This book is about Christian mentality, a matter of some consequence for the way we think about our communities, others, and the nation. The focus is on the social issues currently under discussion in the United States, a discussion that reveals an uncertainty about the reasons that have been taken for granted in forming our policies and practices as a nation. The thesis of the book is that the narrative grammar of the Christian myth is entangled with the underlying reasons for these policies and practices, reasons that are rooted in our self-understanding as an exceptional nation of manifest destiny. The correlations between this self-understanding and the social grammar of the Christian myth is the challenge that confronts the efforts now underway to reimagine and restructure a society that is not a Christian nation, but a polycultural people seeking to clarify their vision of a social democracy.

This is a book on a social theory of religion and culture. A survey of the meanings of the term religion from Columbus to Jonathan Z. Smith sets the pace. Examples are taken from ethnography, the ancient Near East, the Greco-Roman age, and Christendom in order to develop the concepts of imagined world, social formation, mythic grammar, and cultural mentality. What has been learned from the study of other peoples and their religions about the function of myths and rituals is then applied to an analysis of the Christian myth-ritual system and its social logic. The odd combinations of mythic world and ritual presence, monotheism and sovereignty, righteousness and power, all peculiar to Christianity, are analyzed historically and followed into the twenty-first century. This study offers a meditation on the recent public discourse about the Christian nation in light of the current social situation in the United States and ends with an invitation to rethink the role of religions in constructing a polycultural social democracy.

This book is about Christian mentality, a matter of some consequence for the way we think about our communities, others, and the nation. The focus is on the social issues currently under discussion in the United States, a discussion that reveals an uncertainty about the reasons that have been taken for granted in forming our policies and practices as a nation. The thesis of the book is that the narrative grammar of the Christian myth is entangled with the underlying reasons for these policies and practices, reasons that are rooted in our self-understanding as an exceptional nation of manifest destiny. The correlations between this self-understanding and the social grammar of the Christian myth is the challenge that confronts the efforts now underway to reimagine and restructure a society that is not a Christian nation, but a polycultural people seeking to clarify their vision of a social democracy.

America is widely regarded as the ultimate "Christian Nation." Religious language has always been at the forefront of American politics but this has increased since the events of 9/11. 'Myth and the Christian Nation' presents a startling analysis of how and why Christianity and national identity have been woven together in recent American political discourse. Drawing on examples of religious myth-making across the ancient world 'Myth and the Christian Nation' brings the weight of history to bear on America today, a place where myth, monotheism, sovereignty and power can be harnessed together in the service of specific interests. The book invites readers to rethink the role of religion in the construction of social democracy and to see America afresh.