Christian Imperial Feminism

Illuminates how white American Protestant women embraced a racially specific version of social

inclusiveness that centered themselves as the norm

Amidst the global instability of the early twentieth century, white Christian American women embraced

the idea of an “empire of Christ” that was racially diverse, but which they believed they were uniquely

qualified to manage. America’s burgeoning power, combined with women’s rising roles within the

church, led to white Protestant women adopting a feminism rooted in religion and imperialism.

Gale L. Kenny examines this Christian imperial feminism from the women’s missionary movement to

create a Christian world order. She shows that this Christian imperial feminism marked a break from an

earlier Protestant world view that focused on moral and racial purity and in which interactions among

races were inconceivable. This new approach actually prioritized issues like civil rights and racial

integration, as well as the uplift of women, though the racially diverse world Christianity it aspired to

was still to be rigidly hierarchically ordered, with white women retaining a privileged place as guardians.

In exposing these dynamics, this book departs from recent scholarship on white evangelical nationalism

to focus on the racial politics of white religious liberalism. Christian Imperial Feminism adds a necessary

layer to our understanding of religion, gender, and empire.