Second, she has thoroughly sourced her materials. First, throughout the book, she does not attempt to conceal her perspective, thus allowing the reader to make his or her own judgments. As with all authors, her own biases and ideological commitments necessarily serve as the backdrop of any attempted ‘objective analysis.’ Nevertheless, she mitigates this in two ways. WHERE I AGREE: Du Mez’s credentials as a historian are evident. In the review below, I’ll focus on her analysis of the theological views of this movement. My interests, however, are more theological than political. In fact, the book is mainly about those ramifications. The book goes into far greater detail regarding the political ramifications of Christianity Nationalism and notions of biblical masculinity than this review will address. Lest there be any doubt regarding her own position on the subject, her subtitle provides much clarity: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. She then explores how these shifting definitions shaped the rise of Christian Nationalism and Evangelicalism’s entanglement with geopolitics. Her latest book, Jesus and John Wayne, is a pointed and astute historical analysis of how contemporary Evangelicalism has defined the notion of masculinity over the last 100 years. Though, as is usually the case, judging a book requires reading it.ĭu Mez is a professor of history at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Even if that label was accurate, does that necessarily mean she has nothing meaningful to say? His dismissive comment only made me want to read the book more, even though I acknowledge Du Mez is outside my “theological lane,” so-to-speak. Sometimes in a single day, almost always without any hint of accuracy. I’ve been labeled a conservative, a Communist, a liberal, a feminist, a patriarchalist, a rabid fundamentalist, and more. More basic yet, labels such as “feminist,” “liberal,” and “conservative” are so overused, misused, and divergently used to be almost meaningless. This pastor hadn’t read any of her books, and I suspect he held no meaningful definition of what actually constituted a “radical” feminist. “Kristin Du Mez is a radical feminist.” This was a fellow pastor’s response when a mutual friend asked if we had read her latest book.