Christian Realism

Criticizing America over COVID-19 Response

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.

Hope for Post-Coronavirus America

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

King Saul and the Evil Spirit: Personality Change and Combat Trauma
King Saul and the Evil Spirit: Personality Change and Combat Trauma

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

America’s Role in Global Peace: Reexamining John Foster Dulles’ 1945 Address
America’s Role in Global Peace: Reexamining John Foster Dulles’ 1945 Address

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

Catholic Statecraft’s Disagreements with Realism

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.

Decadence and Christian Pessimism

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.”

Biblical Realism - A Biblical Realist Vision for Politics and Foreign Policy
A Biblical Realist Vision for Politics and Foreign Policy

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.

New Christian Realism from the Amsterdam School: Review of Simon Polinder & Govert Bujis’ Christian Faith, Philosophy, and International Relations: The Lamb and the Wolf
New Christian Realism from the Amsterdam School: Review of Simon Polinder & Govert Bujis’ Christian Faith, Philosophy, and International Relations: The Lamb and the Wolf

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.

Christian Realism: An Introduction
Christian Realism: An Introduction

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.