From Liberalism’s Ashes: Christian Nationalism and Constructing Postliberal Futures through Digital Media and a Gendered Past

This paper examines how neo-Reformed pastors Joel Webbon and Andrew Isker mobilize postliberal critiques of liberal modernity to imagine a Christian nationalist future through print and digital media. In their books, they argue that liberal societies erode communities, traditions, and divinely ordained social hierarchies. As an alternative, they support forming insular Christian communities organized around heteropatriarchal families and shared religious commitments—which they are attempting to do in Texas and Tennessee. Drawing on Rod Dreher’s “Benedict option” and interpretations of Alasdair MacIntyre, Webbon and Isker frame withdrawal from liberal society as recreating a heteropatriarchal past and preparing a future Christian nation. Through social media posts, testimonials, and images of congregational life, their digital content presents their communities as previews of this future. Digital media thus circulates a localized Christian nationalist future to national and global audiences, visualizing it as attainable and desirable.