The Horrors We Bless: Rethinking the Just-War Legacy

Is war inevitable? Is it so woven into the fabric of our beingthat it always was and always will be? "Early Christians,"says Maguire, "were unanimous in opposing this view." Theydidn't see war as normal but an outrage and even a sacrilege.Maguire argues that later Christians succumbed to thesupposed "normalcy" of war and developed what later becameknown as the "just-war theory," which was actually devised asa deterrent to the rush to war.

Daniel C. Maguire is Professor of Ethics at Marquette University. He also is President of the Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health and Ethics. Among his many books are Death by Choice (1974), The Moral Choice (1975), The Moral Revolution (1986), The Moral Core of Judaism and Christianity (Fortress Press, 1993), Sacred Energies: When the World's Religions Sit Down to Talk about the Future of Human Life and the Plight of This Planet (Fortress Press, 2000), and Sacred Choices: The Right to Contraception and Abortion in Ten World Religions (Fortress Press, 2001).