Whatever Christian nationalism is, it takes its form and energy from its context. Over the past 12 months, the think tank Theos has been researching the apparent rise of Christian nationalism in Europe, with studies under way in France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and the UK.
What is clear, even at this stage, is that the nature of this phenomenon alters depending on whether, for example, you are living in a once Roman Catholic but now firmly and formally secular polity (like France), a nation that has self-consciously seen itself as the gatehouse for Christian European Civilisation (like Hungary), or a country, such as Britain, that has a remarkably deep Christian history, a formally Christian “constitution”, but very low levels of church attendance. All these factors pour into and colour the phenomena of Christian nationalism.
The UK research, which has just been published in the report Beyond “Christian Nationalism”, shows that there is something that could legitimately be termed “Christian nationalism” in today’s Britain. But it also shows that the concept of Christianity that you have in mind (belief? practice? ethics? identity?), and the concept of Britishness (civic/political? cultural? ethnic/natal?) will, not surprisingly, shape the way you think about how the two relate to each other….
Finally, for all that this group are strongly Christian — 81 per cent claiming affiliation, 81 per cent being baptised/christened, 49 per cent definitely believing in God or some “higher power” — they are not strongly church-attending: only 13 per cent attend weekly, compared with a sample average of 11 per cent. Nor do they show particularly strong levels of prayer.
📈 Analysis: Defining Christian nationalism depends significantly on context, ✍️ Nick Spencer @theosnick #ChurchTimes #Analysis https://t.co/Nmnx8EkQRD
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) October 20, 2026
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