Building God's Kingdom
Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7306898 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eileen Luhr (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 103 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 546-547 |
| Publication date | 2016-08-29 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jaw307 |
| OpenAlex | W2906620229 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
In the reconsideration of modern conservative Christian activism, journalists, historians, and activists have struggled to characterize the role of Reconstructionism, a religious and intellectual movement of the mid-twentieth century that sought to restore biblical authority to American society. According to Julie J. Ingersoll, a religious studies scholar at the University of North Florida, evangelicals either deny or minimize the connection between their beliefs and those of Reconstructionists; progressives dismiss Reconstructionists as “crazies” intent on undermining the political system; and Reconstructionists themselves decry representations of their beliefs as unfair (pp. xii–xiii). In Building God's Kingdom Ingersoll delineates the theological, cultural, and popular manifestations of Reconstructionist beliefs and explains their influence within Christian political and cultural activism. In doing so, she offers a serious and systematic overview of a key intellectual foundation of modern conservatism. Reconstructionism provides a vocabulary and framework for activists in an American cultural and political environment that has seen an intensification of extreme rhetoric and practice. Ingersoll explains that while media representations tend to characterize Reconstructionism as a “political” movement, the term fails to capture the “self-reinforcing web of meaning” of its totalizing beliefs (p. 12). Beyond politics, Reconstructionism seeks to define and restore biblical authority to every corner of society. According to Ingersoll, “Christian Reconstruction, applied consistently, is irreconcilable with any other way of seeing the world: neutrality, pluralism, tolerance, and compromise are impossible” (p. 236
Aesthetics · Christian right · Compromise · Conservatism · Epistemology · Neutrality · Pluralism (philosophy · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Sociology · Theology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies · Religious Studies
| Citations per year | 0.71 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2019 - 2023 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |