Study title

This project explored the efforts of Chrsitian nationalist activists and government officials to "actualize" the constitutional declaration that Zambia is a "Christian nation." The central component of the data are field notes from four months of participant-observation in Zambia’s government Ministry of National Guidance and Religious Affairs. In addition to this material are further fieldnotes outlining participant-observation at the 2018 National Day of Prayer, church-sponsored prayer meetings, and notes from interviews with church and government leaders. Finally, there are notes and recordings of a radio call-in show sponsored by the project. This live broadcast featured church leaders and political commentators debating the meaning of the declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation, as well as comments from the national audience who phoned into the show.There can be no doubt that we live in a world where religion has taken on a great deal of political importance. The rise of Hindu nationalism in India, debates about the Christian character of the European Union, and the implementation of Sharia law in several Nigerian states all point to the fact that famous social scientific predictions that secularism would follow modernity have not come to pass. These examples, as well as numerous others from across the globe, raise some important questions: What are the political effects of religious nationalism? How do changes in the political status of a religion impact ritual life, belief, and practice? Is it possible for a religious state to protect the rights of all of its citizens, including those that fall outside the religious boundaries it creates? And, perhaps most fundamentally, what role should religion play in public life? This project explores these broad questions through a specific case study: Zambia, the only African country to make a state-sponsored declaration that it is a Christian nation. "The declaration," as it is often called, has...