The Resurgence of Christian Nationalism in the 21st Century

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The Resurgence of Christian Nationalism in the 21st Century

Christian nationalism became an increasingly prominent subject in American political, religious, and academic debate during the early decades of the 21st century. The term generally refers to ideas that connect American national identity with Christianity and seek a privileged role for Christianity in the nation's public institutions, culture, laws, or political identity. Scholars, religious leaders, journalists, and political activists disagree, however, about precisely where Christian nationalism begins and how it should be distinguished from patriotism, religious conservatism, Christian political participation, or traditional beliefs about religion's influence on public life.

The renewed prominence of Christian nationalism has developed alongside broader changes in American religion and politics. The decline of Christianity as a proportion of the population, growing religious diversity, political polarization, demographic change, debates over immigration and race, and conflicts over cultural and social issues have contributed to arguments about the place Christianity should occupy in American society. At the same time, some conservative Christian activists have become increasingly willing to describe the United States as historically or fundamentally Christian and to advocate public policies intended to reflect that understanding.

Researchers have consequently examined Christian nationalism not simply as a religious belief but as a combination of religious identity, nationalism, political ideology, cultural memory, and ideas about who properly belongs within the nation.

Definitions and Measurement

There is no single definition of Christian nationalism accepted by everyone who studies or discusses it. In academic research, the term is commonly used to describe a worldview in which Christianity and American national identity are closely linked and in which Christianity is understood as deserving a particularly important or privileged place in public life.

Researchers Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry helped develop one influential social-scientific framework for measuring Christian nationalism through survey questions concerning whether the federal government should declare the United States a Christian nation, whether Christian values should influence public policy, and whether religion should have a greater role in national identity.

Other scholars have questioned whether such measurements sometimes combine several distinct attitudes. Critics of broad definitions argue that religious traditionalism, nationalism, partisan identity, racial attitudes, patriotism, and support for Christian political involvement should not automatically be treated as parts of the same phenomenon. More recent scholarship has therefore emphasized the existence of multiple varieties of Christian nationalism rather than a single unified ideology.

These varieties can include evangelical and charismatic forms of Christian nationalism, Christian Reconstructionist or dominionist traditions, Reformed or Calvinist nationalism, Catholic integralism, and other postliberal approaches to religion and government. Although these traditions sometimes overlap politically, they can differ substantially in theology, institutional structure, ideas about government, and their understanding of the relationship between church and state.

This disagreement over definitions is important when discussing whether Christian nationalism has actually increased. Some research suggests that the overall proportion of Americans holding attitudes measured as Christian nationalist has remained comparatively stable in recent years, even as those attitudes have become more strongly associated with particular political and religious identities. Greater public awareness, stronger partisan sorting, increased political organization, and more explicit use of the Christian nationalist label may therefore account for part of what is described as its modern resurgence.

Polling, Demographics, and Public Opinion

Large national surveys have made Christian nationalism increasingly measurable as a political and cultural phenomenon.

The Public Religion Research Institute developed a four-part classification dividing Americans into Christian nationalism "Adherents," "Sympathizers," "Skeptics," and "Rejecters." Its 2025 American Values Atlas, based on more than 22,000 interviews, classified roughly one-third of Americans as Adherents or Sympathizers and approximately two-thirds as Skeptics or Rejecters. PRRI also reported substantial differences according to religious affiliation, political identification, geography, race, educational background, and frequency of religious participation.

Polling also demonstrates that attitudes about religion and government cannot be reduced to a simple division between supporters and opponents of Christian nationalism. Pew Research Center found in April 2026 that most Americans continued to oppose making Christianity the country's official religion and most believed churches should not endorse political candidates. At the same time, 17 percent favored declaring Christianity the official religion of the United States, while a substantially larger group favored some government promotion of Christian moral values without formal establishment. Awareness of the term "Christian nationalism" had also increased.

Religious traditions differ substantially. Surveys have generally found stronger Christian nationalist attitudes among white evangelical Protestants and some Hispanic Protestant communities than among many other religious groups. Other Christians, including numerous mainline Protestants, Black Protestants, Catholics, and members of historically peace-church or church-state-separation traditions, show varying levels of support and opposition.

Geography also matters. State-level research shows significant regional variation rather than a uniform national pattern. Christian nationalist attitudes tend to be shaped by combinations of religion, political affiliation, education, race, local political culture, and perceptions of social or demographic change.

The Trump Era and Political Resurgence

Christian nationalism became especially visible during the political rise of Donald Trump and the transformation of conservative politics beginning in the mid-2010s.

Research conducted during the 2016 and 2020 elections identified relationships between Christian nationalist attitudes and support for Trump. Journalists and scholars subsequently documented churches, ministries, activist groups, political organizations, and individual religious leaders that combined conservative Christianity with strong forms of American nationalism and support for Trump's political movement.

The relationship is not uniform. Many Trump supporters do not identify as Christian nationalists, while some Christian nationalists disagree among themselves about Trump, political strategy, theology, and government authority. Nevertheless, Trump's campaigns and presidencies created new opportunities for Christian nationalist rhetoric, organizations, and policy debates to move from relatively specialized religious and academic settings into national political discussion.

The January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol intensified attention to the subject. Christian symbols, prayers, religious language, and organizations associated with different strands of Christian nationalist activism appeared among some participants. Researchers subsequently investigated the relationship between Christian nationalism, election denial, political violence, perceptions of national decline, and willingness to tolerate violations of democratic norms. The presence of Christian imagery at January 6 also prompted disputes among Christians over whether such symbols represented Christianity, Christian nationalism, ordinary religious expression, or mixtures of several political and religious currents.

During the 2024 election and the second Trump administration, Christian nationalism continued to receive national attention. Reporting examined religious activists, administration officials, conservative Christian organizations, public prayer events, church networks, and proposals intended to increase Christianity's visibility within government and American public life.

This increased prominence does not necessarily demonstrate that the underlying beliefs suddenly became widespread. Rather, the source material suggests that political access, organization, media attention, institutional networks, and explicit identification with Christian nationalism have all contributed to its greater visibility.

Movement Networks and Competing Traditions

Contemporary Christian nationalism is better understood as a collection of overlapping movements than as a centralized organization.

One strand developed from the late-20th-century Christian Right. Organizations created around abortion, school prayer, religious liberty, family policy, sexuality, and conservative electoral politics established political networks that later provided infrastructure for newer forms of religious nationalism.

Christian Reconstructionism contributed another intellectual influence. Reconstructionist thinkers argued for applying biblical law much more extensively to society and government. Although Reconstructionism itself remained relatively small, some of its concepts influenced later debates about Christian political authority.

Dominionism and the New Apostolic Reformation introduced additional themes involving Christian influence over major social institutions. The "Seven Mountains" concept, for example, identifies areas such as government, education, media, business, religion, family, and the arts as institutions Christians should seek to influence.

Reformed pastor Doug Wilson and the church network associated with Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, became increasingly prominent in discussions of explicitly self-described Christian nationalism during the 2020s. Reporting documented the network's institutional expansion and growing connections with conservative political figures, while critics and supporters debated Wilson's ideas about Christian government, religious establishment, gender, family authority, and national identity.

Catholic integralism represents a different intellectual tradition. Integralists generally argue that political society should recognize religious truth and reject the strict liberal separation of religious and political authority. Catholic integralism is theologically distinct from Protestant Christian nationalism, but the two currents sometimes overlap in critiques of secular liberalism and support for a more explicitly Christian public order.

Academic research has consequently emphasized the importance of distinguishing among these groups. A 2025 study in Politics and Religion, for example, described several varieties of American Christian nationalism rather than treating the phenomenon as ideologically uniform.

Race, National Identity, and Belonging

Race has become one of the most extensively studied dimensions of Christian nationalism.

Research on white Christian nationalism examines the historical relationship among Christianity, ideas about American exceptionalism, racial hierarchy, immigration, national identity, and definitions of who is considered fully American. Scholars have connected contemporary debates with earlier periods in which Protestant identity, whiteness, citizenship, and American nationalism were often closely associated.

Modern research has found relationships between Christian nationalist attitudes and certain forms of white racial solidarity, perceived ethnoracial threat, attitudes toward immigration, and beliefs about demographic change. Researchers have also examined connections with views about policing, social welfare, redistribution, and national belonging.

At the same time, Christian nationalism cannot be described exclusively as a white movement. Research and reporting have identified Christian nationalist attitudes among some Latino Protestants and within racially diverse churches and political organizations. This has led scholars to investigate how religious identity, charismatic Christianity, social conservatism, immigration experiences, nationalism, and partisan politics interact differently across racial and ethnic communities.

The resulting research complicates explanations that treat Christian nationalism either entirely as religious belief or entirely as racial politics. Many scholars instead understand it as an ideology in which religious, racial, national, and political identities can reinforce one another in different combinations.

Education, Law, and Public Institutions

Public education has become one of the most visible arenas in which debates associated with Christian nationalism take place.

Controversies have involved Ten Commandments displays, Bible instruction, school chaplains, religious curriculum materials, social-studies standards, book restrictions, parental-rights campaigns, school vouchers, and interpretations of American history.

Louisiana's effort to require the Ten Commandments in public-school classrooms generated extensive litigation and renewed debate over the Establishment Clause and government-sponsored religious expression. Similar disputes have developed in Oklahoma and Texas concerning religious materials, curriculum requirements, and the role of Christianity in teaching American history.

Supporters of such measures frequently describe them as efforts to restore America's historical and moral traditions, protect religious expression, or correct what they see as excessive secularization. Opponents argue that government promotion of particular religious beliefs violates religious liberty and church-state separation and may marginalize students and families belonging to other faiths or no faith.

Education activism has also moved beyond state legislatures. Church networks and political organizations have sought greater participation in school-board elections and local educational policy, while organizations opposing Christian nationalism have developed their own local political and legal campaigns.

Similar disputes occur in reproductive policy, immigration, religious exemptions, LGBTQ issues, government prayer, public religious displays, and the interpretation of constitutional protections involving religion.

Christianity's Internal Debate

Some of the strongest criticism of Christian nationalism comes from Christians themselves.

Evangelical writers, Baptist organizations, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, members of the Christian Reformed Church, and other Christian communities have debated whether nationalism can be reconciled with Christian theology.

Some critics argue that Christianity is a universal religious faith that should not be tied to the interests of a particular nation or political party. They warn that merging national identity with Christianity can transform religion into a source of political legitimacy and weaken commitments to religious liberty and equal citizenship.

Other conservative Christians object to the Christian nationalism label for different reasons. They argue that scholars, journalists, and political opponents sometimes use it so broadly that ordinary Christian political participation, opposition to secularism, conservative social beliefs, patriotism, or support for Christian moral influence can be mislabeled as nationalism.

Still others explicitly embrace Christian nationalism. These advocates contend that nations inevitably reflect moral and religious assumptions and that the United States historically developed within a predominantly Christian culture. Some therefore support a more formal recognition of Christianity in public institutions, although they disagree among themselves about how far government should go.

These disputes have increasingly reached denominational institutions. By 2026, Presbyterian, Baptist, Reformed, Lutheran, Episcopal, and other Christian communities were sponsoring educational programs, issuing statements, debating resolutions, or creating formal study committees devoted to Christian nationalism.

The Christian Reformed Church, for example, established a study process examining the meaning, historical development, theology, and pastoral implications of Christian nationalism. Presbyterian bodies similarly considered proposals concerning Christian nationalism, national identity, religious pluralism, and the relationship between Christianity and political power.

These developments demonstrate that the controversy is not simply a conflict between religious and secular Americans. It is also an internal Christian debate over theology, patriotism, political authority, religious liberty, and the proper relationship between church and nation.

Opposition and Counter-Mobilization

The increased visibility of Christian nationalism has produced organized opposition from both secular and religious groups.

Organizations concerned with church-state separation have challenged legislation they regard as government establishment of Christianity. Civil-liberties groups have filed lawsuits involving public schools and religious displays. Progressive and moderate Christian organizations have created campaigns intended to distinguish Christian faith from Christian nationalism.

Groups such as Christians Against Christian Nationalism and other interfaith coalitions have attempted to build religious opposition to the movement. Their activities include public education, clergy organizing, local political engagement, protests, theological statements, and advocacy for religious pluralism.

The January 6 attack and subsequent political controversies accelerated this counter-mobilization. Christian leaders opposed to nationalism increasingly argued that resistance to government-enforced religion was itself rooted in Christian traditions of religious liberty.

These organizations represent only one side of an ongoing argument. Christian nationalist advocates frequently contend that their opponents exaggerate the movement's goals or incorrectly characterize efforts to increase Christian participation in public life as threats to democracy or religious freedom.

The debate therefore extends beyond individual policy questions to competing understandings of religious liberty itself. One side tends to emphasize limits on governmental religious preference, while another places greater emphasis on protecting religious influence and expression within institutions that advocates believe have become excessively secular.

Is Christian Nationalism Actually Growing?

The phrase "resurgence of Christian nationalism" can describe several different developments, and they should not be treated as identical.

One possibility is growth in the number of Americans holding Christian nationalist beliefs. Survey evidence provides a mixed picture. PRRI's measurements indicate that substantial minorities hold such beliefs, but its national classifications have remained relatively stable during the years in which it has tracked them. Pew likewise found that many underlying attitudes connected with religion and government changed only modestly between 2024 and 2026.

A second development is increased public awareness. By 2026, substantially more Americans had heard of Christian nationalism than only a few years earlier. The term had moved from specialized academic literature into mainstream political, religious, and journalistic discussion.

A third development is partisan sorting. Research suggests that Christian nationalist ideas have become increasingly concentrated within particular political, racial, and religious constituencies. This can make an ideology politically significant even if its overall prevalence in the population does not dramatically increase.

A fourth development is institutional organization. Churches, advocacy organizations, conferences, media networks, schools, political groups, and religious intellectual movements have provided greater organizational capacity for people who support explicitly Christian understandings of American public life.

Finally, the willingness of some activists and religious leaders to openly use the Christian nationalist label represents an important change. Ideas that were previously discussed using language such as the Christian Right, Christian America, religious conservatism, or biblical government are increasingly debated under the explicit heading of Christian nationalism.

The modern resurgence may therefore involve greater visibility, organization, political access, and ideological self-identification as much as growth in the underlying number of supporters.

Conclusion

Christian nationalism has become an important part of 21st-century debates about American religion, national identity, democracy, and political power.

Its modern resurgence emerged from older traditions including American civil religion, Protestant nationalism, the Christian Right, Christian Reconstructionism, charismatic dominionism, and arguments over whether the United States should be understood as a Christian nation. During the Trump era, these ideas became more visible through electoral politics, religious activism, education campaigns, church networks, public demonstrations, government controversies, and national media attention.

At the same time, Christian nationalism remains difficult to define as a single movement. Its supporters range from people favoring greater Christian cultural influence to activists advocating much more extensive changes in the relationship between Christianity and government. Its critics likewise include secular organizations, religious-liberty advocates, progressive Christians, and conservative Christians who reject either nationalism itself or what they regard as overly broad uses of the term.

Polling shows substantial public disagreement but does not demonstrate a simple movement toward a Christian-nationalist consensus. Most Americans continue to oppose formally establishing Christianity as the national religion, while significant minorities favor stronger Christian influence in government and public life. Public familiarity with Christian nationalism has nevertheless increased considerably.

The defining feature of the early-21st-century resurgence may therefore be less a sudden appearance of entirely new beliefs than the transformation of longstanding religious and nationalist ideas into a highly visible, organized, and contested political identity. Understanding the movement requires attention not only to elections and political leaders but also to theology, race, demographic change, education, religious institutions, constitutional law, and competing Christian interpretations of the relationship between faith and nation.

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