Thy Kingdom Come: Exploring Christian Internationalism (with Dr Melani McAlister)

2022-07-01

While most of us may be familiar with the concept of Christian nationalism in the United States among evangelicals, what about the idea of Christian internationalism? That's the topic that this week's guest, Dr Melani McAlister of George Washington University, happens to be an expert on. We begin by discussing the war in Ukraine and how it shone a spotlight on the widespread American evangelical support for Vladimir Putin--a development that shocked many, given that the Soviet Union was seen by many Christians as the...

While most of us may be familiar with the concept of Christian nationalism in the United States among evangelicals, what about the idea of Christian internationalism? That's the topic that this week's guest, Dr Melani McAlister of George Washington University, happens to be an expert on.

We begin by discussing the war in Ukraine and how it shone a spotlight on the widespread American evangelical support for Vladimir Putin--a development that shocked many, given that the Soviet Union was seen by many Christians as the biggest threat to Christianity during the Cold War. What has changed? She maintains it's Christian internationalism.

As she argues in her 2018 book, The Kingdom of God Has no Borders: A Global History of American Evangelicals, one cannot truly understand evangelicalism as a phenomenon unless looked at globally. Far from an American export, evangelicalism is not a monolith and must be examined in terms of its reach and impact nation by nation, people group by people group.

Join the MindShift Podcast Patreon Community!

Contact Information

Follow Melani on Twitter @MelaniMcA

Follow me on Twitter @MindShift2018

Comments (3)