Thanks for this. It is right to insist that the religious commitments of public officials deserve scrutiny, especially when they appear to sanctify violence or frame geopolitical conflict in civilizational terms. But the deeper problem may not lie solely in the rise of “Christian nationalism” as a contemporary ideology. The temptation he identifies is far older. Long before our current political vocabulary, empire learned how to clothe itself in sacred language—casting wars as providential, enemies as civilizational threats, and power itself as participation in a divine order. For nearly a millennium after Constantine, political authority in the West was articulated through theological categories; sovereignty, law, and hierarchy were imagined as reflections of sacred reality. The Reformation disrupted many things, but it largely rearranged the furniture within the same house—painting some walls, moving others, yet leaving the deeper architecture of sacralized authority largely intact. Even after the Enlightenment translated those concepts into secular language, much of that structure remained. What we are witnessing today may therefore be less the sudden rise of Christian nationalism than the resurfacing of a long inheritance: the enduring habit of fusing religious imagination with imperial power and vice versa.
Isn’t it time we stopped calling these people Christian? Honestly, it only gives them legitimacy. Couldn’t we say they are members of a cult called NAR or spell it out. No one knows about this group therefore they don’t understand or believe what is happening.
Structurally, the hearing was unusual in that Senators only had one round of questions with each senator getting just seven minutes. Typically, there is at least one more round with four or five minutes allocated to each senator who wants it. But this one seven minute round was all that could be negotiated with Rs in charge of the committee, and I’d venture to keep this unqualified and dangerous nominee’s time before the committee to a minimum. I’ve heard several Democratic senators indicate that they did not get to all their questions, but I don’t know if CN would have been among them.
Thanks for writing this. Terrible dereliction of duty by US Senators.
Thanks for this. It is right to insist that the religious commitments of public officials deserve scrutiny, especially when they appear to sanctify violence or frame geopolitical conflict in civilizational terms. But the deeper problem may not lie solely in the rise of “Christian nationalism” as a contemporary ideology. The temptation he identifies is far older. Long before our current political vocabulary, empire learned how to clothe itself in sacred language—casting wars as providential, enemies as civilizational threats, and power itself as participation in a divine order. For nearly a millennium after Constantine, political authority in the West was articulated through theological categories; sovereignty, law, and hierarchy were imagined as reflections of sacred reality. The Reformation disrupted many things, but it largely rearranged the furniture within the same house—painting some walls, moving others, yet leaving the deeper architecture of sacralized authority largely intact. Even after the Enlightenment translated those concepts into secular language, much of that structure remained. What we are witnessing today may therefore be less the sudden rise of Christian nationalism than the resurfacing of a long inheritance: the enduring habit of fusing religious imagination with imperial power and vice versa.
Thank you!
Isn’t it time we stopped calling these people Christian? Honestly, it only gives them legitimacy. Couldn’t we say they are members of a cult called NAR or spell it out. No one knows about this group therefore they don’t understand or believe what is happening.
Structurally, the hearing was unusual in that Senators only had one round of questions with each senator getting just seven minutes. Typically, there is at least one more round with four or five minutes allocated to each senator who wants it. But this one seven minute round was all that could be negotiated with Rs in charge of the committee, and I’d venture to keep this unqualified and dangerous nominee’s time before the committee to a minimum. I’ve heard several Democratic senators indicate that they did not get to all their questions, but I don’t know if CN would have been among them.