What the World Should Be

Woodrow Wilson and the Crafting of a Faith-Based Foreign Policy

by Malcolm D. Magee

Published by: Baylor University Press

Imprint: Baylor University Press

In What the World Should Be, Malcolm Magee demonstrates that Woodrow Wilson was immersed in a Presbyterian tradition that shaped his presidency. He argues that Wilson's religious convictions shaped...

Sales Date: 2022-10-15

Paperback
ISBN 9781481319270
199 Pages

$34.99

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ISBN 9781602582248
199 Pages

$44.95

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Description
Contents
Authors
Praise

In What the World Should Be, Malcolm Magee demonstrates that Woodrow Wilson was immersed in a Presbyterian tradition that shaped his presidency. He argues that Wilson's religious convictions shaped his concepts of effective leadership, the way he reasoned, and his use of language. In particular, Wilson's religious beliefs accustomed him to the theological principle of antinomy: that two principles could both be right even when, considered only in the light of logic, they appear mutually contradictory. These convictions ultimately made Wilson believe he was providentially chosen to bring divinely ordered freedom to the nations and peoples of the earth.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The Development of Woodrow Wilson’s Thought to 1913

2. The Challenge of the Present Age: The Persistence of the International Order

3. Keeping to the Principles in Peace and War

4. Negotiating the Tablets of Stone

Epilogue

Appendices

I. "Christ’s Army"

II. Wilson’s "Fourteen Points" Address to Congress

III. The Covenant of the League of Nations

IV. Inaugural Address at Southwestern Presbyterian University

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Malcolm D. Magee is Overseas Collegiate Professor at the University of Maryland Global Campus, Europe.

This elegantly written narrative makes an utterly convincing argument: religious belief was at the heart of Wilson's vaunted idealism. After reading Magee's book, you will never see the diplomatic history of the World War I era in the same way again.
~Michael Kazin, Professor of History, Georgetown University

Finally, we now have a serious examination of Woodrow Wilson's theology. In this thoughtful, well-researched book, Malcolm Magee goes beyond the usual stereotypes of Wilson to reveal a complex, deeply spiritual man who was both beholden to religious and political thought in equal measure. In terms of both history and historiography, students of American foreign relations are in Magee's debt. An excellent book.
~Andrew Preston, Professor of American History, Cambridge University