LibGuides: THEO 360 Religious Extremism: Home

Library Catalog Search Terms

Click the links below to get lists of books in our collection. Also, once in a list try clicking on our Partner Libraries tab for more. You can request the Partner Library books through the ILL process.

Books in our collection

White Evangelical Racism : the politics of morality in America by Anthea Butler
Call Number: Library Second Floor Stacks BR563.W45 B88 2021
ISBN: 9781469661179
Publication Date: 2021
Also able to be ordered from our partner libraries through the Interlibrary Loan process.
"The American political scene today is poisonously divided, and the vast majority of white evangelicals play a strikingly unified, powerful role in the disunion. These evangelicals raise a starkly consequential question for electoral politics: Why do they claim morality while supporting politicians who act immorally by most Christian measures? In this clear-eyed, hard-hitting chronicle of American religion and politics, Anthea Butler answers that racism is at the core of conservative evangelical activism and power"
Unholy: why white evangelicals worship at the altar of Donald Trump by Sarah Posner
Call Number: Library Second Floor Stacks BR526 .P67 2020
ISBN: 9781984820426
Publication Date: 2020
"Why did so many Evangelicals turn out to vote for Donald Trump, a serial philanderer with questionable conservative credentials who seems to defy Christian values with his every utterance? To a reporter like Sarah Posner, who has been covering the religious right for decades, the answer turns out to be far more intuitive than one might think. In this taut and meticulously reported inquiry, Posner digs deep into the radical history of the religious right to reveal how issues of race and xenophobia have always been at the movement's core, and how religion has been used to cloak anxieties about percieved threats to a white, Christian America. "
Lift High the Cross: where white supremacy and the Christian right converge by Ann Burlein
Call Number: Library Second Floor Stacks E184.A1 B899 2002
ISBN: 0822328372
Publication Date: 2002
"Both the Christian right and right-wing white supremacist groups aspire to overcome a culture they perceive as hostile to the white middle class, families, and heterosexuality. The family is threatened, they claim, by a secular humanist conspiracy that seeks to erase all memory of the nation’s Christian heritage by brainwashing its children through sex education, multiculturalism, and pop culture. In Lift High the Cross Ann Burlein looks at two groups that represent, in one case, the “hard” right, and in the other, the “soft” right—Pete Peters’s “Scriptures for America” and James Dobson’s “Focus on the Family”—in order to investigate the specific methods these groups rely on to appeal to their followers."
Under the Cover of Chaos : Trump and the battle for the American right by Lawrence Grossberg (Contribution by)
Call Number: Library Second Floor Stacks (E913 .G76 2018
ISBN: 9780745337913
Publication Date: 2018
"The author shows the deep roots of Trumpism in the broader history of postwar US conservatism. "
Failing America's Faithful: how today's churches mixed God with politics and lost their way by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Call Number: Library Second Floor Stacks BR526 .T72 2007
ISBN: 9780446577151
Publication Date: 2007
"Educator and philanthropist Kennedy Townsend issues a spiritual call to arms to all those who feel that churches in America today--Catholic and Protestant alike--are failing the faithful. American churches today are more involved in offering prescriptions for what one ought not to do than in working for the greater good. Kennedy Townsend grew up when both America and the Church were undergoing a revolutionary transformation. She documents how America's churches have been in the forefront of the fight for social progress: from the struggle for independence, to the abolitionist movement, to the support of women's suffrage, better working conditions, and civil rights. And she shows how today's churches, allied with the political right, have become obsessed with fighting legal and legislative battles about personal and private issues, while the neediest are forgotten. But opposition to this distortion of Christian traditions has been growing, and the book's message is one of hope.--From publisher description."
Anti-Blackness and Christian Ethics by Vincent W. Lloyd (Editor); Andrew Prevot (Editor)
Call Number: Library Second Floor Stacks E185.615 .A725 2017
ISBN: 9781626982512
Publication Date: 2017
"From police violence to mass incarceration, from environmental racism to micro-aggressions, the moral gravity of anti-black racism is attracting broad attention. How do Christian ideas, practices, and institutions contribute to today's struggle for racial justice? And how do they need to be reimagined in light of the challenges to white supremacy posed by today's movements for racial justice?"
Encyclopedia of Right-Wing Extremism in Modern American History by Stephen E. Atkins
Call Number: Library Second Floor Stacks HN90.R3 A753 2011
ISBN: 9781598843507
Publication Date: 2011
"Description: Ku Klux Klan movements -- Other white supremacist movements -- Early American neo-fascist and neo-Nazi movements -- Modern American neo-Nazis and neo-fascist movements -- Neo-Nazi skinheads and the white supremacist movement -- Anti-semitism and the right wing -- Christian identity movement -- Christian reconstructionism and other white supremacist churches -- Early extremist anti-government movements -- Militia movements -- Anti-government direct action conspiracies."

The research assignment Fall 2021

Final Paper on a Modern Christian Extremist-Movement

A 4–5 page paper (plus title page & bibliography) will be submitted to Blackboard by Dec. 10 at 11:59pm. Students will use Chicago formatting, with footnotes that follow SBL Style.
Students will examine a modern religious-extremist movement to uncover its connections and disconnects to the history of Christian extremism, and to critique the chosen movement’s reasoning & belief systems.
- Course Materials from Section 1 will be employed to clarify why the student’s chosen movement is extremist, and to inform the student’s understanding of the group’s motives and actions.
  - What makes the chosen movement extremist, rather than just odd or unusual?
  - Do the members genuinely engage with biblical texts, or are biblical texts bent to fit their agendas/ideologies?
- Course Materials from Sections 2–4 materials will be used to hold a mirror to the chosen movement.
  - Does the movement share similar beliefs, behaviors, justifications, or outreach strategies with movements we have covered in class? How is the chosen movement different?
- Additional researched materials will be used to learn about the chosen movement. Students will spend time in the library using physical print-media and e-databases to learn about their movement and develop a clear thesis. A thesis is the paper’s overall argument: the main point. The entirety of the paper needs to revolve around its thesis.

Databases for Journal Articles - SAU Users only

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
This interdisciplinary database contains over 2,800 full-text scholarly journals, 30,000 full-text eBooks, and 40,000 full-text research reports from various organizations and policy institutes. Beloved by many old-school professors and especially good for humanities and (older) social science content.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
The interdisciplinary database searches all of the ProQuest company's databases in one mega-search (we have 16 ProQuest databases at the library). Will contain a variety of scholarly articles, magazines, newspapers, and books.
Atla Religion Database with AtlaSerials This link opens in a new window
This religious studies database from EBSCO includes 380 full-text scholarly journals and 2,500 indexed journals. Also includes the CATHOLIC PERIODICAL & LITERATURE INDEX, which includes essay collections, church documents, papal documents, and electronic resources addressing the practice and intellectual tradition of Roman Catholicism.
EBSCOhost This link opens in a new window
This interdisciplinary database searches all of the EBSCO company's databases in one mega-search (we have 27 EBSCO databases at the library). Will contain a variety of scholarly articles, magazines, newspapers, and books.

Search strings to try in the databases: (also try the name of any one organization or group)

ProQuest Central

"extremism" AND subject(christian) NOT (Islam OR Muslim)

subject("extremism") AND subject("christianity") NOT (Islam OR Muslim)

Atla Religion database:

extremism AND christian* NOT (Islam OR Muslim)

(fascism OR nationalism OR neo-nationalism) AND Christian*

Ebscohost in general:

(fascism OR nationalism OR neo-nationalism) AND christian* AND extremis*

Jstor:

white evangelical extremism

Selected Web Sites

Religious Extremism - Polls and polling data
"Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. We conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. We do not take policy positions."
Extremist Files
A list of the extremist groups in America. From the Southern Poverty Law Center: "The SPLC is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people."
Hate in God's Name
From the Southern Poverty Law Center; "In this article
Introduction
White supremacists
Sovereign Citizens Movement
Militia extremists
Anti-abortion extremists"
Holy Hate: The Far Right’s Radicalization of Religion
An intelligence report from the Southern Poverty Law Center
FBI Releases Updated 2020 Hate Crime Statistics
A primary source. "13.3% of hate crimes are based on Religion"
The Identity Christian Movement: Ideology of Domestic Terrorism Tanya Telfair Sharpe Journal of Black Studies Vol. 30, No. 4 (Mar., 2000), pp. 604-623 (20 pages)
SAU Users only
The White Christian Nationalism Behind the Worst Domestic Terrorist Attack in American History
"Literary Hub is an organizing principle in the service of literary culture, a single, trusted, daily source for all the news, ideas and richness of contemporary literary life. "
Christian Identity is a religious ideology popular in extreme right-wing circles.
from the ADL: "ADL is a leading anti-hate organization that was founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of anti-semitism and bigotry."
Right-Wing Religion: Christian Conservatism as a Political Movement Michael by Lienesch, Political Science Quarterly Vol. 97, No. 3 (Autumn, 1982), pp. 403-425 (23 pages)
SAU Users only
A Multidimensional Analysis of Religious Extremism
In U.S., Far More Support Than Oppose Separation of Church and State But there are pockets of support for increased church-state integration, more Christianity in public life
Charts and primary data: Polls from the Pew Research Center

Other

Going dark : the secret social lives of extremists / Julia Ebner. Ebner, Julia, [author.] London ; New York, NY : Bloomsbury Publishing 2020
You can order this book through the Interlibrary Loan process.

Citation Help

Chicago Style Citation Guide
This site contains information on The Chicago Manual of Style method of document formatting and citation. These resourcescontains information on The Chicago Manual of Style method of document formatting and citation. These resources follow the seventeenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, which was issued in 2017.
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from the Middlebury Library at Middlebury College.
Quick Clear Guide to Chicago Style
from the George Mason University Writing Center
Sample paper for Chicago 17th ed.
Chicago Style: The Basics: Youtube vidcast.
Easy to follow along.... includes layout of the paper as well as instructions about footnotes. Created by Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab).
Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide
The Chicago Manual of Style presents two basic documentation systems: (1) notes and bibliography and (2) author-date. Choosing between the two often depends on subject matter and the nature of sources cited, as each system is favored by different groups of scholars.
The notes and bibliography style is preferred by many in the humanities, including those in literature, history, and the arts. This style presents bibliographic information in notes and, often, a bibliography. It accommodates a variety of sources, including esoteric ones less appropriate to the author-date system.
The author-date system has long been used by those in the physical, natural, and social sciences. In this system, sources are briefly cited in the text, usually in parentheses, by author’s last name and date of publication. The short citations are amplified in a list of references, where full bibliographic information is provided.

Book and Journal articles and Web sites in Chicago Style
Chicago Style Citation Footnotes
with useful tips for Microsoft Word
Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Initials
Chicago for Law and Government sources
Footnoting Constitutions in Chicago Style

SAU Reference Librarian

Stella Herzig

Contact:

SAU Library
518 West locust St.
Davenport, IA 52803
Library 1st floor, Rm.124
herzigstellaj@sau.edu

563-333-6056

Subjects: English & Literature, Hot Topics, Philosophy, Psychology, Theology & Catholic Studies

How to place an Interlibrary Loan request

Interlibrary Loan Instructions

Requesting Books from Iowa Partner Libraries
This step by step guide shows one how by signing in to Library Central, one can get a book delivered from one of our eight university partner libraries, if we do not have the title here in the SAU library building.

Direct Link to your SAU ILL account portal (SAU users only)
Use your SAU creds (same as your Blackboard login) to access a request form for articles and book chapters. See guide above for step-by-step directions.

Selected Articles

Devega, Chauncey. “Interview: Religion scholar Anthea Butler on "White Christianity" and its role in fueling fascism.” Salon. Published October 19, 2021. https://www.salon.com/2021/10/19/religion-scholar-anthea-butler-on-white-christianity-and-its-role-in

Butler, Anthea. "From Republican Party to Republican Religion: The New Political Evangelists of the Right." Political Theology 13, no. 5 (01, 2012): 634-651. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/poth.v13i5.634.
"This essay shows an important shift in the Religious Right from Evangelical participation to Renewalist participation in politics. Renewalists, who are largely Pentecostals, Charismatics and non-denominational Christians, have been lumped into the "Evangelical" category by scholars and the media alike. Yet their theological orientations and concerns drive political questions and actions in different ways. Sarah Palin's placement on the Republican ticket in 2008 as the Vice Presidential candidate represents the first time an explicitly Renewalist Christian has been nominated. Since then, Palin's weaving of her theological orientation has influenced both political activity and Republican candidates in the 2012 election. Butler's essay explores Palin's contribution to this change, and poses questions about how this shift affects the future of the Religious Right."
Gregg, Heather S. “Defining and Distinguishing Secular and Religious Terrorism.” Perspectives on Terrorism 8, no. 2 (2014): 36–51. .
This article defines and differentiates religiously motivated terrorism from traditional terrorism.
Alizadeh, M., Weber, I., Cioffi-Revilla, C. et al. Psychology and morality of political extremists: evidence from Twitter language analysis of alt-right and Antifa. EPJ Data Sci. 8, 17 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-019-0193-9
"...our results mostly lend support to Moral Foundations Theory for partisan users and extend it to the political extremists. With the exception of ingroup loyalty, we found evidences supporting the Moral Foundations Theory among left- and right-wing extremists. However, we found no evidence for elevated moral foundations among political extremists."
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Definition: "Moral Foundations Theory" was created by a group of social and cultural psychologists to understand why morality varies so much across cultures yet still shows so many similarities and recurrent themes. In brief, the theory proposes that several innate and universally available psychological systems are the foundations of “intuitive ethics.” Each culture then constructs virtues, narratives, and institutions on top of these foundations, thereby creating the unique moralities we see around the world, and conflicting within nations too. "
The Evangelical Church is Breaking Apart by Peter Wehner
From The Atlantic magazine