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Author

J. Daryl Charles

Having previously taught at Taylor University, Union University and Bryan College, Dr. Charles served as visiting fellow, Institute for Faith and Learning, Baylor University, 2003-2004; William E. Simon Visiting Fellow in Religion and Public Life, James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Department of Politics, Princeton University, 2007-2008; and senior fellow, Center for Politics and Religion, Union University, 2008-2009. Dr. Charles’s work focuses on a wide range of themes that concern the intersection of faith and culture, including criminal justice ethics, religion in the public sphere, bioethics, war and peace and humanitarian intervention, and natural law. He is author or co-editor of 12 books, including most recently with David D. Corey The Just War Tradition: An Introduction (ISI Books, 2012), with David B. Capes Thriving in Babylon (Wipf and Stock, 2011), Retrieving the Natural Law: A Return to Moral First Things (Eerdmans, 2008), Faithful to the End (Broadman and Holman, 2007), and Between Pacifism and Jihad (InterVarsity Press, 2005). Charles is also translator, German to English, of Claus Westermann’s The Roots of Wisdom (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994). His work has been published in a wide array of both scholarly and popular journals, including First Things, Pro Ecclesia, Touchstone, Journal of Church and State, National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, Journal of Religious Ethics, Books and Culture, Cultural Encounters, Philosophia Christi, The Weekly Standard, and Christian Scholar’s Review.

Recent Articles by J. Daryl Charles

  • How Christians should think about racism and police brutality

    I write this on the Fourth of July that we Americans celebrate the 244th year of our independence as a nation and our “experiment in ordered liberty.” That celebration has been dampened by shrill cries from various public figures not to celebrate but rather to own up to – and repent of – America’s “original sin.” This sin, we are told by both black activists and not a few white guilt-peddlers, has its roots in “systemic” or “structural” racism. Never mind the fact that 1) the “original sin” and slavery began on other continents and has been universal throughout human societies; 2) both of these entities are very much alive today on other continents; and 3) the Christian faith played a significant role – in fact, virtually the only role – in addressing and ending this “sin” in the Western world.

    Alas, these are inconvenient facts that are refused the light of day in the current plague (shall we call it a pandemic?) of racial unrest. They are inconvenient, because they do not fit the grand narrative and paradigm of “black victimization” that groups such as Black Lives Matter wish to foist upon the wider culture. And God forbid that...

  • How to think vocationally

    It has been standard in Christian circles for much of the church’s history to speak of three general types of calling—a calling to Christ, a calling to a specific task or service, and a calling to one’s daily ob­ligations.

    The Puritans—and many Reformed types who followed suit in the Protestant tradition—tended to emphasize two callings—a general and a special calling. Out of the general calling to Christ and his lordship, specific avenues and types of service are assumed, suggested not only by New Testament texts such as Romans but also by the Protestant Reformation context wherein Luther, for example, speaks of various life “stations.” Vocation, properly understood, encompasses the totality of our lives, not merely our career, occupation, present job, or so-called retirement—although vocation does encompass all of those, yet more. Because of the overarching nature of our calling to follow Christ, it makes sense that this calling is expressed through our careers, our occupations, and our jobs.

    Moreover, everyone has a calling, even when many do not have a clearly defined career or occupation. In other words, my work, my job, or my career might come to an end, but my calling (my vocation), which is all-encompassing...