Amerika Haus Program – Understanding American Evangelicals in the Age of Trump

Speaker:     Dr. Gary Edwards, Associate Professor of History and Director of Graduate Studies at Arkansas State University

Introduction:  Dr. Andreas Etges, Amerika Institut, LKMU München 

Topic:        Understanding American Evangelicals in the Age of Trump

Language:  English

Organizer:  Bavarian Center for Transatlantic Relations, Bertelsmann Foundation

When:        Tuesday, 29th May 2018, 1900-2100.

Where:       Amerika Haus (temporary site), Barer Str. 19a, 80333 Munich

Cost:          Free

Sign-up:    www.tinyurl.com/Evangelicals-Trump

Organized by:  Bavarian Center for Transatlantic Relations

This is an insider’s critique, a lecture that explores the tension within American evangelicalism created by the unusual support for President Trump. 

While American evangelicals have been united behind the Republican Party since the 1970s, the 2016 election of Donald Trump opened a small but pronounced division—straining the unity of evangelicals in both church and party. This lecture will explore the tension within American evangelicalism created by the unusually strong support for a U.S. President who seems to be the antithesis of basic evangelical personal values and yet the defender of key evangelical political values.

The justifications and contradictions of these shifting values will be explored with ideas about ways to move this discourse forward during the remainder of the Trump Presidency and beyond. Ultimately, the Trump Presidency presents an existential moment, which forces the question: can American evangelicalism survive Donald Trump?

Dr. Gary Edwards is Associate Professor of History and Director of Graduate Studies at Arkansas State University. In addition to ASU, Edwards has served as a member of the faculty at both the University of Memphis and the Free University of Berlin during a Fulbright Senior Fellowship.