Christian Reconstructionism is a movement that grew out of conservative Presbyterianism in the early 1970s. Followers believe "that every area dominated by sin must be 'reconstructed' in terms of the Bible."

In that sense, the movement and its "DominionTheology" are relatively new, dating from the publication in 1973 of The Institutes Of Biblical Law by the Rousas John Rushdoony.

A man of widely acclaimed brilliance and near-encyclopedic knowledge, Rushdoony claimed to descend from a long line of aristocratic Armenian clerics reaching back to the year 315. He himself was an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, not be confused with the generally liberal Presbyterian Church (USA).