Eric Patterson

John C. Bennett, who co-founded “Christianity and Crisis” with Reinhold Niebuhr, said that “Christians cannot identify the Kingdom of God, or their cause, in an absolute way with any human program.” So what should their cause be? He elaborated 75 years ago.

Regardless of what happens to Kyle Rittenhouse in the courts, treating vigilantes like heroes sets a dangerous precedent.

Followers of Christian realism generally share these eight assumptions, which can be found in the works of Reinhold Niebuhr, John C. Bennett, Jean Bethke Elshtain, and others.

Grey zone conflicts—like those in Ukraine and the South China Sea—are major threats both to a just peace and American security interests. The just war tradition needs to consider them more.

Luke Goodrich’s “Free to Believe – The Battle Over Religious Liberty in America” is desperately needed because religious freedom is poorly understood and under assault across America. If it is lost here, can it thrive anywhere else?

While much has been made of Abraham Kuyper’s Calvinistic contributions to domestic political theory, very little (in English) has been said of his foreign policy.

Eric Patterson contends in Just American Wars that the US is unique because of how it considers ethical and moral dilemmas when it fights. Particularly, the country’s democratic institutions force any politician who wishes to engage in a war to explain to voters, civil society, and other parts of the government why the war must be fought.

Eric Patterson’s Just American Wars is not only a book about America’s wars. It is also a book about the ongoing moral effect of just war tradition on American values and behavior.

On Veterans Day earlier this month, the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, hosted an event that addressed how the Bible relates to war. In addition to Mark Tooley, Providence’s co-editor, contributing editors Joseph Capizzi and Eric Patterson participated. Below is an unedited transcript of their remarks and a video of the event.