Nationalism

Despite his errors and overstatements, Cavanaugh is helpful for thinking through the perils of nations and nationalism in an era when both seem to be enjoying a renaissance. He is best read as a theologian, not a historian, and a polemical theologian whose strident claims are best met with a healthy dose of skepticism.

The Palestinian national movement is an illusory empire. Constructed on poetry and prejudice and generations of fantasy, it too must come crashing down so that it can be rebuilt, this time on a more solid basis.

Reinhold Niebuhr refutes the argument that Christians are only allowed to pursue war for the purpose of self-defense. He asserts that a Christian’s willingness to fight should stem from a desire to seek and promote justice.

Suggesting we should shun petty nationalism and encourage the ennobling type offers little foreign policy guidance, whether in Scotland or elsewhere.

Though the State Department’s new travel ban to North Korea pertains to only tourism, this recent policy shift once again raises questions regarding evangelical humanitarian work in the reclusive country.

Hopefully, the wisdom of responsible nationalism will prevail against contrived, peevish separatism in Catalonia, Scotland, and elsewhere.

John D. Wilsey’s American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion is a genuinely excellent book, but our national problems may be deeper and more profound—more exceptional—than he realizes.

Serious praise of America by prominent Christian thinkers was hard to find this Independence Day, but we should be willing to appreciate and defend her.

This perceptive article written by Henry P. Van Dusen during World War II conveys the import of Christian solidarity to help secure an Allied victory and overcome the deeper cultural and social issues that they face.