Woodrow Wilson: Ruling Elder, Spiritual President

Spiritual Lives

by Barry Hankins

When Woodrow Wilson was elected as a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in 1897, his preacher father allegedly remarked, "I would rather that he held that position than be president of the United States." Fifteen years later he was both. Easily one of the most religious presidents in American history, almost all of Wilson's policies and important speeches were infused with religious concepts. The son, grandson, and nephew of southern Presbyterian divines, with six consecutive generations of preachers on his mother's side, Wilson viewed his political career as a sacred calling. As he remarked to a Democratic Party leader just before his inauguration in 1913, "God ordained that I should be the next president of the United States."

As a scholar, Princeton University president, governor of New Jersey, then president, Wilson spent his entire career trying to further the cause of public righteousness. In 1905, he uttered his life's credo: "There is a mighty task before us and it welds us together. It is to make the United States a mighty Christian nation and to Christianize the World." Nonetheless, the 28th president was not principally a religious figure, and he didn't fit comfortably in any religious camp, either in his own time or today. In Woodrow Wilson: Ruling Elder, Spiritual President, Barry Hankins tells the story of Wilson's religion as he moved from the Calvinist orthodoxy of his youth to a progressive, spiritualized religion short on doctrine and long on morality.

Genres: Biography

272 pages, Hardcover

First published June 2, 2016

About the author

Barry G. Hankins is Professor of History at Baylor University, as well as a Resident Scholar with the Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR). His publications include Baptists in America: A History (OUP, 2015) and Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism: A Documentary Reader (NYU Press, 2008). Hankins's biography Francis Schaeffer And the Shaping of Evangelical America: Fundamentalist Warrior, Evangelical Prophet (Eerdmans, 2008) was awarded the 2009 John Pollock Award for Christian Biography.

Reviews

[Jonathan Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to admire much about Wilson's politics, life, and ideas as a conservative, evangelical Christian. Hankins does a fine job of discussing how Wilson's theology (or lack thereof) influenced his political ideas and policies. Wilson embraced wholeheartedly the beliefs of early twentieth century Protestant liberalism and allowed these beliefs to shape his political policies. This culminated in the League of Nations embarrassment that Wilson is most remembered for. This book did not change my opinion of Wilson for the better, but I don't think the author ever intended to.

[Miles Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent; focuses on the contours of Wilson’s life. It is far and away the best book in the series that I have read so far.

[Nigel Ewan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was excited to read this book because I've never understood how Woodrow Wilson, raised in the robust Reformed Presbyterian tradition, could end up as politically and theologically liberal as he did.

Wilson's father studied under Charles Hodge at Princeton Theological Seminary. Many of his relatives, on his father's and his mother's sides, were strong orthodox Presbyterians. And yet he grew into one of the most theologically liberal, denying even basic Christian doctrines such as the nature of sin and the importance of repentance and conversion in a believer's life.

Did Wilson's conservative Presbyterian upbringing somehow uniquely position him to transition into the astonishingly liberal worldview he held as an adult? The best sense Barry Hankins can make of Wilson's trajectory is to say that his Reformed understanding of calling, the Protestant work ethic which values so-called "secular" labor, and a very hazy definition of evangelism made it easy for him to transition into a Christianity where morality replaces repentance and democratic advocacy replaces evangelism. Wilson's Presbyterian worldview, according to Hankins, gave him such a broad definition of the church and its mission that it was easy for Wilson to end up conflating the work of church and civil government—left-wing social programs and military might notwithstanding—and ultimately to see civil government as a sort of "improved version" of the church.

I was left wanting to hear more about how Wilson could make such an extreme worldview shift—especially since I see the Calvinism of Wilson's youth as making supreme sense of reality—and I struggle to understand how such an intelligent man could turn his back on this satisfying way of seeing the world. Despite a desire for more, this was a nice quick read and a decent "spiritual biography".

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. A biography interpreting the uses of religion and spiritual life of Woodrow Wilson. Certain chapters were better than others.