The Religious Influence on American Foreign Relations

宗教对美国外交关系的影响

• 批准号: AH/F015119/1
• 负责人: Andrew Preston
• 金额: $ 2.25万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2009 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FF015119%2F1
• 关键词: Religious; Influence; American; Foreign; Relations

From the colonial era to the present, religion has helped form the core of American culture and Americans' view of the world. Moreover, for the last two hundred years the United States has been protected by vast oceans and buffeted by relatively weak neighbours. American foreign policy, then, has not actually been driven as much by necessity (such as a fear of invasion) as by choice. In such circumstances, ideology and values -- such as those embodied in religious thought -- have played a large role in debates over how America chooses to wield its massive power. Consequently, the ways in which Americans perceive their role in the world -- and how best to wield their military, political, diplomatic, and economic power -- have been shaped indelibly by their religious beliefs and values.However, historians have left the relationship between religion and foreign policy relatively unexplored. It is this gap in the historical literature -- which, consequently, has created a gap in our general understanding -- which my book will fill. I have already addressed these historiographical, methodological, and theoretical issues in a peer-reviewed article, 'Bridging the Gap between Church and State in the History of American Foreign Relations,' published by the journal Diplomatic History (vol 30, no 5, November 2006, pp 783-812). This article arose from my readings in the fields of American religious history and American diplomatic history, and resulted from my attempt to bridge these two enormous bodies of literature.In broad terms, my book will illuminate the role religion has played in shaping how Americans approach issues of war and diplomacy; trace the origins and rise of religion's influence; place the current, rather novel dominance of the interventionist strain of evangelical Protestantism within its proper historical context; and, finally, demonstrate religion's impact upon the ways in which Americans have debated issues of foreign affairs and military intervention. When finished, my book will not simply be a straightforward narrative of the religious influence on war and diplomacy, but an analytical investigation into how this relationship evolved and what its impact has been. I have decided to tackle the entire spectrum of American history because this is a topic that is best explored over the broad sweep of time. The tensions between change and continuity that act as the book's narrative engine and analytical foundation cannot be perceived without such a wide focus.How, for example, did militant colonial Puritanism lead to Congregational and Unitarian pacifism three centuries later? How did fundamentalist Baptists, who had always been the strictest observers of the separation of church and state, come to embrace an activist, interventionist American role abroad? How did Catholics and Jews use foreign relations to emerge from the periphery of American society to the centre, and how did these transformations influence the direction of US foreign policy? Most importantly for my purposes, how did these and other developments shape American engagement with the wider world?Throughout history, Americans -- be they liberal or conservative, pacifist or militarist -- have sought to reform the world in America's image. The core hypothesis informing my research is that such a development would have been impossible without the influence of American religion.

从殖民地时代到现在，宗教帮助形成了美国文化的核心和美国人的世界观。此外，在过去的200年里，美国一直受到广阔海洋的保护，并受到相对薄弱的邻国的冲击。因此，美国的外交政策实际上并不是由必要性（比如对入侵的恐惧）驱动的，而是由选择驱动的。在这种情况下，意识形态和价值观--比如那些体现在宗教思想中的意识形态和价值观--在关于美国如何选择行使其巨大权力的辩论中发挥了重要作用。因此，美国人如何看待自己在世界上的角色，以及如何最好地运用他们的军事、政治、外交和经济力量，都受到他们的宗教信仰和价值观的不可磨灭的影响。正是历史文献中的这一空白--因此，它在我们的一般理解中造成了一个空白--我的书将填补这一空白。我已经在一篇同行评议的文章中讨论了这些史学、方法论和理论问题，题为《弥合美国外交关系史上教会与国家之间的差距》，发表在《外交史》杂志上（第30卷，第5期，2006年11月，第783-812页）。这篇文章来自于我对美国宗教史和美国外交史的阅读，也是我试图在这两大文学领域架起桥梁的结果。从广义上讲，我的书将阐明宗教在塑造美国人如何处理战争和外交问题方面所起的作用;追溯宗教影响的起源和兴起;把当前，而新的福音派新教干涉主义应变在其适当的历史背景下的主导地位;最后，展示宗教的影响，美国人辩论的外交事务和军事干预问题的方式。完成后，我的书将不仅仅是简单地叙述宗教对战争和外交的影响，而是对这种关系如何演变及其影响的分析调查。我已经决定处理美国历史的整个频谱，因为这是一个最好的主题，在广泛的时间跨度探索。变化和连续性之间的紧张关系是本书的叙事引擎和分析基础，如果没有如此广泛的关注，就无法理解。例如，激进的殖民地清教主义是如何导致三个世纪后的公理会和一神论和平主义的？原教旨主义浸信会教徒一直是政教分离的最严格观察者，他们是如何接受美国在海外的积极干预角色的？天主教徒和犹太人是如何利用外交关系从美国社会的边缘走向中心的，这些转变又是如何影响美国外交政策的方向的？就我的目的而言，最重要的是，这些和其他发展如何塑造了美国与更广阔世界的接触？纵观历史，美国人-无论他们是自由派还是保守派，是和平主义者还是军国主义者-都在寻求按照美国的形象对世界进行改革。我的研究的核心假设是，如果没有美国宗教的影响，这样的发展是不可能的。

项目成果

Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy

精神之剑，信仰之盾：美国战争与外交中的宗教

• 发表时间: 2012
• 作者: Preston Andrew