Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical

religion and war

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe Guest Post guest post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

May 2025

May 14, 2025

Joan vs Joan: Feelings and Tanks

"Above all, she is the girl who 'feels' things"—Joan Didion about Joan Baez (Didion, 48)...

April 2025

April 11, 2025

40 Days in God’s Dojo with a Nagasaki survivor

Yesterday morning, I received a startling email from my sons’ Little League head coach: one...

October 2024

October 09, 2024

You Want It Darker: Leonard Cohen and October 7, 2023

We decided to put our two sons in swimming lessons last Fall. The boys always...

May 2024

May 08, 2024

Choosing Mother: Camus’s Advice for Today

Let me review my last couple of posts. First, I discussed the growing attention among...

February 2024

February 06, 2024

Worship Wars: The Early Modern Versions

Worship wars. The phrase might bring to mind debates about contemporary or traditional music, or...

December 2023

December 26, 2023

The Source of Hope in a Violent Year

2023 was a year of violence. In addition to the ongoing war between Russia and...

July 2023

July 04, 2023

Medieval Christian Nationalism? Crusades and Christian Nations

For those of us who are American, today is the Fourth of July: a day...

April 2023

April 07, 2023

Derry Girls, Nostalgia, and the 1990s

This week my husband and I watched the last episode of Derry Girls. I had...

March 2023

March 17, 2023

The court martial of Irish Catholics in Mexico: Los San Patricios and the largest public execution in U.S. military history

“Los San Patricios” (Pino Cacucci, 2015) “Have you heard of the San Patricios?” a student...

March 08, 2022

Why Do American Evangelicals Endorse War as a Christian Cause?

“We feel your prayerful support,” a Ukrainian Christian who is on the front lines fighting...

February 2021

February 03, 2021

COVID Vaccines, Nuclear Weapons, and Scientific Progress

I started college as an astrophysics major. I had always loved Star Wars and Star...

April 2020

April 22, 2020

How the Liberal Arts Help Christians See War More Clearly

During a hard week for his university, Chris thinks ahead to how two of his...

July 2019

July 24, 2019

Agatha Christie, Christian Dior, and How I Learned to Love the Bomb

I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but shortly after I began teaching American history,...

May 2019

May 14, 2019

When Churches Were Left in Ruins

About a month after the fire that nearly destroyed Paris' Notre-Dame cathedral, it's clear that...

May 02, 2019

Religion as a “National Security Threat”: Lessons from the Second World War

This past weekend, nearly 2,000 people made the annual pilgrimage to Manzanar, one of the...

April 2019

April 17, 2019

The Crucifixions of the World Wars

As Christians prepare for Good Friday, Chris considers how the Crucifixion helped Europeans make meaning...

November 2018

November 11, 2018

100 Years After The Great War: “The Sheep That Were Not Fed”

On this 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, Chris reflects on the...

July 2018

July 12, 2018

Biblical Porn: Mark Driscoll’s Evangelical Empire

Feminist anthropologist Jessica Johnson has just published a fascinating study, Biblical Porn: Affect, Labor, and...

May 2018

May 07, 2018

After Genocide . . . in Bosnia

Only out of the past can you make the future,” says a character in Robert...

April 2017

April 20, 2017

Please Stop Talking About “The Mother of All Bombs”

Last Thursday the United States military dropped a bomb on ISIS targets in eastern Afghanistan....

February 2017

February 09, 2017

Heroes of the Faith: True, but not Accurate

Today at the Anxious Bench we welcome Bruce Berglund, professor of history at Calvin College. He...

July 2016

July 17, 2016

Sacred Violence in Early America

In 1637, English forces and their native allies encircled a Pequot village and burned alive...

February 2016

February 03, 2016

Bethel at War: A Digital History

I'm pleased to present a guest post from Fletcher Warren, a recent graduate of Bethel...

December 2015

December 03, 2015

Woodrow Wilson, Race, and the Depravity of Human Nature

Today's guest post comes from Dr. Barry Hankins, professor of history at Baylor University. His religious...

June 2015

June 22, 2015

Napoleon and Christianity

The 200th anniversary of Napoleon Bonaparte’s well-known defeat at Waterloo on 18 June 1815 has...

February 2015

February 18, 2015

Putin-Loving Evangelicals

Despite some recent reports that the second ceasefire in the war in Ukraine is “generally...

December 2014

December 24, 2014

The Christmas Truce and the Meaning of Peace in “No Man’s Land”

I'm pleased to feature a guest post from Bradley Strait, a senior history major at...

November 2014

November 12, 2014

Unexpected Sites of Christian Pacifism: Rand Paul Edition

This post on politician Rand Paul, the latest in a series that has included Pentecostals,...

July 2014

July 22, 2014

Christianity, Violence, and World War I

Our friends at Religion News Service have an excellent profile of two of the best...

April 2014

April 29, 2014

An Interview with Philip Jenkins on The Great and Holy War

My Baylor colleague and fellow Anxious Bench blogger Philip Jenkins is Distinguished Professor of History and...