Lexington Books Faith and Foreign Affairs in the American Century (Religion in American History)

The United States has led the world in almost every way since World War I. In 1941, Life magazine publisher Henry Luce dubbed his country's preponderant power "the American Century." His editorial was a statement of fact but also an aspiration for countrymen to unite in promotion of a world order friendly to American interests. Faith and Foreign Affairs in the American Century examines the nature of public involvement in American diplomacy. As a concept decades in the making, the American Century was conceived by those connected through the country's leading foreign policy think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations. The missionary couple and Washington insiders Francis and Helen Miller, who fought to make the American empire a radically democratic one, figured prominently in that work. The Millers' many partnerships embodied the conflicts as well as the cooperation of Christianity and secularism in the long reimagining of the United States as a global state. Mark Thomas Edwards offers in this study a genealogy of the concept of the American Century. Readers will encounter moments of Protestant Christian power and marginalization in the making of modern American foreign relations. Review Mark Thomas Edwards, in his multifaceted book Faith and Foreign Affairs in the American Century, takes on the tough task of a mediator, arguing that a stark divide between the secular and religious may exist among scholars, but it has never existed so neatly in history. Overall, the versatility that Edwards displays throughout the book connects his form with his message: history is cluttered, multilayered, and mishandled when forced into narrow compartments. He does historians a service by beginning to unpack those boxes.-- "Journal of American History"Scholarly interest in the intersection between religion and foreign affairs has grown considerably in recent years, so that analysis of foreign policy decision-making can no longer ignore the influence of faith. Doing so runs the risk of reducing diplomacy to the narrow confines of political and economic filters, ignoring the cultural, social, and religious dimensions that shape worldviews. Edwards (Spring Arbor Univ.) here argues that American diplomacy has been equally secular and religious, a phenomenon he calls "Protestant secularism" (first coined by theologist Paul Tillich), through which religious initiatives are often secularized and secular initiatives are often Christianized. Interestingly, Edwards claims that democracy became less participatory after WW II, opening the door to elitist agendas to create a wider Judeo-Christian consensus, which was in reality a civil religion at best. He further contends that understanding this interrelationship is important, as it allows historians to better understand the complicated web of religion and secularism without seeing the two as polarizing opposites. In doing so, he helps to widen the discussion of American religion and foreign affairs, arguing that they often act as two sides of the same coin. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.-- "Choice"What Mark Edwards offers in Faith and Foreign Affairs in the American Century is a distinct departure from much of the existing literature that considers the American Century as a concept or used it as a frame for thinking about modern US history and foreign relations. His approach is clever and layered. This is a lucidly-argued and compelling book. It is creative in its approach and capacious in vision. Scholars of modern US religion, politics, foreign relations, and intellectual history stand to benefit greatly from engaging with the core argument about Protestant secularism that Edwards advances.-- "Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture"The middle of the twentieth century was a time of change for the place of the United States in the world and the place of Protestantism in the United States. What Mark Edwards has done is carefully tra