Catholicism and Christian Nationalism
Catholicism and Christian Nationalism
Catholicism has a complex relationship with Christian nationalism. Catholic political thought includes traditions emphasizing patriotism, the common good, religious participation in public life, and the moral responsibilities of political communities. It has also included movements advocating stronger institutional connections between Catholicism and political authority. Contemporary debates therefore involve several overlapping but distinct ideas, including Christian nationalism, Catholic integralism, postliberalism, Christian democracy, Catholic social teaching, and ordinary religious participation in democratic politics.
In the United States, Christian nationalism generally refers to beliefs that closely associate Christianity with national identity and the proper organization of government. Much of the modern scholarship on American Christian nationalism originally focused on Protestant, particularly white evangelical, political culture. More recent research has examined Catholic participation in similar political networks and the emergence of Catholic intellectual movements that criticize liberalism and advocate stronger recognition of religious authority in public life.
Catholic involvement in these debates cannot be described as a single unified position. Some Catholic writers defend versions of integralism or postliberal political thought, while Catholic theologians, bishops, scholars, and publications have also criticized Christian nationalism as inconsistent with religious freedom, universal human dignity, pluralism, or Catholic social teaching. Catholic history also contains an influential democratic tradition that helped shape Christian democracy, constitutional government, human rights, and European integration.
Catholic Integralism and Christian Nationalism
Catholic integralism is one of the most important concepts in contemporary discussions of Catholicism and Christian nationalism. Integralists generally reject the idea that religion and politics should exist in completely separate spheres. They argue instead that political authority should recognize objective moral and religious truth and that the temporal common good ultimately cannot be separated from humanity's spiritual good.
Contemporary integralism has drawn renewed attention through Catholic intellectual debates over liberalism, constitutionalism, religious liberty, natural law, and political authority. Writers associated with or discussed within these debates include Adrian Vermeule, Patrick Deneen, Thomas Pink, Edmund Waldstein, and others.
Integralism and Christian nationalism overlap but are not synonymous. Christian nationalism usually centers on the relationship between Christianity and national political identity, while Catholic integralism begins from a specifically Catholic understanding of the relationship between spiritual and temporal authority. Academic research has therefore identified Catholic integralism as one theological variety within a broader landscape of American Christian nationalism rather than treating all forms of Christian nationalism as interchangeable.
Some integralists argue that liberal political systems falsely present themselves as neutral while imposing their own moral assumptions. From this perspective, political institutions inevitably promote some conception of the good, and Catholic political thought should not accept secular liberalism as the permanent framework within which religion must operate.
Critics respond that integralist systems could threaten religious liberty by granting Catholic religious authority privileged political status or permitting coercion in religious matters. Catholic scholars have also debated whether contemporary integralism accurately represents Catholic tradition, particularly after the Second Vatican Council.
Postliberal Catholicism
Postliberalism is a broader intellectual movement that overlaps with integralism without necessarily accepting all integralist conclusions. Catholic postliberal thinkers often criticize modern liberalism for emphasizing individual autonomy at the expense of community, tradition, family, religion, and shared conceptions of the common good.
Patrick Deneen's critique of liberalism has played an important role in this debate. His work argues that problems commonly understood as failures of liberal societies may instead result from principles internal to liberalism itself. Other Catholic and Christian thinkers have responded that liberal institutions can be reformed without abandoning constitutional democracy or religious pluralism.
The resulting debate extends beyond questions about church establishment. It concerns the meaning of freedom, authority, community, democracy, markets, social institutions, and moral formation.
Some critics describe contemporary Catholic postliberalism as politically adjacent to Christian nationalism because both question important features of the liberal political order. Others stress significant differences among integralists, postliberals, religious conservatives, Christian democrats, and ordinary Catholics participating in electoral politics.
Catholic Social Teaching and Nationalism
Catholic social teaching provides another major framework for evaluating nationalism. Its recurring principles include the dignity of the human person, solidarity, subsidiarity, the common good, rights and responsibilities, concern for vulnerable populations, and the moral obligations of political communities.
Catholic teaching recognizes legitimate political communities and does not reject patriotism or national identity. At the same time, numerous papal and Vatican documents distinguish legitimate attachment to one's country from nationalism that treats the nation, race, state, or political community as an absolute value.
Pope Pius XI warned against forms of exaggerated nationalism. Pope Pius XII distinguished legitimate national aspirations from blind nationalism. Popes Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis similarly addressed the dangers of exclusionary nationalism, racial hostility, isolationism, xenophobia, and political ideologies that elevate national interests above universal human responsibilities.
Pope Francis has repeatedly distinguished legitimate love of one's country and culture from nationalism directed against outsiders. Fratelli tutti, for example, emphasizes fraternity, social friendship, human dignity, and solidarity while criticizing forms of political nationalism based on exclusion or hostility.
These teachings provide the basis for Catholic critiques of Christian nationalism when Christianity becomes identified too closely with a particular nation, ethnic group, political party, or governmental project.
Religious Liberty and the Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council significantly shaped modern Catholic thinking about political authority and religious freedom.
Dignitatis humanae, adopted in 1965, teaches that individuals and religious communities possess a civil right to religious freedom and should be protected from coercion in matters of faith. The document became central to subsequent Catholic discussions of democracy, constitutional government, church-state relations, and religious pluralism.
Gaudium et spes addresses political authority, human rights, participation in public life, the common good, and the distinction between the Church and political community. Nostra aetate emphasizes the dignity of people belonging to different religious traditions and encourages dialogue and cooperation.
These teachings have generated important debates among contemporary Catholic political thinkers. Critics of integralism often cite Vatican II as evidence that Catholic political thought can support constitutional democracy and religious pluralism. Integralists dispute some interpretations of the council and argue that religious liberty must be understood in continuity with earlier Catholic teaching rather than as endorsement of religiously neutral liberalism.
Patriotism and Nationalism
Catholic sources frequently distinguish patriotism from nationalism.
Patriotism can be understood as gratitude toward one's country, responsibility toward one's political community, and an ordered love of one's cultural and national inheritance. Under this interpretation, patriotism does not require unquestioning loyalty to government and does not override obligations to humanity as a whole.
Nationalism becomes problematic in Catholic thought when national loyalty is transformed into an absolute political principle or when the dignity and rights of outsiders are subordinated to the interests of the national community.
Pope John Paul II drew this distinction explicitly, warning against extreme nationalism while affirming legitimate national identity and culture. Contemporary Catholic writers continue to debate where patriotism ends and nationalism begins.
This distinction is particularly important in discussions of Christian nationalism because not every public expression of Christian belief, patriotism, or religiously motivated political participation constitutes Christian nationalism. Several Catholic commentators have cautioned against defining the term so broadly that ordinary religious political involvement becomes indistinguishable from demands for religious domination of government.
Catholics and American Christian Nationalism
Christian nationalism in the United States has historically been associated most strongly with Protestant political culture, but Catholic participation has attracted increasing attention.
Journalistic and academic sources describe networks connecting Catholic integralists and postliberal intellectuals with broader national-conservative and Christian-nationalist movements. Political alliances involving Catholics and evangelical Protestants have developed around issues including abortion, religious liberty, education, sexuality, family policy, immigration, and opposition to secularization.
These alliances have sometimes produced what critics describe as a political ecumenism in which theological differences become secondary to shared political objectives. Others argue that Catholic-evangelical relations are more diverse than this interpretation suggests and should not be reduced to Christian-nationalist politics.
Contemporary reporting has also examined prominent Catholic political figures and intellectual circles associated with critiques of liberalism. These developments have contributed to public discussion of whether a distinctly Catholic form of Christian nationalism is emerging in the United States.
Catholic responses remain divided. Some Catholic thinkers defend stronger public recognition of Christianity and question liberal separation between religion and government. Other bishops, theologians, and Catholic commentators argue that governmental enforcement of Christianity would conflict with Catholic teaching on religious freedom and the dignity of conscience.
Survey Research and Catholic Attitudes
Survey research from Pew Research Center and the Public Religion Research Institute shows that attitudes toward Christian nationalism vary substantially among American religious groups.
Catholics do not form a single bloc. Research distinguishes among white Catholics, Hispanic Catholics, frequent churchgoers, less observant Catholics, partisan groups, and other demographic categories. Levels of support for Christian-nationalist ideas differ across these populations.
Survey research also illustrates the importance of definitions. Respondents may react differently to the phrase "Christian nationalism" than to individual propositions concerning whether the United States is a Christian nation, whether government should promote Christian values, whether biblical teachings should influence law, or whether church and state should remain institutionally separate.
This makes Christian nationalism difficult to measure using a single question. Researchers generally use multiple survey questions to identify patterns of belief rather than assuming that everyone who describes the United States as historically Christian supports a Christian-nationalist political program.
Studies also connect Christian-nationalist attitudes with broader questions involving political identity, race, immigration, national belonging, social-group boundaries, religious pluralism, and perceptions of political threat.
Race, Identity, and National Belonging
Academic research on Christian nationalism frequently examines its relationship with race and national identity.
Some studies describe Christian nationalism as part of a broader system of social identity in which religion, race, politics, and ideas about legitimate national membership interact. Research has examined relationships between Christian nationalism and white racial solidarity as well as attitudes toward immigrants and religious or racial minorities.
Other scholarship complicates any simple identification of Christian nationalism with one racial group. Researchers have investigated Christian-nationalist beliefs among white, Black, and Hispanic Americans and found that similar survey responses may have different social or political meanings depending on racial, religious, and historical context.
For Catholicism, these distinctions are especially important because the American Catholic population is itself racially, ethnically, culturally, and politically diverse.
Catholic Political Participation in Democracy
Official Catholic teaching does not call for withdrawal from political life. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has repeatedly encouraged Catholics to participate in public affairs while forming their consciences according to Catholic moral and social principles.
The bishops' Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship framework presents political responsibility as broader than loyalty to any political party or ideological movement. Catholic political engagement is framed around human dignity, the common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, peace, justice, religious freedom, and protection of human life.
This approach differs from both political secularism that excludes religious reasoning from public life and forms of nationalism that equate Catholic identity with a particular party or national political movement.
The distinction is central to contemporary Catholic debates: participation by Catholics in politics does not by itself constitute Christian nationalism. The disputed issue is how religious identity relates to state authority, national identity, citizenship, political pluralism, and the rights of people who do not share the same faith.
Christian Democracy as an Alternative Catholic Tradition
Christian democracy provides an important historical comparison with Catholic nationalism and integralism.
Catholic political movements in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe often viewed liberal democracy with suspicion. During the twentieth century, however, major Catholic political movements increasingly accepted constitutional government, political pluralism, human rights, elections, and democratic institutions.
After the experience of fascism and the Second World War, Christian democratic parties became especially influential in Western Europe. Christian democrats attempted to incorporate Catholic principles such as human dignity, subsidiarity, social responsibility, family life, and solidarity into democratic political systems rather than establishing direct ecclesiastical control over the state.
Christian democracy therefore represents a major historical example of explicitly Christian political engagement developing within pluralist democracy.
It also illustrates why Catholic political thought cannot be reduced either to secular liberalism or to Christian nationalism. Catholic political traditions have included democratic, nationalist, authoritarian, integralist, social-democratic, conservative, and internationalist currents.
Historical Catholic Nationalism
The relationship between Catholicism and nationalism long predates contemporary American Christian nationalism.
During the nineteenth century, Catholic thinkers confronted the rise of modern nation-states, liberal revolutions, nationalism, secularization, and declining ecclesiastical political power. Catholic responses differed substantially by country and historical circumstance.
France produced movements such as Action Française, which combined nationalism, monarchism, and opposition to liberal republicanism. The Catholic Church's relationship with Action Française became a major controversy and remains an important historical reference point in debates about contemporary integralism.
In Spain, Catholic identity became deeply intertwined with competing political movements, including integralism, conservatism, social Catholicism, and later Francoist nationalism. Scholarship on Francoist Spain examines the use of Catholic symbols and institutions in constructing a culturally homogeneous national identity.
Italian Catholic political history similarly included anti-liberal and integralist currents before Christian democracy became dominant after the Second World War.
Catholic nationalism also appeared in Ireland, Poland, Latin America, Quebec, and other regions, but these movements developed under very different historical conditions.
Poland and National Catholicism
Poland provides one of the most extensively studied contemporary examples of the interaction between Catholic identity and nationalism.
Catholicism played an important role in Polish national identity during periods of foreign occupation and communist rule. In the post-communist period, parts of the Catholic hierarchy and Catholic political culture became associated with conservative nationalist politics, while other Catholics defended liberal democracy, European integration, refugee protections, and pluralism.
Recent scholarship examines Catholic symbolism in border politics, migration debates, national identity, and competing interpretations of democracy. These studies demonstrate that Catholic nationalism in Poland is internally contested rather than representing the position of the entire Polish Catholic Church.
The history of Catholic opposition to totalitarianism elsewhere in Central Europe also demonstrates a contrasting Catholic political tradition centered on human rights, democratic participation, and resistance to authoritarian government.
Ireland and Catholic National Identity
Ireland provides another important historical case.
Catholic identity and Irish nationalism became closely connected through struggles involving British rule, Catholic emancipation, independence, education, and state-building. After independence, Catholic institutions exercised substantial influence in Irish social and political life.
Over the later twentieth century, the close association between Irish national identity and Catholicism weakened substantially as Irish society became more secular and religiously pluralistic.
Research on Ireland therefore illustrates how a religious-national identity can become institutionally powerful and later decline as social conditions, political institutions, and public attitudes change.
Historical Church-State Teaching
Earlier Catholic teaching on church-state relations differs in significant ways from the Church's modern treatment of religious liberty.
Pope Leo XIII's Immortale Dei articulated a nineteenth-century understanding of relations between civil government and Catholic religious authority that continues to be cited in integralist arguments. His writings on Catholicism in the United States also addressed the distinctive American constitutional arrangement of religious freedom and church-state separation.
Pope Pius XI's Quas primas, which established the Feast of Christ the King, emphasized Christ's sovereignty over individuals and societies. Contemporary Catholic political thinkers disagree over the political implications of this teaching.
At the same time, Catholic social teaching developed concepts such as subsidiarity, social justice, solidarity, and the common good. These principles later became important foundations of Christian democratic political thought.
Modern disputes therefore frequently involve not simply whether earlier Catholic teachings existed, but how they should be interpreted alongside Vatican II and subsequent Catholic teaching on human dignity and religious freedom.
Areas of Agreement and Disagreement
The literature shows several recurring points of debate.
One concerns whether liberal political institutions are sufficiently neutral toward religion. Integralists and postliberals frequently argue that liberalism itself promotes substantive moral commitments and therefore cannot claim genuine neutrality. Defenders of liberal constitutionalism respond that religious liberty and institutional limits on governmental religious authority protect both believers and nonbelievers.
A second debate concerns the meaning of the common good. Catholic political traditions generally reject a purely individualistic conception of society, but they disagree about how extensively government should promote moral or religious goods.
A third involves political pluralism. Modern Catholic teaching strongly affirms religious freedom, while debates continue over what obligations governments have toward religious truth and whether the state may legitimately privilege particular religious traditions.
A fourth concerns national identity. Catholic teaching recognizes nations, cultures, and legitimate patriotism while repeatedly warning against racial supremacy, xenophobia, exaggerated nationalism, and the treatment of national interests as absolute.
Finally, there is disagreement over terminology. Some scholars and journalists use "Christian nationalism" to describe a broad political-cultural movement, while critics argue that the phrase can become so expansive that it obscures important distinctions among nationalism, conservatism, patriotism, Christian political participation, integralism, and postliberalism.
Conclusion
The relationship between Catholicism and Christian nationalism is historically and intellectually complex. Catholicism contains traditions that affirm public religious influence, political community, patriotism, natural law, and the common good. Some contemporary Catholics have drawn these traditions toward integralism, postliberalism, or political movements that overlap with Christian nationalism.
At the same time, Catholic social teaching contains strong commitments to human dignity, religious freedom, solidarity, political participation, the rights of minorities, and moral obligations that extend beyond national borders. Vatican II and the development of Christian democracy demonstrate influential Catholic traditions compatible with pluralist constitutional government.
For these reasons, Catholicism cannot be treated as inherently supportive of or inherently identical with Christian nationalism. The contemporary debate instead reflects a larger argument within Catholic political thought over authority, freedom, democracy, national identity, religious pluralism, and the proper relationship between religious truth and political power.
Understanding that debate requires distinguishing ordinary Catholic political participation from nationalism, distinguishing patriotism from exclusionary nationalism, and distinguishing Christian nationalism from specifically Catholic movements such as integralism and postliberalism. Historical experience in Europe, the United States, Latin America, and elsewhere further shows that Catholic political identity has taken many different forms depending on time and place.
Contemporary Catholicism and Christian Nationalism
| Washington Post columnist | The Washington Post | September 25, 2026
Critiques contemporary religious integralism and compares its rejection of liberal constitutional arrangements with other movements seeking fundamental political transformation.
| Andrea Picciotti-Bayer | National Catholic Register | July 2026
Discusses American patriotism from a Catholic perspective while criticizing both integralism and Christian nationalism as attempts to use state coercion to impose religious order.
| America Media | America Magazine | June 25, 2026
Explores reactionary masculinity, Catholic postliberalism, integralism, conservative institutions, and their intersections with contemporary Christian nationalism.
| Peter Smith | National Catholic Reporter / Associated Press | June 10, 2026
Explains the Catholic bishops' consecration of the United States to the Sacred Heart while discussing the devotion's historically varied relationship to Catholic nationalism.
| Gina Christian | OSV News | May 14, 2026
Summarizes Pew Research Center findings on American attitudes toward Christian nationalism and religion's proper role in government.
| Catholic News Agency | Catholic World Report | May 14, 2026
Reviews Pew findings on Christian nationalism, church-state separation, biblical influence on law, and Catholic attitudes toward religion in public life.
| Anthony Annett | Commonweal | 2026
Uses the history of European Christian democracy to contrast Catholic democratic traditions with contemporary postliberal political movements.
| Michael Sean Winters | National Catholic Reporter | November 21, 2025
Questions whether the term "Christian nationalism" has become too broad to clarify political and religious disagreements and urges more precise distinctions.
| Fiona André | National Catholic Reporter / Religion News Service | September 10, 2025
Examines the use of biblical imagery in official military communications and debates over whether such messaging reflects Christian-nationalist understandings of American identity.
| Jack Jenkins | National Catholic Reporter / Religion News Service | September 8, 2025
Examines efforts within national-conservative circles to frame Christian nationalism in ways that include Catholics and Jews while navigating older forms of sectarian exclusion.
| Catherine M. Odell | National Catholic Reporter | March 28, 2025
Reports on a University of Notre Dame conference examining Christian nationalism and other forms of religious nationalism from theological, historical, and social-scientific perspectives.
| Heidi Schlumpf, Daniel P. Horan and David Dault | National Catholic Reporter | March 13, 2025
Discusses Christian nationalism alongside controversies involving Catholic institutions, education, law, and government.
| The Editors | U.S. Catholic | November 1, 2024
Examines Christian nationalism from a Catholic perspective through a discussion with Jim Wallis, including tensions between nationalist politics and Catholic universalism, solidarity, and the common good.
| Phoebe Petrovic | ProPublica / Wisconsin Watch | October 26, 2024
Provides a historical investigation of the movements, organizations, personalities, and political strategies that contributed to contemporary American Christian nationalism.
| Heidi Schlumpf | National Catholic Reporter | October 25, 2024
Reports Bishop John Stowe's criticism of Christian nationalism and his argument that Christianity should not be reduced to national or partisan identity.
| Thomas Reese | Religion News Service | August 12, 2024
Examines tensions between religious political participation, Christian nationalism, Catholic integralism, constitutional government, and pluralism.
| Thomas Reese | National Catholic Reporter | August 2024
Compares Christian nationalism and Catholic integralism while also defending the legitimate role religiously motivated citizens can play in democratic politics.
| Ruth Braunstein | National Catholic Reporter / Religion News Service | July 24, 2024
Explores arguments that Catholic intellectual networks have become increasingly important in discussions of Christian nationalism, postliberalism, and political power.
| Ruth Braunstein | Religion News Service | July 23, 2024
Discusses growing public attention to Catholic forms of Christian nationalism and integralism during the 2024 election cycle.
| Jack Jenkins and Aleja Hertzler-McCain | Religion News Service | July 15, 2024
Provides background on J.D. Vance's Catholic conversion and his intellectual connections to Catholic postliberal and integralist thinkers.
| John Van Hagen | National Catholic Reporter | June 26, 2024
Discusses Christian nationalism, Project 2025, and statements by Catholic bishops who have argued that nationalist ideologies must be evaluated against Catholic social teaching.
| Kate Scanlon | National Catholic Reporter / OSV News | April 18, 2024
Reports Bishop Michael Burbidge's argument that Christian nationalism, when understood as governmental enforcement of Christianity, conflicts with Catholic teaching.
| Kate Scanlon | Catholic Review / OSV News | April 18, 2024
Presents Bishop Michael Burbidge's distinction between legitimate Christian political participation and a nationalist fusion of religious and governmental identity.
| Jack Jenkins | National Catholic Reporter / Religion News Service | April 5, 2024
Surveys several strands of politically conservative Catholicism and explains why Catholic integralism overlaps with, but is not identical to, Protestant Christian nationalism.
| Jack Jenkins | Religion News Service | April 3, 2024
Examines the contemporary relationship between Catholic integralism and Christian nationalism, including the ideas of Adrian Vermeule, Patrick Deneen, Catholic postliberals, and explicitly nationalist Catholic activists.
| Brian Fraga | National Catholic Reporter | March 21, 2024
Reports on a Catholic political gathering whose religious and political rhetoric raised questions about Catholic identity, partisanship, and Christian nationalism.
| Jonathan Liedl | National Catholic Register | March 18, 2024
Presents Catholic critics who argue that the term Christian nationalism is sometimes defined too broadly and risks conflating ordinary Christian political advocacy with theocratic politics.
| Michael Sean Winters | National Catholic Reporter | January 15, 2024
Examines different meanings attached to Christian nationalism and contrasts contemporary movements with Martin Luther King Jr.'s religiously informed understanding of American civic ideals.
| The Editors | U.S. Catholic | September 25, 2023
Features Amanda Tyler discussing Christian nationalism, religious liberty, democracy, and arguments that nationalist political identity should not be equated with Christianity.
| U.S. Catholic Editors | U.S. Catholic | August 29, 2023
Introduces a series examining democracy, white supremacy, Christian nationalism, Catholic social action, and religiously motivated civic engagement.
Argues from Christian theological principles against white Christian nationalism and discusses the role Catholic and other Christian communities can play in responding to it.
| Pope Francis | Holy See | 2019
Recalls Benedict XV's opposition to merging Christian missionary activity with nationalism, ethnocentrism, colonial political interests, or military power.
| Pope Francis | Holy See | September 20, 2018
Addresses racism, xenophobia, migration, and populist nationalism while grounding Catholic political ethics in universal human dignity.
| Robert W. McElroy | America Magazine | January 24, 2017
Distinguishes Catholic patriotism from forms of nationalism that elevate national self-interest above solidarity, universal human dignity, and responsibilities toward outsiders.
| Craig Hovey and Elizabeth Phillips, eds. | Cambridge University Press | 2015
Provides scholarly background on Catholic social teaching, liberalism, democracy, political theology, postliberalism, and other traditions relevant to understanding religious nationalism.
| Commonweal Editors | Commonweal | ongoing
Collects articles debating Catholic postliberalism, integralism, democracy, liberalism, political theology, and alternative visions of Catholic public engagement.
Survey Research — Catholics and Christian Nationalism
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 14, 2026
Provides detailed survey data on Catholics, Protestants, religiously unaffiliated Americans, Christian nationalism, biblical influence on law, and government promotion of Christian values.
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 14, 2026
Tracks changing favorable and unfavorable opinions of Christian nationalism between 2022 and 2026.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 17, 2026
Summarizes the newest PRRI state-level findings on Christian nationalism, religious affiliation, partisan identity, and political attitudes.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 2026
Provides updated 2025 American Values Atlas data on Christian nationalism and differences among major American religious communities.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 4, 2025
Updates Christian-nationalism measurements nationwide and compares white Catholic and Hispanic Catholic respondents with other religious traditions.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 4, 2025
Reports connections among Christian-nationalist attitudes, religious affiliation, worship attendance, political attitudes, and the 2024 election.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | October 30, 2024
Examines Americans who reject or remain skeptical of Christian nationalism, including substantial proportions of white and Hispanic Catholics.
| Chip Rotolo, Gregory A. Smith and Jonathan Evans | Pew Research Center | March 15, 2024
Examines attitudes toward church-state separation, official Christianity, Christian moral values, biblical influence, and the Christian-nationalism label.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 28, 2024
Provides state-level Christian-nationalism estimates and reports substantially different rates among white Catholics, Hispanic Catholics, evangelical Protestants, and other traditions.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 28, 2024
Summarizes PRRI's first state-by-state survey of Christian nationalism and its relationship to religion, political identification, race, and church attendance.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 8, 2023
Establishes a widely used survey measure of Christian nationalism and compares support across American religious traditions, including Catholic populations.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 8, 2023
Summarizes PRRI's 2023 national Christian-nationalism survey and its findings across religious and political groups.
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | October 27, 2022
Compares Catholic, evangelical Protestant, Black Protestant, partisan, and general-public views about whether the United States is or should be a Christian nation.
Academic Research on Christian Nationalism
| Christopher H. Seto | Sociology of Religion | May 24, 2026
Studies Christian nationalism, racial and political identity, and distrust of immigrants using original national survey data.
| Paul A. Djupe and Brooklyn Walker | Politics and Religion | March 26, 2026
Investigates whether religiously pluralistic beliefs moderate Christian-nationalist attitudes toward political tolerance.
| Brooklyn Walker et al. | Perspectives on Politics | October 14, 2025
Studies how Christian-nationalist beliefs interact with racial identity and perceptions of social in-groups and out-groups.
| Nilay Saiya | Politics and Religion | May 13, 2025
Distinguishes charismatic dominionism, Calvinist nationalism, and Catholic integralism as different theological varieties operating within American Christian nationalism.
| Daniel D. Miller | Cambridge University Press | March 7, 2025
Provides a broad scholarly overview of Christian nationalism within contemporary North American Christianity.
| Social Forces researchers | Social Forces | February 23, 2025
Investigates Christian nationalism as a component of white identity politics and measures relationships with white racial solidarity.
| Nilay Saiya | Politics and Religion | 2025
Develops a typology showing that Catholic integralism has distinctive theological assumptions even where it cooperates politically with other Christian-nationalist movements.
| Public Opinion Quarterly researchers | Public Opinion Quarterly | 2025
Examines how race changes the relationship between Christian nationalism and conservative or progressive political identities.
| Politics and Religion | Cambridge University Press | 2024
Examines Christian nationalism, political authority, perceived threats to Christian identity, and attitudes toward the use of political force.
| Samuel L. Perry, Andrew L. Whitehead and Joshua B. Grubbs | Sociology of Race and Ethnicity | 2024
Studies whether Christian-nationalist attitudes respond differently to racial diversity and religious diversity.
| Sociological Quarterly researchers | The Sociological Quarterly | July 7, 2023
Examines Christian nationalism, race, immigration, assimilation, and national belonging across white, Black, and Hispanic Americans.
Catholic Integralism and Postliberalism
| Oxford Journal of Law and Religion Editors | Oxford Journal of Law and Religion | July 16, 2026
Introduces a scholarly symposium on the resurgence of Catholic integralism and religious anti-liberalism in contemporary political and legal thought.
| Francis J. Beckwith | Journal of Religion, Culture & Democracy | July 1, 2026
Examines why dissatisfaction with liberalism has renewed interest in integralism and confessional government among some younger Christians.
| Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone | National Catholic Register | June 22, 2026
Calls for substantive Catholic debate over postliberalism, individual liberty, communal bonds, social authority, and the principles that should shape public institutions.
| America Magazine | America Magazine | June 17, 2026
Revisits John Courtney Murray's Catholic account of constitutionalism as a possible alternative both to aggressively secular politics and reactionary Christian nationalism.
| James T. Keane | America Magazine | June 16, 2026
Reports on contemporary American Catholic theological discussions, including a major conference organized around the theme "Reclaiming Faith Amid Christian Nationalism."
| Jonathan Heaps | Commonweal | March 19, 2026
Examines Catholic conversion, postliberalism, Christian nationalism, and the danger of treating the Catholic Church primarily as a political-cultural identity.
| Jonathan Heaps | Commonweal | March 19, 2026
Examines Catholic conversion, postliberal political culture, Christian nationalism, and arguments about whether Catholicism should function as a comprehensive political identity.
| James M. Patterson | Law & Liberty | December 2025
Argues that contemporary Catholic postliberalism has significant intellectual continuity with Catholic integralism and examines its relationship to older anti-liberal movements.
| James Kalb | Catholic World Report | November 6, 2025
Considers whether integralism should be classified as political extremism and compares Catholic political principles with dominant secular political orthodoxies.
| Observatoire international du religieux | CNRS | 2025
Analyzes American postliberal Catholicism as a political-religious movement involving nationalism, state power, Augustine, Aquinas, integralism, and the remaking of conservative political theology.
| Eugene McCarraher | Commonweal | October 25, 2024
Explores whether a Christian form of postliberalism could avoid both reactionary religious nationalism and conventional liberal political economy.
| America Editors | America Magazine | June 2024
Includes discussion of Kevin Vallier's All the Kingdoms of the World and the contemporary debate over integralism, liberalism, and Catholic political theology.
| Public Discourse | Public Discourse | March 2024
Reviews Kevin Vallier's treatment of modern Catholic integralism, including the roles of Thomas Pink and Adrian Vermeule and debates about church coercion.
| David E. DeCosse | Theological Studies | February 28, 2024
Reviews Catholic arguments concerning liberal politics, human dignity, the common good, anti-liberalism, integralism, and Catholic engagement with democratic institutions.
| Kevin Vallier | Public Discourse | February 25, 2024
Questions attempts to defend integralism as an ideal that should be accepted theoretically while postponed indefinitely in political practice.
| Terence Sweeney | Commonweal | February 6, 2024
Reviews Kevin Vallier's critique of Catholic integralism and considers both the weaknesses of integralism and unresolved problems within modern liberalism.
| Kathleen A. Brady | SSRN | 2024
Presents Brady's analysis of Catholic integralism, Christian critiques of liberalism, human dignity, religious authority, and political freedom.
| Church Life Journal | University of Notre Dame | 2024
Discusses Catholic and postliberal criticisms of liberalism while considering civic friendship and philosophical alternatives to integralist political arrangements.
| Kevin Vallier | Law & Liberty | November 1, 2023
Responds to critics of Vallier's study of integralism and considers the political and moral costs of granting ecclesiastical authority power over civil government.
| Kevin Vallier | Oxford University Press | August 24, 2023
Introduces modern Catholic integralism and examines its ideas concerning natural law, church-state relations, religious liberty, canon law, political authority, and the common good.
| Gloria Purvis and Jason Blakely | America Magazine | February 15, 2023
Discusses the resurgence of Catholic integralism and critiques the effort to subordinate civil government directly to ecclesiastical authority.
| Will Knowland | Chronicles | January 10, 2023
Presents a Catholic integralist case for understanding Christian nationalism through natural law, Catholic political order, and critiques of liberalism.
| Kathleen A. Brady | Notre Dame Law Review | 2023
Examines contemporary Catholic criticisms of liberalism and argues for interpreting Catholic social doctrine in ways compatible with religious freedom and constitutional government.
| Kathleen A. Brady | Notre Dame Law Review | 2023
Explores whether Catholic teachings on freedom, truth, political authority, and human dignity provide resources for renewing rather than abandoning liberal democracy.
| Bill McCormick, S.J. | America Magazine | October 17, 2022
Uses Russell Hittinger's work to examine Catholic arguments about separation, integration, church authority, political power, and contemporary integralism.
| James Kalb | Catholic World Report | October 9, 2022
Presents a sympathetic but qualified discussion of integralist arguments concerning Catholic truth, political authority, and modern liberalism.
| Kevin Vallier | University of Colorado Boulder | October 6, 2022
Presents a philosophical argument against integralism based on justice, religious coercion, church authority, and the treatment of baptized and non-Catholic citizens.
| Xavier Foccroulle Ménard and Anna Su | BYU Law Review | 2022
Analyzes Catholic integralism, liberalism, and whether meaningful religious freedom could exist under different versions of an integralist political order.
| Xavier Foccroulle Ménard and Anna Su | SSRN / BYU Law Review | 2022
Provides an academic treatment of Catholic integralism's critique of liberalism and the implications of integralist government for religious liberty.
| Church Life Journal | University of Notre Dame | 2021
Examines the historical relationship among Catholic integralism, Action Française, integral nationalism, fascism, and contemporary American debates.
| Alan Fimister, Thomas Crean and others | Commonweal | December 24, 2020
Presents integralist responses to criticism concerning Vatican II, religious liberty, Catholic doctrine, and the legitimacy of confessional political arrangements.
| Timothy Troutner | Commonweal | October 28, 2020
Examines the revival of Catholic integralism and argues that its interpretation of Catholic history and Vatican II raises substantial theological and political problems.
| Jason Blakely | Commonweal | October 5, 2020
Critiques Adrian Vermeule's integralism and examines its relationship to Catholic social teaching, liberalism, authority, and the common good.
| George Weigel | Catholic World Report | May 20, 2020
Critiques contemporary Catholic integralists and questions proposals for formally subordinating political authority to Catholic ecclesial authority.
| Public Discourse | Public Discourse | May 2020
Presents a philosophical defense of integralist approaches to political authority, natural law, church-state relations, religious freedom, and the common good.
| Church Life Journal | University of Notre Dame | 2020
Uses Christian and medieval history to challenge idealized portrayals of Christendom often invoked in contemporary debates over integralism.
| Stephan van Erp and Inigo Bocken | Modern Theology | November 11, 2019
Examines whether distinctively Catholic political theology can retain theological integrity while operating inside contemporary liberal democratic societies.
| Steven P. Millies | U.S. Catholic | October 14, 2019
Introduces Catholic integralism, its historical roots, and its argument that political authority should recognize and promote Catholic religious truth.
| Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist. | Church Life Journal | March 19, 2019
Defends Catholic integralism against theological criticism and explains its understanding of political authority, spiritual goods, religious truth, and the common good.
| Church Life Journal | University of Notre Dame | 2019
Offers an internal Catholic theological critique of integralism and questions whether restoring coercive religious authority provides a genuinely Christian alternative to liberalism.
| Matthew Sitman | Commonweal | December 3, 2018
Responds to Patrick Deneen's critique of liberalism from a Catholic-left perspective and argues that liberal democracy has resources for reform.
| Samuel Moyn | Commonweal | December 3, 2018
Argues that many failures attributed to liberalism by Catholic postliberal thinkers are more accurately associated with particular forms of neoliberal political economy.
| Patrick J. Deneen | Commonweal | December 3, 2018
Deneen responds to critics of his argument that liberal institutions undermine cultural, communal, and moral conditions required for genuine human flourishing.
| The Editors | Commonweal | December 3, 2018
Introduces a symposium on Patrick Deneen and the wider Catholic and philosophical debate over liberalism, democracy, community, and postliberal alternatives.
| Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist. | Church Life Journal | October 31, 2018
Provides an integralist account of contemporary Catholic political theology and contrasts it with Catholic approaches compatible with religiously neutral liberal government.
| Alan Wolfe | Commonweal | February 12, 2018
Reviews Patrick Deneen's Why Liberalism Failed and questions whether the book provides a workable alternative to modern liberal democracy.
| Damon Linker | The Week | January 2018
Examines the renewed appeal of Catholic anti-liberalism and integralism in American conservative intellectual circles.
| Church Life Journal | University of Notre Dame | 2018
Argues that Alasdair MacIntyre's criticism of liberal individualism should not automatically be interpreted as support for a confessional or integralist political order.
Catholic Social Teaching, Nationalism, Democracy and Religious Freedom
| Yunuen Trujillo | U.S. Catholic | February 2026
Reflects on community solidarity and what the author identifies as white Christian nationalism in contemporary American social and political life.
| Francis J. Beckwith | Loyola University Chicago Law Journal | 2026
Reassesses Dignitatis Humanae sixty years after Vatican II and explores its implications for religious liberty, the common good, political authority, and contemporary ideological conflict.
| U.S. Catholic | U.S. Catholic | November 2025
Explores national sovereignty, migration, human dignity, and the Catholic principle that political borders do not erase universal human obligations.
| The Editors and Bryan Massingale | Commonweal | August 5, 2025
Discusses white Christian nationalism through Catholic theology and social ethics, emphasizing human dignity, solidarity, racism, and the common good.
| The Editors | Commonweal | July 24, 2025
Presents Catholic social teaching as a framework for considering government, democracy, the common good, and contemporary forms of Christian nationalism.
| Andrew Latham | Commonweal | 2025
Proposes applying Catholic social teaching to American foreign policy while explicitly distinguishing such an approach from Christian nationalism and confessional government.
| Pope Francis | Vatican | September 17, 2024
Warns against political manipulation of religion in support of nationalism, ethnocentrism, populism, and war.
| U.S. Catholic | U.S. Catholic | March 2021
Examines how Catholic social teaching might shape American public policy without limiting moral obligations to particular religious, racial, or national groups.
| Pope Francis | Vatican | October 3, 2020
Criticizes narrow and aggressive nationalism, xenophobia, exclusion, and political manipulation while defending fraternity, social friendship, and legitimate attachment to peoples and nations.
| Pope Francis | Holy See | February 23, 2020
Warns against nationalism based on isolation, racial purity, and exclusion while emphasizing cultural encounter and dialogue.
| Pope Francis | Holy See | June 9, 2019
Recalls Benedict XV's rejection of nationalism and ethnocentrism when Christianity becomes identified with colonial, military, ethnic, or national interests.
| Pope Francis | Vatican | May 2, 2019
Distinguishes legitimate love of one's country and culture from exclusionary nationalism directed against foreigners and minorities.
| Pope Francis | Vatican | January 7, 2019
Warns that resurgent nationalism can weaken international cooperation and marginalize vulnerable populations.
| Pope Francis | Vatican | September 20, 2018
Addresses xenophobia, racism, populist nationalism, migration, human dignity, and political exploitation of public fear.
| Pope Francis | Holy See | September 20, 2018
Addresses xenophobia, racism, populist nationalism, migration, political fear, and human dignity.
| National Catholic Reporter | National Catholic Reporter | February 2017
Reports on Catholic discussions of nationalism, markets, technology, solidarity, and the international common good.
| Michael Sean Winters | National Catholic Reporter | February 2017
Reports Robert McElroy's distinction between morally ordered patriotism and nationalism detached from justice, solidarity, and international responsibility.
| Catholic News Service | America Magazine | February 19, 2015
Reports European Catholic leaders' warnings about exclusionary nationalism, xenophobia, racism, national identity, and the rights of minorities.
| Pope Benedict XVI | Vatican | June 29, 2009
Develops Catholic teaching on global interdependence, solidarity, human development, subsidiarity, and the ethical responsibilities of political and economic institutions.
| U.S. Catholic | U.S. Catholic | July 25, 2008
Summarizes human dignity, solidarity, subsidiarity, rights, responsibilities, the common good, and other principles useful for evaluating nationalist political movements.
| Pope Benedict XVI | Vatican | December 25, 2005
Clarifies the different but related responsibilities of the Church and political institutions in advancing justice and charity.
| Synod of Bishops | Holy See | 1999
Discusses the need to distinguish nationalism from patriotism while protecting minorities, national cultures, human dignity, and political communities.
| Pope John Paul II | Holy See | January 15, 1994
Warns against nationalist claims that elevate race, people, state, or political power into absolute values.
| Pope John Paul II | Vatican | May 1, 1991
Defends democratic participation and the rule of law while warning against totalitarian states and political systems that absorb civil society.
| Pope Paul VI | Holy See | October 18, 1975
Distinguishes legitimate national identity from nationalism that develops into collective egoism, exclusion, rivalry, and conflict.
| Pope Paul VI | Holy See | November 16, 1970
Warns against exaggerated nationalism and connects Catholic international ethics with economic inequality, peace, and global interdependence.
| Pope Paul VI | Holy See | September 28, 1968
Discusses national development and cooperation while recalling Catholic warnings against nationalism and racism.
| Pope Paul VI | Vatican | March 26, 1967
Emphasizes international solidarity and human development beyond narrow national self-interest.
| Pope Paul VI | Holy See | September 15, 1966
Includes nationalism among forces the pope associated with international conflict and threats to peace.
| Second Vatican Council | Vatican | December 7, 1965
Establishes the Catholic Church's modern teaching that individuals and religious communities possess a civil right to religious freedom and immunity from coercion.
| Second Vatican Council | Vatican | December 7, 1965
Discusses political authority, the common good, human rights, plural political judgments, and the proper distinction between the Church and political community.
| Second Vatican Council | Vatican | October 28, 1965
Affirms the common dignity of peoples and encourages dialogue and cooperation between Catholics and followers of non-Christian religions.
| Pope John XXIII | Vatican | April 11, 1963
Grounds political order in universal human rights and duties, freedom of conscience, limits on governmental authority, and international cooperation.
| Pope John XXIII | Vatican | May 15, 1961
Develops Catholic social teaching concerning social justice, public authority, solidarity, workers, economic institutions, and international obligations.
| Pope Pius XII | Holy See | April 21, 1957
Warns emerging nations against blind nationalism while affirming political freedom and legitimate national aspirations.
| Pope Pius XI | Holy See | December 31, 1929
Condemns what the encyclical describes as false and exaggerated nationalism while distinguishing it from legitimate civic education and defense of country.
Patriotism, Nationhood, and Catholic Universalism
| Archbishop Paul S. Coakley | Catholic World Report | August 14, 2026
Distinguishes Catholic patriotism, understood as gratitude and ordered love of country, from nationalism that elevates the nation above higher moral duties.
| Tyler Arnold | Catholic World Report / EWTN News | August 5, 2026
Reports Archbishop Paul Coakley's distinction between Catholic patriotism and forms of nationalism that make unconditional claims on political loyalty.
| Catholic World Report | Catholic World Report | July 4, 2026
Uses the Pledge of Allegiance to consider how Catholics should understand political loyalty when religious obligations transcend citizenship and the nation-state.
| Daniel B. Gallagher | National Catholic Register | July 3, 2025
Discusses Catholic arguments for patriotism while considering the limits placed on national allegiance by Christian commitment and universal moral obligations.
| John T. McGreevy | Commonweal | July 24, 2022
Traces Catholicism's historically difficult relationship with democracy and the twentieth-century Catholic intellectual developments that helped reconcile the Church with democratic government.
| Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences contributors | Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences | 2020
Includes scholarly discussion distinguishing patriotism from nationalism from the perspective of Catholic social teaching and Central European experience.
| James Kalb | Catholic World Report | September 1, 2019
Presents a conservative Catholic argument about nationalism, patriotism, national culture, immigration, political community, and American identity.
| Luke Bretherton | Scottish Journal of Theology | July 26, 2016
Explores how modern Catholic social teaching developed between revolutionary anti-clericalism and reactionary attempts to instrumentalize the Church.
| Steven Grosby | Oxford Handbook Topics in Religion | July 7, 2016
Examines Catholic teaching on nationality, patriotism, nationalism, universalism, subsidiarity, and the distinction between legitimate attachment to one's nation and nationalist ideology.
| Piotr Burgoński | Studia Gdańskie | 2014
Examines Catholic social teaching on nations, culture, national rights, patriotism, and the rejection of nationalism understood as contempt for other nations.
| Piotr Burgoński | Studia Gdańskie | 2014
Examines Catholic social teaching on the nation, culture, patriotism, national rights, and nationalism.
| Benjamin D. Wiker | National Catholic Register | July 3, 2013
Discusses Catholic participation in and intellectual influences on the American founding, providing background for debates over Catholicism and American national identity.
| Piotr Przesmycki | Annales: Ethics in Economic Life | May 15, 2008
Surveys Catholic social teaching on patriotism while distinguishing legitimate love of country from racial prejudice and hypernationalism.
| Pope John Paul II | Holy See | October 5, 1995
Distinguishes patriotism from extreme nationalism and warns specifically about cases in which religion becomes the basis for exclusionary nationalist ideology.
| Pope John Paul II | Holy See | October 1978
Tells Polish Catholics that love of country can unite people across differences while distinguishing it from narrow nationalism and chauvinism.
Catholic Political Participation and Catholic-Evangelical Alliances
| USCCB Committee for Religious Liberty | USCCB | 2026
Explains Catholic religious-liberty teaching using Dignitatis Humanae and emphasizes freedom from coercion in matters of faith.
| Catholic World Report | Catholic World Report | September 2, 2025
Examines conservative Catholicism's effort to influence the wider social order while warning that political alliances can displace distinctively Catholic priorities.
| Peter J. Leithart | First Things | April 12, 2024
Offers a theological defense of the possibility that nations may have explicitly Christian cultural identities while examining what the word "nation" means in Christian nationalism.
| Peter J. Leithart | First Things | 2020
Gives a qualified theological response to Christian nationalism, affirming public Christian claims while questioning some nationalist assumptions and practices.
| Drew Christiansen, S.J. | America Magazine | July 21, 2017
Responds critically to claims about an evangelical-Catholic political "ecumenism," arguing that Catholic-evangelical relations are broader and more complicated.
| Catholic News Service | America Magazine | July 13, 2017
Reports on Antonio Spadaro and Marcelo Figueroa's influential critique of the political alliance between some American evangelical fundamentalists and Catholic integralists.
| United States Conference of Catholic Bishops | USCCB | November 2007
Presents the bishops' framework for Catholic citizenship, emphasizing conscience formation rather than identification of Catholicism with a political party or ideology.
| United States Conference of Catholic Bishops | USCCB | September 2003
Explains Catholic political responsibility as broader than partisan identity and rooted in human dignity, solidarity, life, peace, justice, and the common good.
| Religion News Service | Religion News Service | ongoing
Collects reporting and commentary concerning Catholic integralism, Christian nationalism, postliberalism, J.D. Vance, and related political-religious movements.
| United States Conference of Catholic Bishops | USCCB | various dates
Collects decades of official U.S. Catholic bishops' statements concerning faithful citizenship, political participation, public policy, conscience, and the common good.
Christian Democracy and Democratic Political Catholicism
| Vincent Stine | Journal of Church and State | October 1, 2025
Reviews scholarship on Italian Christian Democracy and the transformation of Catholic political thought from anti-liberal traditions toward democratic constitutionalism.
| Rosario Forlenza and Bjørn Thomassen | Oxford University Press | May 9, 2024
Provides a comprehensive history of Italian Christian Democracy and the wider encounter between Catholic political thought and modern democratic government.
| Rosario Forlenza and Bjørn Thomassen | Politics and Religion | 2024
Explains how Italian Catholic political leaders moved from reactionary critiques of democracy toward an explicitly Christian-democratic political order after fascism.
| Matthew A. Shadle | Oxford University Press | June 21, 2018
Examines social Catholicism and Christian democracy as Catholic movements that increasingly accepted secularization, lay leadership, democratic government, and modern social institutions.
| Paolo Pombeni | Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies | 2013
Traces how Christian democracy developed from Catholic suspicion of modern constitutional government into a major Catholic strategy for participating in pluralist democracy.
| Stathis N. Kalyvas and Kees van Kersbergen | Annual Review of Political Science | June 15, 2010
Reviews the historical origins and development of Christian democracy, its Catholic foundations, European integration, welfare institutions, and relationship to secularization.
| Wolfram Kaiser | Cambridge University Press | 2007
Explores how postwar Christian democracy emerged after the discrediting of authoritarian and nationalist forms of interwar political Catholicism.
| Martin Conway | Cambridge University Press | 2003
Explains Christian democracy as the major twentieth-century Catholic political tradition that reconciled Catholic social principles with pluralist electoral democracy.
Historical Catholic Church-State Teaching
| Pope Pius XI | Vatican | May 15, 1931
Addresses capitalism, socialism, subsidiarity, social order, and Catholic alternatives to highly individualistic or collectivist political systems.
| Pope Pius XI | Vatican | December 11, 1925
Establishes the Feast of Christ the King and develops a theology of Christ's kingship that remains important in contemporary debates over political Catholicism.
| Pope Leo XIII | Vatican | January 6, 1895
Discusses Catholicism in the United States and the Church's evaluation of American political and religious arrangements.
| Pope Leo XIII | Vatican | November 1, 1885
A major pre-Vatican II statement on the relationship between Catholic religious authority and the state, frequently cited by contemporary integralists.
Historical Catholic Nationalism and Comparative Cases
| Marika Jeziorek | Democratic Theory | March 27, 2026
Examines how Catholic symbolism, nationalism, border politics, anti-migrant activism, and claims about democratic legitimacy interacted in Poland.
| Comparative Studies in Society and History | Cambridge University Press | 2025
Traces transnational Catholic activism and shows how Polish Catholic nationalism developed through international networks rather than exclusively national ones.
| Lawrence C. Reardon | Cambridge University Press | November 8, 2023
Surveys the Catholic Church's long historical relationship with nationhood, political nationalism, transnational authority, state formation, and religious identity.
| Peter James Bernardi | Pensando: Revista de Filosofia | 2023
Examines Maurice Blondel's Catholic critique of Action Française, integral nationalism, and alliances between religious integralists and authoritarian nationalist politics.
| Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice | Working Notes | 2022
Reviews a century of church-state relations in Ireland, including the development and eventual decline of an explicitly Catholic nationalist political culture.
| The Americas | Cambridge University Press | 2022
Surveys twentieth-century Catholic political mobilization in Mexico, including Catholic nationalism, the Cristero legacy, religious violence, anti-communism, radicalism, and conflicts between lay militants and the Catholic hierarchy.
Introduces research on Catholicism and nationalism in nineteenth-century Spain and Latin America, including the sacralization of nations and politicization of religion.
| Sebastián Pattin | Itinerantes: Revista de Historia y Religión | 2021
Examines Argentine Catholic nationalism between 1955 and 1967 and how nationalist Catholic writers interpreted the Second Vatican Council.
| David Brydan | Oxford University Press | September 5, 2019
Studies Catholic organizations, Catholic internationalism, and the effort by Franco's Spain to present itself as a Christian political and social order.
| Phi-Vân Nguyen | Journal of Asian Studies | June 14, 2018
Examines the Catholic-influenced government of Ngô Đình Diệm and its attempt to build an anti-communist Vietnamese national identity around spirituality without formally establishing Catholicism as the state religion.
| Natalia Ojewska | Euronews | February 8, 2018
Reports on relationships between Catholic religious identity and far-right nationalist organizations in contemporary Poland.
| Fernando Molina Aparicio | Historia y Política | November 10, 2017
Analyzes Francoist Spain's effort to construct a culturally homogeneous national community using Catholic religion, political violence, and mass nationalization.
| Rosario Forlenza | Contemporary European History | 2017
Examines Catholic ideas of a Christian Europe and how Christian Democrats sought to transcend aggressive nationalism without abandoning national political communities.
| Nina Valbousquet | Incontri | 2017
Studies Italian integralist Catholicism, fascism, nationalism, antisemitism, and Catholic anti-modernism through the periodical Fede e Ragione.
| Borja Vilallonga | Modern Intellectual History | June 26, 2014
Traces how nineteenth-century Catholic intellectuals in France, Italy, Spain, and other Latin European societies developed distinct conservative theories of nationhood and nationalism.
| Christian Wicke | European History Quarterly | 2010
Examines how Helmut Kohl's Catholic faith shaped a form of German nationalism linked to Christian democracy, European integration, and Catholic social thought.
| Peter J. Bernardi | Catholic University of America Press | 2009
Reconstructs Catholic debates over whether the Church should align with Action Française or support democratic social Catholicism.
| Feliciano Montero | Historia y Política | 2007
Examines Spanish Catholic political thought from integralism through Francoism and into Catholic participation in democratic transition.
| Marie-Christine Veldeman | Équivalences | 2004
Traces the emergence of liberal Catholic nationalism in nineteenth-century Ireland and the interaction between Catholic emancipation and Irish national identity.
| Ruth Fleischmann | Palgrave Macmillan | 1997
Studies Catholic nationalism during the Irish Revival through the writings and political-cultural ideas of Canon Patrick Augustine Sheehan.
| Tom Buchanan and Martin Conway, eds. | Oxford University Press | 1996
Surveys political Catholicism across Europe between the world wars and Vatican II, including Catholic nationalism, corporatism, authoritarianism, Christian democracy, and Catholic Action.
| David Seljak | Canadian Catholic Historical Association | 1996
Examines how Quebec Catholicism responded when nationalism became increasingly secular during and after the Quiet Revolution.
| Oscar L. Arnal | University of Pittsburgh Press / JSTOR | 1985
Studies the Catholic Church's complicated relationship with Action Française, an influential French monarchist and nationalist movement.
Poland and National Catholicism
| Krystof Dolezal | Modern Intellectual History | September 22, 2026
Examines how underground Catholics in Czechoslovakia developed Christian-democratic approaches to human rights and anti-totalitarianism amid competing nationalist, socialist, conservative, and liberal ideas.
| Sabrina P. Ramet | Religions | 2021
Studies Polish Catholic bishops, nationalism, liberal democracy, the Law and Justice government, refugee policy, and divisions inside the Polish hierarchy.
| Piotr Żuk and Paweł Żuk | Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe | November 16, 2019
Analyzes alliances among nationalist political movements, conservative Catholic institutions, and the Polish state.
Ireland and Catholic National Identity
| History of Education | Taylor & Francis | 2025
Examines how Catholicism and nationalism jointly shaped education, sexuality, and state-building in independent Ireland between 1922 and 1968.
| David Whyte | University College Cork | 2021
Argues that features of Ireland's community response to COVID-19 reflected historical institutions formed within a Catholic-nationalist political economy.
| Louise Fuller | Manchester University Press | 2015
Examines the close identification of Irishness with Catholicism after independence and the gradual weakening of this fusion after the 1960s.
| Jocelyn Evans and Jonathan Tonge | Nations and Nationalism | 2013
Uses survey evidence to examine how Catholic identity, Irish national identity, and political nationalism relate to party allegiance in Northern Ireland.
| Christopher Highley | Oxford University Press | 2008
Studies how Catholics in early modern Britain and Ireland constructed alternative narratives of national identity, patriotism, religion, and Englishness.
| Brendan Clifford | Irish History Online | 1992
Provides bibliographic information for a historical study of the origins of Irish Catholic nationalism through Walter Cox's Irish Magazine.
