James Nuechterlein

My original idea was a quiet exit, entirely without fuss: out the door and back to Indiana. No explanations, no farewells, no summing up. But colleagues and friends objected: people might misunderstand, think I was leaving under duress or in a fit of pique. Since neither of these is the . . . . Continue Reading »

Andrew Bacevich’s American Empire has to rank at or near the top of nominees for Most Frustrating Book of the Year. It is, on the one hand, a cautionary reminder. In a time when most everyone concedes, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary, that America’s role in the world constitutes . . . . Continue Reading »

I went in search of Dixie, and discovered that I could find only traces of it. On a ten-day driving trip in late May with my wife through the lower South—Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, the Florida panhandle, Georgia—I encountered little of the Deep South of my cultural . . . . Continue Reading »

Regular readers will recall that I have, from time to time, had occasion to remark on the inglorious state of American Lutheranism. Most of those remarks have been pointed in the direction of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the largest U.S. Lutheran body at 5.1 million members. . . . . Continue Reading »

November 21, 2001. As of this date, the American war against terrorism is going better than almost anyone expected. It’s far too early to claim victory, of course. Indeed, given the breathtaking ambition of the Bush Administration’s aims”to eliminate the threat of all terrorist . . . . Continue Reading »

Among the many (of course) excellent items in this issue, there is Ralph Wood’s thoughtful and intelligent review of Mark Noll’s latest book, American Evangelical Christianity: An Introduction (pp. 43-46). The review provides a discerning brief overview not only of the American . . . . Continue Reading »

Not long ago, my pastor asked if I’d be willing to serve as a delegate for our congregation at the convention of the local synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). I felt guilty doing so, but I turned her down. That’s unusual for me (not the guilt, the refusal). I like . . . . Continue Reading »

The history of liberalism in our times is not, for liberals, a happy one. Modern liberalism originated in the first third of the twentieth century, dominated the middle third, and then all but came apart in the final third. The simplest indicator of that decline is the flight from the term itself. . . . . Continue Reading »

One of the reasons intelligent young people are drawn disproportionately to the left in politics is that they admire intellectuals and assume that intellectuals are smart not just about their own fields but about everything. And since intellectuals are predominantly left“wing in their . . . . Continue Reading »

A great many Americans, especially those of a certain age, cannot hear the German language being spoken—by anyone under any conditions—without instantly bringing to mind Hitler, the Nazis, the Holocaust. It’s not willed; it’s simply . . . . Continue Reading »