Recently, a reader observed that I’ve never mentioned “Christian nationalism.” So, I guess it’s time to do so! But to begin, I would say my silence thus far is mostly due to not being sure if it is actually a “thing” or not. For example, a recent survey showed that conservatives are most likely to say they’ve never heard of the term, while most liberals are very familiar with it. So it seems to be a label that one group has assigned to another. But regardless of the label’s value, let’s see what’s behind it.

In its American context, Christian nationalism usually refers to the belief that the US was founded as a Christian country and therefore it should be governed by Christian values and laws. For the first three-quarters of the country’s history, the vast majority of Americans would have found such a viewpoint unremarkable.

Over the past fifty or sixty years, however, that consensus has crumbled. Not only has the country become more religiously diverse, but the value of religion generally, and Christianity in particular, has been challenged significantly. Much of this is due to dramatic changes in attitude toward a host of issues revolving around gender and sexuality, including marriage, divorce, gender roles, extra-marital sex, birth control, abortion, and homosexuality. For all of these, traditional religion-based views have been challenged and abandoned by large segments of the population. In addition, a series of court orders and laws put new restrictions on the role religion could play in government related institutions, such as public schools.

A conservative reaction to all this gained momentum in the 1970s. Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority was an early evangelical example of this but there was also strong Roman Catholic push back as well, such as from the international order Opus Dei. These and other groups began a long campaign to protect religious rights, elect conservative candidates at all levels of government, and establish a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, primarily to repeal Roe v. Wade.

This movement, now going back over a half-century, has always had elements of what is now being called Christian nationalism. This is why I’m reluctant to say it’s really a “new thing.” There is a somewhat newer, more extreme element, advocating a full legal Christianization of the country through an authoritarian takeover, if necessary. And, yes, they have made some inroads into the structures of government, including the military. But I think any serious effort in that direction would generate an enormous counter response, both within government and the general public.

I think it’s important, however, to pull back and take a wider view. That’s because a more general “religious nationalism” can be found around the world and throughout history. In fact, religion and politics have been joined much more often than they have been separated. In the ancient imperial capitals of the world, the temple and the palace were typically side-by-side. The emperor and high priest existed in a symbiotic relationship, each supporting and sometimes limiting the power of the other.

More significantly, religion was an all-pervasive element of everyday life and culture. So much so, that ancient languages (like ancient Hebrew) often didn’t even have a word for “religion” since it could not be separated from either personal or social life. Indigenous cultures, like that of native Americans, have had a similar understanding. For most of history, the spiritual realm, however that was understood, pervaded all aspects of life and of the world.

Thus, as modern people, we are often unaware how unprecedented, and even unnatural, the break was between religion and society that began during the Enlightenment. The US Constitution’s First Amendment (1791) and its resulting “separation of church and state” would have been incomprehensible to ancient and medieval people.

The full consequences of that separation did not become evident until the 1960s. For many it was a great liberation. For others it was the beginning of social confusion and chaos. The US wasn’t alone in this, of course. Across the Western democracies, especially, religious authority and influence have been waning. Nonetheless, the reaction against this trend has been strongest in the US.

The biggest problem with Christian nationalism is that it’s an attempt to turn back the clock, which never works. Europe’s Middle Ages is not going to be revived. Plus, the movement only has appeal so long as its goals remain vague. As soon as it began to implement a specific agenda, the uproar would be overwhelming. There would be no agreement over what version of Christianity should be enforced or what aspects of modern culture should be abolished.

Yet the frustration and anxiety over Christianity’s near disappearance from our culture (resulting in what the late Richard John Neuhaus dubbed the “naked public square”) is still real, and even understandable. A spiritual void has definitely opened up in our culture as a result. But attempting to revive traditional Christianity, or any other religion for that matter, is not the answer. All the great religions have their roots in the ancient world and, like an old tree, are spent forces, near the end of their effective lives.

So, what’s the alternative? That’s the $64,000 question. Unfortunately, Christianity, in its formal expressions, has failed to take the situation seriously or work on serious responses. Most are absorbed in institutional preservation, even though decades of such efforts have come to nothing, with literally thousands of American churches closing every year. In the 20^th century, some genuinely great theologians (e.g. Paul Tillich, Karl Rahner) worked on adapting the Christian tradition to modern times, but they were mostly ignored or even silenced. Regrettably, but understandably, no one of their stature is following in their footsteps.

The stirrings of a spiritual (not religious) revival are easy to see, however. Without any central direction or organization, it is an amorphous movement. In this situation, however, that is probably a strength rather than a weakness. It is responding to people’s needs, rather than following institutional direction. At the same time, it is drawing on traditions across history and cultures, rather than being limited by one religion’s boundaries.

And even the boundaries of traditional spirituality are being stretched. Important interactions are occurring between spirituality and the sciences. Increasing emphasis on the fundamental nature of consciousness in fields like quantum mechanics, for example, is giving spirituality a new connection to reality as science knows it, and to a new way to understand and appreciate even ancient spiritual and religious texts and teachings.

These developments, especially, are pointing to what we need in a post-religion world. Movements like Christian nationalism are trying to hang on to an outside divine authority to direct and organize our lives but the time for that is long past. What we actually need today is a spirituality that fully integrates with our modern lives. This includes our scientific understanding of who we are and our social understanding of ourselves as part of a community of equality and mutual dependence. And that community transcends our human species to include the full realm of nature.

Such a spirituality can’t be simply dropped on our culture like some kind of overlay. Rather, as it should, a truly comprehensive spirituality will expose and challenge many harmful and self-destructive aspects of modern culture. It will challenge us, in other words, to live our lives differently, individually and as a society. But that challenge will come in the form of an awakening to the true joys inherent in living and in the world, which modern culture has often blinded us to. Where Christian nationalism is a cynical response to our current social chaos, spiritual renewal is a genuine and constructive response to human need and to our forgotten human and planetary potential.

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