What is a dominionist also known as a Christian reconstructionist?

Answer 1

Before beginning, all Christian Reconstructionism is Dominionism, but all Dominiionism is not Christian Reconstructionism.

That being said, a definition of both is necessary:

Dominionism - largely a term of conspiracy theorists, it is used to describe the actions of politically active evangelical Christian groups. It is generally espoused that these disparate groups conspire together to take over secular government, especially in the US, with the express purpose of creating a sort of theocracy or a government guided by the principles of biblical law.

Christian Reconstructionism - a religious, theological program within the Evangelical Christian community that encourages followers to activate their faith in all areas of life. First advocated by R. John Rushdoony in the 1970's, he hoped to combat what he viewed as the exclusive secularization of public schools. CR's are encouraged to live by the common interpretations of biblical law in their personal, public, and political lives. CR encompasses the following:

• Capitalistic Democracy - the decentralization of political structure and minimal state involvement in economic activities. This would promote free, unfettered capitalistic activity and reduced political involvement, establishing a sort of Reaganomic (trickle-down) environment.
• Personal Change by the Holy Spirit leading to progress change in personal, public, and political behavior:
  • Neo-Calvinism - What Gideon Strauss calls, "...postmodern Calvinism. Neocalvinism is a global cultural movement that is the result of people motivated by the religious dynamic of the Reformation trying to get to grips with the historical consequences and implications of modernity."
  • Calvanist Protestantism - a division of the Christian church born out of the theology and doctrine of John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer, Huldrych Zwingli, and John Knox.
• Political Eschatology or Post-millennialism - PM rises from the study of end times, eschatology, and advocates the rise of God's Kingdom from the first coming of Christ. PM maintains that the Kingdom will progressively encompass all world governments by conversion of all people to Christianity, and that all people should move toward that end.
• Theonomy - The personal change brought about by the application of Biblical law. This school of thought agrees with the separation of church and state doctrine but illustrates the heirarchy from top down as God, the law, and then the state.
• Van Til's Appologetics - Cornelius Van Til was a Christian Philosopher and Presuppositionalist Apologist who taught that there is no middle ground between Christian and non-Christian philosophies. Van Til maintained that man is a product of the invasive effects of sin and that such invariably affects his ability to reason. Further, that the only way to ameliorate the negative effects of sin was to submit to the ultimate authority of God by trusting oneself to the authority of God's law.

While Dominionist thought is typically a dogmatic Christian perspective, it is not exclusively so. It, in true Gene Roddenberry form, espouses that the good of the many outweighs the good of the one--essentially that self-deprecation can lead to Utopia, or at least a perspective of that.