Book Review: In Defense of Christian Patriotism
Daniel Darling. In Defense of Christian Patriotism. Broadside Books, 2025. 288 pp.
Only a marginal minority of Americans has embraced the term “Christian Nationalist.” According to a 2023 Neighborly Faith report, only five percent of respondents self-identified as Christian Nationalists or sympathized with the movement. In most public discourse today, it is a pejorative that secularists (and not a few Christians) throw at the enemy. They rarely define it, and that’s a tactical choice: in the worst manifestations, its two terms empirically stand in inverse relationship. That is, the less “Christian” someone is, say in church attendance, the more likely their “nationalism” will manifest as hostility toward immigration, for example. Several studies show that nationalists with the strongest anti-immigrant positions have lower markers of religiosity.
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In a wise move, Daniel Darling has sidestepped that discussion entirely by arguing In Defense of Christian Patriotism. “Patriotism” has less baggage than “nationalism.” “Patriotism is love of country as manifested in loyalty, service, and giving honor to one’s country” (31).
Yet for many believers today, even patriotism seems problematic. Pride in America is at an all-time low, especially among the young. And many Christians join their voices with critical secularists to question the very foundations of this country. Is it even okay to be patriotic?
“Seek the Welfare of the City Where I Have Sent You”
Most Anglicans today have probably heard Jeremiah 29:7 applied to our time: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile….” Darling reads it far more specifically than as an exhortation to engage with this world. He sees it as a paradigm for the love of country. He grounds this attitude in gratitude to God. “God has given us this country and, with it, the duty to love it. That’s what patriotism is” (xvi).
“A healthy patriotism is not only an acceptable posture for a Christian. I believe it is a necessary posture for a Christian” (xi).
So, he boldly declares his commitments and mission:
I’m writing this book for Christians who love America but are afraid to express it for fear of being accused of idolatry. I’m writing this book for Christians who want to shape the life of their nation but are constantly being told to leave their faith in church on Sunday. I’m writing this book for confused followers of Jesus wondering what it looks like for Christians to faithfully steward their God-given citizenship.
Anglicans and “Our Country”
Historically, Anglicans have had a peculiar relationship with “country.” We were the “Church of England” in our beginnings. Six American colonies made the Church of England their established church before independence. About ten thousand Anglican Loyalists migrated to Canada during and after the American Revolution (1775–1783). In the United States, the name “The Episcopal Church” was adopted to form a church free from British political and ecclesiastical control.
Since then, American Anglicans have been overrepresented in political office, in some eras by as much as twenty times their proportion of the population. This has had a huge impact on how we see “our country.”
Then, too, many of us converts to Anglicanism from other churches grew up hearing sermons casually reapplying Old Testament prophecies to the United States with America as a neo-Israel. (“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves….”)
Christians as Exiles
In contrast to these experiences, Darling is traditionally Baptist. Baptists have rarely had an established church, or at least not one establishing their strain of Baptist. Disestablishment, paradoxically, most closely resembles a Baptist establishment of religion. Some Baptists even read the First Amendment as a creedal statement. (It is not. It’s just good law.)
Darling’s argument that Christians view themselves as exiles, while also vigorously loving the empire, offers built-in safeguards. We should have no illusions about Babylon. Even if Daniels, Shadrachs, Meshachs, and Abednegos providentially rise to power, Babylon will never be Jerusalem.
In Defense of Christian Patriotism has many such caveats. He makes a compelling case, but always with a “To be sure…” attached. The Declaration launched the United States with high ideals. But from the beginning, we often failed to live up to them. We owe loyalty to our country. But sometimes that will look like loyal opposition, even civil disobedience, as in the best examples of the civil rights movement. Christians should aspire to gain influence, often through politics. But power can corrupt. We have many positive stories to tell about our country. But the patriotism of some citizens is tempered by the suffering they endured during our shameful history. And so on.
Patriotism among the “Loves”
Patriotism has helpful connotations, easily placing gratitude for the country among other “loves” such as home, family, community, and region. Darling uses just such an Augustinian perspective to argue that patriotism is not only allowable, but a God-ordained obligation.
“Fear God. Honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:17). We must never allow anything to compromise our love for God. (I would add, also per Augustine: we love anything other than God only for the sake of God.) But it is God who has placed us here, and we owe it to God to give the honor due to the secular offices and institutions established by his providence.
Darling openly states his political leanings: conservative and Republican. That could dissuade some readers, but it shouldn’t. He is self-aware. Plus, his arguments will mostly encourage Christians with different policy conclusions (he encourages debate on reforming public education, stewardship of American power abroad, and how best to strengthen the family). Just as some of his other arguments will dislodge some conservatives and Republicans from wrong ideas and misplaced loyalties.
The second half of the book, giving practical guidelines, may initially perplex some readers. What does involvement in one’s church, for example, have to do with patriotism? Much, in every way. Our nestedness in our spiritual community is seamless with our love of country. The church loves and serves the country as the church. A strong country depends on strong families. And so forth.
Laypeople will find the book accessible, and even an excellent introduction to faith and politics. Christian schools and homeschoolers could easily make this a civics textbook for upper grades. The biggest challenge for preachers and teachers may be the wealth of insights and the difficulty in summarizing, but it belongs on their reference shelf, in any event. It is intensely researched and referenced, full of “quotables,” and includes many stories.
The book has less to offer to Anglicans outside the American context. But the principles of this case study do apply elsewhere.
Image: In Defense of Christian Patriotism © 2025 Broadside Books.
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