Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Damon Berry recently had his research published in a well-known religious studies academic journal.
The article, “Voting in the Kingdom: Prophecy Voters, the New Apostolic Reformation, and Christian Support for Trump,” was published by Nova Religio, a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal that presents scholarly interpretations and examinations of emergent and alternative religious movements.
According to the article summary, Evangelical Christian support for U.S. President Donald Trump quickly became a focus for journalistic and scholarly efforts to understand the results of the 2016 presidential election. Most studies have focused on Trump’s position on social issues or voters’ racialized nostalgia for an idealized American past. In this article, Berry draws attention to motives not analyzed by these studies.
Berry says, “Among the leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation, a new charismatically inclined Christian movement, alleged prophecies explaining that God had chosen Trump to become president compelled their support for his candidacy, presidency, and attempt at reelection in 2020. I argue that Trump’s support among what I call prophecy voters resulted from their obedience to these prophecies and the accompanying mandate to combat alleged demonic conspiracies aligned against President Trump that seek to prevent the eventual establishment of the Kingdom of God on Earth.”
Berry’s research focuses on the imbrication of religious and racialized discourses that shape and inform logics of exclusion and violence. He regularly teaches courses such as Global Christianities, Religion & Race, Religion & Violence, Religion in Conspiracy Theory, and American Religious Lives.
Learn more about St. Lawrence’s Department of Religious Studies.
