IRD Announces New Christian Ethicist on War & Peace

on May 11, 2015

Institute on Religion and Democracy Press Release
May 11, 2015
Contact: Jeff Walton office: 202-682-4131, cell: 202-413-5639, e-mail: jwalton@TheIRD.org

“In our day, the interaction of faith and foreign policy is crucial for the promotion of order, justice, and peace – without which the acquisition of those goods necessary for human flourishing is hamstrung.”
-Marc LiVecche, IRD Scholar on Christian Ethics, War and Peace.

Washington, DC—The Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD) announced today that Marc LiVecche has joined the institute as its new scholar on Christian ethics, war and peace. He will edit a forthcoming journal on these topics.

Marc comes to IRD from Hyde Park, Illinois, where he has just completed his PhD in theological and political ethics at the University of Chicago. At Chicago, Marc worked under the supervision of the political theorist Jean Bethke Elshtain until her death in August, 2013. His dissertation, entitled With Malice Toward None: The Moral Ground for Killing in War, takes a classic just war view of the question of killing in its theological and ethical dimensions in part as a response to the crisis of moral injury.

Prior to his work in Chicago, Marc completed an MA in theology at Wheaton College and, before that, spent twelve years doing a variety of things in Central Europe – including leading seminars on ethics onsite at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp in Poland, an experience that allowed him to continue his undergraduate study of the Shoah; a study which helped permanently inoculate him against pacifism.

Marc LiVecche, IRD Scholar on Christian Ethics, War and Peace commented:

“I appreciate this great opportunity to operate at the crucial intersection of Christian thought and statecraft. In our day, the interaction of faith and foreign policy is crucial for the promotion of order, justice, and peace – without which the acquisition of those goods necessary for human flourishing is hamstrung. IRD has positioned itself at the tip of the spear in the important endeavor to help right the course of Protestant thinking on issues of war, foreign policy, and global relations.”

IRD President Mark Tooley commented:

“Marc brings scholarship and erudition to the vital field of how Christians should address global statecraft. He will contribute tremendously to Christian discourse and help clear away much of the utopian, pacifist fog that confuses too much Christian conversation today.”

www.TheIRD.org

  1. Comment by DDS on May 11, 2015 at 2:53 pm

    Wow, this guy looks like he really knows his stuff. Nice catch!! I can’t wait to read his stuff.

  2. Comment by MickeyOregon on May 16, 2015 at 12:10 pm

    I’ve known this man since 1999 and the IRD could not have done better. Marc has an excellent and quick mind, is mellifluous, smooth, engaging and keen and insightful in his writing, has a fun and stunning sense of humor and is an excellent cook. A good mind and engaging company – no one could do better. The IRD is not only getting Marc but his wife Kara. WOW! She is smart and wise, sharp and good and solid. Good on ya, IRD.

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