Healthy Patriotism in a Partisan Age

Patriotism has become a highly contested concept in our times, and a great many leading thinkers, including many Christians, have come to regard it as intrinsically flawed and even idolatrous. There is much to be said for such criticisms, and patriotism must be refined if it is to be an ennobling influence on our lives. But we need more than a contractual basis for orienting our lives together; we need to have the sense of belonging and membership that go with being a community of memory. Patriotism rightly understood can offer just that.