Puritans

The 500-Year-Old Case for Christian Nationalism

Stephen Wolfe has written an intellectually serious book, not an action plan. But its appeal is limited to a handful of idiosyncratic, patriarchal Calvinists.

Edmund Burke: Anglican Theologian

Burke is a defender of the institutions of Christian civilization. Understanding this liberates us from the need to defend failing institutions simply because those institutions happen to exist.

Christianity’s Meritocratic Dilemma: Reflections on Sandel’s The Tyranny of Merit
Christianity’s Meritocratic Dilemma: Reflections on Sandel’s The Tyranny of Merit

Michael Sandel’s “The Tyranny of Merit” is an invitation to rethink a seemingly self-evident thought, that our social and economic position should be dictated solely by whether we deserve to have that position.

America’s Theological Social Contract: The Mayflower Compact
America’s Theological Social Contract: The Mayflower Compact

At a time when some challenge the morality and religious character of America’s first founders, the plain facts of the 1620 Mayflower Compact, a theologically informed social compact for believers and non-believers alike, remind us of the good seeds planted in our shared past.

Hope for Post-Coronavirus America

Of course America will survive the coronavirus. We’ve many times survived far worse.

Christian Influence on US Foreign Policy

Formal religious adherence is declining, but America’s longtime religious self-identity as a lodestar of democratic responsibility in the world continues unabashed.

Wondrous Chasm between Jacksonianism and Progressivism? Response to Michael Doran’s “The Theology of Foreign Policy” in First Things - anti-Zionism John Foster Dulles Andrew Jackson
Wondrous Chasm between Jacksonianism and Progressivism? Response to Michael Doran’s “The Theology of Foreign Policy” in First Things

While there is enormous merit to Michael Doran’s binary and overall thesis in his First Things essay, there are some complicating factors that obscure the “wondrous chasm” between Jacksonianism and Progressivism.

Our Dual Heritage of Freedom: Reformation & Enlightenment
Our Dual Heritage of Freedom: Reformation & Enlightenment

This article, delineating the two kinds of freedom found in the tradition of Western civilization, was originally published in Christianity and Crisis on October 19th, 1942. Editor Henry P. Van Dusen clarifies the two strands of freedom that have developed in European thought. One comes from the Protestant Reformation, a freedom that comes as a result of being created in God’s image and the rights that entail; the other comes from the Enlightenment, a freedom that is intrinsic to man’s nature and “self-evident,” something that is somehow apparent to all.

A Church Faces Its World
A Church Faces Its World

This article about the viewpoints of Christians & the Church in response to World War II was originally published in Christianity & Crisis on June 15, 1942.

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