Christian Reconstruction: R. J. Rushdoony and American Religious Conservatism

by Michael J. McVicar

Overview

This is the first critical history of Christian Reconstruction and its founder and champion, theologian and activist Rousas John Rushdoony (1916–2001). Drawing on exclusive access to Rushdoony's personal papers and extensive correspondence, Michael J. McVicar demonstrates the considerable role Reconstructionism played in the development of the radical Christian Right and an American theocratic agenda. As a religious movement, Reconstructionism aims at nothing less than "reconstructing" individuals through a form of Christian governance that, if implemented in the lives of U.S. citizens, would fundamentally alter the shape of American society.

McVicar examines Rushdoony's career and traces Reconstructionism as it grew from a grassroots, populist movement in the 1960s to its height of popularity in the 1970s and 1980s. He reveals the movement's galvanizing role in the development of political conspiracy theories and survivalism, libertarianism and antistatism, and educational reform and homeschooling. The book demonstrates how these issues have retained and in many cases gained potency for conservative Christians to the present day, despite the decline of the movement itself beginning in the 1990s. McVicar contends that Christian Reconstruction has contributed significantly to how certain forms of religiosity have become central, and now familiar, aspects of an often controversial conservative revolution in America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469622750
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	04/27/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	326
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Michael J. McVicar is assistant professor of religion at Florida State University.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

McVicar's groundbreaking book is a welcome addition to our understanding of recent American history. McVicar explicates R. J. Rushdoony's role in late-twentieth-century debates over religion and politics, as well as his influence among religious conservatives and in the culture at large. An invaluable contribution to the study of American politics, religion, and the intersection of the two.—Diane Winston, University of Southern California

This book is the most comprehensive study of Christian Reconstructionism to date, and the most detailed study of its founder R. J. Rushdoony. Making use of extensive, previously untapped archival materials, it details the movement's influence on post–World War II American conservatism, an issue that has been much discussed but little documented by previous writers. It sets the standard for scholarship on this important and still timely topic.—Michael Lienesch, University of North Carolina

Diane Winston University of Southern California

McVicar's groundbreaking book is a welcome addition to our understanding of recent American history. McVicar explicates R. J. Rushdoony's role in late-twentieth-century debates over religion and politics, as well as his influence among religious conservatives and in the culture at large. An invaluable contribution to the study of American politics, religion, and the intersection of the two.

Michael Lienesch University of North Carolina

This book is the most comprehensive study of Christian Reconstructionism to date, and the most detailed study of its founder R.J. Rushdoony. Making use of extensive, previously untapped archival materials, it details the movement's influence on post-World War II American conservatism, an issue that has been much discussed but little documented by previous writers. It sets the standard for scholarship on this important and still timely topic.

Editorial Reviews

★ 01/19/2015
How is it that a man the author describes as “one of the most controversial ministers of the 20th century” is also a man whom most people have never heard of? Such is the story of R.J. Rushdoony and his campaign to introduce “Dominion Theology,” which champions a national government run by Christians that would “reconstruct” American society. Rushdoony set out to transform both Protestant Christianity and the American system, issuing a clarion call for Christians to engage, and ultimately control, American government and public education. Along the way, he enlisted the help of a large cadre of fellow thinkers, some of whom had different goals. Rushdoony’s ideas prevailed; his written works could fill a bookshelf. But infighting sank the movement: “the Reconstructionists could not agree with one another regarding the nature and meaning of Christian dominion,” McVicar writes. And thus the Reconstructionist idea has receded in the American consciousness, but not until it helped shape the politics of the American Religious Right. McVicar, assistant professor of religion at Florida State University, has produced a landmark work describing the rise and eventual fall of Reconstructionist thought. This fine work is highly recommended. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

McVicar . . . has produced a landmark work describing the rise and eventual fall of Reconstructionist thought. This fine work is highly recommended.—Publishers Weekly, starred review



An extensively researched and critical yet balanced history of the Christian Reconstruction movement and its founder, R.J. Rushdoony. . . . Specialists in religion, politics, sociology, history, and cultural analysis, as well as the general public, can find rich reflection herein no matter their personal, political, or religious persuasions.—Library Journal



Intimate and richly contextualized….Will inspire future chroniclers to grant Rushdoony a wider berth.—Journal of American History



The prose is engaging, and McVicar manages to clearly explain the theological, institutional, and social history of Christian Reconstruction.—American Historical Review



Buy it. Read it. Critique it. Learn from it." —Faith for All of Life



McVicar is a careful writer. . . . He goes out of his way to place the radicalism of the Reconstructionists in context.—Books & Culture



It is sometimes said in a review of a well-written and insightful account of an important person's life that it is the biography the subject deserves. That can be said of this fine book, but I say it with a sense of sadness. It is the chronicle of a brilliant thinker who, as [McVicar] observes at one point, increasingly displayed no 'ability to cooperate with anyone who disagreed with his interpretation of Scripture, no matter how minor or insignificant the distinction.'" —Richard J. Mouw, First Things



Not only is this volume a much-welcomed contribution to the scholarship of religious conservatism and evangelicalism in America, it also serves a model for scholars who are writing about persons whose opinions differ markedly from their own.—H-Net Reviews



Far surpass[es] in scope and depth of research anything previously written about Rushdoony or the movement he birthed.—H-Catholic, H-Net Reviews



Highly recommended for anyone seeking a detailed background on this little-known, little-understood offshoot of American religious conservatism.—Church and State

From the Publisher

03/15/2015
McVicar (religion, Florida State Univ.) provides an extensively researched and critical yet balanced history of the Christian Reconstruction movement and its founder, R.J. Rushdoony (1916–2001). The author relies on a multitude of resources, including Rushdoony's personal papers and correspondence, to demonstrate that the movement and its creator aspired to a powerful "restructuring" of individual lives and also of American society and politics as a whole through their variety of controversial "Christian" leadership, based in part upon Old Testament law. McVicar doesn't shy away from discussing some of the moral contradictions—mean-spiritedness and even cruelty, personal opportunism disguised as piety—of Rushdoony and his associates. Despite the movement's decline starting in the 1990s and beyond, McVicar finds many of its racist, patriarchal, antistate, and educational tenets (such as homeschooling) flourishing in newer movements (e.g., the Tea Party) and in much popular public opinion—especially about what constitutes good and bad religion. VERDICT Specialists in religion, politics, sociology, history, and cultural analysis, as well as the general public, can find rich reflection herein no matter their personal, political, or religious persuasions.—Carolyn Craft, emerita, Longwood Univ., Farmville, VA

Library Journal