If you’ve traveled to Washington, D.C., before, it’s likely that you’ve flown through Washington Dulles International Airport, named after President Eisenhower’s Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles. In fact, more than 60,000 people travel through Dulles airport every day, but not many people know much about its namesake. John Foster Dulles served in the early years of the Cold War and pursued a vigorous foreign policy meant to isolate and undermine international, expansionist Communism. Undergirding his foreign policy was a commitment to natural law, a realistic understanding of human nature, and a clear vision of freedom. Since his death in 1959, Dulles has been characterized only as a dour, puritanical, and simple man. Joining the podcast today to shed more light on the life of Dulles is John D. Wilsey, associate professor of church history at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In this conversation, John brings perspective to Dulles’ legacy, uncovering both his public and private life, and showing how simple explanations of Dulles don’t help us accurately understand the man or his times.
Avery Cardinal Dulles (1918-2008)
The text of the Auburn Affirmation
“Shall the Fundamentalists Win?”: Defending Liberal Protestantism in the 1920s
Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen
Podcast: John Wilsey on American Exceptionalism & Civil Religion
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