First Advisor

Priya Kapoor

Term of Graduation

Spring 2026

Date of Publication

9-14-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Political Science

Department

Political Science

Language

English

Subjects

Christian Nationalism, identity formation, political socialization, religion

Physical Description

1 online resource (v, 168 pages)

Abstract

Evangelical Christian fiction has reached tens of millions of readers and viewers during the most sustained period of evangelical political mobilization in American history, yet its narrative construction remains largely unexamined. This study asks how recurrent tropes in this genre build the attitudinal and emotional preconditions for political engagement. Combining systematic qualitative content analysis of eight texts spanning four decades (1986–2024) with Critical Discourse Analysis grounded in van Dijk's sociocognitive framework, it traces how storytelling devices connect theological belief to political behavior. The analysis reveals a single organizing logic: the corpus holds one regressive heroic disposition constant while making it endlessly portable across register, scale, and rationale — secularizing supernatural imagery into constitutional language, addressing every level of civic life, and renewing its urgency through founding-covenant nationalism. The findings reframe popular fiction as a vehicle of political socialization, modeling civic participation as religious obedience and electoral politics as the culmination of faith.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/45143

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