Blood and Faith: Christianity in American White Nationalism

by Damon T. Berry

Overview

Beginning with Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, the term "religious right" entered the popular lexicon, coming to signify a politically and socially conservative form of Christianity that informs American conservatism to this day. Less well known are other ideologies that have influenced the far right since well before 1980, including Odinism, Creativity, and racialized atheism. The rising popularity of these extreme groups and their philosophical grounding in racial politics and religious bigotry has caused a shift away from-and often hostility toward-even racist forms of Christianity among American white nationalists. In Blood and Faith, Berry deftly explores the causes of this shift, rooted largely in response to racialized anxieties that are by no means exclusive to extremists in America. Focusing on the challenges these tensions pose for contemporary white nationalists seeking access to mainstream conservative politics, Berry also considers the recent rise of the so-called "alt-right" and the unifying issues of anti-multiculturalism and anti-immigration around which moderate and fringe groups have rallied. Blood and Faith is a provocative investigation of the complex, evolving role of white nationalism and an urgent reminder of the outsized influence of religion in American political life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815635321
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	09/26/2017
Series:	Religion and Politics
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Damon T. Berry is assistant professor in the religious studies department at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. He has published articles in the Journal of Hate Studies and Security Journal.

Interviews

Will be of major interest to readers interested in America's changing political and social climate.

Editorial Reviews

Blood and Faith provides welcome clarity to the racist Right and where it fits in America's broader religious and ideological milieu.

Politics and Religion

A rich and deep overview of major white nationalist movements, crafting a book that will enlighten sociologists of religion, race, social movements, and politics.

Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review

A chilling account of the development of a vexing and dangerous form of anti-Christian racial protectionism that has taken hold in some corners of the American far-right.

Michael J. McVicar

Berry does a fine job bringing together the ideological, 'biological,' and theological strands of belief that form the bones and sinews of the race movement in the United States.

Jeffrey Kaplan

A book that promises to become a classic treatment of American white nationalist groups that have jettisoned Christianity in favor of ideologies that justify hate.

The Association for the Academic Study of New Religions

A powerful, original, and extremely timely book. Tracing the history of white nationalism in the United States, Berry examines a series of hugely influential but today little known figures and movements, revealing their key role in the broader landscape of American religious, political, and racist discourses. Perhaps most importantly, Berry's book also highlights the continuities between these twentieth century racist currents and our own historical moment, with the rise of the alt-right movement, and the resurgence of white nationalism.

author of The Church of Scientology: A History Hugh Urban

Blood and Faith provides welcome clarity to the racist Right and where it fits in America's broader religious and ideological milieu.-- "Politics and Religion"

A book that promises to become a classic treatment of American white nationalist groups that have jettisoned Christianity in favor of ideologies that justify hate.-- "The Association for the Academic Study of New Religions"

A chilling account of the development of a vexing and dangerous form of anti-Christian racial protectionism that has taken hold in some corners of the American far-right.-- "Michael J. McVicar, Assistant Professor of Religion, Florida State University"

A must-read for all Americans who want to understand the shifting spiritual allegiances of the strengthening white nationalist movements throughout the U.S. and Europe.-- "Publishers Weekly"

A powerful, original, and extremely timely book. Tracing the history of white nationalism in the United States, Berry examines a series of hugely influential but today little known figures and movements, revealing their key role in the broader landscape of American religious, political, and racist discourses. Perhaps most importantly, Berry's book also highlights the continuities between these twentieth century racist currents and our own historical moment, with the rise of the alt-right movement, and the resurgence of white nationalism.-- "Hugh Urban, author of The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion"

A rich and deep overview of major white nationalist movements, crafting a book that will enlighten sociologists of religion, race, social movements, and politics.-- "Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review"

Berry does a fine job bringing together the ideological, 'biological, ' and theological strands of belief that form the bones and sinews of the race movement in the United States.-- "Jeffrey Kaplan, School of international and Public Affairs, Jilin University, Changchun, China"

From the Publisher

A book that promises to become a classic treatment of American white nationalist groups that have jettisoned Christianity in favor of ideologies that justify hate.

The Association for the Academic Study of New Religions - Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions

Damon T. Berry's new book, Blood and Faith: Christianity and White Nationalism, provides welcome clarity to the racist Right and where it fits in America's broader religious and ideological milieu.I enthusiastically recommend Blood and Faith.

Politics and Religion - George Hawley

Berry provides a rich and deep overview of major white nationalist movements, crafting a book that will enlighten sociologists of religion, race, social movements, and politics.

Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review - Rebecca Barrett-Fox Arkansas State University

A powerful, original, and extremely timely book. Tracing the history of white nationalism in the United States, Berry examines a series of hugely influential but today little known figures and movements, revealing their key role in the broader landscape of American religious, political, and racist discourses. Perhaps most importantly, Berry's book also highlights the continuities between these twentieth century racist currents and our own historical moment, with the rise of the alt-right movement, and the resurgence of white nationalism.

author of The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion - Hugh Urban

Berry provides a rich and deep overview of major white nationalist movements, crafting a book that will enlighten sociologists of religion, race, social movements, and politics.

Sociology of Religion - Rebecca Barrett-Fox

★ 07/10/2017
Berry’s groundbreaking debut traces the history of the “alt-right”­—an offshoot of conservatism that mixes white nationalism and populism—while unpacking its relationship to the religious right and the tension between them. Certain branches of Christianity have long shared space with the nationalist movement in the U.S., but Berry provocatively posits that racialized Christian mythologies are not the only religious ideologies influencing white racist activists. Berry cites Odinism (a Norse-inspired paganism) and Creativity (a new age racialized movement that began in the 1970s) as the two main examples. Berry stresses that understanding this trend away from Christianity in racialized, right-wing politics is particularly important due to rising “pan-European ethnonationalism committed to the survival of the imagined global white racial community.” The chosen medium for the movement is the internet, and its goal is to undermine the mainstream political establishment. Berry’s primary mission is to examine why white nationalists are rejecting historical connections to racist Christianity in favor of a new Odinism, racialist Paganism, and other Euro-Aryan ideologies that are providing “spiritual” foundations for the larger goal of “white racial survival.” This is a must-read for all Americans who want to understand the shifting spiritual allegiances of the strengthening white nationalist movements throughout the U.S. and Europe. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 09/01/2017
Despite the close association of the religious and political right in recent American politics, Christianity has not always fit easily within white nationalist movements. Scholar Berry (religious studies, St. Lawrence Univ.) offers an intellectual history of white nationalism that explores Christianity's often suspect place within far right, pan-European white identity movements. White nationalist thinkers, Berry argues, have persistently positioned Christianity as a non-European, Jewish faith alien to white racial community. In place of Christianity, these white nationalists offer spiritual alternatives they believe to be more authentically white. The study's first three chapters examine Revilo Oliver, William Pierce, and Ben Klassen as major figures in anti-Christian white nationalist thought; the last three examine Odinism, racialized esotericism, and the North American New Right as three contexts in which the "biologization of spirituality" has marginalized Christian practice in favor of a racialized faith. Although no study will answer all questions raised, Berry's analysis would have been deepened by discussion of how such a biologized spirituality shapes experiences of gender, sex, sexuality, and reproduction within white nationalist communities. VERDICT While most likely to appeal to subject specialists, this book is a timely contribution to national conversations about religion, race, and politics. Recommended for readers interested in the sociology of religion.—Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Massachusetts Historical Soc.

Library Journal