A cautious patriotism

by Gerald Lawson Sittser

In A Cautious Patriotism, Gerald Sittser examines the issues raised by World War II in light of the reactions they provoked among Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Unitarians, and members of other Christian denominations. As Sittser demonstrates, religious concerns played a part in the debate over American entry into the war and continued to resurface over issues of mobilization, military chaplaincy, civil rights, the internment of Japanese Americans, Jewish suffering, the dropping of the atomic bomb, and postwar planning. Ultimately, Sittser says, the churches' behavior during World War II played a key role in the resurgence they experienced in the wake of the war.