Christian fascism is afar-right political ideology that denotes an intersection betweenfascism andChristianity.
The term "Christofascism" is a neologism whichliberation theologianDorothee Sölle coined in 1970 to designate one strand of Christian fascism.[1][2][3]
Tom F. Driver, thePaul Tillich Professor Emeritus atUnion Theological Seminary, expressed concern "that the worship of God in Christ not divide Christian from Jew, man from woman, clergy from laity, white from black, or rich from poor". To him, Christianity is in constant danger of Christofascism. He stated that "[w]e fear christofascism, which we see as the political direction of all attempts to place Christ at the center of social life and history" and that "[m]uch of the churches' teaching about Christ has turned into something that is dictatorial in its heart and is preparing society for anAmerican fascism".[4][5]
Christofascism "disposed or allowed Christians, to impose themselves not only upon otherreligions but othercultures, and political parties which do not march under the banner of the final, normative, victorious Christ" – asPaul F. Knitter describes Sölle's view.[6][7]
Douglas John Hall, Professor of Christian Theology atMcGill University, relates Sölle's concept of Christofascism toChristomonism, which inevitably ends in religious triumphalism andexclusivity, noting Sölle's observation of Americanfundamentalist Christianity which led him to conclude that Christomonism easily leads to Christofascism, andviolence is never far away from militant Christomonism. (Christomonism worships one divine person,Jesus, rather than theTrinity.) He states that the over-divinized ("high") Christology ofChristendom is demonstrated to be wrong by its "almost unrelievedanti-Judaism". He suggests that the best way to guard against this is for Christians not to neglect the humanity of Jesus in favour of hisdivinity, and remind themselves that Jesus was also a Jewish human being.[2][8][9]
Chris Hedges andDavid Neiwert contend that the origins of American Christofascism date back to theGreat Depression, when Americans first espoused forms of fascism that were "explicitly 'Christian' in nature".[10]: 88 Hedges writes that "fundamentalist preachers such asGerald B. Winrod andGerald L. K. Smith fused national and Christian symbols to advocate the country's first crude form of Christo-fascism".[11] Smith'sChristian Nationalist Crusade stated that a "Christian character is the basis of all real Americanism".[11] Hedges also believes thatWilliam Dudley Pelley was another prominent advocate of Christofascism.[10]: 88 Nonetheless, some historians contend the presence of Christian fascism in the antebellum United States.[12]
In the late 1950s, some adherents of these philosophies founded theJohn Birch Society, whose policy positions and rhetoric have greatly influenced moderndominionists.[11] Likewise, thePosse Comitatus movement was founded by former associates of Pelley and Smith.[10]: 90 The 1980s saw the founding of theCouncil for National Policy[11] andMoral Majority,[13][14] two organizations which carried on the tradition, while thepatriot andmilitia movements represented efforts to mainstream the philosophy in the 1990s.[10]: 90
Incidents ofanti-abortion violence, including theCentennial Olympic Park bombing and Birmingham bombings committed byEric Rudolph and theassassination of George Tiller at hisWichita, Kansas church in 2009, have also been considered acts which were motivated by Christofascism.[10]: 90–91 [15]
Usage of the term caused controversy in 2007 when Melissa McEwan, a campaign blogger for then-presidential candidateJohn Edwards, referred to religious conservatives as "Christofascists" on her personal blog.[16][17]
 | This section needs to beupdated. The reason given is: Hunsinger is writing in 2001 about an entirely different idea than post-2016 Christofascism, which has very real and active proponents. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(January 2025) |
Anti-war andhuman rights activistGeorge Hunsinger, director of the Centre for Barth Studies atPrinceton Theological Seminary, regards the veryaccusation of "fascism" as a sophisticated theological attack on the Christian biblical depiction of Jesus. He believes that the view of Jesus, which is called Christofascist, is, in fact, the real "Jesus Christ as he is depicted in Scripture". Hunsinger contrasts his preferred understanding of Jesus with the "nonnormativeChristology" that self-proclaimed anti-Christofascists offer as an alternative, which he criticizes as extremerelativism that reduces Jesus to "an object of mere personal preference and cultural location". Hunsinger believes that this relativism may contribute to the same problems thatKarl Barth saw inGermany's Christian church during the previous century.[18] The strife of the medievalHussite Wars has led some contemporary historians to condemn their methods as fascist.[19]
...shall we say this, represent this, live this, without seeming to endorse the kind of christomonism (Dorothee Sölle called it 'Christofascism'!...
...of establishing a dubious moral superiority to justify organized violence on a massive scale, a perversion of Christianity she called Christofascism....
We fear Christofascism ...
Driver argues that traditional Christology fosters what he calls 'Christofascism.' He means by this, first, the absolutizing of the past in order to…
Dorothee Soelle can even describe much of Christology as 'Christofascism' in the way it has disposed or allowed Christians to impose themselves upon not only other religions but other cultures and political parties which do not march under the banner of the final, normative, victorious Christ
The dictionary definition ofchristian fascism at Wiktionary
