Thomas Aquinas

“The Unbroken Thread” by Sohrab Ahmari shows us that our human capacities and loves are not and cannot be strictly contained within the horizons of philosophic liberalism.

While I am in large agreement with Shadi Hamid’s essay, I find myself a bit underwhelmed for a few reasons.

The sad and lamentable truth is that indeed this is who we are, for it was members of our own body-politic who did this, and we cannot heal if we do not confront the uncomfortable facts as they are. It was sedition.

Pope Francis calls out the language of war. He speaks against “war” as a solution. In this, he echoes many prior popes.

For Hildegard, rulers who blatantly violate the virtuous example set by Christ lose their authority to rule. Following from that, an unvirtuous ruler would necessarily fail to be a right authority that can legitimately wage war.

Van Drunen’s Politics after Christendom doesn’t convincingly defend liberalism from a biblical perspective. Readers wanting a compelling Reformed defense of ordered liberty will have to keep waiting.

There are three important reasons why Paul Ramsey’s “The Just War” should be remembered and read by those who haven’t yet encountered it, or reread by those who have.

Last month marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of the failed bombing intended to assassinate the German Führer Adolf Hitler at his Wolf’s Lair field headquarters in what is now Gierłoż, Poland. The anniversary offers the opportunity to reflect not only on the nature of courage in dark times, but on the character and limits of Christian resistance to political evil.

Just war theorists should agree that war must be waged according to the rule of law if it is to be considered an exercise of “legitimate authority.” The American system, with its marbling of war powers between the executive and legislative branches, usually requires authorization based on the deliberative consent of the popular will expressed through the people’s representatives in Congress.