Sacralizing Dominion: The Doctrine of Christian Discovery and the Religious Nationalist Imagination

Religious nationalism is often presented as a modern political phenomenon, yet many of its elements are derived from older theological frameworks that fused religion, sovereignty, and territorial domination. This paper argues that the Doctrine of Christian Discovery provides a crucial historical template for understanding contemporary religious nationalist movements, particularly white Christian nationalism in the United States. Originating in fifteenth-century papal bulls that authorized Christian rulers to seize non-Christian lands, the doctrine sanctified enslavement, exploitation, and extraction. These theological assumptions later became embedded in legal systems and national mythologies, shaping modern ideas of sovereignty and sacred territory. By comparing the historic logic of Christian dominion with contemporary religious nationalist narratives, this paper shows how grievances about lost cultural authority, racialized identity, and divine mandate continue to animate movements that fuse religion with national destiny. Understanding these continuities clarifies how religious nationalism mobilizes sacred history to justify exclusion, violence, and territorial control.