Darrell Cole
Copyright © 2001 First Things 116 (October 2001): 27-31
I’ve long viewed Augustine negatively—his Just War doctrine, lauded here by Cole, handed the Church a license to kill through the state. This 2001 piece paints war as virtuous; I see it as a Pandora’s box. As a Classical Deist in 2025, I say reason and nature’s laws, not divine edicts, should govern us. Augustine’s ideas fueled crusades, inquisitions—murder in God’s name. Cole’s defense of “good” soldiering twists love into slaughter. Faith should lift, not justify butchery. —Lewis Loflin
Fighting, killing, warring—humans have done it forever, with no end in sight. Some say Christianity wavers on just wars, claiming Jesus rejected force. He did note its authority came from God (John 19:11), but unlike Islam’s founder, He didn’t wield a sword.
Yet, by the late second century, Christians took up arms, arguing Jesus’ pacifism was His alone. Early Fathers—Clement, Eusebius, Ambrose, Augustine—backed just force. Augustine’s work birthed the Just War doctrine, seeing it as godly, not evil. Just soldiers, they said, acted virtuously, shaping them for beatitude. Today, that’s “grotesque” to many.
Two modern Christian strains resist this: pacifism, insisting true followers reject force like the pre-Constantinian Church, and liberal humanism, deeming war inhuman and ignoble. Bob Kerrey’s Vietnam medals—he says they “clean up” war’s vileness—reflect this ethos: necessary, but base.
Erasmus first called war unnatural; Enlightenment thinkers deemed it uncivilized. Modern wars—trenches, bombings, Vietnam—cemented this view. Barth saw war’s “veneer” of glory stripped; Curran frets Ramsey’s Just War rationale ignores horrors, risking rash conflicts.
Curran’s half-right—war’s not trivial. But Just War advocates aren’t war-hungry; they demand moral justification, regretting evil’s necessity. Most Christians still back “necessary evil” wars—a paradox of saving lives through “inhuman” acts, a “dirty hands” morality needing repentance.
Church leaders echo this—1958’s WCC document rejects war as good, allowing it only as evil to stop worse evil, not justice. U.S. bishops’ 1980s letters blend pacifism and Just War, struggling to reconcile soldiering with Christ. Hauerwas claims Just War sprang from nonviolence—a stretch past Ambrose or Augustine.
Aquinas, in Summa Theologiae (II-II.40), ties just war to charity, not justice. War can break unjust peace (e.g., Nazis) for a just one—soldiering as love. He, Calvin, and others lack today’s presumption against force. Aquinas praises “vindication of justice” zeal; Calvin sees soldiers as God’s love and wrath, restraining evil.
Today’s military hides this—slogans like “Be All You Can Be” dodge killing’s role. Calvin ties Christ’s pacifism to His unique priesthood, not a universal call. Aquinas bars clergy from war—not for evil, but duty conflicts—yet urges them to counsel just wars, even suggesting soldiering orders.
Aquinas’ jus ad bellum—right authority, cause, intention—guards against rash wars. Calvin demands necessity and public good, rejecting mercenaries. Both see just soldiering as sanctifying, a discordant note now. Failing to fight justly, they argue, is uncharitable—a greater sin for Christians than unbelievers.
Darrell Cole, a new contributor, is a Visiting Instructor in Religion at the College of William and Mary.
Acknowledgment: Written by Darrell Cole for First Things, hosted and updated by Lewis Loflin with thanks to Grok (xAI) for assistance.
