Eric Patterson, Ph.D., is President & CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington, DC and scholar-at-large and past dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University. His expertise, informed by time at the US Department of State and in the military, is on just war thinking, the nexus of religion and national security, and Christian Realism. He is the author or editor of 22 books, including Just American Wars, Politics in a Religious World, and Ending Wars Well.
Today would be the 300th birthday of colonial pastor Jonathan Mayhew—a pastor, citizen, and prophet who articulated a rationale for self-defense by British citizens in North America.
Eric PattersonOctober 8, 2020
Followers of Christian realism generally share these eight assumptions, which can be found in the works of Reinhold Niebuhr, John C. Bennett, Jean Bethke Elshtain, and others.
Eric PattersonSeptember 23, 2020
Luke Goodrich’s “Free to Believe – The Battle Over Religious Liberty in America” is desperately needed because religious freedom is poorly understood and under assault across America. If it is lost here, can it thrive anywhere else?
Eric PattersonJune 15, 2020
The violence against Nigerian Christians has recently entered a new, deadlier phase. Unless conditions on the ground change, Nigeria’s Middle Belt Christians face death or expulsion in many areas.
Eric PattersonApril 29, 2020
Simon Polinder and Govert Bujis advance a new school of Christian international relations thinking that they call “The Amsterdam School.” Time will tell if this distinctively Neo-Calvinist international relations approach is possible.
Eric PattersonMarch 2, 2020
Modern authors tend to view American evangelicals as a monolithic assembly, rarely describing the varying facets of their beliefs. In his book “Swords and Plowshares: American Evangelicals on War, 1937–1973,” Timothy D. Padgett attempts to dispel this misconception.
Jonathan Monroe & Eric PattersonJuly 9, 2019
The Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I, was signed one hundred years ago this week. What is often forgotten is that this treaty—or better yet, set of treaties—did recognize and advance, albeit in a limited way, the religious freedom of average citizens.
Eric PattersonJune 27, 2019
In his State of the Union Address, Donald Trump promoted a vision of American leadership for the twenty-first century.
Eric PattersonFebruary 6, 2019
Observers expected Pompeo’s Cairo visit to defend President Trump’s drawdown in Syria. Instead, Pompeo systematically dismantled the failed Middle East policies of the Obama administration.
Eric PattersonJanuary 15, 2019
There are at least two powerful nationalisms in Europe that are chauvinistic, appropriate religious institutions and identities, and are led by powerful leaders.
Eric PattersonNovember 16, 2018
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