Embodied Idolatry: A Critique of Christian Nationalism

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Embodied Idolatry: A Critique of Christian Nationalism is an examination of the effect of Christian nationalism on Christian practice in the United States. Kyle Edward Haden focuses on the mechanisms by which such beliefs become sedimented into the emotional, embodied structures of the church and the individual. Using a variety of disciplines, Haden thus identifies and highlights how such beliefs and practices are, in fact, idolatrous and inhabit an anti-Christian theological and ethical space. This book describes the formative process and mechanisms by which social and cultural values are acquired through imitation, by the individual and within ecclesial communities. As a constructive countermeasure, it investigates Jesuss practice in his own social, cultural, political, religious, and economic context, and argues that Christian nationalism is a betrayal of Jesuss teachings in light of his own practice of hospitality and table fellowship. This book thus calls Christians to conversion, putting loyalty to the kingdom of God over that of the nation.

Reviews

What an education! Kyle Edward Haden leads us slowly but with great sure-footedness through some of the most challenging of modern thinkers in order to open us up to that most timely of gifts: the ability to engage in self-critical thinking about who we are and where our lives together are taking us. Highly recommended. -- James Alison, priest, theologian, Girard scholar

Haden has an uncanny ability to make significant theories understandable and practical; hence Bourdieus concepts of field and habitus are used to show how American nationalism is woven into the consciousness of Christians for whom American = Christian and American = white. Girards mimetic theory along with needs/emotional theory is used to show how an emotionally charged and savvy leader can inspire a mimetic emotional contagion to draw crowds into his agenda. The exclusionary nationalist idolatry of a significant segment of US Christianity is contrasted with a sensitive reading of Jesus's teachings on inclusion, hospitality, justice, and a particularly cogent openness to the other.

Author Bio

Kyle Edward Haden is assistant professor of Theology and Franciscan studies at St. Bonaventure University.