Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 84

(Stained glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany, 1848-1933. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Tiffany stained-glass window of St. Augustine, Lightner Museum, St. Augustine, Florida. St. Augustine (354 to 430 AD), bishop of Hippo,
is one of the central figures in the history of Christianity. City of God is one of his greatest theological works. Written in the fifth century
as a defense of the faith at a time when the Roman Empire was on the brink of collapse, it points the way forward to a citizenship that
transcends worldly politics and will last for eternity. City of God had a profound influence on the development of Christian doctrine.

Force and Faith in the
American Experience
Col. Isaiah Wilson III, Ph.D., U.S. Army, and
Maj. Lee Robinson, U.S. Army

F

or the United States, two key questions persistently dominate and determine our public
and private decisions. First, how do we create
and maintain an effective marriage between religious
values and Enlightenment ideals?1 Second, how do we
preserve liberty, to include religious liberty? At first
glance, it appears that the culture in the United States
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and the West more broadly separates religion and
politics than the culture of nations in the Middle East
that appear more prone to conflate religion and politics.
In our estimation, such conventional narratives are
shortsighted. More importantly, they are harmful for
military leaders in an era in which religious overtones
increasingly define strategic interactions.
March-April 2015  MILITARY REVIEW