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This book investigates Christian conservative constitutional narratives in the years between Obergefell v. Hodges and Dobbs v. Jackson Women s Health Organization. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, the book describes how Christian conservatives turned their movement around during these years by replacing liberal democratic narratives with authoritarian narratives. The Christian Conservative Constitution uncovers how Christian conservatives revived previously fringe stories about America s Christian identity, including its Constitution and its political system, and argues that these Christian constitutional stories inspired the movement to help elect Donald Trump and to participate in MAGA attacks on democracy. The book traces these stories back to an overarching illiberal master narrative and to undemocratic narrative habits. The book demonstrates that redemptive Christian counternarratives were available, but the movement instead chose stories that attempted to reconcile American constitutional law to the demands of Christian conservative political theology. The book concludes that this switch from liberal to illiberal constitutional narratives helped Christian conservatives capture a Supreme Court majority that delivered the movement s biggest victory to date, by overturning abortion rights, but only at the price of endangering other constitutional rights and the long-term future of America s liberal democratic constitutional system.
List of contents
Part I: Christian Conservatism at the Crossroads.- Chapter 1. Surviving the Flood: From the Defensive-Crouch to Constitutional Hard-Ball .- Chapter 2. Liberalism s Missing Story: The Christian Conservative Master Narrative.- Part II: The Christian Constitutional Order.- Chapter 3. God, Government, and Law: Imagining a Christian Constitutional Order.- Chapter 4. Birth of a Christian Nation: The History and Substance of the Constitutional Order.- Chapter 5. America as the New Israel: The Stakes of the Constitutional Order.- Part III: The Christian Constitutional Order in Crisis.- Chapter 6. Courting Disaster: The Causes and Consequences of Ungodly Constitutional Decisions.- Chapter 7. The Great Divorce: Fears of Anti-Christian Persecution.- Part IV: Reimagining the Constitutional Order.- Chapter 8. Restoring the Foundations: Christian Conservative Legal Theory.- Chapter 9. Rebuilding the Walls: Faithful Judges and Faithful Judging.- Part V: Remaking the Constitutional Order.- Chapter 10. Who s to Blame? Theological Self-Reflection as Political Self-Promotion.- Chapter 11. Battle Plans: Christian Conservatism at the Crossroads.- Chapter 12. Conclusion: The Triumph and Tragedy of Christian Conservatism.- Appendix A: Methodological Summary.- Appendix B: Research Subjects.
About the author
Jason E. Whitehead
is Associate Professor of Political Science and the Director of Legal Studies at California State University, Long Beach. He is the author of
Judging Judges: Values and the Rule of Law
(2014), as well as scholarly articles on Christian conservatism, religion and liberal democracy, and critical legal theory
Summary
This book investigates Christian conservative constitutional narratives in the years between
Obergefell v. Hodges
and
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, the book describes how Christian conservatives turned their movement around during these years by replacing liberal democratic narratives with authoritarian narratives.
TheChristian Conservative Constitution
uncovers how Christian conservatives revived previously fringe stories about America’s Christian identity, including its Constitution and its political system, and argues that these Christian constitutional stories inspired the movement to help elect Donald Trump and to participate in MAGA attacks on democracy. The book traces these stories back to an overarching illiberal master narrative and to undemocratic narrative habits. The book demonstrates that redemptive Christian counternarratives were available, but the movement instead chose stories that attempted to reconcile American constitutional law to the demands of Christian conservative political theology. The book
concludes that this switch from liberal to illiberal constitutional narratives helped Christian conservatives capture a Supreme Court majority that delivered the movement’s biggest victory to date, by overturning abortion rights, but only at the price of endangering other constitutional rights and the long-term future of America’s liberal democratic constitutional system.
