Sociology
Cultural Threat and Market Failure: Moral Decline Narratives on the Religious Right and Left
Document Type
Book Chapter
Abstract
This chapter argues that religiopolitical movements on the right—Christian Nationalism—and left—Prophetic Progressivism—remain central to US politics because they deploy moral decline narratives that are rooted in religious symbols but appeal outside religious communities. On the right, a cultural threat narrative built on a white Christian epistemology casts nonwhite and non-Christian persons, ideas, and institutions as morally dubious outsiders and uses the threat they purportedly pose to justify increasingly aggressive policy initiatives and authoritarian moves. On the left, a market failure narrative links Social Gospel and civic republican traditions, fostering linking Black Church movements steeped in the Civil Rights Movement’s legacy with other organizing sectors. The continuing appeal of Christian Nationalism and Prophetic Progressivism demonstrates how religious ideas and practices blend with raced, gendered, and classed social narratives to create powerful moral narratives that can animate political action even as religious adherence declines overall. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.
Part of the Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research book series (HSSR).
Publication Title
Handbook of the Sociology of Morality
Publication Date
2023
Volume
2
First Page
413
Last Page
425
ISSN
1389-6903
DOI
10.1007/978-3-031-32022-4_29
Keywords
Christian Nationalism, cultural threat, market failure, progressive religion
Repository Citation
Delehanty, Jack, "Cultural Threat and Market Failure: Moral Decline Narratives on the Religious Right and Left" (2023). Sociology. 4.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_sociology/4