What the World Should Be: Woodrow Wilson and the Crafting of a Faith-Based Foreign Policy

Abstract

In this well-researched book Malcolm D. Magee, the director for the Institute for the Study of Christianity and Culture at Michigan State University, analyzes how Woodrow Wilson's immersion in his Presbyterian faith and tradition shaped the way he reasoned and perceived the world. His Calvinistic convictions of the elect and divine providence led Wilson to believe that he had been providentially chosen to carry out God's plan in history. While Magee admits that religion does not tell the whole story of Wilson, it played a very important, and at times underestimated, role in the shaping of his foreign policy. Commenting on historical interpretations of Wilson's religious convictions, Magee rightly credits Arthur Link, the preeminent Wilson scholar, as someone who emphasized Wilson's Presbyterian beliefs as an integral factor in influencing his public policy, especially in foreign affairs. Presbyterian beliefs were omnipresent throughout Wilson's life. His father, Joseph Ruggles Wilson, a Presbyterian minister and scholar, had the most influence in his son's life and was disappointed that his son did not become a minister. Presbyterian ministers abounded in the Wilson family. Woodrow Wilson's mother, Janet (Jessie), was the daughter of a Presbyterian minister as was his beloved wife, Ellen.