Nationalism is Not a Fad

It’s Our Fate

In his acceptance speech at the RNC last month, vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance stirred controversy by challenging the widely held belief that America is primarily an “idea.” While not entirely dismissing the creedal narrative, Vance argued that a country’s bonds must surpass mere abstraction and consist in a “shared history” and a “common future.” More than a notion, America is a “nation” where patriotism is deeply rooted in the sense of belonging. To reinforce the point, the senator referenced his Appalachian relatives who “love this country, not only because it’s a good idea, but because in their bones they know that this is their home.”    

The recent surge of nationalistic fervor among conservatives like Vance is often dismissed as a predictable response to present political perturbations. But, I believe it represents a much more primordial yearning: the desire for a homeland.      

The Promise of Nationhood

The rupture created by Adam and Eve’s malfeasance in Genesis 3 meant that history had to be torn again before it could be mended. A (re)rending that occurs in Genesis 12 with the calling of Abram and Sarai to leave their country and kindred. This divine directive, like the Cherubim’s prodding sword in Eden, demanded the abandonment of their homeland. But in contrast to their primal parents, Abram and Sarai’s exodus headed west instead of east, marking a return to paradise, rather than a banishment from it. And yet, the required sacrifice was seemingly as great, for it meant forsaking all they had known: their land, nation, gods—their very way of being in the world.        

The departure of Abraham from Ur, however, is not so much about the man himself as it is about his descendants. For from this one commoner, God would raise a commonwealth whose abundant cultural output would bless all the nations of the earth. This means that God promised Abraham the very thing that he and his pagan ancestors had longed for and tried to achieve through their own Babelian ingenuity: the establishment of a nation and a land by which they could make a name for themselves.     

Thus, God’s promised future doesn’t reject pagan hopes but redirects them, as the natural desire for a people, place, and posterity finds true fulfillment in the promise of nation, land, and seed. A covenant initially consummated in Israel’s establishment in Canaan but finally in all the nations of the earth in the eschaton.   

A Partial Fulfillment 

Since our banishment from Eden, then it is in our nature to desire “a better country” (Heb. 11:16). We yearn for a people and place to call our own so that we will no longer “wander the earth as nomads” but “dwell in the land, feeding upon our Father’s faithfulness” (Gen. 4:12; Ps. 37:3). This is why the experience of homecoming is so sweet to us. Why, when returning from a prolonged trip, even the scent of our abode brings serenity. For “home,” as Hölderlin revealed, is a thing of myths.  

Therefore, we labor collectively and generationally to cultivate this world, refining it into a proper dwelling place—a piece of heaven on earth. We do so not in pagan futility but patriarchal faith, believing that by following in Abraham’s footsteps, we are marching our way toward the true promised land. That place where the “glory and honor” of the nations will be brought into the Holy City as “the kingdoms of this world…become the kingdoms of our Lord” (Rev. 21:26; 11:15). In the New Jerusalem, far from disappearing, our national identity will be deified. This means that nationhood is not a fad;it’s our fate. And the task at present is to prepare our province and people for that glorifying procession.  

Guarding Our Inheritance 

Therefore, while we must resist the temptation to turn our love of homeland into an idol (the utopian urge to immanentize the eschaton), we must also be wary of those who wish to deceive us into denying its virtue—fellow heirs who resent our final destination and resolve to return us to the barbarism of Ur. A threat posed not only by profligate elites who pillory our nation as irredeemably repressed but by those who gain societal acclaim through accommodating such acrimony—conservatives who wish to conserve only their own conceit.

To allow these vandals to plunder our homeland and carry us off into wilderness futility is to forfeit the fortune provided not only by our forefathers but our Father in heaven. It is to be bewitched anew by the ancient lie that in erasing every boundary our adversary seeks to expand the kingdom; in reality his goal is to tear down every signpost leading to it whereabouts. It is to return to the infamous abdication of responsibility that began man’s wandering in the first place.

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