America's Christian Nationalism, Theological Anomalies, and Constructive Responses

Abstract

From both the political right and left, the Charlottesville March re-awakened American interest in theocracy. American Christians became interested in something called Christian Nationalism. America's theocratic ideas had surfaced during American colonialism and later as the Protestant church operationalized a theocratic formational process called Christian nurture. That theological idea became an unhelpful, theocratic, theological anomaly. In similar fashion, the evangelical movement's support of an autocratic, presidential candidate had its roots within another unhelpful, theocratic theological construction. While unpacking such theocratic anomalies, the originalist legal theory of The Supreme Court is compared with Christian theological originalism. Constructive responses to the mainline church and the evangelical movement's theocratic anomalies are offered by theologians Dorothee Soelle and Jürgen Moltmann.