John Foster Dulles

From 1945 to 1947 as the United States and Soviet Union moved toward the Cold War, Christian realists writing for Reinhold Niebuhr’s journal, Christianity and Crisis, responded to global dilemmas. Here are five impressions of those articles, along with lessons for today.

The following two articles appeared in Christianity and Crisis on September 16, 1946. They both reflect on America’s relations with the Soviet Union post-World War II and try to develop a Christian approach to this challenge.

John Wilsey’s new book “God’s Cold Warrior” is the only full-life biography of John Foster Dulles that thoroughly investigates his religious life and the ways his faith influenced his professional and personal lives.

“It is time to take the full measure of certain arguments widely cherished by churchmen to excuse Soviet practice and minimize the Soviet threat” – Henry P. Van Dusen in 1946, responding to Christians who thought the West’s actions caused tensions with the USSR.

Toward the end of World War II, Americans contemplated the possibility of “world government” to prevent another catastrophe, especially after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan.

Published in Christianity and Crisis 75 years ago on March 18, 1946, the speech offers the future Secretary of State Dulles’ insights and recommendations for how the United States should utilize the newly established United Nations. Readers today can learn from how the great statesman saw the world as it dragged itself out of the ruins of a total war.

Dulles had a vision of American foreign policy that was animated by a strong sense of righteousness over tyranny and over injustice and unrighteous.

After Japan’s surrender 75 years ago, McCulloch implored Christians and governments to affirm “the dignity of the human person as the image of God” because this principle could determine the world’s fate.

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