Apostle to Nixonland: Taylor Caldwell's Paul and the Unknown God of Neoliberalism.

In 1970, Taylor Caldwell (1900–1985) published a best-selling historical novel about Saint Paul, Great Lion of God, making the apostle politically available to a nation facing divisive social and political turmoil. Channeling Nixon-era resentments and Cold War libertarianism, Caldwell's Paul is offered up as an answer to America's ills. But unlike the protagonists of Caldwell's other works, some of which continue to be read by conservative audiences today (including Sean Hannity), her Paul never quite finds his footing. The reason for this involves what might be considered Caldwell's political theology of the Unknown God. The Unknown God operates in Caldwell's work as a neoliberal theologeme, combining in one figure a vaguely Christological universalism and a market-based vision of American greatness. The instabilities and tensions inherent in this pairing are borne out in her characterization of Paul and presage the experience of American neoliberalism from the 1970s on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]