January 2023 MBR The Religious Studies Shelf

The Religious Studies Shelf

Global Faith, Worldly Power
John Corrigan, et al.
University of North Carolina Press
116 South Boundary Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3808
https://uncpress.org
9781469670584, $110.00, HC, 410pp

https://www.amazon.com/Global-Faith-Worldly-Power-Internationalism/dp/1469670585

Synopsis: Assessing the grand American evangelical missionary venture to convert the world, with the publication of "Global Faith, Worldly Power: Evangelical Internationalism and U.S. Empire", an international group of leading scholars reveal how theological imperatives have intersected with worldly imaginaries from the nineteenth century to the present.

Countering the stubborn notion that conservative Protestant groups have steadfastly maintained their distance from governmental and economic affairs, these experts show how believers' ambitious investments in missionizing and humanitarianism have connected with worldly matters of empire, the Cold War, foreign policy, and neoliberalism. They show, too, how evangelicals' international activism redefined the content and the boundaries of the movement itself.

As evangelical voices from Africa, Asia, and Latin America became more vocal and assertive, U.S. evangelicals took on more pluralistic, multidirectional identities not only abroad but also back home. Applying this international perspective to the history of American evangelicalism radically changes how we understand the development and influence of evangelicalism, and of globalizing religion more broadly.

In addition to a critical introduction and essays by editors John Corrigan, Melani McAlister, and Axel R. Schafer are essays by Lydia Boyd, Emily Conroy-Krutz, Christina Cecelia Davidson, Helen Jin Kim, David C. Kirkpatrick, Candace Lukasik, Sarah Miller-Davenport, Dana L. Robert, Tom Smith, Lauren F. Turek, and Gene Zubovich.

Critique: Collaboratively compiled and co-edited by John Corrigan (Lucius Moody Bristol Distinguished Professor of Religion, Professor of History, and Distinguished Research Professor at Florida State University), Melani McAlister Professor of American Studies and International Affairs at George Washington University), and Axel R. Schafer (Professor of U.S. History at the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies at the University of Mainz, Germany), "Global Faith, Worldly Power: Evangelical Internationalism and U.S. Empire" is especially commended to the attention of readers with an interest in Religion & Politics. While highly recommended for community and academic library Church & State collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists of students, academia, political advocates, clergy, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Global Faith, Worldly Power: Evangelical Internationalism and U.S. Empire" is also available in a paperback edition (9781469670591, $29.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.39).

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