Christianity and Power Politics Today: Christian Realism and Contemporary Political Dilemmas

196 Pages·2008·0.8 MB·English

by  Eric D. Patterson

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Christianity and Power Politics Today
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Christianity and Power Politics Today
Christian Realism and
Contemporary Political Dilemmas
Edited by Eric Patterson
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christianity and power politics today
Copyright ©Eric Patterson, 2008.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any man-
ner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2008 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™
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PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and
other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and
other countries.
ISBN-13: 978-0-230-60264-9
ISBN-10: 0-230-60264-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Christianity and power politics today : Christian realism and contemporary
political dilemmas / edited by Eric Patterson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-230-60264-9
1. Christianity and politics—United States. 2. United States—
Church history. I. Patterson, Eric, 1971-
BR516.C47 2008
261.70973—dc22 2007030425
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition: March 2008
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
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For my father,
William Louis Patterson, Jr.
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Contents
1 Christianity and Power Politics: Themes and Issues 1
Eric Patterson, Georgetown University
2 The Relevance of Christian Realism
to the Twenty-First Century 21
Alberto R. Coll, DePaul University
3 Reinhold Niebuhr, Christian Realism,
and Just War Theory: A Critique 53
Keith Pavlischek, Ethics and Public Policy Center
4 Morality and U.S. Foreign Policy 73
Ernest W. Lefever, Ethics and Public Policy Center
5 War Within Reason: A Romantic Epistle to the Christians 83
Charles A. Jones, Cambridge University
6 Christian Realism and the International Economy 99
John Lunn, Hope College
7 Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian
Realism and the Bush Doctrine 117
Mark R. Amstutz, Wheaton College
8 Christian American Political Realism 137
Peter Augustine Lawler, Berry College
9 International Institutions and
the Problem of Judgment 153
Daniel Edward Young, Northwestern College
10 Christian Realism and Utopian Multilateralism 167
Eric Patterson, Georgetown University
Index 185
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CHAPTER 1
Christianity and Power Politics
Themes and Issues
Eric Patterson
While the Nazis advanced across Europe in 1940, Reinhold
Niebuhr released a volume of his previously published essays
under the title Christianity and Power Politics. The intellectual
and political context was grave: European governments were falling to Hitler,
whose army was temporarily in league with the Soviets, and in the Far East
Japan continued its brutal Asian campaign. Totalitarian and authoritarian
philosophies were on the ascendant, yet the United States was sitting out the
conflict. Meanwhile, many Christians in the West deplored the use of vio-
lence and retreated into political pacifism.
A major theme of Niebuhr’s Christianity and Power Politicswas that such
retreat was immoral, and that Christian realism provided the intellectual
resources for coming to grip with the “isms” of the day (i.e., fascism and
Communism) while serving as a starting point for thoughtful, real-world
policies.
This volume takes its inspiration from the troubled context and questions
of its namesake. As in the 1930s and1940s, our world has become a confus-
ing place where various models claim to explain the international order (e.g.,
globalization, neoliberal economics, institutionalism) and point us to peace
and brotherhood via understanding, consensus, democracy, human rights,
and the United Nations. Nonetheless, there is widespread unease about the
legitimacy and durability of such conventions. We live in a world where at
least two great political worldviews are in conflict: one is Western individual-
istic, capitalist democracy, and the other being all forms of collectivist, hier-
archical, quasi- (or pseudo-) organic culture, the most obvious being Islamic