Christian Realism

Americans should be willing to condemn China’s great crimes while also critiquing America’s mistakes. Democratic citizens’ right to criticize their government is a key reason why the US is better than China and why democracies ultimately outperform autocracies.

Of course America will survive the coronavirus. We’ve many times survived far worse.

Studying King Saul’s combat experiences can help us understand his personality change and violence toward David.

Understanding how Christian statesmen like John Foster Dulles viewed difficult foreign policy issues can help Christians respond to contemporary dilemmas.

Realism and the just war ethic both pursue war in certain contexts, so they can appear to be close cousins. But the just war ethic shares less with realism than realism shares with pacifism.

This week I attended an as always stimulating Trinity Forum talk, this time to hear New York Times columnist Ross Douthat discussing his new book “The Decadent Society.”

Though the Bible does not give us a clear schematic of how we are to order our political life, it does something more profound: it gives us a frame for all reality, history, and humanity.

Simon Polinder and Govert Bujis advance a new school of Christian international relations thinking that they call “The Amsterdam School.” Time will tell if this distinctively Neo-Calvinist international relations approach is possible.

The realism in Christian Realism lies in the tension between the redemption and hope that the Gospel brings for a world ensnared in sin and cynicism, and the reality that sin and its effects are still pervasive and will continue to cripple and limit the possibilities for justice this side of paradise.