Books from religion publishers on the roots and rise of Christian nationalism gained momentum during the first Trump administration. Now, the authors of three forthcoming titles warn that the movement is growing more powerful and urge readers to push back. Their books assert that Christian nationalism is taking shape as a coordinated political strategy, in which Christian beliefs are increasingly enshrined into U.S. law.
Jessica Miller Kelley, executive editor at Westminster John Knox Press, says the publisher had been looking for unique perspectives on rising levels of Christian nationalism when she came across a manuscript about “a force in the movement that we and so many other concerned people had simply been unaware of.” Slated for publication on September 30, The Seven Mountains Mandate: Exposing the Dangerous Plan to Christianize America and Destroy Democracy by Matthew Boedy introduces readers to a years-long Christian nationalist effort to shape and control seven “mountains,” or facets of American society: education, politics, religion, media, entertainment, family, and business.
Boedy, a professor of rhetoric at the University of North Georgia, examines the Seven Mountain Mandate’s history, key supporters, motivations, and political goals. He writes that the movement has been gaining ground within evangelical churches, schools, and media since the 1970s. While not covert, Boedy suggests that adherents today have become so desperate and obsessed with taking power of each societal sphere, "that if they lose one mountain, they revolt," he writes. "See the 2021 insurrection." Prevalent in certain evangelical circles—particularly charismatic and Pentecostal groups—adherents believe that Christians are chosen by God as agents to change American culture and create God’s kingdom on Earth.
"Mass awareness of, or conversion to, the seven mountains worldview is not even part of their strategy,” Kelley said of the movement. “The mandate is all about minority rule by conservative Christians atop each of the seven ‘mountains’ of society, regardless of the majority’s values or votes.”
The Seven Mountains Mandate contends that the second Trump administration and Project 2025 are accelerating the seven mountains movement’s agenda at an unprecedented rate. Boedy warns in the book that, at its core, the movement seeks “to Christianize America now that it has its champion controlling the levers of government”—with the ultimate aim of replacing democracy with theocracy.
“Readers who are anxious about the rapid disintegration of rights since Trump’s second inauguration and wondering just how all this happened will be enlightened by how Boedy connects the dots between fringe religious groups, local politics, big money, and big mouths that got us to where we are today,” Kelley says. “My hope is that rather than being overwhelmed by the complexity of the web Boedy exposes, readers will feel empowered to tug and snip the strings they now see more clearly.”
Another forthcoming book investigates the spiritual framework of Christian nationalism. The Bible According to Christian Nationalists: Exploiting Scripture for Political Power by Brian Kaylor (Chalice, Oct. 7) examines how misuses of the Bible are driving factors behind the ideology. A Baptist pastor with a doctorate in political communication, Kaylor writes that political figures within the Christian nationalist movement use distorted passages from the Bible to further their agendas, posing serious threats to civil liberties, democracy, and the integrity of the church.
The book makes a case for how the manipulation of biblical texts as well as key words have warped Jesus’s teachings and fueled division, hatred, and violence. As a solution, Kaylor offers an interpretation of the Bible that focuses on love, justice, and the “true message of Christ,” according to the publisher.
Chalice president and publisher Brad Lyons says The Bible According to Christian Nationalists “continues to sound the alarm we all need to hear about the rise of Christian nationalism.” Lyons notes that while Kaylor’s previous book, Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism, addressed protestants’ role in bolstering Christian nationalism, the new book “will be indispensable to Mainliners and those who have left Evangelicalism behind and are reinterpreting the Bible for their new approach to faith.”
Confronting Christian nationalism with a theological approach, Making It Plain: Why We Need Anabaptism and the Black Church by Drew G. I. Hart (Herald, Sept. 2) traces Western Christianity’s use of scripture to justify acts of domination and violence, including colonization and chattel slavery, and how those legacies persist today. By delving into Anabaptist and Black Christian practices, Hart aims to reveal “a liberating and peacemaking vision of Jesus” that has existed “right under the nose of the empire and white supremacy,” according to the publisher. Wisdom from both traditions informs what the author calls an “Anablacktivist” faith—one that resists white Christian nationalism, antiblackness, and settler colonialism.
Sara Versluis, acquisitions editor for Herald Press, an imprint of the Mennonite Church USA’s MennoMedia, calls Making it Plain “a love letter to the church, an indictment of mainstream Western Christianity, and above all an invitation to radical discipleship in Jesus.”
She adds that the book emphasizes the importance of Christian witness—the practice of sharing personal testimonies of faith and embodying Jesus’s teachings, as well as a commitment to community and justice. “The church doesn’t need more power—we need a better witness,” Versluis says. “Hart’s latest offering is a rich and timely commentary on how Christians have salvaged the way of Jesus amid domination and oppression—and how we might do so today.”
