(Note: for readers unfamiliar with the authentic piety of elite Protestant liberals of the late 19th and early 20th\u00a0century, Wilsey\u2019s description of Dulles\u2019s childhood is worth the price of the book.)<\/p>\n Whereas many interpreters perceive a marked difference between the foreign policy of Dulles as a younger man and that of Dulles as Secretary of State, Wilsey aims to show the consistency in his approach to foreign policy, grounding it in Dulles\u2019s religious commitment. If that grounding seems a little thin, that is due to Dulles\u2019s own thin theological commitments\u2014something Wilsey\u2019s notes several places (e.g., 121, 152, 189)\u2014not the abandonment of his prior Christian realism and internationalism to become the Eisenhower administration\u2019s \u201cpriest of nationalism\u201d (\u00e0 la Mark Toulouse<\/a>, 151). Without a doubt, Toulouse\u2019s \u201csmart, persuasive, and difficult to challenge thesis (152),\u201d is Wilsey\u2019s greatest interpretative obstacle. Wilsey tackles this challenge head on, providing a nuanced perspective that argues that Dulles maintained a consistent commitment to the moral law as the center of diplomacy throughout his career.<\/p>\n Early in his diplomatic endeavors, Dulles imbibed deeply from the failure of Versailles, embracing a commitment to internationalism that insisted that the fates of the nations were intertwined, and that each nation should be allotted equal treatment in the changing international order, regardless of past actions. In Dulles\u2019 estimation, the problem with settlements like Versailles (1919), the Washington Conference (1922), and the Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) was that they attempted to maintain the status quo in a world of change. International relations must be built around the expectation of change and the equal treatment of the nations in the emerging new world order in accordance with the moral law. This \u201cnew spirit of internationalism was the key to preventing future wars\u201d (79). War itself, not a specific evil nation, was the main threat.<\/p>\n A committed internationalist, the religious \u201cturning point of his career came in 1937 after attending the Oxford Conference on Church, Community, and State\u201d\u00a0(101). This pivotal year marked his ascendancy as an expert on international relations as well as the inclusion of the church\u2019s moral voice into his understanding of world order. Two years later, in his 1939 work War, Peace, and Change<\/em>, Dulles warned that, in the absence of a national religious vitality, nations would deify their own state and demonize other nations in the international struggle. Here is where Christianity must play a guiding role among the \u201cChristian nations.\u201d Consistent with Protestant liberalism\u2019s understanding of Christianity as ethics, Dulles believed that the churches of the Christian nation should teach that sacrifice for others is better than sacrifice for nation (119). Thus, the \u201cFatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of Man\u201d would provide the religious grounding needed to invigorate the moral basis of an international order that treated nations as equals, leading to a better future. For Dulles, this was the only way forward in an international arena where change was the only constant.<\/p>\n![\"Wilsey,](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/168\/2021\/02\/Gods-Cold-Warrior-200x300.jpg\")
<\/a>With the publication of God\u2019s Cold Warrior: The Life and Faith of John Foster Dulles<\/em><\/a> by John D. Wilsey<\/a>, Eerdmans has added another fine volume to its Library of Religious Biography Series<\/a>. While most of the other volumes in the series take as their subject religious professionals of some sort (e.g., Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, and Howard Thurman), this volume by Wilsey, who serves as Associate Professor of Church History at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, presents the religious biography of a figure not best known for his religious life\u2014a tricky task. Wilsey, who conducted most of the research while serving as a Fellow in Religion and Public Life with the James Madison Program at Princeton University, is up for the challenge. He ably recounts the manner in which Protestant liberalism of the first half of the twentieth century was the \u201canimating force\u201d to Dulles\u2019s life, especially in his public life where he served as a lawyer, churchman, and a diplomat (9). Along the way, he provides a window into a life \u201ccharacterized by the privileges of wealth, a powerful support network, and the singular opportunities that attended those privileges\u201d\u00a0(171). Dulles made good use of those opportunities, seeing it as his Christian duty to serve his family, his denomination (Presbyterian), and his country in whatever capacity privilege had afforded him. After graduation from Princeton, Dulles embarked on a career as an attorney, then as a civil servant in various diplomatic roles. With the election of Dwight Eisenhower, he became Secretary of State, the same position his grandfather and uncle had held. At each step, the Christianity John Foster Dulles (1888-1959) learned growing up in the home of his liberal Presbyterian minister father, Allen Macy Dulles (1854-1930), and pious mother, Edith Foster Dulles (1863-1941).<\/p>\n