Political Theory

Herbert Butterfield: Britain’s Reinhold Niebuhr?

Herbert Butterfield’s Christian faith essentially inspired his view of history and government and made him the English forerunner of a hopeful Christian Realism as an alternative to both Western secular materialist liberalism and collectivist atheist Marxism.

Biblical Realism - A Biblical Realist Vision for Politics and Foreign Policy
A Biblical Realist Vision for Politics and Foreign Policy

Though the Bible does not give us a clear schematic of how we are to order our political life, it does something more profound: it gives us a frame for all reality, history, and humanity.

National Interest, National Purpose: Reimagining Morality and Foreign Policy
National Interest, National Purpose: Reimagining Morality and Foreign Policy

The United States was the first modern polity to claim political legitimacy on the basis of its recognition of certain truths, hard-wired into the human condition, about the human person and freedom. It would be unworthy of us not to take that history seriously as we think about our responsibilities in the world in the twenty-first century.

The Disjunction of Liberal Theory and Liberal Polities
The Disjunction of Liberal Theory and Liberal Polities

The confounding of contentious liberal theories with actual concrete polities stems from the assumption that liberal democratic states are somehow the product of liberal theories.

Against “Conservative Democracy”
Against “Conservative Democracy”

Paul Miller: I don’t want bureaucrats in Washington, DC, to develop a blueprint of the correct form of national culture we’re supposed to identify with. Any effort to do so will inevitably, and justifiably, backfire.

The U.S. “Abstention” on U.N. Resolution 2334 Condemning Israeli Settlements: Who Won?
The U.S. “Abstention” on U.N. Resolution 2334 Condemning Israeli Settlements: Who Won?

Because the U.N. does not have the power of the sword, the U.S. abstention in the recent U.N. vote has not weakened Israel at all; it has weakened the U.N.

Christian Realism
Christian Realism & U.S. Foreign Policy

Reinhold Niebuhr exposed the assumptions of progressive Christianity and helped create the political theology of “Christian realism”, which sought a more biblical view of how the Christian citizen can live responsibly within a civilization in crisis.

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?

Donald Trump
The Donald Trumps Morality

Donald Trump’s comments about going after terrorists’ families are immoral and point to common misconceptions about the ethics of war