Woodrow Wilson (ruling Elder, Spiritual President)

By (author) Hankins Barry
Short description/annotation
Woodrow Wilson was easily one of the most religious presidents in American history. Yet, his religion has puzzled historians for decades. This book tells the story of Wilson''s religion as he moved from the Calvinist orthodoxy of his youth to a progressive, spiritualized religion short on doctrine and long on morality.
Description
When Woodrow Wilson was elected as a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in 1897, his preacher father allegedly remarked, "I would rather that he held that position than be president of the United States." Fifteen years later he was both. Easily one of the most religious presidents in American history, almost all of Wilson''s policies and important speeches were infused with religious concepts. The son, grandson, and nephew of southern Presbyterian divines, with six consecutive generations of preachers on his mother''s side, Wilson viewed his political career as a sacred calling. As he remarked to a Democratic Party leader just before his inauguration in 1913, "God ordained that I should be the next president of the United States." As a scholar, Princeton University president, governor of New Jersey, then president, Wilson spent his entire career trying to further the cause of public righteousness. In 1905, he uttered his life''s credo: "There is a mighty task before us and it welds us together. It is to make the United States a mighty Christian nation and to Christianize the World." Nonetheless, the 28th president was not principally a religious figure, and he didn''t fit comfortably in any religious camp, either in his own time or today. In Woodrow Wilson: Ruling Elder, Spiritual President, Barry Hankins tells the story of Wilson''s religion as he moved from the Calvinist orthodoxy of his youth to a progressive, spiritualized religion short on doctrine and long on morality.
Table of contents
1: Calling 2: Preparation 3: Christian Scholar 4: Professor 5: Secularizer 6: Stepping Stone to the Presidency 7: Wilson in the Nation''s Service 8: Pacifist Warrior 9: Fidelity 10: Defeated Prophet Bibliography
Review quote
The book includes a helpful index (225-35), a selected bibliography (219-23), and recommends itself not only to scholars interested in the U.S. presidency, but also in the manifold interrelations of religion and politics in modernity, which are in such dire needof more substantial research.
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All in all, this is an impressive brief biography, easily read by undergraduates as well as scholars in the field. ...Hankin''s book is a valuable introduction to Woodrow Wilson''s spiritual beliefs and to those of the Progressive Era.
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In this slim and eminently readable volume, Hankins deftly narrates Wilson''s 67-year journey from Staunton, Virginia, where he was born in 1856, to Princeton, the White House, and beyond.
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Essential.
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Hankins, who teaches at Baylor University, has crafted a worthy portrait of the twenty-eighth president, one that portrays Wilson as both profoundly stubborn and thoroughly southern.
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Hankins packs a tremendous amount of material into just over two hundred pages of text, inclusive of endnotes. It is impressive, then, how readable this book is, especially in light of its wide-ranging subject matter. Given its relatively brief length, its strong and vivid prose, its concise notes, and the unobtrusiveness of historiographical discussions, this book is certainly suitable for a popular audience with interests in presidential history or in the intersectionality of politics and religion...Hankins''s work serves as a model for scholars striving to match a rigorous methodology with an engaging and concise prose style in order to produce a monograph that is rich in its argumentation, historical insights, and a joy