Swords and Plowshares: American Evangelicals on War, 1937–1973

Praise for Swords and Plowshares

Swords and Plowshares is full of surprises, overturning the standard conceptions and misconceptions about Evangelicals and war. Focusing on World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, author Timothy Padgett explores what Evangelical writers during these years said about America, America’s enemies, war, and the end times. Highly recommended for Evangelicals and critics of Evangelicals.

—Bruce Riley Ashford, Provost and Professor, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; author of Letters to an American Christian, Every Square Inch, and One Nation under God

Historians who correct false and damaging perceptions of individuals or groups engage in commendable acts of generosity. Timothy Padgett is one such historian. In the present work he successfully corrects the wide-spread historiography that Evangelical Christians from 1937 to 1973 were quite simply mindless military hawks. According to this claim Evangelicals uncritically accepted any military policy or action of the American government. With clear prose and a very impressive use of primary sources, Padgett demonstrates this contention is simply without merit. Padgett’s well-crafted study, therefore, constitutes a marvelous contribution to any fair-minded quest to understand Twentieth-Century American Evangelicalism. For this reason as well as others the volume deserves a wide-readership.

—John D. Woodbridge, Research Professor of Church History and the History of Christian Thought, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

In many corners of the world, white American evangelicals are viewed as God-and-country hawks, blind supporters of their nation’s military-industrial complex. But in this thought-provoking book, historian Timothy Padgett demonstrates that, from the time of World War II to Vietnam, the reality was rather more complicated. At their best, the most insightful evangelicals he features thought carefully and critically about their nation’s wars and related foreign policy. They published support for the United States government. But they also criticized it—time and time again—based on teachings in the Bible. In their best-known magazines, they claimed allegiance more to God than to country.

—Douglas A. Sweeney, Distinguished Professor of Church History and the History of Christian Thought, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School