The Rise of Christian Nationalism: A Critical Examination Through Merton, Bonhoeffer, and Cardijn

I wrote this for a wider audience beyond just the JOC community, The international Thomas Merton Society, and The International Bonhoeffer Society, English Language Section. So let's dive in..

Why This Is Important

Let us delve into one of the most significant developments in contemporary American religious and political life: the rise of Christian nationalism. However, instead of the usual political commentary or polling data, I invite three extraordinary Christian witnesses into our discourse: Thomas Merton, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Joseph Cardijn. Each of these figures offers us a prophetic insight that pierces through our current confusion, enlightening us with their wisdom and inspiring us to examine our beliefs critically.

These three men—a contemplative monk, a martyr theologian, and a labor priest—lived in different contexts but shared a profound conviction: that authentic Christianity resists being weaponized for political power, and that the Gospel calls us to radical solidarity with the marginalized rather than alignment with nationalist projects. This shared conviction unites us in our understanding of true Christianity.

For Starters: Defining Christian Nationalism

Before we proceed, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of our subject. Christian nationalism is not merely Christians engaging in politics, nor is it patriotism expressed by people who happen to be Christian. Instead, Christian nationalism is the fusion of Christian and National identities, asserting that one’s country is fundamentally a Christian nation and that the country’s laws and institutions should reflect a particular understanding of Christian values. This knowledge enables us to examine the implications of Christian nationalism critically.

Key characteristics include:

Identity fusion: The conflation of Christian identity with national identity, where being a “real American” requires Christian affiliation, and being a “true Christian” requires prioritizing American interests over all others, as seen in slogans such as “America First,” “Make America Great Again,” and “Make America Holy.“

Mythologized history: A narrative claiming America was founded as a Christian nation by devout believers, often ignoring the Deist sympathies of many founders and the deliberate separation of Church and state.

Hierarchical vision: A social order based on traditional hierarchies—often emphasizing male authority (Patriarchy), heteronormativity, and white cultural dominance—presented as divinely ordained.

Political theology of power: The belief that Christians should seek governmental power to enforce Christian morality through law, rather than through persuasion, witness, or example. Read Project 2025, a specific document that outlines the goals and strategies of the Christian nationalist movement, as supported by key members of the administration.

Sacred nationalism: National symbols, such as the flag, military power, and patriotic rituals like the Pledge of Allegiance, are imbued with religious significance, sometimes superseding traditional Christian liturgy.

Recent surveys suggest that roughly 20+% of Americans embrace Christian nationalist ideology, which translates to about 65+ million people. At the same time, another 30% sympathize with aspects of it. This represents a powerful political force, particularly within white evangelical communities.

Thomas Merton—The Contemplative Critique

Who Was Merton?

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a Trappist monk, writer, and social critic who lived at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. After a challenging youth and a dramatic and intellectual conversion, Merton entered monastic life in 1941. His autobiography, ‘The Seven Story Mountain,’ maps out that experience and has become a bestseller, both then and to this day. But Merton evolved from a withdrawn contemplative into one of the 20th century’s most prophetic voices on war, racism, and the spiritual pathologies of modern life. His ‘Fourth & Walnut experience,’ was a turning point in his life and work.

Merton on the Confusion of Christianity with Power

Merton would recognize Christian nationalism immediately as what he called “the Christianity of power.” In his writings on nonviolence and war, Merton repeatedly warned against Christians identifying the Kingdom of God with any earthly political order.

In his essay “The Christian in World Crisis,” Merton wrote: “The duty of the Christian in this crisis is to strive with all his power and intelligence, with his faith, his hope in Christ, and love for God and man, to do the one task which God has imposed upon us in the world today. That task is to work for the total abolition of war.” Now think about that statement. In history, there is a woven thread of Christian nationalism, colonialism, and war as the means to create dominance in society.

Notice what Merton doesn’t say: he doesn’t call Christians to seize political power to create a Christian state. He calls us to the radical work of peacemaking. This work may put us at odds with nationalist projects, challenging us to act and make a difference in our society. Once again, think of the Sermon on the Mount.

The Dangers of Mass Society

Merton was deeply concerned with what he called ‘mass society’—the loss of individual conscience in collective identity. In his book Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, he observed how easily people surrender their moral agency to group identity, allowing collective narratives to override personal conscience. This is a danger we must be aware of when considering the implications of Christian nationalism.

Christian nationalism functions precisely as this kind of mass ideology. It offers people a simple identity: Christian + American = righteous. This fusion relieves individuals of the difficult work of discernment, of wrestling with how faith might actually critique nationalism, militarism, or economic injustice.

Merton wrote: “The tighter the organization of the group, the easier it is to maintain unity on the basis of a very simple symbol which is left undefined... The symbol ‘we’ is most important, and this ‘we’ is defined by opposition to ‘them.’”

This is the grammar of Christian nationalism: “We” are Christians defending “our” nation against “them”—liberals, secularists, immigrants, Muslims, whoever threatens the imagined Christian America as defined by a small handful of individuals. (Again, read Project 2025)

Contemplation as Resistance

For Merton, the antidote was contemplation—not as escape from the world, but as the cultivation of inner freedom that allows us to resist mass movements and maintain prophetic distance.

Contemplative prayer strips away false selves and ideological identities. In silence, we encounter God beyond our projections—a God who cannot be claimed by any nation, who transcends all our political projects, who identifies with the crucified rather than the powerful.

Merton insisted that genuine Christianity must be “revolutionary”—not in the sense of violent overthrow, but in refusing to baptize the status quo. The contemplative Christian sees through the illusions of power and recognizes that God’s kingdom operates by a completely different logic.

Merton’s Interfaith Vision

Finally, Merton’s commitment to interfaith dialogue—particularly with Buddhism—offers a powerful counterpoint to Christian nationalism’s exclusivism. In his final years, Merton sought wisdom from Asian monks and mystics, convinced that any single tradition couldn’t monopolize truth.

This openness is anathema to Christian nationalism, which requires religious boundaries to maintain its identity. Merton’s vision invites us to a Christianity confident enough to encounter others without fear, secure enough in God’s love to not require political dominance.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer—The Cost of Discipleship & Religionless Christianity

Who Was Bonhoeffer?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian who actively resisted the Nazi regime and was executed just weeks before Germany’s defeat. His life and thought offer perhaps the most confrontation with the fusion of Christianity and nationalist authoritarianism.

The German Christian Movement

When Hitler rose to power, many German Protestants embraced what they called “Deutsche Christen”—the German Christian movement. This ideology synthesized Christianity with Nazi nationalism, arguing that Aryan racial purity was compatible with—even required by—Christian faith. They purged Jewish elements from Christianity, rewrote hymns to eliminate references to Israel, and preached that Providence sent Hitler to restore Germany’s Christian greatness.

Sound familiar? While we must be careful about Nazi comparisons, the structural parallel is clear: a movement claiming Christian identity while subordinating Christian ethics to nationalist ideology, seeking political power to enforce its vision, and identifying enemies (then Jews, now various “others”) who threaten the Christian nation.

The Barmen Declaration

Bonhoeffer joined the Confessing Church, which issued the Barmen Declaration in 1934, explicitly rejecting the German Christian movement. The declaration proclaimed: “Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.”

This seems simple, but it was revolutionary: Jesus Christ alone—not the Führer, not the nation, not the race—is Lord. Christian loyalty to Christ transcends and judges all earthly loyalties. (Keep in mind, Hitler was controlling and replacing Judges to support his movement.)

Applying this today: Christian nationalism fails precisely here. It makes America, American identity, or American “greatness” into an idol that competes with Jesus Christ for ultimate loyalty. When politicians are described in messianic terms, when national interests override Christian ethics, when the flag rivals the cross for sacred status—these are symptoms of the same disease Bonhoeffer diagnosed.

Cheap Grace vs. Costly Grace

Bonhoeffer’s most famous book, The Cost of Discipleship, opens with a devastating critique of “cheap grace”—grace as doctrine, grace as intellectual assent, grace that requires nothing of us.

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

Christian nationalism traffics in cheap grace. It offers a sense of belonging without transformation, a Christian identity without the demands of Christian discipleship. You can claim Christian identity while supporting policies that harm the poor, opposing refugees, celebrating violence, and practicing exclusion—because national identity has replaced the transformative call of the Gospel.

Bonhoeffer calls us to costly grace: “Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.”

The View from Below

From his prison cell, Bonhoeffer wrote letters that developed what he called “the view from below”—seeing the world from the perspective of the powerless, the excluded, the victimized.

“We have for once learnt to see the great events of world history from ‘below’, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled—in short, from the perspective of those who suffer.”

This is the epistemological stance Jesus himself took—born in a stable, raised in occupied territory, executed as a criminal. The Gospel is good news to the poor, liberation to the oppressed. (None of this will you find in Project 2025)

Christian nationalism, by contrast, is a view from above—from the perspective of those who want to maintain or regain cultural dominance, political power, and social control. Think of Wealth, Power, and Prestige as the drivers of human emotions. It anxiously guards boundaries and privileges rather than crossing them in solidarity with the marginalized.

Who Is Jesus Christ for Us Today?

In prison, facing execution, Bonhoeffer asked: “Who is Jesus Christ for us today?” Not “Who was Jesus?” but who is he now, in this moment, in this crisis?

This is the question Christian nationalism refuses to ask, because it already knows the answer it wants: Jesus is the mascot of our political project, the validator of our cultural preferences, the protector of our interests.

But Bonhoeffer’s Jesus is the “man for others,” the one who exists in solidarity with the suffering. To follow this, Jesus is to resist all forms of domination, including religious nationalism that claims his name while betraying his way.

Joseph Cardijn—See, Judge, Act

Who Was Cardijn?

Joseph Cardijn (1882-1967) is less well-known in American Protestant circles and perhaps among Catholics in the United States as a whole, but his influence is profound. A Belgian Catholic priest, Cardijn, founded the Young Christian Workers movement (Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne or JOC), which spread globally and influenced liberation theology throughout Latin America. The method of See-Judge-Act became the foundational tool of the Second Vatican Council.

Cardijn developed his ministry in the industrial areas of Belgium, where he witnessed young workers exploited by greedy capitalism, alienated from the Church, and vulnerable to both materialist Marxism and fascist nationalism. He refused to accept this situation as inevitable.

The See-Judge-Act Method

Cardijn developed a transformative but straightforward methodology: See, Judge, Act.

See: Look at reality as it actually is, not as ideology tells you it should be. This requires empirical observation, listening to people’s actual experiences, and gathering facts. See the real conditions of workers, immigrants, people with low incomes—not caricatures or stereotypes.

Judge: Bring Gospel values to bear on what you’ve seen. Ask: What does this reality look like from the perspective of Christian faith? How does it align with or contradict the justice, mercy, and solidarity Jesus proclaimed?

Act: Take concrete action for change, based on what you’ve seen and judged. This isn’t mere charity but structural transformation—changing systems, not just helping individuals. Empowering each other to act, to collaborate as one body for the greater good of all human beings.

Applying See-Judge-Act to Christian Nationalism

Let’s apply this method:

See: What is actually happening? Christian nationalism claims to defend Christianity, but what are its fruits? Increased polarization, vilification of immigrants, support for policies that harm people with low incomes, alliance with authoritarianism, tolerance for political violence, and the alienation of younger generations from Christianity itself. Churches that focus on the teachings of Jesus are declining most rapidly in regions where Christian nationalism is strongest. And this is giving rise to what Bonhoeffer called “religionless Christianity.” Consider the early movements of Jesus’ followers in the political context they faced.

Judge: How does this align with the Gospel? Jesus said, “By their fruits you will know them.” The fruit of Christian nationalism is not about people, planet, purpose in life, and the idea that prosperity is for all human beings. It produces fear, anger, exclusion, and the will to dominate.

Jesus told us to love our enemies, welcome the stranger, and care for the least of these. Christian nationalism does the opposite: it demonizes political opponents, fears the stranger, and blames the vulnerable for their condition.

Act: What should Christians do? Resist the fusion of faith and nationalism. Reclaim Christianity as a faith centered on Jesus rather than political power. Build communities of genuine solidarity across racial, economic, and national boundaries.

The Dignity of the Worker

Cardijn’s central conviction was that every young worker was worth more than all the gold in the world—not as an individual consumer or citizen, but as a child of God with inherent dignity.

This is radically different from Christian nationalism’s instrumental view of people. In Christian nationalism, immigrants are threats to be repelled, the poor are failures to be blamed, and racial minorities are problems to be managed. People have value insofar as they contribute to “our” national project.

Cardijn insists: No. Every person—documented or undocumented, citizen or foreigner, productive or not—has infinite worth because they are created in God’s image. Our political and economic arrangements must reflect this, or they are not Christian.

Building Movements from Below

Cardijn didn’t create a top-down organization run by clerical elites. He trained young workers to become leaders themselves, trusting that those closest to injustice had the insight and agency to transform it.

This is fundamentally democratic and participatory—a stark contrast to the authoritarian tendencies in much Christian nationalism, which often features strongman leaders claiming to speak for “real Christians” and demanding submission to their authority.

The Gospel empowers the marginalized to claim their dignity and transform their world. It doesn’t ask them to submit to nationalist strongmen promising to restore a mythical Christian past.

Synthesis and Contemporary Application

Common Themes

What unites Merton, Bonhoeffer, and Cardijn in their critique of movements like Christian nationalism?

1. Primacy of the Gospel over political projects: All three insist that Christianity cannot be subordinated to any political agenda without ceasing to be Christianity. The Gospel judges all earthly powers; they cannot claim it.

2. Solidarity with the marginalized: All three practiced and preached a Christianity that identifies with the excluded and powerless, not the powerful and dominant. This is non-negotiable in following Jesus.

3. Resistance to idolatry: Whether it’s the idolatry of the nation (Bonhoeffer), the false self of mass ideology (Merton), or the idolatry of economic exploitation (Cardijn), all three call Christians to resist anything that competes with God for ultimate loyalty.

4. Costly discipleship: All three rejected cheap versions of Christianity that require no transformation. Following Jesus is demanding, countercultural, and potentially costly.

5. Universalism over tribalism: All three embraced a Christianity that transcends national, racial, and cultural boundaries. The Church is catholic—universal—not tribal.

Practical Responses

What might these witnesses call us to today?

Reclaim Christian identity: Don’t cede “Christian” to those who use it as a political label. Insist on a Christianity defined by Jesus—his teachings, his example, his cross, the lives of the early followers of Jesus.

Build alternative communities: Create spaces where the Christian faith is practiced in ways that refuse to be fused with nationalism—communities marked by genuine diversity, economic sharing, and a welcome for the stranger.

Prophetic witness: Speak truth to power, even when power claims Christian identity. The most faithful thing Christians can do is critique Christianity when it betrays the Gospel.

Practice contemplation: Cultivate the inner freedom that Merton described—the ability to stand apart from ideological capture and see clearly.

Apply See-Judge-Act: Look at reality without ideological filters, judge it by Gospel standards and Social Teachings as found in Encycicals, the teachings of great women and men who understood the message of Jesus, and take concrete action for change.

Choose costly grace: Embrace a Christianity that actually transforms us, that makes demands on us, that might cost us privilege or comfort.

Conclusion ~ Yes, we are there

Christian nationalism presents itself as defending Christianity in a secular age. But Merton, Bonhoeffer, and Cardijn reveal it as a dangerous distortion—a Christianity that has made peace with power, forgotten the cross, and traded the Gospel for political influence.

The irony is profound: in seeking to preserve Christian cultural dominance, Christian nationalism destroys the witness of Christianity itself. It makes the faith repulsive to those who actually take Jesus seriously. It produces the very secularization it claims to resist.

But these three witnesses offer us a different way—a Christianity of contemplative freedom, costly discipleship, and radical solidarity. This Christianity doesn’t seek political dominance because it knows God’s kingdom operates by a different logic. It doesn’t fear losing cultural power because its power comes from the cross, not the sword.

The question before us is not whether Christianity will survive in America. It’s whether the Christianity that survives will bear any resemblance to Jesus of Nazareth—the one who said his kingdom was not of this world, who rejected Satan’s offer of earthly power, who was executed by the collusion of religious and political authorities, and who conquered through suffering love rather than coercive force.

Merton, Bonhoeffer, and Cardijn call us back to this Jesus—not as a political mascot, but as Lord. Not as the defender of our tribe, but as the one who breaks down walls between tribes. Not as the validator of our nationalism, but as the one who judges all nations and calls us to a citizenship that transcends them all.

This is a demanding vision. It offers no shortcuts to political victory, no easy path to cultural influence. But it provides something Christian nationalism never can: authentic Christianity, faithful to the crucified and risen Jesus, capable of transforming both persons and societies without abandoning the way of the cross.

The choice is ours. We can have Christian nationalism—politically functional, culturally comfortable, spiritually empty. Or we can have Christianity—politically risky, culturally marginal, spiritually alive.

I know which one Merton, Bonhoeffer, and Cardijn would choose. I know which one Jesus calls us to.

What are you thinking now?

Q&A Suggestions for you and your teams

• How do we distinguish between legitimate Christian political engagement and Christian nationalism?

• What pastoral strategies can help people caught in Christian nationalist ideology?

• How do we respond to the legitimate cultural anxieties that fuel Christian nationalism without endorsing it?

• What role should the Church play in explicitly critiquing Christian nationalism?

• How do we avoid our own forms of ideological capture while critiquing Christian nationalism?