Just War and Christian Traditions

Description

This much-needed anthology contains historically informed insights and analysis about Christian just war thinking and its application to contemporary conflicts.

Recent Christian reflection on war has largely ignored questions of whether and how war can be just. The contributors to Just War and Christian Traditions provide a clear overview of the history and parameters of just war thinking and a much-needed and original evaluation of how Christian traditions and denominations may employ this thinking today.

The introduction examines the historical development of Christian just war thinking, differences between just war thinking and the alternatives of pacifism and holy war, distinctions among Christian thinkers on issues such as the role of the state and “lesser evil” politics, and shared Christian theological commitments with public policy ramifications (for example, the priority of peace). The chapters that follow outline—from Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, and Anabaptist denominational perspectives—the positions of major church traditions on the ethics of warfare. The contributors include philosophers, military strategists, political scientists, and historians who seek to engage various and distinctive denominational approaches to the issues of church and state, war, peace, diplomacy, statecraft, and security over two thousand years of Christian history. Just War and Christian Traditions presents an essential resource for understanding the Judeo-Christian roots and denominational frameworks undergirding the moral structure for statesmanship and policy referred to as just war thinking. This practical guide will interest students, pastors, and lay people interested in issues of peace and security, military history, and military ethics.

Contributors: John Ashcroft, Eric Patterson, J. Daryl Charles, Joseph E. Capizzi, Darrell Cole, H. David Baer, Keith J. Pavlischek, Daniel Strand, Nigel Biggar, Mark Tooley, and Timothy J. Demy.

Contributors

Foreword: The Honorable John Ashcroft

1. Christian Approaches to Just War, Peace, & Security, Eric Patterson and J. Daryl Charles

2. Catholic Just War Thinking, Joseph Capizzi

3. The Orthodox Church on Just War, Darrel Cole

4. Luther’s Political Thought and Its Contribution to the Just War Tradition, H. David Baer

5. John Calvin and the Reformed View of War, Resistance, and Political Duty, Keith Pavlischek

6. Anglican Thought on Just War, Daniel Strand and Nigel Biggar

7. Methodism and War: Mark Tooley

8. Praying for Peace but Preparing for War: Baptists and the Just War Tradition, Timothy Demy

9. Anabaptists and the Sword, J. Daryl Charles

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Éthique et morale
• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Theology
• HISTORY
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Luther
• Wesley
• Lutheranism
• Catholicism
• Orthodoxy
• General officer
• Peace
• Methodism
• Epistle to the Romans
• Ethics
• Calvinism
• Christianity
• Baptists
• Anabaptist
• Augustine of Hippo
• Anglicanism
• Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
• General
• Augustine
• Calvin
• Paix
• Martin Luther

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268203801
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

JUST WAR AND CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS
JUST WAR AND CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS
EDITED BY
ERIC PATTERSON
AND
J. DARYL CHARLES
FOREWORD BY JOHN ASHCROFT
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
Copyright © 2022 by the University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022947590
ISBN: 978-0-268-20381-8 (Hardback)
ISBN: 978-0-268-20382-5 (Paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-268-20383-2 (WebPDF)
ISBN: 978-0-268-20380-1 (Epub)
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail]
CONTENTS
Foreword
John Ashcroft
ONE
Christian Approaches to Just War, Peace, and Security
Eric Patterson and J. Daryl Charles
TWO
Catholic Just War Thinking
Joseph E. Capizzi
THREE
The Orthodox Church on Just War
Darrell Cole
FOUR
Luther’s Political Thought and Its Contribution to the Just War Tradition
H. David Baer
FIVE
John Calvin and the Reformed View of War, Resistance, and Political Duty
Keith J. Pavlischek

SIX
Just War and the Church of England
Daniel Strand and Nigel Biggar
SEVEN
Methodism and War
Mark Tooley
EIGHT
Praying for Peace but Preparing for War: Baptists and the Just War Tradition
Timothy J. Demy
NINE
Anabaptists and the Sword
J. Daryl Charles
Contributors
Index
FOREWORD
John Ashcroft
Can war be just? Can war be rooted in virtues such as justice and liberty, rather than vices like vengeance? This collection of essays contains insights and analysis about a Christian understanding of just war ethics and its application. The essays concern themselves neither with the history of a specific conflict nor the discrete policies of the United States or any other country. As a former American public servant whose responsibilities included significant elements of national security activity, I can attest to the relevance of virtue in US law and history. Just war principles are the foundation of the law of armed conflict and of our global system of sovereign, independent states. Such states not only have rights under international law but are obligated to shoulder moral obligations and responsibilities as well. We should all be grateful that the intersection of liberty and morality is a recurring topic of discussion and debate when our nation confronts the necessity of using force in defense of our national interests.
There is a distinctive American tradition that flows from our understanding of humanity in terms of values. The Declaration of Independence asserts that “all men are created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights.” Americans believe that the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is universal. It is not to be limited in terms of blood, history, language, or soil. To be sure, the United States has made its own wartime errors. Nevertheless, it is valuable to consider how different the American ethics and outcomes of war have been. They stand in sharp contrast to the ethical perspectives of many other nations, which have drawn sharp distinctions between themselves and their competitors based on matters of primordial culture, race, language, and ethnicity.
Fundamental values and ideals helped shape American citizens as they developed as a nation. The foundations of our republic include, importantly, the Bible and Christian teaching (especially insights associated with the Reformation). Citizens influenced by zealous pastors such as Jonathan Mayhew and Samuel West deliberated whether or not it was just for the colonial legislatures to employ force to protect against London’s red-coated Hessian mercenaries. 1 The debates of the time were grounded in a Judeo-Christian worldview, characterized by principles of political equality (i.e., the Golden Rule), the notion of liberty (rooted in the Bible and energized by the Reformation), and the rule of law (notably, the Ten Commandments and Rom. 13). This emphasis on moral reflection and deliberation among an engaged, literate citizenry (another legacy of the Reformation) prompted spirited public debates about the morality of going to war and how war would be fought for centuries to come.
One of the greatest examples of this American creed, rooted in Judeo-Christian values, can be found in the career of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was deeply concerned about the morality of warfare. He himself enlisted for a brief time in 1832 in the Illinois militia during the Black Hawk War. Later, as US congressman, Lincoln introduced the “Spot Resolutions” in order to question the precipitating casus belli of the Mexican-American War (1846–48). 2 As president, Lincoln wrestled with questions of law, justice, and morality, from how to treat the rebellious South to the proper punishment in the individual case of a teenage sentry who fell asleep at his post (the traditional penalty was execution). Lincoln’s words, in his two inaugural speeches and the Gettysburg Address, present a compelling vision of justice and liberty, rather than vengeance and destruction, despite the cruelties and hardship of war.
A nation’s values are explicit in how that nation honors those who have fought. Historically, the majority of American battle dead have lost their lives on foreign soil in wars of liberation. The American Battle Monuments Commission maintains US cemeteries in ten foreign countries and reports another sixteen monuments in foreign countries memorializing those missing in action. 3 Those cemeteries—in Italy, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and elsewhere—remind us of American soldiers who liberated others, from Cubans in concentration camps in 1899 to Bosnians and Kosovars at the end of the twentieth century.

American virtue is best seen in its restraint and generosity at war’s end. Consider the noble goals Woodrow Wilson envisaged in 1918: selfdetermination, collective security, and freedom of the seas. The fact that the United States, unlike its allies, did not take any German or Ottoman colonies testifies to America’s restraint and devotion to human dignity and self-governance as universal values. At the end of the Second World War the United States not only helped rebuild former adversaries but also worked patiently to expand freedom against old colonialisms abroad and racism at home. Whether fighting terrorists or rogue regimes or strategic competitors, the US objective has typically been to preserve and extend the international order and human liberty.
A commitment to just war thinking focuses attention on the Creator’s endowment of human dignity, not merely American prerogatives. The just war principles of legitimate political authority, battlefield restraint, the rule of law, and the goal of a better peace are all rooted in Judeo-Christian conceptions of the purpose of government. These include, as Augustine noted, love of neighbor and the critical evaluation of both behavior and motives. 4
Consequently, it is imperative that we reflect on the lessons, both positive and negative, of US history and the ways that the American people have generally sought to embrace and extend liberty, often at great cost to themselves. Whether applied to the United States or beyond, the collective analysis and thoughtful evaluation presented in the following pages provides an essential resource for understanding the distinctly Judeo-Christian roots and denominational frameworks undergirding the moral structure for statesmanship and policy referred to as just war thinking.
NOTES
1 . A typical example of this is Samuel West’s claim that “the same principles which oblige us to submit to government do equally oblige us to resist tyranny.” Some of the writing referred to at the time included the work of Peter Martyr Vermigli (who advocated resistance), John Ponet (whose A Short Treatise on Political Power supported tyrannicide), John Knox, and others who argued that resistance was justified—even morally required in some cases—if the national political authority became corrupt and tyrannical. The appropriate body to take such action, it was generally argued, was intermediate political authorities (for example, chartered colonial governments) acting within the rule of law to preserve the security, rights, and freedom of the citizens. The most famous American making such claims was Jonathan Mayhew, notably in his 1750 “A Discourse concerning the Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the High Powers.” This sermon was printed and reprinted numerous times in the colonies and in London; John Adams famously said that everyone had read it in the colonies. For more on this line of thinking, see Mayhew’s sermon at Founding.com , Claremont Institute, https://founding.com/founders-library/preachers-pen/a-discourse-concerning-the-unlimited-submission-and-non-resistance-to-the-high-powers-1750-jonathan-mayhew/ , as well as Steven M. Dworetz’s The Unvarnished Doctrine: Locke, Liberalism and the American Revolution (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990).
2 . See Abraham Lincoln, “Resolutions in the U.S. House of Representatives, December 22, 1847,” in Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings , ed. Roy P. Basler (Boston: Da Capo Press, 2001), 199–202.
3 . See, e.g., Ben Rappaport, “How Many American Troops Are Buried in Foreign Lands,” NBC News Digital, May 30, 2016, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/how-many-american-troops-are-buried-foreign-lands-n580951 .
4 . Augustine, Letter to Boniface (also known as Letter 189 ), written in AD 418; see St. Augustine Letters, 165–203 , vol. 4, trans. Wilfrid Parsons, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1981), 266–71.
ONE
Christian Approaches to Just War, Peace, and Security
Eric Patterson and J. Daryl Charles
In AD 418, a senior Roman military officer wrote one