Cold War

In this episode, the editors discuss a 1946 article arguing that the Soviet Union would no longer be America’s ally, a podcast about C.S. Lewis and patriotism, and next week’s International Religious Freedom Summit.

“It is time to take the full measure of certain arguments widely cherished by churchmen to excuse Soviet practice and minimize the Soviet threat” – Henry P. Van Dusen in 1946, responding to Christians who thought the West’s actions caused tensions with the USSR.

Toward the end of World War II, Americans contemplated the possibility of “world government” to prevent another catastrophe, especially after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan.

Browsing among the books, articles, and editorials of the past is instructive and exceedingly disturbing. One discovers the same concerns and anxieties as is everywhere apparent among thoughtful people now. Many paragraphs or sentences are as applicable today as they were then.

If we are to take a constructive part in world politics our leaders cannot assume that religious questions are unimportant.

Here’s my chat with Lawrence Hass on his new book The Kennedys in the World: How Jack, Bobby and Ted Remade America’s Empire.

In this episode, the editors discuss articles by Peter Burns and Alberto M. Fernandez about the Armenian Genocide and President…

In this article originally published by Christianity and Crisis on March 18, 1946, Charles W. Gilkey warns Americans not to worry that helping people abroad will make them “suckers.”

“A Christian knows, or ought to know, that an adequate Christian political ethic is not established merely by conceiving the most ideal possible solution for a political problem. He must, in all humility, deal with the realities of human nature, as well as the ideal possibilities.”