Remembering 9/11: Religious Maximalism in the United States of America Twenty Years after the Attacks
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24220/2447-6803v46e2021a5485Keywords:
Christian maximalism., Politics and religion, Religion in the United States of America, Religious nationalism, Terrorist attacksAbstract
On September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda partisans hijacked four American airliners. Three of the planes struck their targets:
the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside of Washington, DC. In “Holy Terrors: Thinking
about Religion after September 11” (2nd ed., 2006), Bruce Lincoln made several provocative proposals about the
study of religion and the category of fundamentalism, based on his reflection after those attacks. This article
extends some of Lincoln’s proposals by refining his category “religious maximalism” in terms of his four domains of religion (transcendent discourse, practices, community, and regulatory institution), rather than considering it as a replacement for the category “fundamentalism” or as a global religious pattern. The article then examines several presidential speeches to chart the progress of Christian maximalism in the United States of America. The last four presidential speeches before the 20th anniversary of 9/11 were delivered by President Donald Trump. These speeches deemphasized religion, ignored history, disregarded basic factual accuracy, and promoted the authoritarian use of power. These signaled a move not toward religious maximalism, but rather toward racist nationalism. The article concludes that American Christian maximalists who helped elect President Trump did not gain control of the national transcendent discourse during his term of office, but they did gain considerable control of judicial and legislative power. It remains to be seen whether they can use their power in the national regulatory institutions to move the United States of America toward Christian maximalism in the long wake of 9/11.
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