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This article is on the religious concept of dominionism. See Dominion (disambiguation) for other meanings of the word dominion
Dominionism is a trend in Protestant Christian evangelicalism and fundamentalism that encourages not just active political participation in civic society but also attempts to take over and dominate the political process.
The broad concept of Dominionism is based on the Bible's text in Genesis 1:26:
- "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'" NIV
Most Christians interpret this verse as meaning that God gave humankind dominion over the Earth. Many consider this a mandate for stewardship rather than the assertion of total control. A more assertive interpretation of this verse is seen as a command that Christians bring all societies, around the world, under the rule of the Word of God, as they understand it.
As Sara Diamond explains, the general Dominionist idea, is "that Christians alone are Biblically mandated to occupy all secular institutions until Christ returns -- and there is no consensus on when that might be. Dominionist thinking precludes coalitions between believers and unbelievers...."[1] (http://zena.secureforum.com/Znet/zmag/articles/feb95diamond.htm) This creates a contradictory tension. "The Christian Right wants to take dominion," says Diamond, but also wants to work within "the existing political-economic system, at the same time." In the United States, Dominionism raises issues of separation of church and state, but since Dominionism appears in a variety of forms, it is important to take each example and evaluate the specific beliefs, especially around the issue of theocracy.
Generic dominionism
A large portion of the Christian Right in the United States is involved in generic or "soft" versions of Dominionism, and work in a coalition that includes both postmillennialists and premillennialists seeking political power primarily through the Republican Party. These dominionists generally insist that "America is a Christian Nation," and that therefore Christians need to re-assert control over political and cultural institutions. Yet many stop short of articulating a position that could be called theocratic.
Theocratic dominionism The terms Theocratic Dominionism or Hard Dominionism, describe forms of Dominion Theology, a religious trend that arose in the 1970s as a series of small Christian movements that seek to establish a theocratic form of government. In the United States, a very doctrinaire version of Hard Dominionism is Christian Reconstructionism, a theonomic movement that seeks to replace the secular governance model and the U.S. Constitution with a political and judicial system based on the Old Testament, or Mosaic Law.
Critics of the theocratic versions of dominionism often lump all the variants together, and use the terms Dominionism, Dominion Theology, and Christian Reconstructionism almost interchangeably, but this is problematic. For example, all Christian Reconstructionists are Dominionists, but not all Dominionists are Christian Reconstructionists.
Roots and branches Both forms of Dominionism have appeared in Canada, and several European countries, as well as the United States. Dominionism as a trend in the late 1970s and 1980s was sparked in part by a series of books and films featuring Francis A. Schaeffer, a popular theologian based in Switzerland.
References - Barron, Bruce. 1992. Heaven on Earth? The Social & Political Agendas of Dominion Theology. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan. ISBN: 0310536111
- Diamond, Sara. 1995. Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States. New York: Guilford Press. ISBN: 0898628644
- Clarkson, Frederick. 1997. Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage. ISBN: 1567510884
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