Christianity: Details about 'Dominion Theology'
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Dominion Theology is a term used by some social scientists and journalists to describe a theological form of political ideology, which they claim has influenced the Christian Right in the United States, Canada, and Europe, within Protestant Christian evangelicalism and fundamentalism. It is associated in these writers' investigations with the movement they call Dominionism, and is described as a more ideologically aggressive form of that movement.
EtymologyDominion Theology is derived from the Biblical text where God grants humankind "dominion" over the Earth. It is influenced by postmillennialism, a view of the End Times which believes that godliness will eventually pervade secular society (some so-called "Golden Age" postmillennialists believe the present age will culminate in a literal one-thousand-year period of virtual heaven on earth, a millennium) before Jesus returns in a Second Coming. AdherenceMost mainline Christian denominations (and most Christian evangelicals and fundamentalists) reject Dominion Theology. Many participants in the Christian Right in the United States, however, are classified by critics as a "soft" form of Dominionism involving both postmillennialists and premillennialists and others in a coalition seeking political power. Often, Dominionism flows out of a form of triumphalism in which a specific religion assumes that it is the only proper and legitimate religion. HistoryDominion Theology arose in the 1970s in religious movements reasserting aspects of Christian nationalism. Ideas for how to accomplish this vary. Very doctrinaire versions of Dominion Theology are sometimes called "Hard Dominionism" or "Theocratic Dominionism," because they seek relatively authoritarian theocratic or theonomic forms of government. Sub-articlesChristian Reconstructionism
An example of Dominionism in reformed theology is Christian Reconstructionism. While acknowleding the small number of actual adherents, authors such as Sara Diamond and Frederick Clarkson have argued that postmillennial Christian Reconstructionism played a major role in pushing the primarily premillennial Christian Right to adopt a more aggressive dominionist stance. . According to Diamond, "Reconstructionism is the most intellectually grounded, though esoteric, brand of dominion theology." Dominionism, Dominion Theology, and Christian Reconstructionism are not the same thing. A nested subset chart looks like this:
The specific meanings are different in important ways, although the terms have been used in a variety of conflicting ways in popular articles, especially on the Internet. Christian Reconstructionism
Some factions of the Christian Identity movement have credited Christian Reconstructionism in their development of a form of a premillennial political ideology, which identifies Caucasians as elect Israel, and the authentic Christian race. Before his death, R.J. Rushdoony vehemently denied any continuity in their ideology with the program of the Chalcedon Foundation, condemning them as rejectors of the Gospel, believers in "salvation by race, rather than by grace". Kingdom Now theology
Kingdom Now theology is another example of Dominion Theology, according to some writers who use this terminology. The Kingdom Now movement appears to belong to a very different, somewhat antithetical theological stream, compared to Christian Reconstructionism. See also
ReferencesBarron, Bruce. 1992. Heaven on Earth? The Social & Political Agendas of Dominion Theology. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan. Rushdoony, Rousas John. 1973. The Institutes of Biblical Law. Nutley, NJ: P & R Publishing (Craig Press). Diamond, Sara. 1995. Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States. New York: Guilford Press.
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