Christian Attitudes To War Peace Revolution

John Howard Yoder was one of the most important thinkers on just war and pacifism in the late twentieth century. This newly compiled collection of Yoder's lectures and writings on these issues describes, analyzes, and evaluates various patterns of thought and practice in Western Christian history. The volume, now made widely available for the first time, makes Yoder's stimulating insights more accessible to a broader audience and substantially contributes to ongoing discussions concerning the history, theology, and ethics of war and peace. Theologians and ethicists, students of Yoder's thought, and all readers seeking a better understanding of war and pacifism will value this work.

CHRISTIAN ATTITUDES TOWARD WAR AND PEACE

Jesus created around himself a voluntary society that was counter to everything his society knew or expected. Jesus gave his members a new way to deal with offenders, with violence, with money, with leadership, with a corrupt society. He gave them a new pattern of relationships between man and woman, and an enlarged understanding of what it means to be human. This is the original revolution: the creation of a distinct community with its alternate set of values and its coherent way of incarnating them. Such a group is not only a novelty, but is also, if lived faithfully, the most powerful tool of social change.

Participation in warfare is now so fully a part of the majority Christian heritage that it is hard for most Christians to imagine anything else. Catholics and Protestants of all the major denominations hold to the theory which justifies Christian participation in warfare. In holding to this theory, the vast majority of Christians have followed Augustine, a bishop in north Africa at the beginning of the fifth century. They have developed an informal system for determining when it is justified and necessary for Christians to kill other human beings. Following this line of reasoning, Christians have participated in revolutions, wars of national defense, wars of conquest and genocide, wars of religious intolerance, and wars caused by mistakes and misunderstandings. At the same time, however, small numbers of Christians have refused to kill other human beings. They have based this on the demands of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who laid down his own life instead of punishing the enemies of his people. These Christians continue to believe that prayer and selfless obedience to God's way of peace and love have a greater influence on the final outcome of events than do bullets and bombs. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. (Psalm 20:7, NIV)

Any scholarship that addresses the evolution of Christian perspectives on warfare generally references this book. first published in 1960. Although the scholarship of this work is now outdated and critiqued, Bainton's work is foundational in the area. Bainton believes that the Christian community started out pacifistic, then developed the just war doctrine, and finally adopted holy war ideals. He traces this trajectory from the Early Church up through the wars and conflicts of the 20th century. Finally, Bainton adds his critique of current militaristic ideas, especially in regards to atomic warfare. (from a review by Andrew Lumpkin)

In a world of war, terrorism, and constant threats to global stability, how should Christians honor Jesus Christ? Four experts in Christian ethics, political philosophy, and international affairs present four different views of just war, nonviolence, Christian realism, and church history, orienting readers to today's key positions.

This informed Christian response to more than one hundred common questions regarding the ethics of war demonstrates the viability of just-war reasoning in responding to contemporary geopolitical challenges.