Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    American Christians and Islam: Evangelical Culture and Muslims from the Colonial Period to the Age of Terrorism
    American Christians and Islam: Evangelical Culture and Muslims from the Colonial Period to the Age of Terrorism
    American Christians and Islam: Evangelical Culture and Muslims from the Colonial Period to the Age of Terrorism
    Ebook207 pages5 hours

    American Christians and Islam: Evangelical Culture and Muslims from the Colonial Period to the Age of Terrorism

    By Thomas S. Kidd

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, many of America's Christian evangelicals have denounced Islam as a "demonic" and inherently violent religion, provoking frustration among other Christian conservatives who wish to present a more appealing message to the world's Muslims. Yet as Thomas Kidd reveals in this sobering book, the conflicted views expressed by today's evangelicals have deep roots in American history.


    Tracing Islam's role in the popular imagination of American Christians from the colonial period to today, Kidd demonstrates that Protestant evangelicals have viewed Islam as a global threat--while also actively seeking to convert Muslims to the Christian faith--since the nation's founding. He shows how accounts of "Mahometan" despotism and lurid stories of European enslavement by Barbary pirates fueled early evangelicals' fears concerning Islam, and describes the growing conservatism of American missions to Muslim lands up through the post-World War II era. Kidd exposes American Christians' anxieties about an internal Islamic threat from groups like the Nation of Islam in the 1960s and America's immigrant Muslim population today, and he demonstrates why Islam has become central to evangelical "end-times" narratives. Pointing to many evangelicals' unwillingness to acknowledge Islam's theological commonalities with Christianity and their continued portrayal of Islam as an "evil" and false religion, Kidd explains why Christians themselves are ironically to blame for the failure of evangelism in the Muslim world.



    American Christians and Islam is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the causes of the mounting tensions between Christians and Muslims today.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPrinceton University Press
    Release dateJun 5, 2018
    ISBN9780691186191
    American Christians and Islam: Evangelical Culture and Muslims from the Colonial Period to the Age of Terrorism
    Author

    Thomas S. Kidd

    Thomas S. Kidd (PhD, Notre Dame) is distinguished professor of history at Baylor University. He has written many books, including America’s Colonial History and The Great Awakening, and also writes and appears regularly in mainstream media. A past winner of a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, he tweets at @ThomasSKidd.

    Read more from Thomas S. Kidd

    Related to American Christians and Islam

    Related ebooks

    Discrimination & Race Relations For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      2017 Has Been A Rough Year For Evangelicals

      Dec 29, 2017

      Self-described "evangelical" Christians helped elect President Trump in 2016. But this year, the label lost coherence. Some evangelicals reconsidered what it stood for, while others disowned the term.

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Roots Of U.S. Support For Israel

      Jan 26, 2023

      WHEN BRITAIN ANNOUNCED its support for the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine by issuing the Balfour Declaration, many high-profile American Jews opposed the move. “I do not believe that it is to the interest of the Jews or the worl

      4 min read

    • Article

      From Father Divine to Jim Jones: On the Phenomenon of American Messiahs

      Aug 26, 2019

      Here's the thing about so-called cults: for all their tragic failings, they’ve provided the only genuine resistance to the forward march of capitalism. The post From Father Divine to Jim Jones: On the Phenomenon of American Messiahs appeared first on

      13 min read

    • Article

      'The Chosen Wars' Tells How Judaism Redefined Itself In America

      Aug 21, 2018

      Today’s Jewish community continues to be divided over issues related to assimilation and secularization.

      3 min read

    • Article

      The New Antisemitism

      Mar 2, 2024

      The New Antisemitism
      12 min read

    • Article

      The New Antisemitism

      Mar 1, 2024

      The New Antisemitism
      12 min read

    • Article

      Ignorance of JEWS & CHURCH HISTORY

      Mar 8, 2024

      Encountering our own ignorance can be a transformative journey, requiring courage and vulnerability. As a Christian with a deep love for Israel, I found myself delving into church history amid the recent surge in anti-Semitism. This exploration aimed

      2 min read

    • Article

      Not Always Brotherly On The Square

      Feb 25, 2021

      TO SEND REVIEW COPIES, CONTACT THE BOOK REVIEWS EDITOR AT DVBARRETT@FORTEANTIMES.COM How Freemasons Made the Modern World John Dickie Hodder & Stoughton 2020 Hb, 454pp, £25, ISBN 9781473658196 Masons, Mysteries and the Founding of America (2nd edn) P

      11 min read

    • Article

      True Believer

      Mar 26, 2019

      True Believer
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Clash Of Civilisations?

      May 14, 2020

      A Clash Of Civilisations?
      7 min read

    • Article

      Take Me to Church

      Apr 1, 2017

      Take Me to Church
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for American Christians and Islam

    4/5

    3 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Evangelizing MuslimsIn "American Christians and Islam," Thomas S. Kidd presents a scholarly historical survey of Christian proselytizing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book is roughly divided into the sections of: Barbary wars, Victorian era, middle-class reformers, Arab-Israeli crisis, modernity, postwar, and post 9-11.The thesis of the book is that: American Christians' views about Islam usually divulge more about American Christians than about actual Muslims. Kidd attempts to show how a distorted vision of the Muslim world has led to unnecessary animosity between members of both faiths. Kidd does not attempt to show the Muslim point of view, but he is polemical against the prevailing Christian attitudes toward Islam and Muslims in general.In particular, Kidd is primarily focused on the Christian idea that Islam was founded and propagated through a doctrine of violence, ie. jihad. That Islam was spread throughout the world by the sword. Misconceptions, for example, that the Turkish slaughter of Armenians was religiously based.Another theological theme that Kidd explores throughout are the Christian eschatological beliefs that have been misinterpreted to view Islam as the anathema of Christ. Such literal views of Revelations in the Bible have fundamental Christians believing in the establishment of Israel to end the Jewish diaspora and the Judgement Day when Christians will defeat Muslims forever the second coming of Christ will appear.While Kidd is impressive in the depth he covers. I do however feel that some parts are under-explored or missing altogether. For instance, popular Christian misconceptions about Islam as intolerant of women is scantily mentioned by Kidd. Though not in a evangelical sense, but the Orientalism of Cold War social scientists in the proliferation of area-studies, which have included the Middle-east, is all but ignored. Bernard Lewis, Emeritus of Princeton, the most famous of which, is never even mentioned.If you are really interested in a more detailed book on Protestant missionaries in the Middle East, I highly recommend "Artillery of Heaven: American Missionaries and the Failed Conversion of the Middle East" by Ussama Makdisi. That is not to say that "American Christians and Islam" is not important or not any good, but that "Artillery of Heaven" presents more depth with which the analysis can draw its conclusions from.

    Book preview

    American Christians and Islam - Thomas S. Kidd

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1