Theology and the Church in a Populist Era

A Lutheran Critique of the Collusion between Evangelicals and Right-Wing Populism

Abstract

The logic, discourse and practices of right-wing populism in the U.S. are characterized by a “thin ideology” which is parasitic on religious preexisting narratives and practices. Populism depends on thicker “host ideologies,” and in its capacity to tap into unconscious root metaphors. Evangelical Christianity, which has structured its discourse around the metaphor of the “strict-father” serves the right-wing populist agenda by providing it with moral traction and “thickness.” This collusion must be contested not just through a progressive political ideology, but a critical theology centered on the biblical “nurturing” root metaphors that may contribute to a different conceptual and axiological framing. This new horizon presents a creative challenge for Lutheranism to correct the instabilities of the so-called doctrine of the two regiments with its mixture of authoritarian and nurturing metaphors.