The Case for Christian Nationalism
Epilogue: Now What? | Introduction
Previously:
Having finished the explication of his authoritarian- and ethno-nationalist political theory, attempting to frame it as a modern day recovery of Two-Kingdoms Theology and Puritan theocracy, Wolfe closes his book with a manifesto on the state of America, and the next steps he believes are required of those who have been convinced of his worldview. His language becomes looser and more bombastic in this chapter; Wolfe will name the “globalist American empire”, run by a “gynocracy”, as the primary foil of Christian Nationalism. For those not convinced of his theory, this chapter will read as fairly wild-eyed, while, for those who are bought in, it will be a rallying cry delivered in the language of destiny.
But this book is not an action-plan. It is a justification of Christian nationalism, and we are early in recovering the movement. Every movement needs its intellectuals, pamphleteers, strategists, organizers, and foot soldiers. This book belongs in the first category, and perhaps in the future I can contribute in other ways. Let each have his role.1
Wolfe conspicuously identifies himself as an intellectual force in the burgeoning Christian Nationalist movement; most movements like the one he is looking to spearhead begin with books of philosophy or political theory that are dismissed as fringe by mainstream thought leaders. In 1917, Giovanni Gentile was a professor of history and philosophy at the University of Rome, whose writings claiming fascism as the inevitable endpoint of the national unification of Italy, known as the Risorgimento (resurgence), were considered fringe by the majority of Italian politicians and intellectuals. Five years later, he was Benito Mussolini’s Minister of Public Education, inculcating fascism into the curricula of an entire generation of his countrymen. His later writings for the party would become “one of the most important and publicised ideological rationalisations of the Fascist phenomenon”.2
Though the way Wolfe addresses his concerns in this chapter may come across to moderates as hyperbolic, it should not be flippantly dismissed. A growing number of young American men are becoming frustrated with a society that values them less than it did their fathers and grandfathers, and which increasingly utilizes economic pressure to maintain ideological conformity. It is common for discontented young men to externalize their angst and to seek out philosophies that offer a sense of belonging and meaning; Wolfe’s offer is attractive to many disillusioned, young Christian men of Western European descent.
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Stephen Wolfe, The Case for Christian Nationalism (Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 2022), 433-434.
Philip Morgan, Italian Fascism: 1919 - 1945, 1. publ, The Making of the 20th Century (New York, NY: St. Martin’s Pr, 1995), 79.