A Publishers Weekly Best Religion Book of the Year
A Choice Outstanding Academic Title

For many Americans, being Christian is central to their political outlook. Political Christianity is most often associated with the Religious Right, but the Christian faith has actually been a source of deep disagreement about what American society and government should look like. While some identify Christianity with Western civilization and unfettered individualism, others have maintained that Christian principles call for racial equality, international cooperation, and social justice. At once incisive and timely, Christian delves into the intersection of faith and political identity and offers an essential reconsideration of what it means to be Christian in America today.

“Bowman is fast establishing a reputation as a significant commentator on the culture and politics of the United States.”
—Church Times

“Bowman looks to tease out how religious groups in American history have defined, used, and even wielded the word Christian as a means of understanding themselves and pressing for their own idiosyncratic visions of genuine faith and healthy democracy.”
—Christian Century

“A fascinating examination of the twists and turns in American Christianity, showing that the current state of political/religious alignment was not necessarily inevitable, nor even probable.”
—Deseret News

"Bowman looks to tease out how religious groups in American history have defined, used, and even wielded the word Christian as a means of understanding themselves and pressing for their own idiosyncratic visions of genuine faith and healthy democracy…Make[s] for an interesting ride through some familiar and forgotten terrain in American religious history." - Christian Century

"Wise and absorbing… In the last three hundred years [the term ‘Christian’ has] been used in every conceivable partisan way, as invitation and bludgeon, as warning and password. In deeply-researched chapters ranging across the whole of American history but concentrating on the last 100 years, Bowman takes readers through an impressively wide-ranging examination of the many roles Christianity has played in society… Bowman’s insights are clear and well-put." - Open Letters Review

"A thought-provoking series of case studies that charts the long history of Christian political rhetoric in the United States… Most striking for our current political moment may be Bowman’s attention to the ways the politically powerful have used Christianity to claim a divine right to govern, derived—as they saw it—from the superiority of a racialized white Christian cultural heritage. Bowman, in this rigorous study, persuasively argues that Christianity has shaped a collective understanding of the national past and continues to lend spiritual weight to competing visions for America’s future." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Bowman…illustrate[s] some of the ways in which Americans have used the language of Christianity to justify wildly diverse social and political perspectives about concepts such as liberty, equality, and democracy…This fascinating book will appeal to readers interested in understanding the historical complexities of a ubiquitous word in American politics that is deceptively difficult to pin down." - Library Journal

"Demonstrates with depth and clarity the ongoing struggle over the relationship between Christianity and politics…Well researched and thoroughly engaging, this volume is a masterful achievement that blends scholarship and readability. Without a doubt, historians of religion should incorporate Bowman’s work in their courses on American religious history." - Choice

"Bowman is fast establishing a reputation as a significant commentator on the culture and politics of the United States." - Church Times

"Bowman plunges us headlong into the political tensions behind American Christianity…Bowman illustrates through a series of anecdotes that Christianity has had changeable and politically convenient definitions from the end of the Civil War through the present day…A fascinating examination of the twists and turns in American Christianity, showing that the current state of political/religious alignment was not necessarily inevitable, nor even probable." - Deseret News