Christian Realism

Christians ought to carefully think about Flag Day, both in terms of symbols and in terms of citizenship.

“The people of Munich were informed by proclamation of the city administration that the requisition of private homes for army housing was to be carried through, and to a greater extent than had been hitherto feared.”

From 1945 to 1947 as the United States and Soviet Union moved toward the Cold War, Christian realists writing for Reinhold Niebuhr’s journal, Christianity and Crisis, responded to global dilemmas. Here are five impressions of those articles, along with lessons for today.

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.”

Eric Patterson and Robert Joustra discuss their recently released book, “Power Politics and Moral Order,” and defend the necessity of a Christian realist framework with which to pursue political ends.

Man is troubled—more troubled than at any previous time in the brief sojourn of his kind on this planet. Wars, revolutions and social convulsions all indicate the depth of his disquiet. He is troubled because he does not know, and he wants to know, the meaning of his own life.

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.

After traveling through Europe in 1947—including to Scotland, Amsterdam, and Switzerland—Reinhold Niebuhr wrote some reflections, including on state churches, the Truman Doctrine, Christian political parties, and more.

Recognizing the place for a genuine religious hope born of faith and for an enthusiasm for realization of social and ethical gains in any historical situation, Christianity will nevertheless, when true to itself, set its face against utopianism or popular brands of optimism.