1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910160346603321

Autore

Enns James

Titolo

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

Pubbl/distr/stampa

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

©2017

ISBN

0-7735-4915-3

0-7735-4914-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (329 pages)

Collana

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

Classificazione

NQ 6085

Disciplina

274.3082

Soggetti

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

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

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

Sommario/riassunto

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.