Reinhold Niebuhr

A Little Brown Book for Augustinian Readers: An Appreciation at 50 Augustine of Hippo: A Biography, Peter Brown, 1967
A Little Brown Book for Augustinian Readers: Review of Brown’s Augustine of Hippo

By turning to cultural anthropology and other methods for encountering the ancient world, Brown humanized not just Augustine but also ancient Christianity itself. Getting into the early Christian’s skin and trying to understand the world through the eyes of those who lived in it, Brown established empathy as a scholarly tool.

Blessed Are the Peacemakers - Sermon on the Mount - War
Blessed are the Peacemakers

Force is always only the form love takes against terrible evil in the last resort when nothing else will protect the innocent, restore justice, and bring about the conditions for peace. The old Chestertonian nugget remains: “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”

Wilson’s Fourteen Points One Hundred Years Hence
Wilson’s Fourteen Points One Hundred Years Hence

On January 8, 1918 – a century ago today – President Woodrow Wilson mounted the rostrum of the U.S. House of Representatives, America’s inner sanctum of democracy, to deliver one of the most consequential speeches in history.

Good Books of 2017

Here are some books I enjoyed over the past year: American Lady: The Life of Susan Mary Alsop By Caroline…

national security
Day 2: The Providence Christianity & National Security Conference 2017

Video links to the presentations from the 2nd day of the Providence conference reflecting on the intersection of Christian intelligence and foreign policy

The Spirit and the Body in War
The Spirit and the Body in War

This article about the tools necessary to defeat Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers was originally published in Christianity and Crisis on August 10, 1942.  Examining the relationship between ideals and power throughout history, editor Reinhold Niebuhr argues the importance of discerning and then actualizing, the Allied Powers’ potential power. Conversely, he advocates against succumbing to the belief that Nazi defeat is inevitable.

The Irony of American Foreign Policy
The Irony of American Foreign Policy

Every president faces a devil’s choice between stability and security on the one hand and our founding values on the other.

Lourdes Church ruins during World War II
The Church and the War

This provocative article written by Donald H. Stewart in the heat of World War II calls on the American Church to guide America toward a responsible patriotism which jettisons hatred and self-righteous aggrandizement while remembering “judgment belongeth unto God.”

Reinhold Niebuhr and the Problem of Paradox
Reinhold Niebuhr and the Problem of Paradox

Against pacifist sentiment and calls for isolationism, Reinhold Niebuhr insisted on a realistic Christian response to political crises, one willing to dirty its hands to avoid catastrophic evil. However, his dialectic between love and justice produces a catastrophic paradox.