American Crusade: Christianity, Warfare, and National Identity, 1860–1920

by Erich Morgan Huhn
published on 13 March 2026

Wetzel’s "American Crusade: Christianity, Warfare, and National Identity, 1860–1920" is aimed at the scholarly reader and examines how religious ideology and social location shaped how American Christians viewed war in relation to their national identity. The book does an excellent job outlining Congregationalist views and the preaching of Lyman Abbott. It is a worthwhile source for those looking for a deeper understanding of the link between Christian Nationalism and American identity.

In American Crusade: Christianity, Warfare, and National Identity, 1860-1920, Taylor University's Associate Professor of History Benjamin J. Wetzel explores the way Christian religious ideology and ‘social location’ shaped how American Christians viewed war in relation to their national identity. Wetzel’s familiarity with the field allows this book to engage with both primary and secondary materials to show how Congregationalist preachers dominated the religious and social narratives, considering the otherwise outsized role their voices played. This book is written for an audience already familiar with the scholarly discussion of American intellectual and religious history, deftly navigating the historiography but leaving unacquainted readers scrambling to catch up. Those unfamiliar with late-19th-century intellectual and religious figures may be better served by finding a different source.

Expanding from his first book, Theodore Roosevelt: Preaching from the Bully Pulpit (2021), American Crusade focuses on Congregationalist preachers as spokesmen of Mainline Protestant views. Wetzel uses Congregationalist sermons and publications as the mouthpiece to understand the broader cultural legacy and influence of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant establishment. Over six chapters, Wetzel explores how Congregationalist preachers - with a focus on Henry Ward Beecher and Layman Abbott - used their pulpits in support of the Civil, Spanish-American, and First World Wars. To each war, Wetzel provides a counterpoint argument from the perspective of the African Methodist Episcopal, Catholic, and Missouri Synod minority views, respectively. In each case, Wetzel shows that while Congregationalist (and, by extension, Mainline Protestant/WASP establishment) supported the war effort and encouraged enlistment through rhetoric framing America's fight as a crusade against the enemy, the ethnic and racial minorities used the pulpit to call into question American intentions. As slavery, imperialism, and democracy came to dominate the narratives of the Civil, Spanish-American, and First World Wars, respectively, so too did religious arguments recast American involvement into a moral fight to create and enforce God’s will through American military success.

The centrality of Congregationalist preaching, however, poses questions as to how much that denomination actually spoke for the broader WASP society. Wetzel, perhaps, takes for granted the prominent place of the Congregationalist Plymouth Church in Brooklyn (where Abbott succeeded Beecher as pastor) within American intellectual and religious life. Without a doubt, Beecher, Abbott, and their successors at Plymouth Church were certainly seen as important moralists and preachers supporting WASP establishment, but they hardly spoke for the much broader spectrum of American Protestantism. Plymouth Church and the general popularity that met Congregationalist preachers across the country certainly reflected an outsized voice. Beecher and Abbott were, without a doubt, important cultural and social commentators in their day. With so much focus on what was being preached from the pulpit in Brooklyn, it is actually the counterpoint chapters that present Wetzel’s strongest points by highlighting the religious minority. Yes, Congregationalism might have been speaking in step with the rest of American Protestantism, but Congregationalist preachers were not speaking for American Protestantism as a whole. Important concepts, like ‘social location’ and masculine Christianity, are mentioned throughout but never fully explored or contextualized. Concepts like the social gospel and Christian Republicanism are also sidelined, even though they could have supported Wetzel’s thesis.

Overall, American Crusade presents its readers with a deep dive into the role of religion in supporting American military engagements. For all its faults, American Crusade provides an important addition to the historiography that it engages with, particularly given the current rise of Christian rhetoric and nationalism. For the reader interested in understanding the historical origins and willing to flail in the deep end, this book is highly recommended. By looking at the popular Congregationalist sermons, Wetzel shows that the church, and Mainline Protestantism by extension, co-opted visions of Christianity, masculinity, and nationalism to argue that it was not imperial expansion but an American crusade.

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