Just War and Christian Traditions (Paperback or Softback)

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.

Eric Patterson is executive vice president at the Religious Freedom Institute and scholar at large at Regent University. He is author or editor of eighteen books, including Just American Wars: Ethical Dilemmas in U.S. Military History.

J. Daryl Charles is affiliate scholar of the John Jay Institute and a contributing editor of Providence: A Journal of Christianity and American Foreign Policy. He is the author or editor of twenty-one books, including America and the Just War Tradition: A History of U.S. Conflicts (University of Notre Dame Press, 2019).

John Ashcroft served as the seventy-ninth attorney general of the United States of America. He serves in numerous capacities, including as Distinguished Professor of Law and Government at Regent University.