THE RELIGION OF PEACE AND LOVE: CAN CHRISTIANS FIGHT A JUST WAR

THE RELIGION OF PEACE AND LOVE:  CAN CHRISTIANS FIGHT A JUST WAR

 
Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.” - Gospel of Mathew, 26:52

 
To our most bitter opponents we say: ‘We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you.’ - Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), “Loving your Enemies” in Strength to Love

 
I. Introduction: The Pacifism of the Early Church Fathers

 
The rise of persecution against Christians around the world, the seemingly attempt to annihilate Christianity in the Middle East, and the growing terrorism faced by Western society, raises once again the question of armed conflict.  War is not something  that Christians should ever take lightly, given that we profess a religious faith anchored in the peace, love, and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.  Indeed, we are a Church of Martyrs, the Book of Revelation says, “And he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev. 7:14)  Interestingly, one of the first recognized saints not be a martyr was St. Martin of Tours; living in the fourth century “Sulpicius Severus reports that just before a battle in the Gallic provinces at Borbetomagus (now Worms, Germany), Martin determined that his faith prohibited him from fighting, saying, ‘I am a soldier of Christ. I cannot fight.’ “1

The data that is left to us suggests that there were a few events that came to alter the ‘possible’ majority pacifism of early Christianity: the rule of Constantine the Great, the thought of St. Augustine, the conversion of the Germanic peoples, and the Crusades, all resulting in the formal Just War Theory of St. Thomas Aquinas.  However, before examining these historical developments, lets first look at a sample of the  writings of the early Church Fathers who saw no way to reconcile Christian living with being a warrior.2    

St. Justin Martyr (c.100 - 165) writes in 160AD:

“We ourselves were well conversant with war, murder, and everything evil, but all of us throughout the whole wide earth have traded in our weapons of war. We have exchanged our swords for ploughshares, our spears for farm tools. Now we cultivate the fear of God, justice, kindness to men, faith, and the expectation of the future given to us by the Father himself through the Crucified One.” (Dialogue with Trophy 110.3.4)

 
St. Irenaeus of Lyon (c.130 - 202AD) writes:

 
“But the law of liberty, that is, the word of God, preached by the apostles (who went forth from Jerusalem) throughout all the earth, caused such a change in the state of things, that these [nations] did form the swords and war-lances into ploughshares, and changed them into pruning-hooks for reaping the corn, [that is], into instruments used for peaceful purposes, and that they are now unaccustomed to fighting, but when smitten, offer also the other cheek.” (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. I, reprinted 1977, p. 512)

 
St.Hippolytos of Rome (170 - 236AD) writes in 200AD:

“A soldier of the civil authority must be taught not to kill men and to refuse to do so if he is commanded, and to refuse to take an oath. If he is unwilling to comply, he must be rejected for baptism. A military commander or civic magistrate who wears the purple must resign or be rejected. If an applicant or a believer seeks to become a soldier, he must be rejected, for he has despised God.” (Hippolytos, Apostolic Tradition 16:17-19)

 
St. John Chrysostom (347-407AD) writes:

 
“That they may now understand that this is a new kind of warfare and not the usual custom of joining in battle, when He sent them with nothing He said: And so, marching on, show forth the meekness of lambs, although you are to go to wolves… for so will I best show my power, when the wolves are conquered by the lambs.

… For certainly it is a greater work and much more marvelous to change the minds of opponents and to bring about a change of soul than to kill them… We ought to be ashamed, therefore, who act far differently when as wolves we rush upon our adversaries. For as long as we are lambs we conquer; even when a thousand wolves stand about, we overcome and are victors. But if we act like wolves we are conquered, for then the aid of the Good Shepherd departs from us, for He does not foster wolves but sheep.” (Epistle Matt. Hom. 34, n.1:)

The Early Fathers remind us of the powerful act of personal conversion to the Gospel.  They do not live in a time where there is a “Christian Empire” or a predominantly Christian country.  They live in a time still dominated by pagans and Christians serving in high offices of government or military are few.  For them rejection of serving in the military or acting as a magistrate who can give the death penalty, is connected to the rejection of the pagan beliefs that they discarded in becoming a Christian.  

These Fathers also remind us of the importance of Baptism, as a promise to God Christians make to live a new life.  Today our experience of Baptism is more often than not infants, whose promises are made by their parents and sponsors.  Along with this our “theology” of Baptism is heavily influenced by the Augustinian theology of “original sin”; (more so in Latin Catholic and Protestant Christianity possibly), the washing away of original sin which is indeed a central reality of the sacrament has overshadowed the other central realities of being born anew, claimed for Christ, and one ready to be Chrismated (Confirmed) in the Holy Spirit, so that the very life presence of God lives in us.  The dynamic celebration of the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist) were never taken lightly, no one had a right to them merely because they may have Christian parents, they were given as a result of the powerful personal conversion by an unbaptized Catechumen who was ready to turn totally away from the pagan world.  In this context we can see how the Early Fathers felt pacifism as being Christ-like and a rejection of they pagan world.  

The Change of Consensus: St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430AD) and St. Thomas  Aquinas (1225 - 1274AD)

 
Augustine lives in a different world than the Early Fathers of the Church.  He lives in a Roman Empire that has come to favor and promote the Christian religion.  He lives in a time where Christianity can be found in more than one generation of a family, his mother St. Monica being an example.  He also lives in a Roman world where warfare is constant, as the Germanic tribes are overrunning the Western Empire and late antiquity brings about a new Europe.

St. Augustine raises the questions that will to this day shape the format of The Just War Theory: (1) the right to go to war (ius ad vellum) and (2) the right conduct in war (ius in bello)3

The reflections of St. Augustine begin with Romans 13:4, “for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer.” He felt that this gave biblical support to the idea of just war, which unfortunately is necessary in the face of an unjust aggressor, he write in The City of God: 

"They who have waged war in obedience to the divine command, or in conformity with His laws, have represented in their persons the public justice or the wisdom of government, and in this capacity have put to death wicked men; such persons have by no means violated the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill."4

 
He also writes,

"But, say they, the wise man will wage just wars. As if he would not all the rather lament the necessity of just wars, if he remembers that he is a man; for if they were not just he would not wage them, and would therefore be delivered from all wars."5

St. Augustine put down the foundations for the formal Just War Theory of St. Thomas Aquinas. He was also greatly influenced by the philosophy of Aristotle and the Natural Law Theory of Ethics.  These influences coupled with his devout Christian faith and holiness of life taught him that war could only be justified under the strictest of terms and could never be used for territorial expansion, to force conversion upon non-believers and that within war the innocent non-combatant could not be a target of war.  In his Summa Theologiae he writes that a Just War must contain the following elements:

A war must be called by the legitimate authority.
A just cause is required.  For example to avenge wrongs, protect subjects, restore what was unjustly taken.
There must be a right intention, that is to promote good.6

Like Augustine, Thomas suggests that one almost has a duty to preserve peace, justice, and order, even if it unfortunately involves the taking of life in warfare.  The promotion of good under the leadership of legitimate authority but never for one’s private war against another.  

Conclusion: Christian Conscience

The Just War Theory and the history of the topic in Catholic doctrine, theology and philosophy sets the parameters in which the conscience should operate in discerning one’s involvement in war.7  It should not be considered immoral if one in good conscience and with an informed conscience decides to take the road of pacifism or the road of serving in the armed forces or police forces.  Indeed, it is from St. Thomas Aquinas that the Catholic Church has taught that one is morally obligated to follow their informed conscience, and also it is from Thomas in his writing on the Four Laws (Eternal, Natural, Human, Divine) that some decide to live “above” the Natural Law to which we are all obligated, to follow and embrace the Divine Law, the law of saints, which may involve being a martyr and offering no violence towards those who act unjustly towards us.  

Facing the present genocide of Christians in the Middle East, we have much to consider.  

(Rev.) David A. Fisher

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Notes:

1 SULPITIUS SEVERUS ON THE LIFE OF ST. MARTIN.  Translation and Notes by Alexander Roberts.  From: A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series, Volume 11. New York, 1894.

 
2  Keep in mind there never was a blanket, universal, dogmatic teaching on war and pacifism in the early centuries of the Church.  While many of the Church Fathers held up the ideal of pacifism, it was with the knowledge that Christians were serving in the Roman military.  Much like the questions of slavery and taking interest on a loan, the debates on the ethical requirements of the Gospel lasted for centuries.

 
3 St. Augustine wrote in Latin.

 
4 Augustine, Philip Schaff, Augustine: City of God XIX

 
5 Ibid.

 
6 see, St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Part II, question 40

 
7 The official teaching of the Catholic Church concerning just war can be found in The Catechism of the Catholic Church (Part Three, Life In Christ, Section Two,The Ten Commandments, Chapter Two, “You Shall Love Your Neighbor As Yourself", Article 5, The Fifth Commandment).   Numbers 2302 - 2317 address Peace and the Avoidance of War. Number 2309 directly states the Church’s contemporary statement of The Just War Theory:

2309 The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:

- the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;

- all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;

- there must be serious prospects of success;

- the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.

These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the "just war" doctrine.

The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2309.