Just-war theory was set in motion in the 5th century as St. Augustine agonized over how to reconcile Christianity's high ethical ideals with the devastating world realities which were bringing about the fall of Rome. For 1,600 years, theologians, ethicists, diplomats, and political leaders have drawn on this tradition, refined it, and employed its key questions: When is it permissible to wage war? And how might our ethical and religious foundations place limits on the ways we wage war?
In this program, we explore three varied perspectives on how such questions are alive and evolving today, and how they might inform our approach to the conflict in Afghanistan and the peace we would like to achieve beyond it.
Guests
Jean Bethke Elshtain is Laura Spelman Rockefeller professor of social and political ethics at the University of Chicago. She is a renowned political theorist, with a special interest in the morality of war, whose counsel is sought by seminaries, military academies, and national political leaders. Her publications include Women and War; Augustine and the Limits of Politics; The Just War Theory; and Who are We? Critical Reflections and Hopeful Possibilities.
John Paul Lederach is a leading Mennonite theologian/activist who pioneered the adaptation of his tradition's pacifist "theology of involvement" into regions of deep and intractable violence across the world. He is professor of peacebuilding at the Joan B. Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at Notre Dame University and a distinguished scholar at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Michael Orange is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and author of Fire in the Hole. Raised Catholic and patriotic, he left his studies at Kent State University to fight in Vietnam. His book is the culmination of long reflection on the reality and the morality of war, with relevance both to the war he entered in 1968 and the conflict we have entered now.
Related Links
• "Religion in a Time of War": Speaking of Faith asks how and whether Christian principles really make a difference in the context of America's War on Terror.
• Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: Find religious responses to Sept. 11 and the full transcript of a just-war symposium including Jean Bethke Elshtain, Stanley Hauerwas, and James Turner Johnson.
• America, a national Catholic weekly magazine, includes editorials on the nation's response to Sept. 11 from leading Catholic just-war thinkers.
• Christianity Today online has followed the faith dimension of the American response to Sept. 11, including just-war arguments as well as reports from and about Pacifist Christian traditions.
• Deny Them Their Victory is a statement signed by more than 1000 representatives of a broad spectrum of the U.S. religious community. It was developed in consultation with Jewish, Muslim, and Christian clergy, and circulated for signature beginning Sept. 12 by the Rev. Jim Wallis, Call to Renewal, and Sojourners; Dr. Robert W. Edgar, National Council of Churches; the Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, Reformed Church of America; Rabbi David Saperstein, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; and Dr. Ron Sider, Evangelicals for Social Action.
• Conflict Transformation Program at Eastern Mennonite University: Read analytical papers on Sept. 11, including an essay by John Paul Lederach, "The Challenge of Terror: A Travelling Essay."
Recommended Reading
Books by Jean Bethke Elshtain
• Women and War (University of Chicago Press, 1995)
• Augustine and the Limits of Politics (University of Notre Dame Press, 2000)
• Just War Theory (Ed.) (New York University Press, 1992)
• Who are We?: Critical Reflections and Hopeful Possibilities (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2000)
• But Was it Just?: Reflections on the Morality of the Persian Gulf War (Doubleday, 1992)
• Religion in American Public Life: Living with our Deepest Differences (W. W. Norton & Company, 2001)
Books by John Paul Lederach
• Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies (United States Institute of Peace, 1998)
• From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding. (Oxford University Press, 2000)
Also recommended
• Religion, the Missing Dimension of Statecraft (reprint edition), by Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson, (Eds.) (Oxford University Press, 1995)
• Fire in the Hole: A Mortarman in Vietnam, by Michael Orange (iUniverse.com, 2001)
• Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations, by Michael Walzer (Basic Books, 2000)
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