The Universal and the Particular in Christian Political Life: Secular and Sacred Reflections on Christian Nationalism

Being human in a world that is both physical and metaphysical confronts us with legitimate though competing obligations that pull us between particular and universal goods. This is superlatively true for Christians, as they live consciously and conscientiously in two kingdoms, one earthy and the other heavenly, serving a divine king and, under him, also an earthly one. The kingdom of God directs our sights to the universal relationship in Christ while leaving us separately embodied in particular families and communities—the one does not supplant these others—which both require and merit devotion and self-sacrifice. This tension between love of one’s own and the uniquely Christian universal love can be seen in the currently employed and contentiously scrutinized term Christian nationalism. Though seemingly an oxymoron, it recognizes and makes sense of the necessary coincidence of our inescapable particularity with our participation in and dependence on larger realities.