Religious Horizons & Christian Nationalism

One of the things that I love most about living in Iowa is its huge, expressive skies. Taking in the vast horizon, with vibrant blues and greens and stark whites, is calming after a frantic day. Rather than narrowing my vision to focus on my laptop screen or a student in the classroom, I simply receive the glorious, panoramic scene. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about the value of horizon gazing lately, particularly as Christian nationalism has been weighing heavily on my mind. Andrew Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry, in their book, Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, offer a helpful overview of this phenomenon. They write, 

Christian nationalism is a cultural framework—a collection of myths, traditions, symbols, narratives, and value systems—that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic life. But the “Christianity” of Christian nationalism is of a particular sort. We do not mean Christianity here as a general, meta-category including all expressions of orthodox Christian theology….On the contrary, the “Christianity” of Christian nationalism…includes assumptions of nativism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and heteronormativity, along with divine sanction for authoritarian control and militarism…Christian nationalism contends that America has been and should always be distinctively “Christian”…and it aims to keep it that way.¹

Though there are many troubling elements present in their description, the phrase “of a particular sort” stands out to me. In the last year, I have become increasingly aware of the smallness of the Christianity embedded in Christian nationalism. As I highlighted in an earlier blog, Trump’s 2025 Executive Order 14202, titled “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias,” advanced a single, narrow understanding of Christianity as normative while simultaneously obscuring and denigrating the heterogeneity which has always constituted Christianity.² Christian diversity is among the many things that Christian nationalism does not tolerate.

Because Christian nationalism has become increasingly prominent in U.S. politics in the last decade, it has impacted how Christianity is perceived and practiced in the U.S. As PRRI’s 2026 report “Mapping Christian Nationalism Across the 50 States” notes, one-third of Americans qualify as Christian nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers and “Christian nationalist views are more prevalent among Americans who frequently participate in various religious practices.”³ This presents a significant challenge for those of us who teach introductory courses on Christianity in the U.S. as it seems essential to address Christian nationalism in some way. Though Christian nationalism, as Whitehead and Perry observe, is “something more than religion,” it expresses a specific and, for some, compelling vision of Christianity that requires attention, particularly if one aims to responsive to the lived realities of the U.S. religious landscape.⁴

One response might be to narrow one’s vision, to take a careful look into Christian nationalism. There are texts available that contextualize and critically evaluate this phenomenon and, in truth, this tends to be my default approach when faced with thorny topics.⁵ With a closer look, the problematic features of Christian nationalism might become more apparent. However, the smallness of the Christianity of Christian nationalism makes me pause. Is focusing one’s vision to look more deeply at this single understanding of Christianity the right move? I’m not confident as my students’ experience with and knowledge of Christianity is often already quite small, if not non-existent. I fear that a closer investigation into Christian nationalism might end up reinforcing habits of certainty or indifference rather than curiosity, with the latter urgently needed at this moment.

Alternatively, one could take a horizon gazing approach, encouraging a receptive scan of the vast, abundant landscape of Christianity. A survey of global religious artwork is one option, encouraging students to engage with the images as one might while wandering in a gallery, inviting appreciative and curious noticing rather than thorough examination. I’ve been thinking about this approach in the wake of Trump’s recent social media posts featuring AI-generated images of Jesus or Jesus-like figures.⁶ These images, and subsequent responses, capture important aspects of Christian nationalism’s Christianity, such as its uncritical melding of the religious and political. Rather than examining these images in isolation, what would it mean to encounter them alongside the artwork featured in the 2021 “Global Images of Christ” exhibit, for instance?⁷ I am hopeful that the smallness of Christian nationalism’s Christianity might stand out (or maybe disappear) against the immense diversity of global Christianity. For the distinctive challenges presented by Christian nationalism, a horizon expanding approach might prove to be a fitting and generative strategy to adopt in introductory undergraduate courses.  

Notes:

1. Whitehead, Andrew L. and Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States (Oxford University Press, 2020), 10.
2. For more, see “(Anti-)Christian Politics,” https://womenintheology.org/2025/03/15/anti-christian-politics/.
3. Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), Mapping Christian Nationalism Across the 50 States: Insights from PRRI’s 2025 American Values Atlas (PRRI, 2026), 2, 10, https://prri.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/PRRI-Feb-2026-CN-in-50-states.pdf. 
4. Whitehead and Perry, Taking America Back for God, 10.
5. Whitehead and Perry’s Taking America Back for God is one possible resource.  On Christian Nationalism: Critical and Theological Perspectives, edited by David M. Gides and Joan Braune, is another. 
6. To view these images and understand the larger context, see Helen Coster, “Trump posts image of himself with Jesus as administration’s pope criticism continues,” Reuters, updated April 16, 2026, https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/trump-posts-ai-image-himself-jesus-like-figure-drawing-outrage-2026-04-13/ and Brad Brooks, Helen Coster and Joseph Ax,  “Trump’s AI image of himself as Jesus-like figure follows feud with Pope Leo,” Reuters, updated April 14, 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-posts-image-himself-with-jesus-administrations-pope-criticism-continues-2026-04-15/.
7. To view the exhibition images, see Maureen Wayman and Jemma Herbert, Global Images of Christ: Challenging Perceptions, exhibition catalogue, University of Chester, 2021, https://issuu.com/uochester/docs/global_images_of_christ.