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.

Real intolerance against Muslims exists, no question. But the term “Islamophobia” is too often deployed to inhibit rather than encourage dialogue about honest questions, concerns, or grievances.

Force is always only the form love takes against terrible evil in the last resort when nothing else will protect the innocent, restore justice, and bring about the conditions for peace. The old Chestertonian nugget remains: “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”

Chaos (fauda) isn’t limited to the Middle East. Every part of the world is reeling amidst an unprecedented era of political, sociological, and technological disruption. No one is quite sure how to react, and Christians, despite their dogmatic certainty on so many things, feel just as confused as the rest.

“We must hate,” Lenin told his commissars. “Hatred is the basis for communism.” Rarely has an achieved ambition been so consequential.

Christian clergymen of today typically prefer to disparage power and prestige as demonic ensnarements that Jesus shunned when offered. But Jesus exemplifies not the rejection of power per se but rather a godly deployment of it.

As daunting as it may be, closing the God gap is a necessary step to improving communication with Russia and other important actors in international affairs.

What does NATO need to do going forward? The short answer: more and less.

Are we, in fact, seeking through foreign policy to protect ourselves from a pre-millennial apocalypse—or, perhaps, to bring about a post-millennial one? The intellectual and spiritual resources of Protestant Christianity have a great deal to add to this debate. But up until now, I haven’t seen much evidence that these resources have yet been brought to bear on these questions.