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War-and-Peace

Items on the quest for peace and the fact of war

Both Read the Same Bible: ‘On the crest of this historiographical wave comes The Civil War as a Theological Crisis, the latest work from the nation’s premier historian of Christian thought. In the opening pages, Mark Noll explains that his goal is not primarily to shed light on the causes or course of the war but rather “to show how and why the cultural conflict that led to such a crisis for the nation also constituted a crisis for theology.” That crisis centered on two questions: what the Bible had to say about slavery, and what the conflict seemed to suggest about God’s providential design for the country. Although “both read the same Bible,” as Lincoln famously observed in his second inaugural, Protestants North and South discovered that “the Bible they had relied on for building up America’s republican civilization was not nearly … as inherently unifying for an overwhelmingly Christian people as they once had thought.” In the end it was the force of arms, not the Word of God, that would resolve the sectional dispute.’ (Robert Tracy McKenzie in Books & Culture )

Wed 09 Apr 2008 • Responses: 0 • from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Loving God and Neighbor Together: A response to the historically unprecedented statement from Muslim scholars and leaders, “A Common Word Between Us and You.” May both bear much fruit. “What is common between us lies not in something marginal nor in something merely important to each. It lies, rather, in something absolutely central to both: love of God and love of neighbor. Surprisingly for many Christians, your letter considers the dual command of love to be the foundational principle not just of the Christian faith, but of Islam as well. That so much common ground exists—common ground in some of the fundamentals of faith—gives hope that undeniable differences and even the very real external pressures that bear down upon us can not overshadow the common ground upon which we stand together. That this common ground consists in love of God and of neighbor gives hope that deep cooperation between us can be a hallmark of the relations between our two communities.” (Yale Center for Faith and Culture )

Mon 26 Nov 2007 from Peter Edman • Link & Comments

Egypt’s Top Islamic Scholar Clears Up Muslim Conversion Controversy: Good for him. ‘Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, one of the most respected Islamic scholars in the world today, re-affirmed that Muslims have the freedom to convert to another religion, but that it would be a “grave sin.” “Choice means freedom, and freedom includes the freedom to commit grave sins as long as their harm does not extend to others,” said Gomaa, according to Agence France-Presse.’ (Christian Post )

Thu 26 Jul 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments

Just War?: To help introduce new Senior Fellow Jean Bethke Elshtain, here is a link to a symposium in which she participated in June 2006. “The appeal [of just war theory] is that these are the rules we can arrive at through the use of reason—not revelation, through the use of reason. So the appeal is to reason, not to God, not to revelation. I think that's always the best way to make arguments in a political and civil context.” (Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs)

Thu 08 Feb 2007 from TTF Staff • Link & Comments