Despite being framed as a safeguard against religious authoritarianism, secularism has failed to prevent the resurgence of Christian nationalism in the United States. This paper interrogates why secularism has proven inadequate, by reading Perry and Whitehead’s Taking America Back for God through the lens of An Yountae’s The Coloniality of the Secular. The secular is not a neutral space, but a colonial theological formation that has shaped religion, governance, and race in ways that have enabled—rather than resisted—the rise of Christian nationalism.
In response, I argue for the need for a "theology of the secular"—a translation of the secular into theological terms for the purposes of explicit theological discourse. An’s work uncovers the decolonial potential in making the implicit theology of decolonial poets explicit. I build on his work to argue that explicit theological discourse is essential for constructing a space of ethical and political resistance to Christian nationalism.