American Empire, American Faith: Conquest, Christianity, and the Shaping of a Nation: A Discussion with Philip Jenkins

Welcome to Season 12!

In this episode, Claire is speaking with Philip Jenkins about hisnew book through Baylor University Press, American Empire, American Faith: Conquest, Christianity, and the Shaping of a Nation.

The subject of empire and empires is now one of the mostactive fields of historical writing, and that is especially true in the context of religion. Throughout history, religions and religious ideas have contributed powerfully to making successive empires, and in turn, the history of thoseempires is crucial for understanding the development of religious systems worldwide.

In recent years, historians have become increasingly awareof the imperial character of American history, from colonial days through the modern era. Although Americans have often been reluctant to admit the fact of their empire, it has always been a reality, from initial contacts with Native peoples through later expansion into new territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean, and subsequently into the Cold War era. Throughout this imperial history, religion has played an essential role. Religious beliefs originally justified the colonial enterprises into the New World, while later generationsclaimed to trace the divine will in a Manifest Destiny to conquer the whole continent. In turn, missionary dreams provided the justification for overseas expansion and often supplied the practical means for undertaking such ventures.Repeatedly too, imperial confrontations have affected the homeland, and have done much to form American both racial and religious stereotypes and nightmares.

But the relationship between religion and empire in theAmerican context is anything but a story of cynical alliances between church and state, between faith and political power. To the contrary, religious beliefs have often provided the conquered with an essential basis for resistance and have mobilized anti-imperial movements. Without understandingempire, we are missing a vital part of the history of American religion. Empire, in fact, is the missing dimension in that story. Acknowledging that fact is all the more urgent in a United States increasingly populated by the descendants of nations and societies that were themselves the subjects of thatsprawling American empire.

Philip Jenkins was educated at Cambridge University, wherehe received his Ph.D. in History. From 1980 through 2011, he taught at Penn State University, where he holds the rank of Emeritus Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities. In 2012, he became a Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor University.

He has published 35 sole-authored books, which have beentranslated into sixteen languages. These include The Next Christendom: The Coming Of Global Christianity (2002) and The Lost History of Christianity (2008). His most recent works include A Storm of Images: Iconoclasm and Religious Reformation in the Byzantine World and He Will Save You from the Deadly Pestilence: The Many Lives of Psalm 91 (both2023); and also Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith: How Changes in Climate Drive Religious Upheaval (2021).

A historian by training, Jenkins has been active in manydifferent disciplines including sociology, criminology, and religious studies. Indeed, the Economist magazine has called him “one of America’s best scholars of religion.” He has published extensively on global and world Christianity, and on new and emerging religious movements. In teaching and research, he has a special interest in recent US history, from 1975 onwards.