Contesting Religious Identity in American Culture
‘No true Christian could vote for Donald Trump.’ ‘Real Christians are pro-life.’ ‘You can’t be a Christian and support gay marriage.’ Assertive statements like these not only reflect growing religious polarization but also express the anxiety over religious identity that pervades modern American Christianity. To address this disquiet, conservative Christians have sought security and stability: whether by retrieving ‘historic Christian’ doctrines, reconceptualizing their faith as a distinct culture, or reinforcing a political vision of what it means to be a follower of God in a corrupt world. The book examines three versions of the conservative quest for the essence that have profoundly shaped contemporary American Christianity: the doctrinal quest for “historic Christianity,” the cultural quest for the Christian worldview, and the political quest for a global, persecuted, cisheteronormative identity. Having traced these developments historically, Congdon argues that the root of the problem is the concept of orthodoxy itself, and suggests the transgressive concept of polydoxy as a constructive way forward for Christianity in a pluralistic society.
David W. Congdon is a the senior editor at University Press of Kansas. He is an author and speaker focusing on the intersection of theology and culture, and publishes books related to political science, law, U.S. history, indigenous studies, and religion.
Reviews and endorsements of the publication include:
“In this ambitious intervention in the contemporary culture wars, David Congdon situates current debates in the context of a much longer contestation over the boundaries of orthodoxy. Disruptive and thought-provoking, Who Is a True Christian? offers an incisive critique of attempts to define what is true, “historical,” and “traditional” and calls instead for a transgressive Christianity—a dynamic conception of faith that is compatible with a commitment to pluralism.”
—Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of the New York Times-bestselling Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
“In this work of exceptional erudition, David W. Congdon shows that Christian apologists from ancient times to the present have failed to acknowledge the historicity of their own constructions of Christianity. … Written in the grand tradition of Harvey Cox, Peter Berger, and Charles Taylor, this capacious and contentious book promises to enliven and instruct a generation’s debates about the destiny of the Christian faith in the United States and beyond.:
—David A. Hollinger, University of California, Berkeley
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