Overview

How did a predictable “family values” evangelical politics become the engine of an anti-democratic movement with unprecedented access to American power? Keri Ladner traces that transformation through the rise of dominionism—a radical strain of evangelical Christianity that frames political authority as a biblical mandate and treats democracy less as a safeguard than as an obstacle to overcome. Ladner argues that the alliance between Donald Trump and the evangelical right cannot be explained by political expediency alone. Dominionist pastors were among Trump’s earliest allies in the 2016 Republican primaries, and after his 2024 election the movement has gained extraordinary influence within the party and the state, including direct proximity to national leaders at the highest levels. Rooted in an intense, literalized reading of Scripture, dominionism is animated by spiritual warfare: demons are not metaphors but actors, and demonization becomes both a theology and a tool of political mobilization. In this worldview, conspiracy cultures such as QAnon find ready spiritual reinforcement, deepening polarization and accelerating radicalization within the modern Republican coalition. Moving from the early twentieth-century Pentecostal-charismatic revival movement to today’s networked megachurches, Ladner shows how a once-obscure religious fringe built durable institutions and mass appeal through dramatic healing revivals, disciplined teaching, and a steady drumbeat of “chosen nation” rhetoric. She maps the formation of a religious counterculture—often presented as conventional conservatism—shaped by curricula that traveled from homeschooling into wider educational spaces. The result is a vibrant, fast-growing religious movement that promises spiritual power and national renewal, even as it places America’s democratic norms under increasing strain.

Full Product Details

9798216275763

Table of Contents

Reviews

A bold, timely and engaging book, American Dominion provides an authoritative study of an increasingly significant force in politics that has consequences well beyond the USA. Once dismissed as a deluded fantasy of a handful of eccentric evangelicals, Dominionism is now at the centre of power in the Whitehouse and its world-shaping project is well underway, transforming the lives of many who have never heard of it, and tearing up the democratic fabric of America. Ladner has provided exactly the kind of insightful and informed analysis that is urgently needed to understand this theocratic revolution. -- Justin Meggitt * Professor of the Study of Religion, University of Cambridge *

Author Information

Keri Ladner, PhD, is an expert on fundamentalist politics in America and the radicalization of the conservative movement. She specializes in the religious beliefs of the American right wing, and her work illuminates how those beliefs have become part of American power structures. She is the author of End Time Politics: From the Moral Majority to Qanon (2024) and her publications have been featured in a number of media outlets, including Christian Century, Religion Dispatches, and Good Faith Media.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available