Christian Nationalism with ICJS scholar Matthew Taylor, Session 1

Is the United States a "Christian nation," a "Judeo-Christian nation," or a "secular nation?" This has been a much-debated question throughout American history since the founding of the nation. Today, as religious diversity in the U.S. has skyrocketed in the past 50 years, as increasing numbers of Americans are disaffiliating from religion in general, and as white Christians have slipped out of their dominant majority status, many American Christians have become reactionary, even engaging in violence and insurrection in the Capitol Riot in January, to "take back" and "restore" America's Christian identity.

What are the theological and historical ideas that underpin the American Christian nationalist narrative? How do these Christian nationalists view Jews and Muslims? This course examines both the deep roots and the present-day realities of this Christian nationalist identity in the U.S. and consider the threat that it poses to American religious pluralism.