The Faith of Woodrow Wilson

An article in the spring 2006 edition of the Wilson Quarterly written by Elizabeth Edwards Spalding and entitled "True Believers" examines the issue of presidential faith, describing Woodrow Wilson's worldview as follows:

In Wilson's eyes, World War I was a crusade in which the New World would redeem the Old World, first in battle and then in the Covenant--a biblical word Wilson quite deliberately chose--of the League of Nations.

And further:

Wilson's worldview stressed the primacy of peace as the fulfillment of progressive history--a narrative he thought he was uniquely suited to understand, direct, and bring to fruition--and that the freedom and self-government of specific regimes were subordinate to global peace. . . . [Wilson] expressed confidence "that the world is even now upon the eve of a great consummation," which would result not only in some sort of international security organization but also in coercion being put only "to the service of a common order, a common justice, and a common peace."

Of Wilson, Shoghi Effendi wrote the following:

To. . . the immortal Woodrow Wilson, must be ascribed the unique honor, among the statesmen of any nation, whether of the East or of the West, of having voiced sentiments so akin to the principles animating the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh, and of having more than any other world leader, contributed to the creation of the League of Nations -- achievements which the pen of the Center of God's Covenant acclaimed as signalizing the dawn of the Most Great Peace, whose sun, according to that same pen, must needs arise as the direct consequence of the enforcement of the laws of the Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh.