What We Mean by ‘Judeo-Christian’

James Diddams on July 2, 2025

Earlier this year, IRD’s journal of foreign policy and Christian realism, Providence, published “The Judeo-Christian Nation,” a widely shared essay on the centrality of the Hebrew Bible as a shared point of reference in the American traditions of democracy and ordered liberty.

In the face of heightened political and social divisions, the Hebrew Bible holds the possibility of civic renewal rooted in biblical principles which, though having originated with Israel, are accessible to all Americans.

Throughout American history, from the Pilgrims to the Founders and from Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King, the Hebrew Bible in particular has served as a moral touchstone for disparate Christian denominations, Jewish people, and nonbelievers alike.

On Monday, June 30, IRD and The Tikvah Fund convened Christian and Jewish thinkers to reflect on the role of the Hebrew Bible in the American moral imagination in the past and present, and its potential for the future. Thank you to Pepperdine University School of Public Policy and the Jack Miller Center for sponsoring this event.

Video of the event from the Army and Navy Club in downtown Washington, D.C. is below via the IRD YouTube channel.

Panelists:

Tamara Berens, Director of Young Professional Programs, Tikvah

Jonathan Silver, Chief Programming Officer of Tikvah and editor of Mosaic

Marc LiVecche, McDonald Distinguished Scholar of Ethics, War, and Public Life at Providence

Robert Nicholson, Editor-at-Large of Providence

Anne Lord, Director of Government Affairs, Vandenberg Coalition

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