Just War

We discussed the various criteria of the Just War tradition, which serves historically as a troublesome link between religion and war. The tradition has been troublesome because it has been used in the hands of politicians to justify a continuous string of wars and other unjust actions and policies: the most infamous of which are the crusades and slavery.

The tradition is generally traced to Augustine in the 5^th century, who at the time was defending the church from charges that it was at fault for the sacking of Rome by the barbarians. Augustine was a pacifist in regard to the use of force to defend oneself, but saw a Christian duty to defend with force, if necessary, an innocent third party. He based this duty on the principle of love of neighbor. The “end of peace” is what motivated Augustine, he famously said:

“Peace should be the object of your desire; war should be waged only as a necessity, and waged only that God may by it deliver men from the necessity and preserve them in peace….Let necessity, therefore, and not your will, slay the enemy who fights you.”

The Achilles heels of Augustine’s theory, in my opinion, are two fold. First, Augustine bases the theory on an unrealistic assessment of the will of politicians in particular and humans in general. For the tradition to reflect Christian values the political leader need act without regard to self interest. For the soldier to act with right intention requires love of enemy in his heart as he vanquishes the enemy to rid the enemy of sin!

Second, Augustine combined the ideas that corporal punishment properly reflects parental love with Romans 13: 1-7 to conclude that war could be used in conversion of unbelievers to Christianity. “But while those are better who are guided aright by love, those are certainly more numerous who are corrected by fear.” Thus holy war and persecution of “savages” was justified by the tradition. A reading of the passages immediately preceding and following (Romans 12: 9-21; 13: 8-10) the language relied upon by Augustine shows Augustine’s reliance is misplaced and the vengeance that is God’s is not for the Christian to carry out.

The tradition has been modified and added to over the years and the US Catholic Bishops in 1983 adopted the following criteria for a justifiable war. These criteria are posed in a context of a presumption against war, as follows:

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Presupposition: there is a “presupposition against war”

Jus ad bellum

Just cause:

To confront “a real and certain danger”

To protect innocent life.

To preserve conditions necessary for decent human existence.

To secure basic human rights.

Competent authority:

“In the catholic tradition the use of force has always been joined to the common good: war must be declared by those with responsibility for public order.”

Comparative justice:

Relative levels of right and wrong on both sides of a dispute; whether sufficient right exists to override the presumption against war.

Right intention:

“War can be initiated only for those reasons set forth above as a just cause.” During conflict, pursuit of peace and reconciliation, avoidance of unnecessary destruction, unreasonable conditions.

Last resort:

“For resort to a war to be justified, all reasonable alternatives must have been exhausted.”

Probability of success:

No use of force when the outcome will be “either disproportionate or futile”; yet “at times defense of key values, even against great odds, may be a ‘proportionate’ witness.”

Proportionality:

“The damage to be inflicted and the costs incurred by war must be proportionate to the good expected by taking up arms.”

Jus in bello:

Proportionality:

Avoidance of “escalation to broader or total war” or “to the use of weapons of horrendous destructive potential.”

Discrimination:

“The principle prohibits directly intended attacks on non-combatants and non-military targets.”

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War, Peace and God: A Lutheran Unified Approach (Gary Simpson, Augsburg Press, Summer 2007) claims the just war tradition when properly understood and applied reflects God’s desire for the strong moral restraint of war and for the wide rapid outbreak of just peacemaking. “A unified approach means that just war tradition retains moral worth to the extent that we keep it within the richer arc of God’s just peacemaking.”

It seems this brings us back to the issue of the character of God.

Because of its sorted history, should the just war tradition be banished to the dump? Is it too late to do so? Is its rehabilitation possible? Besides politicians, are Christians also part of the problem?

Peter Thompson