The Political Dimension of Evangelical Fundamentalism in the USA
Abstract
The R factor – where R stays for religion – is one of the major elements of the current US politics. In particular the Republican party and the Administration are influenced by waves of religious fundamentalism proposing a strong political agenda in domestic and in foreign policy as well. The arise of religious fundamentalism is not a new phenomenon at all. What is new is its political impact after 9/11 and its consequences in the US self-perception in the international scenario. The article explores the different waves of Christian fundamentalism and their evolution: from the origin related to the creationism vs. evolutionism debate; to the “religious right” in and immediately after the Reagan’s years; to its new millenarist theology outlining global war scenarios starting from the conflict in the Middle East and pushing the Administration to pursue a “Christian agenda” to restore supposedly traditional American values. Because of its military and cultural extremism this trend will not produce long term consequences. Nevertheless it can trouble seriously the democratic process and the constitutional principle of Church/State separation.
Copyright (c) 2007 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
RSAJournal applies a CC BY-NC-ND license to all its contributions. This license enables reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. CC BY-NC-ND includes the following elements:
- BY: credit must be given to the creator.
- NC: Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted.
- ND: No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights for their submissions to the journal.
- Authors grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License that allows others to share unedited work for non-commercial purposes with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
