Love Your Enemiesdiscipleship Pacifism and Just War Theory Review
Ted Grimsrud—March 15, 2018
[I was recently asked to write upwards the post-obit brief overview of how Christians tend to view warfare. It volition hopefully be published in the forthcomingBloomsbury Companion to Studying Christians.]
Accounts of how Christians remember and act in relation to war accept tended to repeat the general typology that was introduced back in 1960 past historian Roland Bainton in Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace. Bainton saw three categories: pacifism (the commitment not to participate in war in whatsoever grade), the just state of war (the willingness to go to war when certain criteria insuring the justness of the war are met), and the crusade (a sense of call from God to fight in a war that is understood to be divinely required).
However, this typology has been criticized for leaving too many options out and over-simplifying what is left. As an alternative, I propose a revised typology that has 2 main types: (1) Negatively tending toward war and (2) positively disposed toward war. Each of these two types has three subtypes.
"Negatively disposed" toward war
What unites the three "negatively disposed" approaches is the conviction that, morally, the benefit of the doubt is always against state of war.
- Principled pacifism . This view is confronting war based on starting principles. For example, some Christians take said that they can non fight due to their understanding of Jesus' commands such as "love your enemies." The relative justice of particular wars is irrelevant. For example, in the Usa during World War II those who were morally opposed to fighting were allowed to practice culling service as conscientious objectors. Such conscientious objectors refused war machine service merely because they believed any possible war was incorrect due to their moral principles. Even if their country was to fight in a "merely war," principled pacifists would nevertheless reject to fight.
- Pragmatic pacifism. This view is against war based on the evidence of how warfare works in actual practice. These conclusions follow from using but war criteria to conclude that all actual wars are certain to be unjust; that is, this pacifism is based on evidence. This view suggests that each war has violated some if not all the standard but war criteria.
- Disquisitional but war. This view differs from "pragmatic pacifism" due by being open up to the possibility that just war criteria may be met. These criteria typically are sorted into two categories: "simply cause" (east.m., defending confronting aggression, resisting tyranny, stopping atrocities, declared by a legitimate authority, just undertaken as a last resort, undertaken with the about certainty of victory) and "just means" (due east.m., noncombatants are not targeted, the violence used is non out of proportion to the good that the state of war achieves, of limited duration, the humane treatment of prisoners of war). This view starts with the assumption that whatever particular war is non simply unless proved otherwise. The logical conclusion for those belongings this view is that wars that do not overcome that burden of proof should exist opposed. Something like this was a mutual view in the U.Southward. during the Vietnam War for many draftees who refused to fight went to Canada or prison.
This clarification of the "critical just war" view is shut to the fashion many describe the "just war" position in general. They assume that information technology is the master culling to pacifism in the Christian tradition. However, the "critical just war" view actually has few adherents. Notice that this view has no legal continuing in the U.S.; those opposed to particular wars are all the same required to enter the military in the case of a draft or stay in the armed services if they are already at that place. If this view really were common, there should have been more effort to brand it legally viable.
"Positively disposed" toward war
What unites the three "positively disposed" approaches that follow is the conviction that war is inevitable and therefore we should not imagine a world without war. With this arroyo, we should not assume that wars need to overcome an anti-state of war do good of the doubt.
- But war as restraint. This view accepts the inevitability of war and believes that information technology is unsafe to seek to practise away with state of war. A negative attitude toward war hinders preparedness efforts and jeopardizes national interests past weakening the ability to answer accordingly with military force when necessary. The purpose of moral reasoning is to advocate for restraint in the tactics of state of war, not to try to stop war.
- Blank check. Though this view has non been named or studied past students of the history of war, it is by far the most common view held past Christians since the quaternary century. The cadre conviction hither is that citizens by definition have the responsibleness to go to war when their nation calls upon them to. Though the influential fourth century bishop, Augustine, has been called the "founder" of Christian simply state of war thought, he exerted great influence in undergirding the "blank check" approach. Augustine argued that citizens should leave the reasoning concerning a war's justness to the government. A citizen's responsibility is simply to obey one'southward government.
- Cause. This view differs from the blank check by having a more positive view of the goodness of war. If transcendental values are at stake, when one has a clear sense of calling to fight, and so one must do and then. Since for a crusade, the war serves an absolute good, i demand not be concerned with but war concerns for proper procedures. In a crusade, the calling is to fight, all-out.
The typology outlined here helpfully separates 2 general approaches to pacifism. It too helps us come across how pacifism and certain approaches to merely war philosophy actually take a great deal in common. Also, this typology draws a dividing line between 2 singled-out just war approaches. The "critical just state of war" view has much more than in common with pacifism than with the "only war every bit restraint" view. This typology lifts upward the "blank check" as non only a distinctive view rarely noticed in most discussions on this topic—only actually every bit by far the dominant view amongst Christians (and other citizens).
Christianity's default position
Though our data is sparse, near historians of the early Christian era agree that about Christians likely affirmed some form of pacifism for a number of generations following the time of Jesus. The pacifism of the early Christians shows that those closest in history to Jesus understood his message to telephone call them to radical love that precluded violence.
It is non until after the beginning of the 4th century that church leaders openly articulated an acceptance of Christians in the armed services. However, and so the change from pacifism to acceptance of military involvement came decisively—indicating that the way had been prepared for quite some fourth dimension. Probably the nigh primal factor then, and in the generations down to our nowadays twenty-four hours, in Christians turning abroad from their default pacifist position was a rejection of the stardom betwixt loyalty to the community of faith and loyalty to the nation-state.
Christian pacifism survived, just at the margins the church. Christian pacifism surfaced among small groups that may be seen every bit movements that tried to restore a more Jesus-oriented approach to faith. The 2 traditions that sustained their peace witness into our present day were the Anabaptists who emerged in the 16th century and the Quakers who emerged in the 17th century. They have been chosen the "Historic Peace Churches."
It took an Indian Hindu, Mohandas Gandhi, to demonstrate the potential of nonviolent activeness for effecting social alter without mortality. Gandhi drew deep inspiration from the life and pedagogy of Jesus—and, in plough, inspired twentythursday-century Christians to accept more seriously the possible confluence betwixt the quest for social alter and pacifism. Martin Luther Male monarch, Jr., a Baptist preacher who actually did not enter the ceremonious rights movement as a pacifist, established the linkage between civil rights activism and nonviolence in a style that captured the imagination of millions. Rex did, at end of his all too brusk life, espoused a principled pacifism that was forged through on-the-ground experience.
The "blank check" and disquisitional but war thought
Today's pro-military Christians are in many ways closer to the actual Christian tradition than pacifists. The fourth century provides us with the cardinal symbols that provide a framework for understanding the general practical philosophy of Christianity toward warfare. Constantine the Emperor at the beginning of the century and Augustine the Bishop at the end of the century may be said to reverberate two poles within mail-pacifist Christianity.
Constantine symbolizes the credence by Christians of the function of national leaders in determining the justifiability of war. In deferring to national leaders and national interests concerning warfare, the large majority of Christians have essentially uncritically understood it to be their responsibility simply to obey their government when information technology calls upon them to fight – that is, to give the government a blank cheque.
The other pole of the post-pacifist context apropos Christians and war may be called the "critical just war" approach. Augustine symbolizes this approach because he is often considered the male parent of the just war tradition. However, Augustine never articulated a formal just war philosophy with organized, systematic lists of criteria that could really office as a critical resource for Christian responses to warfare. His actual approach in practice was much closer to the blank check. The ordinary Christian is to defer to 1's leaders.
It is not until the 16th century that nosotros have a systematic delineation of the only state of war criteria equally a formal statement. Only in the 20thursday century did the critical merely war pole amongst post-pacifist Christianity begin to play a genuinely critical function. For most of the by seventeen centuries, the fundamental approach to warfare among the vast majority of Christians has been the blank cheque. But in this fashion could you lot have war after war where Christians accept up arms against other Christians.
Enlivening the "critical only war" view
The events of Baronial 1945 inverse application of just war principles forever. The use of nuclear weapons galvanized an outpouring of horror. A position chosen "nuclear pacifism" emerged based on just war criteria that says, alee of time, that a nuclear war could never be justifiable. Just war criteria actually became a basis for opposing real wars. "Nuclear pacifism" amid Christians received a tremendous boost with the 1983 pastoral letter from the The states Roman Cosmic bishops that pointed strongly toward nuclear pacifism.
In the 1960s, for the commencement time the United States engaged in an extended war that did not see with overwhelming public back up. During the Vietnam War, a new category emerged, "selective conscientious objection." This category included people who objected to participation in this particular war—not because they were pacifists but because they believed that that detail war was unjust.
Just state of war thought has in recent years served a disquisitional function in fostering a refusal to participate in what seen as an unjust state of war. Only state of war thought served, every bit well, equally a resource for those who actively opposed a state of war every bit information technology was being fought and not only afterwards the fact. At present it also provides the language for opposing a war before it happens (e.g., notation pre-war opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in the early 2000s).
Nuclear pacifism and selective careful objection are products of the "critical just war" sensibility. They show that the main divide amid Christians is not between pacifism and simply war just betwixt being negatively or positively disposed toward war every bit a starting point.
Brief bibliography:
Bainton, Roland.Christian Attitudes Toward State of war and Peace: A Historical Survey and Disquisitional Re-evaluation. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1960.
Brock, Peter.Pacifism in Europe to 1914. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972.
Brock, Peter.The Quaker Peace Testimony 1660-1914. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Academy Printing, 1990.
Cahill, Lisa Sowle.Love Your Enemies: Discipleship, Pacifism, and the Just War Theory. Minneapolis: Fortress Printing, 1994.
Grimsrud, Ted.The Good War That Wasn't—And Why It Matters: The Moral Legacy of World War Ii. Eugene, OR: Pour Books, 2014.
Hornus, Jean-Michel.It is Not Lawful for Me to Fight: Early on Christian Attitudes Toward State of war, Violence, and the State. Scottdale, PA: Herald Printing, 1990.
Johnson, James Turner.Can Modern War Exist Only? New Haven, CT: Yale University Printing, 1984.
Miller, Marlin and Barbara Nelson Gingerich, eds.The Church's Peace Witness. M Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994.
Wink, Walter.Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992.
Yoder, John Howard.Christian Attitudes To War, Peace, and Revolution. Thousand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2009.
Yoder, John Howard.Nevertheless: The Varieties and Shortcomings of Religious Pacifism, 2d edition. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1994.
Yoder, John Howard. When War is Unjust: Existence Honest in Just War Thinking, 2nd edition. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2001.
Source: https://thinkingpacifism.net/2018/03/15/christianity-on-war-and-peace-an-overview/
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