Joseph Loconte Lecture: “Gospel of Liberty: A Christian Critique of American Exceptionalism”

By Joseph Loconte on October 19, 2017

The following lecture was recorded during Providence’s 2017 Christianity and National Security Conference.

Joseph Loconte critiques the idea that the United States presents a uniquely powerful model of democratic self-governance. He compares two extreme positions on this topic: American as a God-ordained domineering global power and America as a deprived force of global exploitation. He then offers a third view, which he argues is a better, more balanced Christian perspective on America’s role in the world.

Joseph Loconte, PhD, is a Presidential Scholar in Residence at New College of Florida and the C.S. Lewis Scholar for Public Life at Grove City College. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Institute on Religion and Democracy and a contributing editor at Providence. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller, A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918. His most recent book is God, Locke, and Liberty: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West.

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