14, 2025
Tests relationships between Christian nationalist attitudes and racial stereotypes, contributing to research on specifically white and racialized expressions of Christian nationalism.
Understanding Authoritarianism and Christian Nationalism by Race
| Michael R. Fisher Jr. | Public Religion Research Institute | June 18, 2025
Compares racial groups on measures of Christian nationalism and authoritarianism and explores differences that can be obscured when all Christian nationalists are treated as one bloc.
Why Black Americans Identify as Christian Nationalists: Religiosity, Theology, and History Matter
| Ansley Quiros | Public Religion Research Institute | May 14, 2025
Explores why Christian-nationalist survey language can carry different theological and historical meanings among Black Americans than among white respondents.
White or Woke Christian Nationalists? How Race Moderates the Link Between Christian Nationalism and Progressive Identities
Finds that relationships between Christian nationalism and other social or political identities differ substantially by race, complicating assumptions that all adherents form a homogeneous group.
Not Paying Unto Caesar: Christian Nationalism, Politics, Race, and Opposition to Taxation
| Samuel L. Perry and Ruth Braunstein | Social Forces | April 7, 2025
Studies connections among Christian nationalism, race, political identity, and attitudes toward taxation, redistribution, environmental taxes, and the distribution of fiscal responsibility.
Christian Nationalism and Hispanic Americans: Unpacking the Data
| Anita Huízar-Hernández | Public Religion Research Institute | March 17, 2025
Examines how Protestant, Catholic, racial, and ethnic identities intersect with Christian nationalist attitudes among Hispanic Americans rather than treating Hispanic respondents as a homogeneous group.
Jesus and John Wayne Wannabes: How Christian Nationalism and Femininity Shape Extreme Politics Among Men in the US
| Paul A. Djupe | Sociology of Religion | March 8, 2025
Examines how gender identity and ideals of masculinity interact with Christian nationalism among men, highlighting a gendered variant of Christian nationalist politics.
The Religion of White Identity Politics: Christian Nationalism and White Racial Solidarity
| Samuel L. Perry and Joshua B. Grubbs | Social Forces | February 23, 2025
Examines the relationship between Christian nationalism and measures of white racial solidarity and considers how religious and racial identities can reinforce one another.
Christian Nationalism Is Unbounded by LGB Identity
| Brooklyn Walker and Paul A. Djupe | Political Research Quarterly | February 14, 2025
Investigates Christian nationalism among respondents with different sexual identities and demonstrates that Christian nationalist attitudes are not confined to a single demographic profile.
Attitudes Toward Christian Nationalism Don’t Just Boil Down to Views on Race, Religion and History − Research Suggests ‘Moral Foundations’ Play a Critical Role
| The Conversation | Religion News Service | January 23, 2025
Discusses research examining moral foundations as another factor helping explain why people accept or reject Christian nationalist ideas.
Faith Over Fear? Christian Nationalism and Cultural Fears in the United States
| Joseph O. Baker and Andrew L. Whitehead | Nations and Nationalism | November 17, 2024
Examines Christian nationalism in relation to fears concerning immigration, Muslims, racial replacement, communism, gun regulation, and broader cultural change.
Not All Christian Nationalists Are White (and Not All White Christians Are Christian Nationalists): Exploring the Predictors of Christian Nationalism
| Sean F. Everton | Frontiers in Social Psychology | November 6, 2024
Tests demographic and religious predictors of Christian nationalism and emphasizes that substantial numbers of nonwhite respondents also express Christian-nationalist attitudes.
Intersecting Identities, Diverging Visions: Christian Nationalism, Race, Gender, and Prioritizing Equality or Liberty
Examines how race and gender alter the association between Christian nationalism and preferences concerning equality, liberty, and social order.
Understanding Differences Between Black and White Christian Nationalism Adherents and Sympathizers
| Michael R. Fisher Jr. | Public Religion Research Institute | July 3, 2024
Compares Black and white respondents classified as Christian nationalism adherents or sympathizers and identifies differences in theology, race, politics, and social attitudes.
New Survey Finds Pockets of Support for Christian Nationalism Across the Country
| Religion News Service Staff | Religion News Service | February 28, 2024
Reports geographic, religious, demographic, and political variations in state-level Christian nationalism survey findings.
Our Kind of American: Christian Nationalism, Race, and Contingent Views of Cultural Membership
| Samuel L. Perry et al. | The Sociological Quarterly | July 7, 2023
Studies how Christian nationalism relates to beliefs about who counts as culturally American and how racial and religious characteristics affect perceived national membership.
White Christian Nationalism: What Is It, and Why Does It Matter for Educational Research?
| Kevin J. Burke, Mary Juzwik, and Esther Prins | Educational Researcher | March 20, 2023
Defines white Christian nationalism for education researchers and examines how racial, religious, historical, and national narratives can intersect in schools and educational policy.
Race Over Religion: Christian Nationalism and Perceived Threats to National Unity
Investigates whether racial identity can be more influential than shared religious identity in shaping Christian nationalists’ perceptions of groups viewed as threats to national unity.
My Country, White or Wrong: Christian Nationalism, Race, and Blind Patriotism
| Samuel L. Perry and Cyrus Schleifer | Ethnic and Racial Studies | September 1, 2022
Examines how Christian nationalism, racial identity, and forms of unconditional or “blind” patriotism interact among American respondents.
Divided by Faith (in Christian America): Christian Nationalism, Race, and Divergent Perceptions of Racial Injustice
| Samuel L. Perry, Ryon J. Cobb, and Joshua B. Grubbs | Social Forces | November 11, 2021
Investigates how Christian nationalism interacts with race in shaping Americans’ perceptions of discrimination, inequality, and racial injustice.
Race, Ressentiment, and Nihilism in White Evangelical Christian Nationalism
| Jason Springs | Contending Modernities, University of Notre Dame | July 1, 2021
Analyzes white evangelical Christian nationalism through historical and theoretical perspectives on racial identity, grievance, political belonging, and religion.
Gender, Family, Reproduction, and Education
Homeschooling Has a Christian Nationalist Past. But That Doesn't Have to Be Its Future
| Abbi Nye | Religion News Service | April 28, 2026
Presents an argument linking parts of the conservative homeschooling movement with Christian nationalist ideas about parental authority, government oversight, and family autonomy.
The Right Kind of Children: Christian Nationalism, Religiosity, and Support for Selective Versus General Pronatalism
| Samuel L. Perry | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | March 14, 2026
Distinguishes general pronatalism from selective pronatalism and examines how Christian nationalism relates differently to policies encouraging childbirth among different groups.
Denial and Discrimination: How Christian Nationalism’s Ideology Harms Families and Undermines Public Education
| Andrew L. Whitehead | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | March 2, 2026
Presents an advocacy perspective on Christian nationalist understandings of family hierarchy, education, parental authority, and religious privilege.
Christian Nationalism and School Times for End of Times
| Christine Sleeter | National Education Policy Center | January 13, 2026
Discusses research on Christian nationalism in education and the theological and historical narratives underlying some contemporary education activism.
Anti-Abortion and Pro-Coercion: White Christian Nationalism and Support for Arresting Women Who Have Abortions
| Darci K. Schmidgall, Samuel L. Perry, and Joshua B. Grubbs | Social Problems | June 28, 2025
Examines whether white Christian nationalism predicts support for criminal penalties against women obtaining abortions, distinguishing coercive policy preferences from abortion opposition generally.
How Does White Christian Nationalism Harm Women in America?
| Brenita Mitchell | Review & Expositor | May 26, 2025
Presents a theological and social critique of patriarchal forms of white Christian nationalism and their implications for women’s autonomy, religious roles, and family expectations.
Christian Nationalism, Illiberalism, Gender, and the 2024 United States Presidential Election
| Andrew L. Whitehead | Illiberalism Studies Program, George Washington University | May 13, 2025
Examines connections among Christian nationalism, gender hierarchy, illiberal political attitudes, and recent American electoral politics.
Order Begins at Home: Christian Nationalism and Control Over Children
| Samuel L. Perry | Social Forces | April 27, 2025
Studies Christian nationalism as a framework for understanding attitudes toward parental authority, discipline, obedience, and control over children.
Make One for the Team: Culture Wars and Group-Serving Pronatalism
| Samuel L. Perry and Joshua B. Grubbs | PS: Political Science & Politics | January 15, 2025
Examines pronatalist attitudes motivated by perceived competition between cultural, religious, political, and demographic groups.
Fill the Earth and Subdue It: Christian Nationalism, Ethno-Religious Threat, and Nationalist Pronatalism
Connects Christian nationalism with pronatalist attitudes and examines whether perceived ethno-religious demographic threats strengthen support for encouraging higher birth rates.
Civil Religion, Christian Statism, Church-State Establishment, and Government
America Has a Religion. Revive It.
| Samuel Goldman | The Washington Post | July 10, 2026
Argues for a pluralistic American civil religion as an alternative both to strict secularism and to governmental Christian nationalism.
The Seven Mountains Mandate: The Latest in Christian Nationalism
| Political Research Associates | Political Research Associates | July 7, 2026
Discusses the Seven Mountains Mandate and its vision for Christian influence over major cultural institutions such as government, education, media, business, and the family.
No Surprises: Religious Liberty Commission Draft Report Advances Christian Nationalism
| Alessandro Terenzoni | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | July 2, 2026
Presents an advocacy critique of a federal religious-liberty commission report and argues that its conception of religious freedom privileges a Christian nationalist interpretation.
Americans United Denounces National Day of Prayer as Christian Nationalism
| Americans United Staff | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | June 1, 2026
Presents a church-state advocacy organization’s argument about when official governmental prayer practices cross from civil religion into Christian nationalist preference.
The Trump Admin Is Hitting Americans With Incessant Christian Nationalism: Americans United Is Hitting Back
| Andrew L. Seidel | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | June 1, 2026
Catalogues policies the organization interprets as governmental Christian nationalism and distinguishes those policies from private religious exercise.
AU: Trump Administration’s ‘Anti-Christian Bias’ Report Advances Christian Nationalism, Undermines Church-State Separation
| Americans United Staff | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | April 30, 2026
Gives an advocacy organization’s interpretation of federal efforts addressing alleged anti-Christian discrimination and their implications for church-state separation.
How a Coin Taught Me to Counter Christian Nationalism
| Jaziah Masters | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | February 2, 2026
Uses civic symbolism to discuss competing understandings of American identity, religious pluralism, patriotism, and Christian nationhood.
The New Definition of Antisemitism Is Transforming America – and Serving a Christian Nationalist Plan
| Itamar Mann and Lihi Yona | The Guardian | March 23, 2025
Presents an argument about the interaction of antisemitism policy, Christian nationalist politics, religious freedom, and competing conceptions of Jewish safety.
Different Images of God Predict Religious Nationalism Among Christians
| Joseph A. Wagoner and Moussa Diarra | Political Psychology | February 28, 2025
Examines whether different theological understandings of God predict support for religious nationalism, showing that the religious foundations of nationalist attitudes are themselves diverse.
We the (Chosen) People: Christian Nationalism Now
| Philip Gorski and Eliyahu Stern | Yale Center for Faith & Culture | January 8, 2025
Discusses narratives of divine chosenness, covenant, national destiny, and American identity that help connect civil religion with stronger forms of Christian nationalism.
The Bible in Christian Nationalist Rhetoric
| Samuel L. Adams | Interpretation | October 14, 2024
Examines how biblical texts and themes are employed in Christian nationalist rhetoric, helping distinguish scriptural political symbolism from broader Christian religious practice.
Which Political Entities Are “Friendly” to Religion? The Interplay of Entity, Identity Congruence, and Christian Nationalism
| Samuel L. Perry | Politics and Religion | October 2, 2024
Investigates how Christian nationalists evaluate different levels and institutions of government depending on whether they perceive those institutions as aligned with their religious identity.
Civil Religion as a Gateway to Christian Nationalism
| Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood | University of Chicago Divinity School | June 20, 2024
Examines how seemingly inclusive national religious symbols can become more exclusionary as demographic change weakens assumptions that American civil religion represents a shared Christianity.
At Center of Alito Controversy, a Flag Celebrated by Extremists
| Hannah Allam | The Washington Post | June 2, 2024
Traces the history and contemporary use of the Appeal to Heaven flag, including its adoption by some Christian nationalist, revolutionary, and far-right movements.
The Duality of American Christian Nationalism: Religious Traditionalism versus Christian Statism
| Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | August 2, 2023
Identifies two empirically distinct dimensions: religious traditionalism centered more on Christian civil society and Christian statism centered more explicitly on state power and ethno-religious insiders.
Understanding the Threat of White Christian Nationalism to American Democracy Today
| Brookings Institution | Brookings Institution | February 8, 2023
Brings scholars together to discuss white Christian nationalism, its historical development, its relationship to racial hierarchy, and debates about democratic institutions and religious freedom.
Which Civil Religion? Partisanship, Christian Nationalism, and the Dimensions of Civil Religion in the United States
| Abigail Vegter, Andrew R. Lewis, and Cammie Jo Bolin | Politics and Religion | January 26, 2023
Finds multiple dimensions of American civil religion and distinguishes them empirically from Christian nationalism, while showing that civil-religious symbolism is interpreted through partisan lenses.
Yale Sociologist Phil Gorski on the Threat of White Christian Nationalism
| Mike Cummings | Yale News | March 15, 2022
Discusses Gorski’s distinction between American civil religion, white Christian nationalism, and other ways of connecting Christianity with national identity.
Civil Religion or Christian Nationalism?
| Russell McCutcheon | University of Alabama, Studying Religion in Culture | February 8, 2021
Considers how scholars distinguish the older concept of American civil religion from Christian nationalism and asks when patriotic religious symbolism becomes exclusionary nationalism.
Taking America Back for God
Discusses survey research that separates Americans into different orientations toward Christian nationalism and explores variations in how religion and national identity are combined.
Populism, Authoritarianism, Conspiracy, Violence, Law, and Policing
Christian Nationalism, Race, and Contingent Support for Law Enforcement: Results from Two Survey Experiments
Uses survey experiments to show that associations between Christian nationalism and support for law enforcement vary depending on which law-enforcement institution is being evaluated.
The Full Armor of God: The Mobilization of Christian Nationalism in American Politics
Examines how Christian nationalism is politically mobilized through organizations, leaders, congregations, networks, and religious identities rather than existing only as an individual attitude.
Judgement by Fire: The Rapid Anti-Democratic Turn of American Christian Nationalism
Studies changes in Christian nationalist attitudes toward democratic institutions and situates those shifts within the movement’s recent political mobilization.
An Army for God: Gun Ownership, Christian Nationalism, and Support for Political Violence
Examines the intersection of Christian nationalism, gun ownership, and attitudes toward political violence.
Inside the Authoritarian-Christian Nationalism Link: Exploring Key Drivers
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | November 7, 2025
Examines the statistical relationship between Christian nationalism and authoritarian orientations and explores which beliefs and demographic factors help explain the overlap.
Christian Nationalism as a Social Practice: Prayer, Violence, and the Politics of Public Ritual
| Joel Day | Terrorism and Political Violence | September 11, 2025
Treats Christian nationalism as a set of social and ritual practices, focusing on political prayer and public religious performance rather than viewing it solely as a collection of survey attitudes.
Nicaea, American Populism, and Christian Nationalism
| Michael Reid Trice | The Ecumenical Review | March 13, 2025
Examines connections among Christian doctrine, contemporary American populism, and Christian nationalism while contrasting nationalist political theology with ecumenical Christian traditions.
Christian Nationalism and Support for Leaders Violating Democratic Norms During National Emergencies
| Samuel L. Perry and Joshua B. Grubbs | Politics and Religion | September 19, 2024
Tests whether Christian nationalism predicts willingness to permit political leaders to disregard democratic norms during emergency scenarios.
New Survey Points to Correlation Between Christian Nationalism and Authoritarian Views
| Jack Jenkins | Religion News Service | September 16, 2024
Reports survey findings linking stronger Christian nationalist identification with several measures of authoritarian political attitudes while noting differences across demographic groups.
One Leader Under God: The Connection Between Authoritarianism and Christian Nationalism in America
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | September 10, 2024
Uses national survey data to compare Christian nationalist classifications with several dimensions of authoritarian attitudes and preferences concerning political leadership.
Christian Nationalism: Religion or Politics?
| Ron Duncan Hart | Baptist News Global | June 16, 2024
Examines whether Christian nationalism is better understood primarily as a religious movement, a political ideology, or a combination of the two.
‘God & Country’ Film Spotlights Christian Nationalism’s Threat to Democracy
| Michelle Boorstein | The Washington Post | January 11, 2024
Examines a documentary in which Christian leaders and scholars discuss anti-democratic and church-state expressions they associate with Christian nationalism.
The Ingroup Love and Outgroup Hate of Christian Nationalism: Experimental Evidence About the Implementation of the Rule of Law
| Zachary D. Broeren and Paul A. Djupe | Politics and Religion | December 4, 2023
Uses experimental evidence to examine whether Christian nationalist identity changes judgments about how legal rules should be applied to religious and political in-groups and out-groups.
Christ, Country, and Conspiracies? Christian Nationalism, Biblical Literalism, and Belief in Conspiracy Theories
| Brooklyn Walker | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | May 8, 2023
Investigates the relationship among Christian nationalism, biblical literalism, and conspiracy beliefs, helping identify a conspiratorial dimension distinct from Christian nationalism itself.
Liberty for Us, Limits for Them: Christian Nationalism and Americans’ Views on Citizens’ Rights
| Joshua T. Davis, Samuel L. Perry, and Joshua B. Grubbs | Sociology of Religion | May 8, 2023
Studies whether Christian nationalism is associated with differing levels of support for civil liberties depending on the religious or political identity of the people exercising them.
Are Christian Nationalists Antisemitic and Why?
| Jacob Dennen | Social Science Quarterly | February 22, 2023
Examines relationships between Christian nationalist attitudes and antisemitism while investigating possible religious, conspiratorial, and political mechanisms.
Masks vs. God and Country: The Conflict Between Public Health and Christian Nationalism
| Brittany Acors | Studies in Church History | June 8, 2022
Examines religious-nationalist resistance to public-health measures during COVID-19 and the ways national, religious, and individual-liberty narratives became intertwined.
Christian Nationalism and Political Violence: Victimhood, Racial Identity, Conspiracy, and Support for the Capitol Attacks
| Miles T. Armaly, David T. Buckley, and Adam M. Enders | Political Behavior | January 4, 2022
Investigates how Christian nationalism interacts with perceived victimhood, racial identity, and conspiracy beliefs in explaining support for the January 6 Capitol attack.
“I Don’t Want Everybody to Vote”: Christian Nationalism and Restricting Voter Access in the United States
| Samuel L. Perry, Andrew L. Whitehead, and Joshua B. Grubbs | Sociological Forum | January 3, 2022
Examines the relationship between Christian nationalist beliefs and support for restricting voter access.
Gun Control in the Crosshairs: Christian Nationalism and Opposition to Stricter Gun Laws
| Andrew L. Whitehead, Landon Schnabel, and Samuel L. Perry | Socius | 2018
Studies Christian nationalism as one factor associated with opposition to stricter gun-control laws and connects gun attitudes with religious and national identity.
Education, Institutions, Public Policy, and Organized Political Activity
‘Under Direct Assault From the Trump Administration’: On the Nation’s 250th Anniversary, Christian Nationalists Condemn Freedom of Religion
| Liz Hayes | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | August 3, 2026
Presents an advocacy organization’s interpretation of contemporary disputes over religious liberty, national history, and Christian nationalist approaches to church-state relations.
Crowds Pack Into Washington’s National Mall for Prayer Rally
| Tiffany Stanley | Associated Press / PBS NewsHour | May 17, 2026
Reports on a large Washington prayer gathering and describes the mixture of charismatic Christianity, national politics, public worship, and Christian nationalist themes represented among participants.
Trump to Join Prayer Gathering Criticized for Promoting Christian Nationalism
| Peter Smith | Associated Press / PBS NewsHour | May 14, 2026
Reports on a national prayer event and competing interpretations of its relationship to Christian nationalism, offering a case study of public religious mobilization.
Tilled Fields for Christian Nationalism: Project Blitz and the Evolution of the Christian Right
| Kimberly H. Conger | Politics and Religion | January 14, 2026
Examines Project Blitz and argues that symbolic state legislation illustrates how Christian nationalist policy efforts developed out of the older Christian Right organizational infrastructure.
Christian Nationalism and Educational Policy in the United States
| Kevin J. Burke and Heidi Hadley | National Education Policy Center | November 4, 2025
Examines Christian nationalism in public education, including disputes involving curriculum, parental rights, school governance, religion, and competing accounts of American history.
Experts Discuss Christian Nationalism and Patriotism: A Post-Fourth of July Conversation
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | July 8, 2025
Explores distinctions among patriotism, nationalism, Christian nationalism, and attachment to American institutions, highlighting disagreements about when religious national identity becomes exclusionary.
A Neglected Crisis: Understanding Christian Nationalism’s Effects on American Education
| Brock Lewis | Discover Education | May 7, 2025
Reviews the influence of Christian nationalist narratives on educational policy, curriculum disputes, school governance, and conceptions of civic education.
The Antidote to Christian Nationalism
| Rachel Lu | America | April 17, 2025
Offers a Catholic perspective on charismatic political mobilization and argues for a different model of Christian participation in the public square.
Did the Mainline Church Pave the Way for Christian Nationalism?
| Stephen Healey | The Christian Century | April 2025
Reviews historical research arguing that Protestant mainline participation in American civil religion helped normalize relationships between Christianity, patriotism, and governmental institutions.
Christian Nationalism and Worship: New Course at Duke Divinity School Examines Faith, Politics, and Identity
| Rebekah Ramlow | Duke Divinity School | March 17, 2025
Describes a course examining several strands of Christian nationalism, including gender hierarchy, covenantal ideas about America, dominion, worship, and political identity.
“Testing Ground for Project 2025”: Behind Oklahoma’s Rightwing Push to Erode the Line Between Church and State
| The Guardian | The Guardian | February 27, 2025
Examines Oklahoma education policies involving Bible instruction and religious content as a state-level case study in efforts to increase Christianity’s institutional role in public schools.
Trump’s Taskforce Order Is Latest in Efforts to Boost Christian Nationalism
| Joseph Gedeon | The Guardian | February 7, 2025
Reports on federal initiatives concerning alleged anti-Christian discrimination and presents critics’ and supporters’ differing interpretations of their relationship to Christian nationalism.
Analyzing the 2024 Presidential Vote: PRRI’s Post-Election Survey
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | December 13, 2024
Examines Christian nationalism alongside religion, authoritarianism, race, partisanship, and other factors in a national post-election survey of American voters.
Resistance to Christian Nationalism in All 50 States
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | October 30, 2024
Maps opposition as well as support for Christian nationalism, illustrating geographic and demographic differences in how Americans respond to attempts to combine Christianity and national government.
Vance Appears at Event Hosted by Hard-Right Christian Nationalist
| Meryl Kornfield and Hannah Allam | The Washington Post | September 28, 2024
Reports on a political event organized by figures associated with the New Apostolic Reformation and charismatic Christian nationalist activism.
A New Movement Aims to Remake Evangelicals’ Relationship to Politics
| Michelle Boorstein | The Washington Post | August 4, 2024
Examines evangelical organizations attempting to construct forms of Christian civic engagement explicitly separated from partisan loyalty and Christian nationalist politics.
Louisiana to Become First State to Require That the Ten Commandments Be Displayed in Every Public School Classroom
| Sara Cline | Associated Press / PBS NewsHour | June 19, 2024
Reports on Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law and the competing constitutional and religious arguments surrounding one form of governmental promotion of explicitly biblical material.
What Is Christian Nationalism and Why It Raises Concerns About Threats to Democracy
| Laura Barrón-López and Sam Lane | PBS NewsHour | February 1, 2024
Provides an overview of Christian nationalism that includes discussion of the New Apostolic Reformation and distinguishes specific organized movements from the broader population measured in surveys.
How Christian Nationalism Seeped Into Home Schooling
Traces Christian nationalist themes in portions of the homeschooling movement and contrasts curricula promoting Christian-American exceptionalism with Christian educational approaches that reject it.
"In God We Trust" — the Bills Christian Nationalists Hope Will “Protect Religious Freedom”
| David Taylor | The Guardian | January 14, 2019
Investigates Project Blitz, a coordinated legislative strategy promoting measures involving religious displays, schools, and religious exemptions, as an institutional approach to religion in government.
Surveys, Regional Variation, and Religious Pluralism
Oklahoma Primary Runoff Answered a Question About Anti-Christian Nationalism
| Mark Silk | Religion News Service | August 26, 2026
Discusses opposition to Christian nationalism in an Oklahoma political context and considers whether resistance to Christian nationalism constitutes a coherent political identity of its own.
Christian Nationalists’ Professed Support for Religious Pluralism Is Often Drowned Out by Perceptions That Christians Are Under Threat
| Brooklyn Walker and Paul A. Djupe | Religion News Service / The Conversation | August 21, 2026
Examines tension between abstract support for religious pluralism and threat perceptions among people expressing Christian nationalist beliefs.
New Poll: 250 Years In, Americans Prefer Religious Diversity
| Religion News Service Staff | Religion News Service | June 17, 2026
Reports public-opinion findings about religious diversity, Christian nationhood, pluralism, and the role religion should play in American public life.
Survey: Support for Trump’s Immigration Agenda Craters With All Faith Groups, Especially Mainline Protestants
| Religion News Service Staff | Religion News Service | March 26, 2026
Reports religious-group differences concerning immigration and illustrates that political attitudes among Christians vary substantially by denominational tradition.
Fact Sheet: A Closer Look at Christian Nationalism in Nine States
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 17, 2026
Compares Christian nationalism adherents, sympathizers, skeptics, and rejecters across nine politically significant states and examines religious, political, and demographic differences.
Christian Nationalism Isn't Limited to US, Say Scholars Meeting in Chicago
| Bob Smietana | Religion News Service | January 28, 2026
Reports on scholars comparing Christian nationalism across several countries and emphasizes how theological and political forms change with national context.
Support for Christian Nationalism in All 50 States: Findings from PRRI’s 2023 American Values Atlas
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 28, 2024
Maps state-level support and compares Christian nationalist attitudes by religion, region, race, age, education, and evangelical identity.
Survey: Mainline Clergy Are More Liberal Than Their Congregants
| Religion News Service Staff | Religion News Service | September 14, 2023
Examines ideological differences between mainline Protestant clergy and congregants, providing context for why Christian political identities vary substantially across Protestant traditions.
A Christian Nation? Understanding the Threat of Christian Nationalism to American Democracy and Culture
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 8, 2023
Provides national survey data dividing respondents into Christian nationalism adherents, sympathizers, skeptics, and rejecters and compares those categories across religious and demographic groups.
Poll: Nearly Half of Americans Think the US Should Be a Christian Nation
| Religion News Service Staff | Religion News Service | October 27, 2022
Reports polling showing that the phrase Christian nation carries multiple meanings, from cultural Christian influence to more explicit governmental promotion of Christianity.
Global, Comparative, and Internal Christian Debates
Christian Nationalism “Already Failed America Once”
| Mikale Olson | The Christian Post | September 3, 2026
Presents a Christian critique of nationalist church-state arrangements through historical examples, illustrating internal disagreement among conservative Christians over Christian nationalism.
The Summer of Taking Christian Nationalism Seriously
| Megan Fowler | Christianity Today | July 30, 2026
Examines growing denominational and theological debate over Christian nationalism and shows how churches are attempting to define the term and distinguish competing political-theological approaches.
Whose Christian Nationalism?
| Steven Waldman | The Christian Century | June 16, 2026
Questions the tendency to speak of a single Christian nationalism and explores differences among religious movements, constituencies, and understandings of Christian political identity.
Christian Nationalism Divided: Exploring the Transferability of an American Concept to a Secularized Nordic Multi-Party Democracy
Identifies two forms in Finland: state-and-identity-oriented Christian nationalism and culturally diffuse Christian nationalism, demonstrating that the American framework changes when applied to a secularized European context.
Interreligious Dialogue and Religious Nationalism
| Don Thorsen | The Ecumenical Review | February 13, 2026
Places American Christian nationalism, including the Seven Mountain Mandate, alongside other forms of religious nationalism and examines their implications for religious pluralism and interfaith relations.
Christian Nationalism and Attitudes About Democracy in Africa
| John Ishiyama | Politics and Religion | September 15, 2025
Uses Afrobarometer data to study Christian nationalist attitudes in African countries and finds patterns that differ in important respects from findings commonly reported in the United States.
What Does “Christian Nationalism” Even Mean?
| Jonathan Tran | The Christian Century | July 2024
Examines competing definitions of Christian nationalism and cautions against collapsing distinct theological, racial, cultural, and political phenomena into a single undifferentiated category.
Christian Nationalism’s Threat to Global Democracy
| Nilay Saiya | The Review of Faith & International Affairs | May 12, 2023
Places Christian nationalism in comparative international perspective and discusses how religious nationalism takes different institutional and theological forms across political systems.
The Past and Present of Christian Nationalism in America
| Eric L. McDaniel | History News Network | November 2, 2022
Places contemporary Christian nationalism within a longer American history of race, religion, citizenship, national identity, and political movements.
Taking Dominion in a Christian Nation: North American Political Theology in an African Context
| Naomi Haynes | Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies | June 29, 2021
Examines Christian nationalism in Zambia and traces the adaptation of North American Christian Reconstructionist and New Apostolic Reformation ideas, demonstrating how imported political theologies are modified within local contexts.
Internal Christian and Denominational Responses
What Wendell Berry Can Teach Us About Christian Nationalism
| Russell Moore | Christianity Today | September 9, 2026
Uses Wendell Berry’s writing to contrast local attachment and community loyalty with national political identity and Christian nationalism.
Preaching in the Midst of Christian Nationalism
| Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service | September 3, 2026
Reports on a Presbyterian discussion of how clergy can address Christian nationalism from the pulpit and how religious leaders distinguish it from Christian faith and patriotism.
Christian Nationalist Doublespeak
| Russell Moore | Christianity Today | August 17, 2026
Offers an evangelical critique of Christian nationalism centered on the dangers of allowing government to determine religious belonging or theological legitimacy.
Assembly Addresses Ordination, AI, Christian Nationalism and a New Confession
| Beth Waltemath | Presbyterian News Service | June 30, 2026
Reports on Presbyterian debates over Christian nationalism and competing approaches to national commemoration, denominational identity, and public witness.
What Do You Do When Christian Nationalism Comes to Church?
| Russell Moore | Christianity Today | June 15, 2026
Discusses how congregations encounter Christian nationalist ideas internally and how church leaders might distinguish partisan or nationalist identity from theological commitments.
Christian Nationalism, Migrant Rights and the Doctrine of Discovery Are on the Docket of Reformed Identity in the United States Committee
| Cindy Corell | Presbyterian News Service | June 11, 2026
Describes denominational proposals addressing Christian nationalism alongside migration, colonial history, national identity, and Reformed theology.
Pew: ‘Christian Nationalism’ Is Becoming a Household Term
| Jack Panyard | Christianity Today | May 14, 2026
Reports growing public familiarity with the term and notes that Christian thinkers themselves distinguish cultural nostalgia, Christian preference, Christian supremacy, and other positions.
Trump Administration’s Explicitly Religious Easter Messages Advance Christian Nationalism
| Americans United Staff | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | April 6, 2026
Presents an advocacy group’s argument that official governmental Easter messaging illustrates a form of governmental preference for Christianity.
Presbyterians Turn Out in Droves to Learn More About Christian Nationalism
| Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service | March 26, 2026
Reports on a Presbyterian educational program discussing definitions of Christian nationalism and its relationship to national identity, political power, and Christian theology.
Uncovering the How and Why of Christian Nationalism
| Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service | April 4, 2025
Reports on Presbyterian efforts to understand Christian nationalism historically, sociologically, and theologically rather than treating it simply as a partisan label.
Additional Expressions, Historical Roots, and Contemporary Debates
At a Presbyterian Foundation Breakfast, Robert P. Jones Urges Mid Council Leaders to Address Christian Nationalism
| Layton Williams Berkes | Presbyterian News Service | June 28, 2026
Reports a presentation connecting Christian nationalism with competing understandings of American identity, democracy, race, religion, and political polarization.
Reformed Identity in US Committee Tackles Christian Nationalism
| Cindy Corell | Presbyterian News Service | June 24, 2026
Reports Presbyterian debate over proposals describing Christian privilege, national or ethnic supremacy, and the relationship between Reformed theology and American national identity.
Christian Nationalism’s Fatal Christian Contradiction: It Doesn’t Trust Jesus to Return
| Eric Lane | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | April 1, 2026
Presents a theological critique arguing that dominion-oriented Christian nationalism conflicts with Christian teachings concerning divine sovereignty and political power.
Exploring Christian Nationalism at the 2026 Global Christianity Conference
| Chase Viscuse | University of Chicago Divinity School | February 4, 2026
Surveys scholarship comparing Christian nationalism across countries and religious traditions and emphasizes the importance of distinguishing American forms from global variants.
The Blasphemy of National Christianity
| Mac Loftin | The Christian Century | December 2025
Presents a theological critique of what the author calls national Christianity, arguing that some nationalist forms subordinate transnational Christian identity to race, ethnicity, and nationality.
Understanding and Resisting Politicized, Patriarchal White Christian Nationalism
| Bruce Gourley | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | October 1, 2025
Presents an advocacy analysis emphasizing the interaction of white identity, patriarchal gender structures, political power, and Christian nationalist ideology.
In a Race They Cast as Good vs. Evil, Christian Hard-Liners Are Fired Up for Trump
| Hannah Allam | The Washington Post | October 29, 2024
Reports on charismatic and activist Christian nationalist networks and describes election mobilization framed through spiritual warfare, prophecy, and church-state transformation.
The Overlap of Trumpism and Christian Nationalism
| Philip Bump | The Washington Post | February 29, 2024
Uses survey data to examine the relationship between Christian nationalist attitudes, partisan identity, religion, geography, and support for Donald Trump.
Unchurched Christian Nationalism and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election
Identifies a form of Christian nationalism among Americans with comparatively weak institutional church involvement, demonstrating that nationalist Christian identity does not always correspond to regular religious participation.
Culture Wars and COVID-19 Conduct: Christian Nationalism, Religiosity, and Americans’ Behavior During the Coronavirus Pandemic
Examines differences between Christian nationalism and conventional religiosity in predicting Americans’ behavior and attitudes during the early COVID-19 pandemic.
