Daniel Strand

Daniel Strand

Daniel Strand is a professor who teaches courses on the just war tradition, ethics and leadership, and contemporary political ethics. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Arizona State University (2015-19) in the History Department and the Program in Political History and Leadership. Strand’s research interests include the political and moral theology of Augustine of Hippo and the Augustinian tradition, ethics and foreign policy, the just war tradition, bioethics, and moral theory. He is the author of the forthcoming Gods of the Nations (Cambridge University Press), a historical study of Augustine’s political theology in The City of God. He has published articles and book chapters on Augustine of Hippo, Hannah Arendt, and the ethics of euthanasia. He is a contributing editor at Providence. He received his BA from the University of Minnesota, MDiv from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and PhD in religion and ethics from the University of Chicago.

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Consistently Inconsistent: Haspel’s Appointment Exposes Disingenuous Democrats
Consistently Inconsistent: Haspel’s Appointment Exposes Disingenuous Democrats

John Brennan, who could be credibly blamed as one of the waterboarding program’s chief supporters, seems to escape with little to no blame, while Gina Haspel, who was carrying out the orders of her higher-ups, gets accused of moral impropriety because she was tasked with implementing their plan.

Where is the Love: Do Reformed Christians Really Love Israel?

Reflecting on Israel at its seventieth anniversary, I wonder why Reformed Christians, or Calvinists as they are sometimes called, are more reluctant and timid about their views on Israel. 

Religious Left Misdiagnoses Crisis of Evangelicalism - Donald Trump - Power
Religious Left Misdiagnoses Crisis of Evangelicalism

The long history of Christian reflection does not share Mark Labberton’s confidence that “God so loved the world” means the rejection of power and worldly politics.

The Delightful Heresy of Jacksonianism
The Delightful Heresy of Jacksonianism

Christians should remember this: any political theology that treats its own people as a divinely chosen political community treads on heretical soil.

A Little Brown Book for Augustinian Readers: An Appreciation at 50 Augustine of Hippo: A Biography, Peter Brown, 1967
A Little Brown Book for Augustinian Readers: Review of Brown’s Augustine of Hippo

By turning to cultural anthropology and other methods for encountering the ancient world, Brown humanized not just Augustine but also ancient Christianity itself. Getting into the early Christian’s skin and trying to understand the world through the eyes of those who lived in it, Brown established empathy as a scholarly tool.

Show Last Resort the Exit - Just War Tradition
Show Last Resort the Exit

If we use last resort to prevent war in almost all circumstances because we see the use of force as evil, we do not preserve peace but instead allow injustices to go unchecked.

Can Christians Support Gina Haspel as CIA Director? Torture Bonnie Kristian
Can Christians Support Gina Haspel, a “Torturer,” as CIA Director?

Can a Christian support using sleep deprivation against known terrorists to gain valuable intelligence that could save lives?

The Distorted Image of God Imago Dei
The Distorted Image

Too often in our contemporary discussions about justice, Christians have turned to the idea of the “image of God” as the grounds for our social and political ethics.

America’s Greatest Threat Donald Trump
America’s Greatest Threat

While Trump’s bluster and temperament seem ill-suited to the subtleties of diplomacy he is surely not the cause of our current predicament.

Daniel Strand Lecture: “God’s Vocation for Government”

The following lecture was recorded during Providence’s 2017 Christianity and National Security Conference. Daniel Strand argues that theology must determine…