Abstract
Scholars and commentators have given renewed attention to Christian nationalist movements in Europe and the United States. Included in that coverage have been stories of increased collaboration between Christian nationalist groups in the US and Europe. This paper examines more recent overtures between US and European Christian nationalist groups. It argues, however, that despite American and European groups sharing several concerns related to social issues – LBGTQ rights, abortion, contraception, economic conservatism – the movements’ ideological foundations differ as much as they overlap. To be sure, movements on both sides of the Atlantic share elements of grievance, loss of privilege, and economic displacement. But the European impulse has a stronger anti-immigrant component, one that is tied to historical conceptions of a nation-state that long identified with a particular form of Christianity. The Christian nation impulse in the United States is tied more to an ahistorical conceptual myth about the nation’s founding and its special designation (and ongoing patronage) by God. While the European impulse is more ethnically and historically driven, the US version is more covenantal and theocratic in orientation. This paper examines the underlying similarities and differences between the two movements.
Presenters
Steven GreenProfessor of Law, Affiliated Professor of History and Religious Studies, Law, Willamette University, Oregon, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Christian Nationalism, Collaboration, Ethnicity, Grievance
