Christian statism may surpass traditionalist religious nationalism

Evidence

Generations of social scientists unreflexively assumed that a society-centric American patriotism would be more civic, moderate, and popular than other forms of nationalisms (Bonikowski and DiMaggio 2016). We find that society-centric religious nationalism, or RT, is more civic and moderate than CS, but we can now begin to question whether it will remain popular with religious conservatives. CS might represent the future of conservative religious politics. Tracing this ongoing development should be of primary importance because it indicates a historic shift in how religious Americans understand the role of religion in governance and identifies a fundamental and ongoing challenge to the separation of church and state. — Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese, The Duality of American Christian…, 226

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Suggests a trajectory where the more civic, moderate nationalism is not the one that wins out — a genuinely non-obvious inversion of the assumption that civic forms naturally dominate.
• QUESTION: Empirically testable claim: does CS overtake RT in tracking conservative religious politics over time?
• XREF: connects to: Anti-democratic conspiratorial tendencies newly define Christian statism, not religious traditionalism. — Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese, The Duality of American Christian…, 57; Christian statism dominates religious traditionalism as an empirical factor across samples. — Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese, The Duality of American Christian…, 111; Christian statism and religious traditionalism predict ethno-nationalism and patriotism differently — Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese, The Duality of American Christian…, 150 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Christian Statism pursues exclusive state power over cultural dominance #qualifies (0.82) — Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese, The Duality of American Christian…, 44
• Scholars conflate Christian nationalism with its statist variant. #expands (0.78) — Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese, The Duality of American Christian…, 218
• Christian nationalism seeks power, not pluralistic cultural influence #qualifies (0.76) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 26