Dr. Benjamin Pearson published in German book

Tusculum College History Professor Benjamin Pearson contributed a chapter to the newly published German book, “Globalisierung der Kirchen. Der Ökumenische Rat der Kirchen und die Entdeckung der Dritten Welt in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren (Globalization of the Churches: The World Council of Churches and the Discovery of the Third World in the 1960s and 1970s).”

Dr. Pearson’s chapter, titled “A Divided Nation in a Divided World: The Kirchentag and the Globalization of German Protestantism from the 1950s to the 1970s” is based on a 2011 presentation at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland.

According to Dr. Pearson, the chapter examines changing attitudes toward the “Third World” in Germany’s Protestant churches, looking especially at the ways in which Germany’s unique experiences as a nation burdened by the guilt of the Nazi past and divided by the politics of the Cold War served as a stimulus to humanitarian global engagement.

The book addresses the role of churches in the larger transnational network of global governance, particularly looking at the World Council of Churches and its role in representing non-Roman Catholic Christianity. The book was edited by Katharina Kunter and Annegreth Schilling.