Join us on Tuesday, October 30th at 7 p.m. at the Rattlesnake Bar and Grill as we continue the series, “Caesar’s Rending: American Electoral Politics, Duplicity, and the Christian Conscience.”  In his talk, which begins at 7:30 p.m., Dr. Erik Owens will talk about “War and Peace in a Tumultuous Time: Christian Realism and the Obama Doctrine.”

Politics sometimes divides Christians, and at times has even torn the Church along the seams of political ideologies.  Yet the Church’s worldview and its political ramifications are sewn together by different threads – the authority of scripture, tradition and reason.  Is it even appropriate though to begin with Christian premises to make public policy decisions?  Or should faith having nothing to do with politics?  In this series we look at compromised loyalties, divisive denominations, and the political use of Christian theology in war and peace.  Join us as we seek a clearer understanding of the foundations Christians have used for political involvement, even while looking ahead toward the “city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11: 10).

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

“War and Peace in a Tumultuous Time: Christian Realism and the Obama Doctrine”

Dr. Erik Owens, Associate Director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, Boston College

President Barack Obama entered office with a promise to change the style and substance of his predecessor’s foreign policy. As his first term comes to a close, what has changed? In this talk Erik Owens identifies the key foreign policy goals and principled underpinnings of what might be called an Obama Doctrine, and examines its connection to the Christian realist tradition defined in another tumultuous era by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.

Erik Owens teaches social and political ethics in the theology and international studies programs at Boston College, where he is associate director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life. He received his Ph.D. in religious ethics from the University of Chicago, an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and a B.A. from Duke University.