Conservative American Protestantism in the League of Nations Controversy

Bibliographic Data

ID3327601
AuthorsMarkku Ruotsila (Texila American University, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume72
Issue3
Pages593-616
Publication date2003-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueChurch History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0009-6407 • E-ISSN: 1755-2613
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s000964070010037x
OpenAlexW2027364210
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited20

The emerging fundamentalist movement made its first foray into extra-ecclesiastical politics during the League of Nations controversy of 1919-20. Both of the two main wings of fundamentalism-dispensational premillennialists and conservative Calvinists-took part in this controversy because both of them regarded the proposed League as an important, inherently religious issue. Both kinds of fundamentalists opposed the League, and both used the ratification debate to articulate their own types of Christian anti-internationalism. In the process they lent much Christian rhetoric to the political opponents of the League, the "Irreconcilables," who were interested in exploiting it for their ostensibly purely secular critiques. Despite the fundamentalists' success in preventing League ratification, the controversy made them acutely aware of the political power and appeal of their liberal Protestant rivals. These had exerted themselves on behalf of the League, imparted their own religious complexion to the pro-League argument, and, not least, had managed officially to enlist almost all denominations to their side

Appeal · Fundamentalism · League · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Protestantism · Ratification · Rhetoric · Sociology · Theology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies

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