Creating a Christian America

Religion, particularly the Protestant faith, is a fundamental component of American life that defines the country's socio-cultural identity. Following the Civil War, religious leaders and laymen tapped into the country's religious devotion in an attempt to reunite the country. The mission worked. Between 1870-1920, religious nationalism emerged and united a majority of Americans along both secular as well as theological goals, which ranged from social reform and activism to Christianizing the nation and bringing about the kingdom of God, or Christ's thousand-year rule over Earth. The goal of this paper is to show how this religious nationalism developed and shaped America's socio-religious thought into the early-twentieth century. This paper identifies changes in theology and biblical interpretations, social reform movements meant to Christianize the country, crusades against non-Protestant threats, and acts of Protestant consolidation and cooperation as the means by which Protestant nationalism developed and thrived.