Richard Mouw is an American, and he loves his country the most, according to his newly released How to be a Patriotic Christian: Love of Country as Love of Neighbor.

Is it possible for a Christian to love his or her country too much? Is America itself even deserving of a Christian’s loyalty? If Christians have anything to offer the civil kingdom, how should they go about it?

True patriotism is not about establishing the external borders of your love so much as the ordering of it. For the Christian, who has access to an unending source of love in God, no one ought to be excluded from this love—neither your neighbor, nor fellow countrymen, nor other peoples around the globe.

Given the state of contemporary discourse surrounding the nation, it’s no wonder so many young evangelicals are disillusioned with it. What we need is a return to a political theology that rejects this false dichotomy, seeking to recover the practical role of temporal political institutions in light of the eternal.

An incarnational nationhood deepens and overcomes the weaknesses of both the nation-as-idea and nation-as-ethnicity visions.

The nation-state emerged in Western Europe out of the Wars of Religion as a tool of the Protestant movements.

The very idea of the American nation-state seems to be losing its importance. In its stead, Americans have unfortunately moved toward cosmopolitanism and—for millennials especially—identity politics.

Should Christians promote nation-states in all places at all times? No.

Works by C.S. Lewis and Tim Keller can help us understand the outlines of a healthy Christian patriotism—a righteous love of one’s imperfect country and home, including the people there and much more.