Christian Conservative Constitution

Introduction

This book investigates Christian conservative constitutional narratives in the years between Obergefell v. Hodges and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Methodology

Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, the book describes how Christian conservatives turned their movement around during these years by replacing liberal democratic narratives with authoritarian narratives.

Findings

The Christian Conservative Constitution uncovers how Christian conservatives revived previously fringe stories about America’s Christian identity, including its Constitution and its political system, and argues that these Christian constitutional stories inspired the movement to help elect Donald Trump and to participate in MAGA attacks on democracy.

Analysis

The book traces these stories back to an overarching illiberal master narrative and to undemocratic narrative habits.

Discussion

The book demonstrates that redemptive Christian counternarratives were available, but the movement instead chose stories that attempted to reconcile American constitutional law to the demands of Christian conservative political theology.

Conclusion

The book concludes that this switch from liberal to illiberal constitutional narratives helped Christian conservatives capture a Supreme Court majority that delivered the movement’s biggest victory to date, by overturning abortion rights, but only at the price of endangering other constitutional rights and the long-term future of America’s liberal democratic constitutional system.