The Godless Crusade
The Godless Crusade
This book postulates that the rise of right-wing populism in the West and its references to religion are less driven by a resurgence of religious fervour, than by the emergence of a new secular identity politics. Based on exclusive interviews with 116 populist leaders, key policy makers and faith leaders in the USA, Germany, and France, it shows how right-wing populists use Christianity as a cultural identity marker of the 'pure people' against external 'others' while often remaining disconnected from Christian values, beliefs, and institutions. However, right-wing populists' willingness and ability to employ religion in this way critically depends on the actions of mainstream party politicians and faith leaders. They can either legitimise right-wing populists' identitarian use of religion or challenge it, thereby cultivating 'religious immunity' against populist appeals. As the populist wave breaks across the West, a new debate about the role of religion in society has begun.
- Explains the roots and nature of the rise of right-wing populism and white identity politics
- Makes academic research accessible and relevant to policymakers, faith leaders and the public
- Insights from over +115 political and religious leaders including Jean-Marie Le Pen, Paul Ryan, Jörg Meuthen, Cardinal Reinhart Marx and Russell Moore
Reviews & endorsements
‘Cremer’s argument must be taken seriously by scholars of religion and politics and anyone concerned about the rise of right-wing Populism. … Recommended.’ R. J. Meagher, Choice
Product details
March 2023Paperback
9781009262149
284 pages
227 × 150 × 20 mm
0.51kg
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction: the new crusaders
- Part I. Foundations:
- 2. Definitions, methods, cases and sources
- 3. A fourfold argument: the identity cleavage, the secular right, religious immunity, and Christian leadership
- Part II. The German Churches and the AfD: Debunking Populist Sanctimony:
- 4. Christianity and democracy in Germany after WWII: from a marriage of convenience to happily ever after?
- 5. The advent of the AfD in the context of the new identity cleavage
- 6. Defenders of the faith? The AfD's Christian credentials under scrutiny
- 7. Religious immunity: voting behaviour and the Church's social firewall
- Part III. French Catholicism between the RN and laicité: between the devil and the dark blue sea:
- 8. La République Laïque vs. La France Catholique: the rise and decline of French 'Catho-Laïcité'
- 9. France's new identity cleavage and the rise of the far right
- 10. La fille ainée de l'Église? Christianism and secularism in the French populist right
- 11. A successful dédiabolisation? Factors in understanding the weakening of religious immunity to populism in France
- Part IV. A Faustian bargain? American Christianity and Trumpism.12. 'A Nation under God'? American civil religion between the wall of separation and Christian nationalism
- 13. The new social cleavage: from religious culture wars to white identity politics
- 14. The Saviour of Christian America? Trumpism's Christian credentials through the lens of the cultural-ethical triangle
- 15. A Faustian bargain? Understanding white Christian support for Trump
- Part V. Conclusion:
- 16. Squaring the circle: four cornerstones of a general theory of the relationship between right-wing populism and religion in the West
- 17. Democracy after God? Faith, populism and the future of liberal democracy
- Bibliography
- Appendix A
- Appendix B.
