This American Moment

Book excerpt: According to this book, the United States is currently in a moment of crisis, fomented by anxieties around race and gender politics. Unlike fear, which is usually focused on a particular object, anxiety is indeterminate and uncertain. It is also the emotion that led to the election and continued support of President Trump. But Caron Gentry says that we can deal with this anxiety in a productive way. To do so, she turns to Reinhold Niebuhr, whose philosophy of Christian realism has been an abiding influence on foreign policy since the Cold War. According to Niebuhr "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary." Anxiety is central to Niebuhr's ideas: an emotion that is abiding because we lack control over the circumstances of our lives. In turn, anxiety prompts a desire for unity, but also an intolerance for difference. Niebuhr suggests that anxiety can be dealt with destructively or creatively, and that power must be balanced to prevent destructive action. Gentry is critical of Niebuhr, saying that he gives in to destructive tendencies in humans by elevating power above other, more creative solutions. In This American Moment, she offers feminist Christian realism as an alternate approach to anxiety in international politics. Gentry's feminist Christian realism differentiates itself from Niebuhr's Christian realism by re-engaging the importance of love and relationships over power. It suggests that we can arrive at creative solutions to anxiety through a conversation about the imago dei and the inherent commitments to community borne of one's relationship with God, including the recognition of obligation in the face of vulnerability. Throughout Gentry applies her ideas to the problems of police brutality, women's reproductive health, and the rise in fascist politics.