Jean Bethke Elshtain

On Christian Vengeance
On Christian Vengeance

There may be no prudent responses against North Korea’s regime for Otto Warmbier’s murder. But such a concession to realism over justice does not invalidate the morality of the retributive instinct. It remains. And it remains deeply Christian.

The Moral Underpinnings of Just Retribution: Justice & Charity in Symbiosis

The notion of retribution or punishment has long been the scourge of social science. Christian thinkers should develop the distinction between retribution and revenge or retaliation.

Training for War
A Call To Arms: An American Survey of War in the 21st Century

Since my commissioning in 1988 as a United States Army Chaplain Candidate, the fundamental purpose of war has changed relatively little: war generally remains a contest of wills to achieve political ends between nation-states employing military force. However, war inherently seems different today, does it not? How so?