Brad Littlejohn

Fellow

Brad Littlejohn, Ph.D., is a Fellow in EPPC’s Evangelicals in Civic Life Program, where his work focuses on helping public leaders understand the intellectual and historical foundations of our current breakdown of public trust, social cohesion, and sound governance. His research investigates shifting understandings of the nature of freedom and authority, and how a more full-orbed conception of freedom, rooted in the Christian tradition, can inform policy that respects both the dignity of the individual and the urgency of the common good. He also serves as President of the Davenant Institute.

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Brad Littlejohn, Ph.D., is a Fellow in EPPC’s Evangelicals in Civic Life Program, where his work focuses on helping public leaders understand the intellectual and historical foundations of our current breakdown of public trust, social cohesion, and sound governance. His research investigates shifting understandings of the nature of freedom and authority, and how a more full-orbed conception of freedom, rooted in the Christian tradition, can inform policy that respects both the dignity of the individual and the urgency of the common good. He also serves as President of the Davenant Institute.

A scholar and writer in the fields of Christian ethics, historical theology, and conservative political thought, he earned his PhD in Theological Ethics at the University of Edinburgh in 2014, where he studied the relationship of freedom and authority in the English Reformation. He is the author of The Peril and Promise of Christian Liberty and The Two Kingdoms: A Guide for the Perplexed, among other books, as well as numerous peer-reviewed and popular-level articles and book chapters on topics ranging from freedom of conscience to the nature of property rights to the moral architecture of digital technology.

In 2013 he founded the Davenant Institute, an organization dedicated to retrieving and renewing the Protestant theological and ethical tradition, and frequently writes, speaks, and teaches for their publications, conferences, and courses. He has also taught at Moody Bible Institute and Patrick Henry College, and served as Headmaster of Loudoun Classical School.

Most recently, he worked as a Senior Fellow of the Edmund Burke Foundation as lead author on multi-year project entitled “Foundations of Liberty: Rediscovering the Anglo-American Conservative Tradition.” His essays arising out of this research have appeared in journals such as National Affairs, American Affairs, The American Conservative, First Things, and Modern Age.

He is also a weekly Opinion Contributor at WORLD Magazine, and publishes regularly on questions of Christian ethics and political theology for outlets such as The Gospel Coalition, American Reformer, Desiring God, and Mere Orthodoxy.

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Reformation, Resistance, and Reason of State: A Review

Brad Littlejohn

Brad Littlejohn reviews a new book that appreciates — but struggles to comprehend — the breadth of Early Modern Protestant political thought.

Ad Fontes Journal / August 14, 2023

If You Like America, Thank Christianity

Brad Littlejohn

Christians in America have gotten used to being on the defensive.

The Public Discourse / August 8, 2023

Look out for tyranny in the marketplace

Brad Littlejohn

Threats to freedom come not only from government

Articles

WORLD Opinions / July 28, 2023

Gratitude matters, even in war

Brad Littlejohn

Ukraine would be well served by more gratefulness to the West

Articles

WOLRD Opinions / July 21, 2023

The Whore of Babylon and the Specter of Universal Monarchy: Protestant Roots of American Foreign…

Brad Littlejohn

For more than three decades now, the most powerful nation on earth has lacked a truly national foreign policy.

Articles

Florida takes a stand

Brad Littlejohn

It’s right for the state to discriminate against communism

Articles

WORLD Opinions / June 29, 2023

A baby made by three?

Brad Littlejohn

Just because we can produce children with three “parents” doesn’t mean we should

Articles

WORLD Opinions / June 22, 2023

National Conservatism, Then and Now

Brad Littlejohn

As American conservatives increasingly feel the cultural and political headwinds blowing against them, some have begun to mutter, only partially in jest, that it is time to start thinking again about secession.

Articles

National Affairs / June 20, 2023

Harboring the evil amongst us

Brad Littlejohn

Instagram gets away with dragging its feet in dealing with child pornography

Articles

WORLD Opinions / June 20, 2023

Want Stronger Families? Pay Workers More

Brad Littlejohn

You cannot have a strong nation or a strong economy without strong families.

Articles

First Things / June 15, 2023

Sacred Polities, Natural Law and the Law of the Nations in the 16th-17th Centuries

Brad Littlejohn

Brad Littlejohn looks for the positives in an overall disappointing volume on Natural Law in the Early Modern era

Articles

Ad Fontes / June 13, 2023

A Missed Opportunity in the Pacific

Brad Littlejohn

Chaos at home can affect our country’s standing in the world

Articles

WORLD Opinions / May 25, 2023