Review of Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood, Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2024)

Authors

José Francisco Morales Torres, Chicago Theological SeminaryFollow

Document Type

Book Review

Abstract

In this timely and urgent book, Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood critically examine the historical and contemporary roles of mainline Protestant churches in fostering Christian Nationalism, with the stated end that mainline Christians confess to their sin and change their political praxis in ways that deconstruct the Nationalism they inherited from their forebearers. Bringing together a critical historiography with theological (de-)construction, the authors argue that mainline denominations have not only been complicit in but have actively contributed to the intertwining of Christian and national identity in the United States. They decisively deconstruct the tendency to reduce blame to Christian fundamentalism for the presence of Christian nationalism and convincingly contend “that the cultural and political preeminence mainliners possessed … inadvertently became the seedbed out of which much of today’s Christian Nationalism grew” (11).

Author Bio

José Francisco Morales Torres is associate professor of comparative theology and philosophy at Chicago Theological Seminary.

Recommended Citation

Francisco Morales Torres, José (2025) "Review of Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood, Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2024)," Journal of Discipliana: Vol. 78, Article 1.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.discipleshistory.org/journalofdiscipliana/vol78/iss1/1