Wealth inequality feeds religious nationalism by making anxious publics seek authority and order

Evidence

Of course, those policies, which favor low regulation and minimal workers’ rights, may exacerbate existing wealth inequalities in the Central Valley. But this is a feature of the system, not a bug. That’s the way inequality works. On the one hand, it creates concentrations of wealth whose beneficiaries are determined to manipulate the political process to hold on to and enhance their privileges. On the other hand, it generates a sense of instability and anxiety among broad sectors of the wider public, which is then ripe for conversion to a religion that promises authority and order. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 201

Categorization

• XREF: This echoes the author’s forward-looking thesis that economic elites weaponize religious nationalism, and connects to how inequality generates authoritarian demand discussed in works like Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology. — connects to: Economic inequality raises religiosity for rich and poor alike; Religious nationalism intensifies during social crises regardless of demographic religious decline — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 197; Christian nationalism robustly predicts authoritarian political attitudes — Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese, The Duality of American Christian…, 45 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Religious nationalism intensifies during social crises regardless of demographic religious decline #corroborates (0.80) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 197
• Christian nationalism robustly predicts authoritarian political attitudes #expands (0.80) — Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese, The Duality of American Christian…, 45
• Globalization’s uncertainty drives individuals toward religious identity as security #corroborates (0.80) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 891
• Economic inequality raises religiosity for rich and poor alike #corroborates (0.78)
• Christian nationalism fuses ethnic, racial, and political hierarchy with religious identity #expands (0.78) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 66
• Christian nationalism bundles political ideology with cultural religious claims #expands (0.78)
• Forced marketization reanimates ethnic and religious nationalism in post-Soviet societies. #corroborates (0.78) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 316
• Nationalism can overtake faith as a worldview while inheriting its exclusivity #expands (0.75) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 170
• Religion and nationalism mutually constitute identity and resist clean separation #expands (0.75) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 292
• Strong welfare states with stable institutions erode religious belief #contradicts (0.72) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 567