On Monday, September 28, at 7 p.m., the MacKinnon Lecture will take place at the Sobey Building, Saint Mary’s University. The lecture is titled, “Christian Internationalism and German Belonging: The Salvation Army from Imperial Germany to Nazism.”

The speaker, Dr. Rebecca Carter-Chand, will be drawing on her award-winning book of the same title as she examines how the Salvation Army navigated the passage from Wilhelmine imperialism through the Third Reich—and what its trajectory reveals about religion, transnational identity, and the moral compromises of a catastrophic era.

In the book, a winner of the George L. Mosse First Book Prize, Carter-Chand argues that the Salvation Army was able to emphasize different aspects of its identity to bolster and repair its reputation as needed in varied political contexts, highlighting the variability of Nazi practices of inclusion and exclusion. In that way, the organization was similar to other Christian groups in Germany. Counter to common hypotheses that minority religious groups are more likely to show empathy to other minorities, dynamics within Nazi Germany reveal that many religious minorities sought acceptance from the state in an effort to secure self-preservation.

When asked what some of the most surprising discoveries were while researching and writing the book, Dr. Carter-Chand said, “One of the most surprising discoveries was how a charitable organization from Britain, operating on the margins of the religious landscape in Germany, could find belonging in Nazi Germany. In order to explain this dynamic, I had to look back into the organization’s history in Germany and examine how it navigated changes in German society, how it shaped its public profile, and how other Germans viewed the organization.” 

“Another surprising finding was how the Salvation Army responded differently to World War II and the Holocaust in different European countries, despite being part of the same international organization,” adds Dr. Carter-Chand. 

Dr. Carter-Chand is the director of the Programs on Religion and the Holocaust at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Programs on Religion and the Holocaust foster scholarship, teaching, and reflection on the intersections between religion and the Holocaust. Her research focuses on Christian minority groups in Nazi Germany, including the Salvation Army, Quakers, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

For those planning to join us at Saint Mary's University this year, there is definitely something to be taken away in terms of how this historical narrative speaks to our modern understanding of faith and ethics.

“I hope that audiences come away with a greater appreciation of how difficult it can be for religious and charitable organizations to reckon with difficult pasts,” shares Dr. Carter-Chand.

Event Details

MacKinnon Lecture 2026

Christian Internationalism and German Belonging: The Salvation Army from Imperial Germany to Nazism

Speaker: Dr. Rebecca Carter-Chand

Date: Monday, September 28

Venue: Sobey Building, Saint Mary’s University, 923 Robie Street, Halifax

Time: 7 p.m. 

Lounge capacity: 48 | Theatre capacity: 170

Free and open to the public.

Hospitality by AST MacKinnon Lecture Series

9:30 p.m. Venue closes