Calls for America to behave more self-interestedly belie that the definition of national self-interest always depends on a nation’s conception of the Good

Alasdair MacIntyre argued that we can only answer the question ‘what am I to do?’ by answering the prior question ‘Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?’

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Among much else, it reminds us that the distinction between good and evil–the ability to make it–is essential to human flourishing.

Foretelling a time of cultivation, Isaiah prophesies, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.” One cannot plow a field with a sword, nor prune a tree with a spear. In this article, originally published in Christianity and Crisis on March 8, 1943, John Knox contrasts the promotion of good with the destruction of evil, particularly in conflict. Promoting good is insufficient; the conduct of war and the creation of peace are distinct phenomena to be pursued with discrete tools.