Think tank reports findings on Christian Nationalism  

Christian Nationalism is not a cohesive movement but part of a ‘shifting landscape of different attitudes’ - and it is important to understand ‘the real range and nature of the views held by different parties,’ according to a new Theos report  

Theos, the UK religion and society think tank, has released a report that aims to provide more understanding on what Christian nationalism actually is. 

Named Beyond Christian Nationalism - Measuring attitudes to Christianity and Britishness today the 72-page report is part of a wider research project exploring the rise of Christian nationalism in the UK and Europe. 

“Christian nationalism is apparently growing in the UK but, although much used, the phrase is often vague and can be unhelpful,” Theos stated in the report’s introduction. To find out more, it commissioned and analysed responses about the relationship between Christianity and 'Britishness' among 1,765 UK adults. 

The key headlines were: 

• 8 per cent of UK adults strongly agree that you need to be Christian to be truly British, and 9 per cent slightly agree. 
• Only 1 per cent think that being Christian is the most important factor for being truly British.

However, “Beneath these headline figures, UK public opinion shows a more complex understanding of the perceived and desired relationship between Christianity and Britishness,” Theos continued, “in which different kinds of nationalism and different approaches to Christianity inform opinion.”

To unpack this, Theos broke the main categories of answers into five groups of people:

• Committed Separatists don’t want Christianity to be part of Britishness but don’t have a particularly strong sense of British national identity anyway.
• Cultural Separatists don’t want Christianity to be part of Britishness but are hostile to the idea that any other cultural or religious identity – most obviously Islam or immigrant identities – should occupy that space.
• Values Integrationists do not think you need to be Christian to be British, but they do see Christianity as an important element of British values and want to see that recognised and protected.
• Identity Integrationists see Christianity as fundamental to Britishness and want to defend the nation’s Christian heritage from what they see as invasive and threatening influences.
• Belief Integrationists want to see Christianity integrated with Britishness but, for the most part, because they want to promote the Christian faith rather than preserve Christian values.

Out of the five key groups, Theos linked those who answered similarly into the category of identity integrationists as coming closest to the view that you need to be Christian to be truly British, and the main group which merits the label ‘Christian nationalist’.

The level of churchgoing in this group is relatively modest (13 per cent weekly attendance), and one key learning from the report suggests that Identity Integrationists are deeply, indeed 'viscerally', culturally Christian, but their Christianity tends to be more cultural and heritage-based than it is in practising Christianity.

In a webinar hosted by the Religion Media Centre to discuss the report, it was raised that "Christian Nationalism isn't necessarily growing; it is just hardening". It was noted that this is a deeply anxious group, exhibiting more and stronger social concerns than any other group, but also that their beliefs aligned with the idea that politics should take a harsher stance. 

For example, when faced with the statement “Right now we need ‘strong man’ political leaders who are prepared to break the rules”, 71 per cent of the identity integrationists agreed with the statement.

The report concluded by saying in researching Christian Nationalism it had discovered a range of views - and it was important to take the time to understand them. 

“Not having any longitudinal data for the UK, it is hard to tell whether “Christian nationalism” is actually increasing," stated the conclusion. "Anecdotally it seems to be and coverage of it certainly is. That being so, it is important to interrogate the movement as carefully as possible.

“As this report has argued and demonstrated, however, “Christian nationalism” is not really a cohesive movement but part of a shifting landscape of different attitudes to the right relationship between Christianity (and religion more general) and national identity. Each of those phenomena – Christianity and nationalism – take different forms, which means that there is a variety of different positions that people adopt here, whether “separatist” or “integrationist”.

“Some of these positions, most obviously what we have here termed “Identity Integrationists” seem to merit the label “Christian nationalist” and that being so, many will take succour from the fact that this is the smallest group in the overall population.

“However, it would be a mistake simply to divide the world into a (minority) them and (majority) us, and leave it at that. The relationship between religious and national identity is fluid, complex and often fraught, in which everyone has a position to defend, no matter where they stand. 

“In what feels like an increasingly tense and angry conversation, it is important at least to try and understand the real range and nature of the views held by different parties, so we can speak to what they are rather than what we want them to be.”
 

If you would like to read the full report produced by Theos, click here
For more Baptist thinking around Christian Nationalism, click here

Related article:
Beyond “Christian Nationalism”? - New research from the think tank Theos demonstrates that while British nationalism is not primarily Christian, its ideas, conspiracy theories, and idolatries have entered the UK church. By John Heathershaw (Professor of International Relations at the University of Exeter, a member of Pinhoe Road Baptist Church in Exeter)
 
The webinar hosted by the Religion Media Centre to discuss the report's findings can be accessed here and below.