Overview

God's Marshall Plan tells the story of the American Protestants who sought to transform Germany into a new Christian and democratic nation in the heart of twentieth-century Europe. James D. Strasburg follows the American pastors, revivalists, diplomats, and spies who crossed the Atlantic in an era of world war, responded to the rise of totalitarian dictators, and began to identify Europe as a continent in need of saving. He examines their far-reaching campaigns to make Germany into the European cornerstone of a new American-led global spiritual order. God's Marshall Plan illuminates the dramatic ramifications of these efforts by showing how the mission to remake Germany in America's image actually remade American Protestantism itself. American Protestants realized they had come to dramatically different conclusions about how to rebuild the West out of the ruins of war. European Protestants, meanwhile, began to sharply protest America's spiritual advance. Forsaking their wartime nationalism, a growing number of ecumenical Protestants championed a new ethic of global fellowship, reconciliation, and justice. However, a fresh wave of evangelical Protestants emerged and ensured that the religious struggle would continue into the Cold War. Strasburg argues that the spiritual struggle for Europe ultimately forged two competing visions of global engagement DL Christian nationalism and Christian globalism DL that transformed the United States, diplomacy, and politics in the Cold War and beyond.

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9780197516447

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Reviews

After World War II, American Protestants sought to revive European civilization by re-Christianizing Germany. This brilliant, elegantly written book explores this project in rich detail, along the way revealing how American Protestants exported their own culture wars to a continent in ruin. Ultimately, those who underwent the most profound changes were American Protestants themselves. -- Andrew Preston, author of Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy Lost in the recent flourish of historical scholarship on American Protestantism in the 20th century global arena is a relationship that had much to do with inspiring and informing such international engagement in the first place: that which connected the U.S. and Germany in theological exchange. God's Marshall Plan not only fills that gap, but also charts with nuance and moving detail the decades-long transatlantic endeavors that drew the Protestant cultures of these two places together, with profound impact on religion and politics on a world stage. This beautifully crafted and timely book reveals not just how German-American relations during wartime shaped modern global Christianity but also how it raised unanswered, and still relevant, questions about the nature and ramifications of the debate between Christian nationalism and Christian globalism in our modern age. -- Darren Dochuk, Author of Anointed With Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern America God's Marshall Plan is a smart, ambitious, and original book that puts religion at the center of American policy in Cold War Europe. This compelling history forces us to wrestle with what we think we know about how American religion, politics, and foreign policy intersected at home and abroad as the US emerged from World War II to become a global superpower. -- Matthew Avery Sutton, author of Double Crossed:AThe Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During theASecond World War

After World War II, American Protestants sought to revive European civilization by re-Christianizing Germany. This brilliant, elegantly written book explores this project in rich detail, along the way revealing how American Protestants exported their own culture wars to a continent in ruin. Ultimately, those who underwent the most profound changes were American Protestants themselves. * Andrew Preston, author of Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy * God's Marshall Plan is a smart, ambitious, and original book that puts religion at the center of American policy in Cold War Europe. This compelling history forces us to wrestle with what we think we know about how American religion, politics, and foreign policy intersected at home and abroad as the US emerged from World War II to become a global superpower. * Matthew Avery Sutton, author of Double Crossed:The Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During theSecond World War *

Author Information

James D. Strasburg is Assistant Professor of History at Hillsdale College.

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