Review of Richard T. Hughes and Christina Littlefield, “Christian America and the Kingdom of God: White Christian Nationalism from the Puritans through January 6, 2021.” Updated and Expanded Edition Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2025.
Reviewed by John R. Vile
There has been a flurry of recent books, some of which have been reviewed on this First Amendment Encyclopedia site, that deal with Christian nationalism in the United States. This book is an updated and expanded edition of the volume that Richard Hughes, now a professor emeritus of Pepperdine University and Messiah College, first published in 2010, and which is now coauthored with Christina Littlefield, an associate professor of communication and religion at Pepperdine.
It is fitting that the book, which so deftly combines historical analysis with biblical texts, is published by a university press rather than by one specifically associated with an evangelical, or other distinctly religious, perspective. The book is appropriate both for general readers and researchers and for adoption in courses in American history and religious studies. The volume is fairly hefty both in length and in substance and, as the subtitle suggests, covers the period from the Puritans through 2021.
The book, like Gaul, is divided into three main parts. The three opening chapters deal with coming to terms with Christian nationalism, Chapters 4 through 6 cover biblical considerations, and Chapters 7 through 17 cover the history of white Christian nationalism from the Puritans through January 6, 2021.
Starting with the Puritans
In the first section, the authors examine how Americans have often equated America with the biblical concept of the kingdom of God. From Puritan times forward, Americans have regarded themselves as a “chosen” or “exceptional” people. This notion, in turn, morphed into the idea that Christian America was either equivalent to, or a forerunner of, the kingdom of God.
In terms of founding legal documents, the authors explain, drawing from historian Mark Noll, that America’s founders were “religion friendly” but “coercion averse” (p. 11). Culturally and ceremonially, the nation has been “Christian,” but to the extent that Protestantism would dominate, it was thought that it would do so through persuasion rather than through force. Civil religion could at times, as in the civil rights movement, “hold the nation to its highest ideals,” but, as Robert Bellah has argued, it could also be dangerous when “absolutized and tied to national hubris” (p. 19).
The authors develop the difference between nationalism and patriotism and the nation. Nationalism and patriotism consists of language, cultural, and other sociological similarities that have historically been very Protestant. The American state and its Constitution has eschewed religious establishments and fostered pluralism.
Biblical considerations about the kingdom of God
Recognizing that many Christians think that their belief in the kingdom of God might require them to impose it upon others, the authors devote separate chapters to discussions of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament gospels, and the teaching of Paul and the biblical book of Revelation.
In each case, they demonstrate how the idea of the kingdom of God was separate from, and often at odds with, either the ancient nation of Israel or the Roman empire, which the book of Revelation, in particular, symbolized as Babylon. This section of the book will be particularly helpful to students in church-related educational institutions, which sometimes conflate the two kingdoms, and it will perhaps prompt non-believers to come to a better understanding of the original Christian understanding that the kingdom of God was not to be equated with any earthly regime.
The contrast between the values of the Roman Empire and those of Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount are particularly compelling. Earthly empires, Roman and otherwise, seek their own gain, and those of rulers, at the expense of the poor and the downtrodden, whom Jesus sought to exalt. The emperors of the Roman Empire proclaimed themselves to be King whereas Christians affirmed that Jesus is King.
The authors believe that too many fundamentalists and evangelicals have a “flat” view of biblical interpretation that fails to grapple with ambiguities within the text and risks “placing the Bible above the biblical vision of the kingdom of God, above the teachings of Jesus, and even above God himself” (80).
History of White Christian nationalism in America
The large majority of the book is devoted to the history of Christian nationalism in America.
The God of the Declaration of Independence is the God revealed in the Book of Nature rather than Scriptures, and the U.S. Constitution does not mention God at all, meaning that most understandings of the U.S. as a Christian nation are based on false premises.
Protestant culture dominated throughout the 19th century aided by the Second Great Awakening and the formation of evangelical voluntary societies. These societies downplayed traditional Calvinism, were often anti-Catholic, fed the idea of manifest destiny and other imperialistic notions, and sometimes emphasized the Gospel of Wealth, the harbinger of the modern Prosperity Gospel.
Proponents of the social gospel sought to translate heavenly notions of the Kingdom of God into earthly policies for the poor and downtrodden, but they often carried over the baggage of Anglo-Saxon superiority and foreign expansionism, particularly in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War and the American acquisition of the Philippines.
Fundamentalists in turn, focused on five key doctrines, two of which (the inerrancy of scripture and premillennialism) were 19th century innovations developed respectively by Charles Hodge of Princeton Theological Seminary and John Darby (who is associated with dispensationalism). Although many fundamentalists withdrew from politics in the wake of the Scopes Trial, others concentrated on developing institutional structures, which increasingly identified faith with free enterprise and anti-communism, even as evangelicals presented a softer version of fundamentalist principles.
Rise of the Christian Right
The 1960s and 1970s witnessed the rise of the Christian Right and the evangelical Christian school movement fueled by concerns over court decisions withdrawing nonprofit status to schools practicing racial discrimination and later connected to opposition to abortion and fears of “secular humanism.” Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority worked to mobilize not only fundamentalists and evangelicals but also Roman Catholics and others who were especially concerned over what they believed to be declining standards of sexual morality.
President George W. Bush furthered the nation’s identification of America with “righteousness” (191), and was adept at utilizing Christian symbols, while evangelical opposition to President Barack Obama was fueled by the birther movement and by concerns that his policies on LGBTQ issues and health care would compromise evangelical consciences.
Obama’s presidency led to the anointing of Donald J. Trump as the new Cyrus who promised to empower white evangelicals, who ignored his character flaws, which they had so accentuated during the Clinton presidency, in their effort to gain political power. The Christian Right was, in turn, rewarded with Supreme Court decisions overturning access to abortion as guaranteed in Roe v. Wade (1973) and elevating First Amendment free exercise rights over concerns about religious establishment.
The authors think that Christian witness has been a casualty of such victories. They observe that particularly with regard to issues like immigration and concern for the poor: “white evangelicals were being shaped more by Fox News and other right-wing media outlets than by the Christian Gospel” (p. 256). They are particularly concerned about Trump’s untruthfulness and by his demonization of the media, both of which undermine First Amendment values. Contempt for democratic ideas was further manifested by the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Although the authors are short on answers, they remain convinced that there remain important prophetic elements with Biblical revelation that can speak to modern problems in a manner that does not elevate church over state and white Christian nationalism over more universal biblical values.
John R. Vile is a political science professor and dean of the Honors College at Middle Tennessee State University.