Abstract
What are we to make of the New Christian Right’s loss of political influence and the rise of the Tea Party and libertarianism more broadly? Rather than imagine a coalition of resentment as does William E. Connolly, this paper argues that several key religious ideas of protestant fundamentalism have become secularized and now function as a political theology that privileges the personal and marginalizes the public arena. American fundamentalism shares several characteristics with protestant fundamentalism—even as it represents what might be called a migration of the holy.
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Notes
Standard works include Ernest Robert Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism, 1800–1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, originally published in 1980), and Joel A. Carpenter, Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).
Peter L. Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967).
Michael Kazin, “The End of the Christian Right,” New Republic, January 17, 2012, section goes here, accessed July 11, 2014, http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/99679/whose-afraid-the-christian-right-the-precipitous-political-decline-conservati.
Christopher S. Parker and Matt A. Barreto, Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013).
For a popular example see Kevin Phillips, American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century (New York: Viking, 2006). For an example of scholarship that tends to equate fundamentalism with violence, see Charles B. Strozier et al., The Fundamentalist Mindset: Psychological Perspectives on Religion, Violence, and History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).
Jason C. Bivins, The Fracture of Good Order: Christian Antiliberalism and the Challenge to American Politics (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003) 82.
George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
Schmitt argues that ideas closely related to sovereignty, such as miracle, are also secularized around the political sovereign. See Carl Schmitt, Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1985).
Connolly is concerned with what he considers the repressive politics of the Right and the harm it inflicts on American democracy and the larger world. Perpetual war, rising inequality, and the denial of climate change are among the scourges he laments. In addition to his analysis of the Bush coalition he offers an alternative vision capable of sustaining a progressive political coalition.
William E. Connolly, Capitalism and Christianity, American Style (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008), 40.
For a prominent example of President Bill Clinton’s adoption, see his signing of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). For an example of Obama’s rhetoric of personal responsibility, see “Obama Stresses Personal Responsibility to Morehouse Graduates,” inNBC News, NBC, May 19, 2013, accessed July 12, 2014, http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/19/18357835-obama-stresses-personal-responsibility-to-morehouse-graduates?lite.
Christianity and Capitalism, American Style, 40.
Ibid.
Ibid, 48.
Ibid, 49.
Ibid, 44.
Ibid.
Ibid, 45.
Ibid, 51.
Ibid.
For a discussion of such view see Christopher S. Parker and Matt A. Barreto, Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013).
Michael O. Emerson and David Hartman, “The Rise of Religious Fundamentalism,” Annual Review of Sociology 32 (2006): 130–135.
Andrew R. Murphy, Prodigal Nation: Moral Decline and Divine Punishment from New England to 9/11 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services v. Hobby Lobby Stores, No. 13–354 (June 30, 2014).
Elisabeth R. Anker, Orgies of Feeling: Melodrama and the Politics of Freedom (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014).
President Ronald Reagan’s statement in his First Inaugural Address that: “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem” is justly famous, but it should be understood as a secularized version of the New Christian Right’s view that the federal government is hostile to faith. See Pat Robertson’s, The Turning Tide: The Fall of Liberalism and the Rise of Common Sense (Dallas, TX: Word, 1993).
Alasdair MacIntyre notes that mathematics is the modern metaphor for reliable or authoritative knowledge, thus the attempt by modern theorists to reconstruct ethics as a kind of algebraic formula. Alasdair C. MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984). For an example of the metaphors continuing power, see Jordan Ellenberg’s, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking (Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated, 2014).
Ironically, if Robert Putnam and David Campbell are correct, then the lack of personal contact with members of other classes allows for a double standard. See Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, Amazing Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2010), 515–550.
American Grace, 574. “This conclusion is based on an index of three questions that all measure one’s attitude toward mixing religion and politics: whether our laws and policies would be better if we had more ‘deeply religious’ elected officials; whether it is appropriate for religious leaders to engage in personal persuasion; and whether religion should be brought into public debates over political issues.”
Robert N. Bellah, The Broken Covenant: American Civil Religion in Time of Trial, Second ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 112–138.
Bill Clinton, “State of the Union,” Washington Post, section goes here, accessed March 17, 2015, http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/politics/clinton-says-era-of-big-government-is-over-in-1996-state-of-the-union/2014/01/22/da7c0cb4-83b6-11e3-8099-9181471f7aaf_video.html.
References
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Bellah, R. N. (1992). The Broken Covenant: American Civil Religion in Time of Trial. Second ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Berger, P. L. (1967). The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. Garden City: Doubleday.
Bivins, J. (2003). The Fracture of Good Order: Christian Antiliberalism and the Challenge to American Politics. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services v. Hobby Lobby Stores, No. 13–354 (June 30, 2014).
Carpenter, J. A. (1997). Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Clinton, Bill. “State of the Union.” Washington Post. Accessed 17 Mar 2015. http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/politics/clinton-says-era-of-big-government-is-over-in-1996-state-of-the-union/2014/01/22/da7c0cb4-83b6-11e3-8099-9181471f7aaf_video.html.
Connolly, W. E. (2008). Capitalism and Christianity, American Style. Durham: Duke University Press.
Ellenberg, J. (2014). How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking. Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated.
Emerson, M. O., & Hartman, D. (2006). The rise of religious fundamentalism. Annual Review of Sociology, 32, 127–44.
Kazin, M. (2012). “The End of the Christian Right.” New Republic. January 17. Accessed 11 Jul 2014. http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/99679/whose-afraid-the-christian-right-the-precipitous-political-decline-conservati.
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Sandeen, E. R. (1970). The roots of fundamentalism: British and American millenarianism, 1800–1930. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Schmitt, C. (1985). Political theology: Four chapters on the concept of sovereignty. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Strozier, C. B., Terman, D. M., Jones, J. W., & Boyd, K. (2010). The fundamentalist mindset: Psychological perspectives on religion, violence, and history. New York: Oxford University Press.
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True, D. The Triumph of the Personal: American Fundamentalism Comes of Age. Philosophia 44, 655–666 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-015-9614-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-015-9614-6