This is thinking in public a program dedicated to intelligent conversation about

front-line theological and cultural issues with the people who are shaping them.

I'm Albert Mola, your host and president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville,

Kentucky.

John Wilzie teaches both church history and Philosophy at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

He earned his academic degrees in those very areas and prior to coming to Southern Seminary,

he taught in the same fields and then most recently served at Princeton University as the William E. Simon Visiting Fellow in Religion and Public Life.

That's a part of the James Madison Program in American ideals and institutions at Princeton.

He's the author of dozens of articles in several academic books

including one nation under God and American exceptionalism

and civil religion. He's most recently the author of God's Cold Warrior,

The Life and Faith of John Foster Dulles. That book chronicles the interplay

between religion and foreign policy and what we have to recognize as one of the most important

epics in American history. Professor John Wilzie, welcome to thinking in public.

Thanks so much for having me, Dr. Mueller. So why? Why this book? There hasn't been much written on

John Foster Dulles in the better part of a half century and you're talking about events that began well over a century ago and you're writing about the life and faith of a man who really wasn't known for having much of a faith.

So how's that for an introduction to a new book?

Yeah, exactly. Well, you know, it's interesting, Dr. Mueller. John Foster

Dallas is such an interesting contrast as the Secretary of State to the secretaries of state we've had since the

collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Here's a guy who uses a lot of religious rhetoric and framing his foreign policy positions.

He's also someone that's very relevant to us, I think, in terms of, you know, America's place in the world in a post-Cold War age.

Well, Professor, as you look at John Foster Dulles, I think it's important to remind those who are joining this conversation and

...