Abstract
[John D. Wilsey], a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, builds his case on a distinction between what he calls "closed" and "open" exceptionalism. This contrast serves as his organizing principle to understand the American identity. "Closed" and "open" correspond somewhat with the "missionary" and "exemplary" categories familiar from older studies in American foreign policy. They help Wilsey distinguish between the nationalist, imperialist, selfish exceptionalism that he rejects as un-American and un-Christian, on the one hand, and the patriotic, liberal, benevolent exceptionalism he favors on the other. The emergence of "closed" exceptionalism in the early national period, evident in slavery and land-grab of manifest destiny, betrayed the "objective, transcendent, authoritative" principles of justice articulated in the Declaration of Independence. Second, Wilsey cannot let go of the presupposition that American conduct in the world needs to be based on a biblical standard. He uses the famous words of Micah 6:8-"What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Wilsey applies this "moral mission" from the Old Testament prophet to "all people," not just to the covenant community. "Of this mission, Americans can have certainty," he promises. And that means "it is not necessary to abandon the idea of a national mission" in toto once we abandon closed exceptionalism. "A concept of national mission that is animated by justice, self-examination and stewardship of resources," Wilsey concludes, "is potentially a source of true human flourishing." In the end, does Wilsey's sanctified exceptionalism really escape the hubris of national vanity? His "open" exceptionalism may be safer for American Christians than "closed" exceptionalism. But conservative Christians will be left wondering what this grand vision of the benevolent empire has to do with constitutional republicanism. Wilsey offers Christians a false choice between two kinds of imperialism-selfish and altruistic-both at war with American constitutionalism and both unsafe. Wilsey's "open" exceptionalism isn't open enough-open to the possibility that his own analysis is closed around the contemporary dogmas of Americanism.