RT Article
T1 Christian identity: the apocalyptic style, political religion, palingenesis and neo‐fascism
JF Totalitarian movements and political religions
VO 5
IS 3
SP 469
OP 506
A1 BERLET, CHIP
LA English
PB Taylor & Francis
YR 2004
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1838549676
AB Aggressively dualistic versions of the Christian Identity theology in the United States are accurately described as neo‐fascist. This study will examine one such group, Aryan Nations, to illustrate how Gentile's theory of fascism as a totalitarian system that promotes the sacralisation of politics, and Griffin's theory of fascism as a form of palingenetic trans‐class populism, are complementary; and fit into a broader scholarly trend that classifies certain social movements as forms of apocalyptic millenarianism. This claim creates an Escher‐like picture in which the ‘sacralisation of politics’ leads up the down staircase to groups that add a theological dimension to a totalitarian political ideology that is palingenetic, and which began in fascist Italy as an attempt to create a secular form of sacred nationalism, thus producing a relationship between religion and politics that is fraught with irony and paradox.
DO 10.1080/1469076042000312221