Abstract
Not least among significant American leaders who inherited but also helped transform the American ideal of mission and Manifest Destiny was Woodrow Wilson. He was transfixed by the notion of a national mission, and variations on this theme dominate his speeches. His sense of divine calling has generally been attributed to his Puritan and Calvinist upbringing, rich sources indeed for the idea of a chosen people and a national covenant. Wilson moved America away from thinking of itself as simply a "New Eden" or a "New Israel" toward the Romantic, Progressive, social-gospel ideal of America as the "Christ-Nation."