Main interests: American civil religion; American political thought; the intersection of religion and politics in the United States; religion’s role in American political development; political culture of the 19th and 20th centuries; popular constitutionalism; and studies in patriotism and nationalism.
Secondary interests: causes of political polarization; media effects upon political behavior; and political psychology.
Published Articles
Aaron Q. Weinstein, “Donald Trump: Pontifex Minimus of the Civil Religion of the Big Lie,” Politics, Religion & Ideology (2023): doi10.1080/21567689.2023.2285796
Aaron Q. Weinstein, “Occupy Wall Street’s Civil Religion of the Nones: A Theology of Consensus,” New Political Science Vol. 42, No. 1 (March 2020)
Aaron Q. Weinstein, “Onward Townsend Soldiers: Moral Politics and Civil Religion in the Townsend Crusade,” American Political Thought: A Journal of Ideas, Institutions, and Culture, Vol. 6 , No. 2 (Spring 2017): 228-255.
Aaron Q. Weinstein, “Civil Religion and the Bush Doctrine of Preemptive War: Revisiting the Civil Religion Hypothesis During the War on Terror,” Journal of Religion & Society Vol. 18 (2016): 1-26.
Yael Shavit, Aaron Q. Weinstein, Zachary Reiss-Davis, and Ross E, Cheit, “Television Newsmagazine Coverage of Child Sexual Abuse: 1990-2005,” Journal of Mass Communication and Journalism, Vol. 4, No. 5 (2014): 1-9.
Conference Presentations and Panels
“Forgotten Conservatives: The Liberty League and the Origins of Modern American Conservatism,” November 2019, The Northeast Political Science Association Annual Meeting
“A Theology of Consensus: Occupy Wall Street’s Civil Religion of the Nones,” November 2018, Northeast Political Science Association Annual Meeting
“We’re All in this Together: How the ‘Spiritual but not Religious’ Left Can Join the Fight to Stop Climate Change,” with Matthew Hodgetts, April 2018, New England Political Science Association Annual Meeting
“The Rise of the Nones: Is the United States Finally Losing its Religious Exceptionalism?” April 2017, New England Political Science Association Annual Meeting.
Poster: “Old-Time (civil) Religion: Recasting The Townsend Movement,” September 2015, American Political Science Association Annual Meeting.
“Onward Townsend Soldiers: The Civil Religion and Moral Politics of the Townsend Movement,” April 2015, New England Political Science Association Annual Meeting.
“Onward Townsend Soldiers: The Civil Religion and Moral Politics of the Townsend Movement,” January 2015, Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting.
“Breaking the Covenant: The Civil Theology of the American Liberty League,” April 2014, New England Political Science Association Annual Meeting.
“Constitutional Fetishism and Political Success in the United States: Why the Liberty League’s Public Appeals Failed and the Tea Party’s Succeeded,” April 2013, New England Political Science Association Annual Meeting.
“Civil Religion and the Bush Doctrine of Preemptive War: Revisiting the Civil Religion Hypothesis During the War on Terror,” April 2012, Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting.
Panel Chair: Politics and History: “Where Has Civil Religion Gone?” April 2011, New England Political Science Association Annual Meeting.
Aaron Q. Weinstein, Ph.D. 