What kind of thing is a nation?
Date Posted: Jun 11, 2026.
How we should understand the nation — not as a fixed ethnic identity, a marketplace of competing interests, or a collection of individuals bound only by laws, but as a shared community shaped through relationships, responsibility, and common purpose.
Drawing on the thought of St Augustine, The Revd Professor Luke Bretherton, Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology Christ Church, Oxford University, explores the idea of nation, both a source of good and a product of human imperfection. Nations provide peace, order, institutions, and a framework for common life, yet they are also marked by histories of injustice, exclusion, and sacrifice. As a result, neither narratives of national glory nor narratives of national shame fully capture the truth.
Central to this vision is the idea of covenant: relationships of mutual responsibility, care, and cooperation. A healthy nation depends on citizens, institutions, communities, and leaders who contribute to the common good while recognising both the achievements and failures of the past.
Ultimately, the paper calls for a story of nation that understands politics as the art of association, covenant as the basis of common life, peace as a moral if ambiguous good, and prudence as the virtue required of leaders in a fallen world.
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‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.'
Matthew 5:13-16
The Revd Professor Luke Bretherton is Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology and director of the McDonald Center for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life, Christ Church, Oxford University.
Prior to Oxford Bretherton was the Robert E. Cushman Distinguished Professor of Moral and Political Theology and Senior Fellow of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. Before joining Duke in 2012, he was Reader in Theology & Politics and Convener of the Faith & Public Policy Forum at King's College London.
Alongside his scholarly work, he writes in the media on topics related to religion and politics, has worked with a variety of faith-based NGOs, mission agencies, and churches around the world, and has been actively involved over many years in forms of grassroots democratic politics, both in the UK and the US.
He also hosts the Listen, Organize, Act! podcast which focuses on the history and contemporary practice of community organizing and the role religion plays in democracy.
Specific issues addressed in his work include debt, fair trade, environmental justice, racism, humanitarianism, the treatment of refugees, interfaith relations, euthanasia, secularism, nationalism, church-state relations, and the provision of social welfare.