Mark Tooley

Mark Tooley is IRD’s president and editor of IRD’s foreign policy and national security journal, Providence. Prior to joining the IRD in 1994, Mark worked eight years for the Central Intelligence Agency. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and is a native of Arlington, Virginia. He is the author of Taking Back The United Methodist Church, published in 2008; Methodism and Politics in the 20th Century, published in 2012; and The Peace That Almost Was: The Forgotten Story of the 1861 Washington Peace Conference and the Final Attempt to Avert the Civil War, published in 2015.

Follow Mark on Twitter: @markdtooley

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John Brown No Model for Christian Engagement

Politics is never more potentially dangerous when claiming to be based on the inflexible absolutism of “thus saith the Lord.”

Juneteenth’s Global Power

The spirit of Juneteenth is the most powerful spiritual and political force in the world. 

Marksism – No. 88: G.K. Chesterton, Flag Day, Israel, Niebuhr
Marksism – No. 88: G.K. Chesterton, Flag Day, Israel, Niebuhr

In this episode, the editors discuss Eric Patterson and Abigail Lindner’s about G.K. Chesterton and Flag Day, Gerald McDermott’s article about Jewish-Christian relations, and Reinhold Niebuhr’s editorial as the Marshall Plan emerged.

Evangelicals & Whiggery

The world gets better and at sundry times through the action of people who did not realize what they were doing.”    

Marksism – No. 87: C.S. Lewis, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Christian Realism

The editors discuss Mark Tooley’s article about how C.S. Lewis and Herbert Butterfield interpreted history, Mark Melton’s five impressions on Christian realism from the early Cold War years, and an event promoting Eric Patterson and Robert Joustra’s new book, “Power Politics and Moral Order.”

C. S. Lewis Was Wrong on History

Butterfield did not offer us Christian apologetics, but he did offer a Christian understanding of history far more appealing than Lewis’s dismissal of the project.     

Marksism – No. 86: Top Gun Audacity, Vocation of Arms, Truman Doctrine
Marksism – No. 86: Top Gun Audacity, Vocation of Arms, Truman Doctrine

The editors discuss Mark Tooley’s review of Top Gun: Maverick, Marc LiVecche’s article about the “vocation of arms,” and how Reinhold Niebuhr viewed the Truman Doctrine and church-state relations in Europe.

Top Gun & American Audacity

The world whether admitting to it or not needs an audacious America that will safeguard that part of civilization cherishing law, liberty, equality, decency and ordered prosperity.

Marksism: Memorial Day, Czech Anti-Hatred, Russian Orthodoxy & Just War

Providence editors Mark Tooley and Marc LiVecche discuss Abigail Lindner and Eric Patterson’s article on G.K. Chesterton and war memorials, Lubomir Ondrasek’s piece on Czech leader Vaclav Havel’s warning against hatred, and Lee Trepanier’s counsel for how Russian Orthodoxy, lacking the Just War tradition, can oppose injustice with church teaching on personhood.

Marksism – No. 84: Just War Tears, Ukraine Martyr, China Irony

In this episode the editors discuss Rebeccah Heinrichs’ article about John Kirby’s emotional statement about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mark Tooley’s editorial about Poland and Ukraine as martyr nations, and Christian realist articles from 1947 debating whether the Chinese communists could exist and thrive in a democracy.