Holy Humanitarians: American Evangelicals and Global Aid

Heather D. Curtis

Published by Harvard University Press 2018

Holy Humanitarians

American Evangelicals and Global Aid

Heather D. Curtis

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674985902

Overview
Contents

About this book

On May 10, 1900, an enthusiastic Brooklyn crowd bid farewell to the Quito. The ship sailed for famine-stricken Bombay, carrying both tangible relief—thousands of tons of corn and seeds—and “a tender message of love and sympathy from God’s children on this side of the globe to those on the other.” The Quito may never have gotten under way without support from the era’s most influential religious newspaper, the Christian Herald, which urged its American readers to alleviate poverty and suffering abroad and at home. In Holy Humanitarians, Heather D. Curtis argues that evangelical media campaigns transformed how Americans responded to domestic crises and foreign disasters during a pivotal period for the nation. Through graphic reporting and the emerging medium of photography, evangelical publishers fostered a tremendously popular movement of faith-based aid that rivaled the achievements of competing agencies like the American Red Cross. By maintaining that the United States was divinely ordained to help the world’s oppressed and needy, the Christian Herald linked humanitarian assistance with American nationalism at a time when the country was stepping onto the global stage. Social reform, missionary activity, disaster relief, and economic and military expansion could all be understood as integral features of Christian charity. Drawing on rigorous archival research, Curtis lays bare the theological motivations, social forces, cultural assumptions, business calculations, and political dynamics that shaped America’s ambivalent embrace of evangelical philanthropy. In the process she uncovers the seeds of today’s heated debates over the politics of poverty relief and international aid.

Author / Editor information

Curtis Heather D. :

Heather D. Curtis is Associate Professor of Religion at Tufts University.

Reviews

Grant Wacker, author of America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation:
Deeply researched and cogently argued, Holy Humanitarians is a major contribution to the literature on the American missionary impulse and philanthropy. Curtis is a master stylist; her book is a model of how to write with beauty and grace.

Andrew Preston, author of Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy:
A wonderfully written and powerfully insightful book that stretches and deepens our understanding of how religion helped shape America’s engagement with the world. Historians have recently explored humanitarianism and philanthropy around the turn of the twentieth century, yet Curtis shows that we’ve only just scratched the surface.

Melani McAlister, author of The Kingdom of God Has No Borders: A Global History of American Evangelicals:
A remarkable achievement. Holy Humanitarians offers valuable insights into issues of domestic inequality, Christian–Muslim encounters abroad, and Americans’ ambivalent attitudes about the suffering of distant others. This thoughtful, nuanced exploration of the contradictions of humanitarian sentiment is rich and compelling.

Darren Dochuk, author of From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain-Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism:
A stellar study of the popular Christian Herald and its outsized importance in the emergence of American evangelical media, philanthropy, and global engagement at the turn of the twentieth century. This is a colorful, compelling narrative.

Heath W. Carter:
But how did [photographs of ‘sponsored’ children in developing countries]—not to mention the acts of transnational giving that they are intended to motivate—become so ubiquitous in American evangelical households? And how did evangelical institutions become such important players in international relief and development work in the first place? [Curtis] answers these questions and more in her brilliant new book…which shows that evangelical leadership in these realms significantly predated the tidal wave of postwar generosity that gave rise to organizations such as World Vision… [S]he underscores the urgency of ongoing moral reflection: After all, as her story makes clear, love of one’s global neighbor has sometimes come with dubious strings attached.

D. G. Hart:
[Curtis’s] book shows that evangelicals have always displayed a mixture of innocence and partisan zeal.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. A Religious Paper Thoroughly Humanitarian Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
2. Cosmopolitan Compassion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
3. We Are Fighting for Philanthropy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
4. Almoner of the World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
5. The Limits of Evangelical Benevolence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
6. To Safeguard Christian America Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
7. A Shifting Landscape Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259
Epilogue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	349
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	355

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 344
Illustrations
- Other: 24 halftones

eBook

Published: April 16, 2018
ISBN: 9780674985902