Journal Article

Of swords, shields, and scaffolding: American religion and foreign relations

Inboden, William

2012

Overview

From a different vantage point albeit in a similar vein, historians of American religion have also likewise paid relatively litde attention to foreign relations. [...]classic and otherwise magisterial overviews such as Sydney Ahlstroms A Religious History of the American People and Mark Noll's A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada, make but occasional nods to foreign policy.1 Admittedly one of the most unfair criticisms that can be made of a synthetic overview, which almost by their nature run overlong, is that the book \"unconscionably neglected\" this or that additional topic. The book is most compelling when it reintroduces readers to otherwise familiar figures in die annals of American foreign policy through the previously unfamiliar lens of their faith. [...]John Quincy Adams, author of the Monroe Doctrine and the subject of endless invocations in foreign policy editorials for his \"America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy\" speech beloved of modern realists, is revealed to also be \"a deeply religious man\" and orthodox Protestant who served as president of the American Bible Society concurrently with his tenure as Secretary of State (103-6). [...]debates over war and peace, pacifism and revolution, abolitionism and humanitarian intervention, communism and fascism, human rights and poverty relief, all emanated from moral convictions that American Christians held strongly and sought to apply to foreign policy. [...]concerns continue today. [...]the resurgence over the last two decades of evangelical and Catholic efforts to shape American foreign policy overridingly focus on moral issues.

• Publisher: The Conference on Faith and History
• Subject: American history / Christianity / Cold War / Councils / Diplomacy / Foreign policy / Historians / International relations-US / National security / Religion / Scaffolding / Spirituality