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The Kingdom of God Has No Borders: A Global History of American Evangelicals
Award of Merit, 2019 Christianity Today Book Awards (History/Biography)
More than forty years ago, conservative Christianity emerged as a major force in American political life. Since then the movement has been analyzed and over-analyzed, declared triumphant and, more than once, given up for dead. But because outside observers have maintained a near-relentless focus on domestic politics, the most transformative development over the last several decades--the explosive growth of Christianity in the global south--has gone unrecognized by the wider public, even as it has transformed evangelical life, both in the US and abroad.
The Kingdom of God Has No Borders offers a daring new perspective on conservative Christianity by shifting the lens to focus on the world outside US borders. Melani McAlister offers a sweeping narrative of the last fifty years of evangelical history, weaving a fascinating tale that upends much of what we know--or think we know--about American evangelicals. She takes us to the Congo in the 1960s, where Christians were enmeshed in a complicated interplay of missionary zeal, Cold War politics, racial hierarchy, and anti-colonial struggle. She shows us how evangelical efforts to convert non-Christians have placed them in direct conflict with Islam at flash points across the globe. And she examines how Christian leaders have fought to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS in Africa while at the same time supporting harsh repression of LGBTQ communities.
Through these and other stories, McAlister focuses on the many ways in which looking at evangelicals abroad complicates conventional ideas about evangelicalism. We can't truly understand how conservative Christians see themselves and their place in the world unless we look beyond our shores.
More than forty years ago, conservative Christianity emerged as a major force in American political life. Since then the movement has been analyzed and over-analyzed, declared triumphant and, more than once, given up for dead. But because outside observers have maintained a near-relentless focus on domestic politics, the most transformative development over the last several decades--the explosive growth of Christianity in the global south--has gone unrecognized by the wider public, even as it has transformed evangelical life, both in the US and abroad.
The Kingdom of God Has No Borders offers a daring new perspective on conservative Christianity by shifting the lens to focus on the world outside US borders. Melani McAlister offers a sweeping narrative of the last fifty years of evangelical history, weaving a fascinating tale that upends much of what we know--or think we know--about American evangelicals. She takes us to the Congo in the 1960s, where Christians were enmeshed in a complicated interplay of missionary zeal, Cold War politics, racial hierarchy, and anti-colonial struggle. She shows us how evangelical efforts to convert non-Christians have placed them in direct conflict with Islam at flash points across the globe. And she examines how Christian leaders have fought to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS in Africa while at the same time supporting harsh repression of LGBTQ communities.
Through these and other stories, McAlister focuses on the many ways in which looking at evangelicals abroad complicates conventional ideas about evangelicalism. We can't truly understand how conservative Christians see themselves and their place in the world unless we look beyond our shores.
408 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 25, 2023
Exceptional and essential.
Any (post)evangelical that engages in international affairs, or is interested in politics, or engages in missionary work, needs to read this work.
Any (post)evangelical that engages in international affairs, or is interested in politics, or engages in missionary work, needs to read this work.
March 6, 2018
Summary: An exploration of the international dimension of American evangelicalism, focusing particularly on Africa and the Middle East, the impact this American movement has had globally, and in turn ways global evangelicalism is engaging American evangelicalism.
American evangelicalism has been the subject of much historical, sociological and political analysis. Nearly all of this has been focused within the borders of the United States. Melani McAlister studies this movement through a different lens--the mission efforts of the past fifty years that has led to an international engagement, particularly as growing indigenous movements have challenged American evangelical beliefs and practices. The focus of the author is on efforts in the Middle East and Africa, consistent with the author's research area as an associate professor of American Studies and International Affairs at George Washington University.
The scope of this study is the last fifty years, going back to the 1960's. After an introduction, the first section of the book is concerned with "networks," the linkages of various key organizations within evangelicalism (e.g. the National Association of Evangelicals, InterVarsity, the Southern Baptist Convention, and others) both with one another, at conferences and in mission efforts. The narrative begins with the efforts of evangelicalism to reconcile its concern for peoples of color with the racial struggle coming to the surface in the 1960's, then moves on to the Congo Crisis and encounters with Marxist movements and the intersection of religious and political concerns--would Congo become another Vietnam. At the same time, Israel captured the American imagination in its victory in the 1967 war, leading to travel to biblical sites and increasing linkages between religious hopes and American foreign policy. This section concludes with the largest networking encounter of the period, Lausanne '74 and the growing tension between missional advance and social justice concerns from delegates in the developing world who were asserting their own voices increasingly.
Part Two is organized around body politics. It begins with Richard Wurmbrand displaying the wounds from his tortures before the U.S. Congress. Much of this section concerns persecution of evangelicals abroad and the intersection with concerns for religious liberty at home. McAlister traces the engagement with South African apartheid and how U.S. evangelicals dealt with the treatment of blacks and the witness of black Christian leaders. She explores the rising awareness of the Muslim World and the 10/40 Window heuristic for the unreached and resistant areas of the Muslim World. The section concludes with African American evangelicals efforts to address the crisis in South Sudan, and the redemption of people taken into slavery, an engagement of the heart that fails to get to the heart of the political turmoil in this troubled part of the world.
This leads naturally into Part Three, titled "Emotions." McAlister explores what she calls "enchanted internationalism" that motivates much of evangelical mission. She chronicles the "short term missions" movement and the motivation of so many who "have a heart" for the lost, but often do not truly engage the cultural realities of the places they go, often supplanting national workers who may be as, or more capable. McAlister tells the complicated story of American engagement around HIV/AIDS, and homosexuality in Africa, where African evangelicals take a much harsher line than Americans like Rick Warren, and resent what they see as American cultural imperialism asserting itself into African churches. Again, much of the focus is South Sudan, as we follow Dick Robinson from Elmbrook Church as he visits believers scattered through the country and joins a Global Urban Trek of InterVarsity students in Egypt working with South Sudanese refugees as they confront both the enchantment of close identification one student had with Muslim Egyptians, and the struggle of a black participant who feels the racism of Egyptians while identifying more closely with the South Sudanese. All confront the expectations on Americans, the complexities of political and social realities, and the challenge of trying to live authentic Christian lives in difficult circumstances.
As someone who lives inside the world McAlister is studying and works in one of the organizations she studies, I wondered how she would treat us. She is honest at one point in identifying herself as secular (on an InterVarsity mission project, one of the few organizations that permitted her to participate in such projects), and I thought fairly represented the facts. This was neither tribute nor hatchet job. It represents both noble efforts and questionable outlooks. She explores how global realities intersect with the American expressions of evangelicalism--how can we care for people of color around the world while tolerating racism at home? How do we hold mission in the Muslim world together with an increasing animus toward Muslims at home? How concerned are we for the religious liberties of the other as we advocate for our own? Furthermore, will we truly regard those who are fellow evangelicals around the world as equals and allow them to speak into our religious and political life as Americans? What happens when grateful recipients become equal partners? What happens when American evangelicals are a minority in a growing global movement?
I was deeply impressed with the incarnational approach of McAlister, who makes the effort to get on the inside that enables readers to see what American evangelicalism in its global efforts might look like to an outsider. I often read accounts of evangelicalism that are unrecognizable. The challenging aspect of this book is how recognizable it is, a mirror held up to us that shows all our features---and flaws.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary advance review copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
American evangelicalism has been the subject of much historical, sociological and political analysis. Nearly all of this has been focused within the borders of the United States. Melani McAlister studies this movement through a different lens--the mission efforts of the past fifty years that has led to an international engagement, particularly as growing indigenous movements have challenged American evangelical beliefs and practices. The focus of the author is on efforts in the Middle East and Africa, consistent with the author's research area as an associate professor of American Studies and International Affairs at George Washington University.
The scope of this study is the last fifty years, going back to the 1960's. After an introduction, the first section of the book is concerned with "networks," the linkages of various key organizations within evangelicalism (e.g. the National Association of Evangelicals, InterVarsity, the Southern Baptist Convention, and others) both with one another, at conferences and in mission efforts. The narrative begins with the efforts of evangelicalism to reconcile its concern for peoples of color with the racial struggle coming to the surface in the 1960's, then moves on to the Congo Crisis and encounters with Marxist movements and the intersection of religious and political concerns--would Congo become another Vietnam. At the same time, Israel captured the American imagination in its victory in the 1967 war, leading to travel to biblical sites and increasing linkages between religious hopes and American foreign policy. This section concludes with the largest networking encounter of the period, Lausanne '74 and the growing tension between missional advance and social justice concerns from delegates in the developing world who were asserting their own voices increasingly.
Part Two is organized around body politics. It begins with Richard Wurmbrand displaying the wounds from his tortures before the U.S. Congress. Much of this section concerns persecution of evangelicals abroad and the intersection with concerns for religious liberty at home. McAlister traces the engagement with South African apartheid and how U.S. evangelicals dealt with the treatment of blacks and the witness of black Christian leaders. She explores the rising awareness of the Muslim World and the 10/40 Window heuristic for the unreached and resistant areas of the Muslim World. The section concludes with African American evangelicals efforts to address the crisis in South Sudan, and the redemption of people taken into slavery, an engagement of the heart that fails to get to the heart of the political turmoil in this troubled part of the world.
This leads naturally into Part Three, titled "Emotions." McAlister explores what she calls "enchanted internationalism" that motivates much of evangelical mission. She chronicles the "short term missions" movement and the motivation of so many who "have a heart" for the lost, but often do not truly engage the cultural realities of the places they go, often supplanting national workers who may be as, or more capable. McAlister tells the complicated story of American engagement around HIV/AIDS, and homosexuality in Africa, where African evangelicals take a much harsher line than Americans like Rick Warren, and resent what they see as American cultural imperialism asserting itself into African churches. Again, much of the focus is South Sudan, as we follow Dick Robinson from Elmbrook Church as he visits believers scattered through the country and joins a Global Urban Trek of InterVarsity students in Egypt working with South Sudanese refugees as they confront both the enchantment of close identification one student had with Muslim Egyptians, and the struggle of a black participant who feels the racism of Egyptians while identifying more closely with the South Sudanese. All confront the expectations on Americans, the complexities of political and social realities, and the challenge of trying to live authentic Christian lives in difficult circumstances.
As someone who lives inside the world McAlister is studying and works in one of the organizations she studies, I wondered how she would treat us. She is honest at one point in identifying herself as secular (on an InterVarsity mission project, one of the few organizations that permitted her to participate in such projects), and I thought fairly represented the facts. This was neither tribute nor hatchet job. It represents both noble efforts and questionable outlooks. She explores how global realities intersect with the American expressions of evangelicalism--how can we care for people of color around the world while tolerating racism at home? How do we hold mission in the Muslim world together with an increasing animus toward Muslims at home? How concerned are we for the religious liberties of the other as we advocate for our own? Furthermore, will we truly regard those who are fellow evangelicals around the world as equals and allow them to speak into our religious and political life as Americans? What happens when grateful recipients become equal partners? What happens when American evangelicals are a minority in a growing global movement?
I was deeply impressed with the incarnational approach of McAlister, who makes the effort to get on the inside that enables readers to see what American evangelicalism in its global efforts might look like to an outsider. I often read accounts of evangelicalism that are unrecognizable. The challenging aspect of this book is how recognizable it is, a mirror held up to us that shows all our features---and flaws.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary advance review copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
October 6, 2018
5 stars because it's so personally relevant - laying out my religious heritage, demystifying it (though there's less analysis than just putting in one place: Jim Elliot, Schaeffer, Bonhoeffer's influence to 10/40 window, Perreti, and evangelical NGOs).
Learned for the first time about evangelical reactions to apartheid, the racial divide of evangelical responses to Iraq War.
Learned for the first time about evangelical reactions to apartheid, the racial divide of evangelical responses to Iraq War.
July 14, 2023
Insightful and well researched, while still being a digestible read.
August 9, 2022
This book looks at the American evangelical movement and how it has been involved in the wider world outside the US. The author begins with missionaries, and goes all the way up to the early 2000s, with discussion of the international movement for religious freedom and various types of social concern. The author is very even-handed in looking both at how many evangelicals looked at the non-Western world with fear and loathing, while others embraced that world and sought to bring the Gospel to it. She looks in depth at how American Southern racism both played a role in evangelicals' involvement overseas, and how their missionary work challenged negative attitudes towards domestic minorities. The book was published shortly after Donald Trump's election, and she addresses it briefly in the epilogue, but I would be interested in an update that looks in more depth at how the events of the past half-decade have impacted both evangelicals' perceptions of the world, and how they are perceived by evangelicals outside the US. One of the biggest strengths of this book is how she looks at minority and immigrant evangelicals, not just white evangelicals. I think she could have looked more at the contrasts, particularly in light of the past few years.
July 30, 2018
Fascinating and thought provoking
Brilliant. Riveting. Category-shattering history. This is how you do justice to the complicated pasts of your historical subjects! Without excusing people/institutions of their failures. Without making them out to be heroes or villains. Intentionally crossing every boundary that people try to place upon historical subjects, and giving contextual depth to familiar caricatures. The epilogue even helps contextualize the most immediate political moment. Damn this book is good.
Brilliant. Riveting. Category-shattering history. This is how you do justice to the complicated pasts of your historical subjects! Without excusing people/institutions of their failures. Without making them out to be heroes or villains. Intentionally crossing every boundary that people try to place upon historical subjects, and giving contextual depth to familiar caricatures. The epilogue even helps contextualize the most immediate political moment. Damn this book is good.
December 12, 2019
This was a really interesting look into the history of modern evangelicalism in America and its interactions with the rest of the world. Some topics I was more familiar with like the trends of short-term missions whereas I didn't know the various views and sides evangelicals took on apartheid in South Africa. It was well-researched, critical but not harsh look at evangelicalism and the trends and movements that have shaped where we are today.
November 14, 2019
This book is extremely useful and well-researched. McAlister effectively balances criticisms and complexities of global evangelism with humanizing the historic and contemporary people involved. Would recommend both for people who want to learn more about the history of evangelical Christianity and for those who are looking for new angles on histories/ideas that they already understand.
November 4, 2020
I wanted to read this book because the presidential election was coming up and I needed a clearer perspective on the 'other side', i.e. Evangelical Republicans. My intent was to remember to not demonize anyone I disagree with and understand where they are coming from. This book did exactly that, it helped me understand the complex nature of the group that includes whites, blacks, latinos, asians; a group that can work tirelessly for good and turn around and contradict that with their political movements (in my opinion of course). Very specifically the way that they feel they are a people under attack, was something that I could never wrap my head around, but here it became clear that they internalize the global hardship of minority Christians. Furthermore, the importance of the image of the injured body of Christ, in their moral interpretations of abortion, etc., was enlightening. Beyond that it was informative, plenty of the information about Sudan and South Africa was new to me, extremely well written, and balanced. There is much more I would like to know about the writers travels in Africa as part of these aid/evangelizing groups, and look forward to asking her myself.
November 17, 2021
Quite possibly the most engaging, comprehensive book I've read on the history of global American evangelicalism. Highly recommended for all Christians, especially those considering missionary work.
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August 12, 2025Unlike other Oxford books I have read, this volume seems to have had the type size reduced to an uncomfortable size (for me), possibly in order to squeeze the text onto less pages.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews