Though some argue that Just War Theory (JWT) can be traced back to ancient Egypt, I’m interested in how Christians have reasoned over the ethics of war. Among the earliest theologians to set about the business of thinking through if war can be justified and justly fought was Saint Ambrose, bishop of Milan. His most esteemed student, Saint Augustine continued in the same vein.
The church has argued since those early days that war may be justly entered if all the following conditions are met:
1. The war must be defensive in nature. Instigating a war is unjust.
2. It must be led by a legitimate authority.
3. It must be motivated by a right intention.
4. Its ultimate goal must be the establishment of peace.
Once in a war, a nation seeking to engage in just war must remember these principles:
1. It must acknowledge the distinction between enemy combatants and civilians.
2. It must acknowledge hors de combat. Here it is forbidden to intentionally fire on those parachuting out of a fallen aircraft or sailors who have been shipwrecked.
3. It must not impose any unnecessary suffering.
4. Its response to being attack must be proportionate.
These principles, tested by time, seek to stake out that moral ground between pacifism and militarism. Pacifism is the view that it is never right to fight in any war under any circumstance. While there are Christians, and even whole denominations who take this position, it runs afoul of God’s commands to Israel. While Israel had a unique relationship with the living God, “All participation in war is sinful” goes too far by condemning what God commanded.
Militarism is the opposite error. Here men are prone to cheer on war in any circumstance where it might be imagined that a nation’s interests might be served. It is the wartime equivalent of that jingoistic fervor expressed in that odious saying, “My country, right or wrong, my country.”
The challenge is that we are all tempted to depart that safe middle ground of just war, for our own personal reasons. I don’t want to get shot at, and can’t blame anyone else who feels the same. But if my country is overrun by hordes of marauding Saxons, my duty is to take up arms to protect my family and my neighbor.
I don’t either blame those who distrust foreign nations that are unfriendly. Nor those who want what an unfriendly foreign nation has. But we don’t send our sons and our neighbors’ sons to die for “strategic interests.” Perhaps the only thing more tragic than being overrun by our enemies is killing and being killed for nothing greater than geo-political maneuvering.
The application of JWT is what keeps us in that safe zone. It keeps us from being swallowed up by some aggressive empire. And keeps us from swallowing up other nations as an aggressive empire. Whatever nuances living in a nuclear age may bring, the JWT transcends them.
Christians of all people must come to both understand and champion JWT. For it is little more that the application of God’s law to the direst of circumstances. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.