Religion and war has a paradoxical relationship. Dr. Benjamin Wetzel joins me to discuss the history of religion and war in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, from mainline Protestant ministers calling souls to join the Union Army, to Catholic priests resisting the war against Spain in 1898.

Essential Reading:

Benjamin Wetzel, American Crusade: Christianity, Warfare, and National Identity (2022).

Recommended Reading:

Andrew Preston, Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy (2012).

Matthew McCullough, The Cross of War: Christian Nationalism and U.S. Expansion in the Spanish-American War (2014).

Richard Gamble, The War for Righteousness: Progressive Christianity, the Great War, and the Rise of the Messianic Nation (2003).

Kristin Schwain, Signs of Grace: Religion and American Art in the Gilded Age (2008).

Jonathan Ebel, Faith in the Fight: Religion and the American Soldier in the Great War (2010).

George Rable, God’s Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War (2015).

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