Christian Realism

Tending the Garden of the Real
Tending the Garden of the Real

Cultivating the garden of world order includes tending to the tasks that uphold public safety, execute justice and promote human flourishing.

A Return to Christian Realism
A Return to Christian Realism

We need a return to a sober Christian Realism that appreciates our fallenness, the fallenness of the world, and our limits in shaping world events.

Covert Operations: Just War or Dirty Hands?
Covert Operations: Just War or Dirty Hands?

Two Christian schools of thought might support covert operations and espionage: the just war tradition and a kind of “dirty hands” moralism. The dirty hands view says all those in political power must unavoidably resort to evil for the common good. The just war tradition has a different approach.

Augustinian Realism and the Murder of Jamal Khashoggi - PBS News Hour David Brooks
Augustinian Realism and the Murder of Jamal Khashoggi

On PBS News Hour, David Brooks quoted St. Augustine to criticize President Trump’s response toward the Saudis for the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Was Brooks right about Augustine?

september 11 terror
Lest We Be Reminded Again: Six Things to Never Forget about 9/11

Seventeen years ago, terrorists weaponized passenger planes and launched an unjustified attack against the United States. That day reminded Christians of things we must never forget.

Lessons In Christian Realism from the Life of John McCain
Lessons In Christian Realism from the Life of John McCain

As a journal of Christianity and American foreign policy, we wish to acknowledge the distinct contribution made by Sen. McCain to the advancement of Christian virtues in the field of American foreign affairs and American Foreign Policy. 

The Third Camp - Reinhold Niebuhr Theology and American Foreign Policy
The Third Camp: Reinhold Niebuhr’s Theology and American Foreign Policy

From the ashes of both Bryan’s ignoble isolationism and Wilson’s utopian universalism rose the school of Christian realism advocated by Reinhold Niebuhr.

The Clash of Giants?: Review of Destined for War By Graham Allison
The Clash of Giants? Review of Allison’s Destined for War

China is ready to challenge American global leadership and the liberal international order itself. In Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?, Graham Allison argues that a war between the two great powers is a scarily real possibility that needs our attention.

Was Jesus a Pacifist?
Was Jesus a Pacifist?

Against the seemingly gentle assertions of pacifism, those who truly want to love in our world must understand there remains a need of coercion to maintain a minimum of justice and to preserve those innocents whom the unjust would ravage.

 ⏰ Sponsor a student for Christianity & National Security 2024

Providence's biggest event of the year takes place the final Thursday and Friday of each October, attracting close to 100 students and professors from around the country to spend two days hearing lectures and discussing the intersection of Christian ethics and foreign policy. For $300, Providence can afford to feed and house a student flying in from California, Texas, and other parts of the country for the conference. Christianity & National Security is unique; there is no other such event examining national security in light of Just War Theory and realist ethics in the Christian tradition. Please consider making a donation to allow us to continue hosting Christianity & National Security.

Christianity & National Security 2023

Sponsor a student