Saving Germany : North American Protestants and Christian mission to West Germany, 1945 1974 / James Enns.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Enns, James, author.

Series:

McGill-Queen's studies in the history of religion ; 77.

McGill-Queen's studies in the history of religion, ; 77

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Evangelicalism--Germany (West)--History--20th century.

Evangelicalism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (329 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal & Kingston, Quebec ; London, [England] ; Chicago, [Illinois] : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2017.

Summary:

Historians have mainly concentrated on the significance of the Marshall Plan, the creation of NATO, and exports of pop culture to describe the role of North Americans in the development of West Germany after the devastation of the Second World War. In Saving Germany, James Enns brings an entirely new focus to West Germany’s recovery by demonstrating how North American missionaries played a formative role in cultivating the humanitarian and spiritual conscience of postwar Germany. Enns begins by categorizing the kinds of Protestant missionary agencies active in West Germany, which ranged from mainline churches overseeing ecumenical humanitarian and church reconstruction projects to independent evangelical mission agencies working alongside local church groups. He then identifies notable themes that contextualize the spectrum of missionary responses, including the degree to which missionaries intentionally functioned as agents of Western democracy. In addition to discussions of well-known figures such as US evangelist Billy Graham, Enns highlights the important contributions of the Janz Quartet from the Canadian prairies and Robert Kreider of the Mennonite Central Committee. Tracking thirty years of transnational Christian missionary work, Saving Germany demonstrates the significant role of North American missionary agencies in the reconstruction of Germany.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Saving Germany: Not Your Typical Mission Field

Ecumenical Protestants and the Reconstruction of Germany, 1945–1974: Mainline Protestants Offer Relief and Rehabilitation

Denominational Protestant Missions to Germany, 1945–1974: Mennonites and Baptists Resuscitate and Rehabilitate the Freikirchen

Conservative Evangelical Mission to Germany, 1945–1974: Two Case Studies

Billy Graham’s Mission to Germany, 1945–1974: From Cold War Crusader to Good Samaritan

Mission to Germany after 1974: Responding to Post-Christendom Secularism

Saving Germany: The Significance of the Mission

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed January 30, 2017).

ISBN:

9780773549159

0773549153

9780773549142

0773549145

OCLC:

961377291