5. Conservative Christians as Theologically Rigid and Socially Diverse

Abstract

This chapter empirically addresses two key questions: (1) how do theologically conservative Christians justify their acceptance or rejection of other Christians? and (2) how do theologically conservative Christians justify their acceptance or rejection of Muslims? Conservative Christians tend to rely on a rigid traditionalist theology to determine who is in their in-group. The chapter argues that conservative Christians are overwhelmingly theologically exclusive, relying on what this book calls a historical theology, and many see themselves as more closely aligned with progressive Christians than with Muslims. They are more apt to see Muslims as members of a separate religion from their own, and they tend to perceive that Islam is opposed to Christianity’s core tenets, including doctrines relating to the person of Jesus, the cross, the Trinity, and faithfulness to the Bible. In contrast, conservatives see progressive Christians as part of their in-group, including them in their social networks, because they perceive that progressive Christians agree with them on who Jesus is, the importance of the cross, and Trinitarian theology. Theologically conservative Christians are more likely to have a heterogeneous Christian social circle, and they have overwhelmingly moderate views of progressive Christians (more often seeing them as wrong but with pure motivations).