Is
War Ever Just?
By
Captain Michael Ramsay
The Nipawin Journal,
November 2007
More resources and
discussion on this topic are now appearing daily at www.sheepspeak.com/blog.htm
- You can also view Scripture and links to other interesting articles are listed below
by clicking HERE or scrolling down as well.
Is war ever just? This is certainly a difficult question to
answer; brilliant churchmen and theologians (Augustine, Aquinas, More, Grotius,
CS Lewis, John Paul II...) like the pagans before them (Plato and Cicero) have
wrestled with this question and fought to find various theoretical formulae in
order to test for a just war. Though their intent was noble, the results are
ambiguous. A prime example of the struggle is Ulrich Zwingli. Zwingli was a
brilliant reformer and staunch pacifist – he died in a battle he voluntarily
entered.
Part of the difficulty in addressing the question of a
‘just war’ is, of course, the ‘two Joshuas.’ God used Joshua of
the OT to deliver His people into the promised land.
War and violence accompanied this conquest. God uses the second Joshua,
Jesus, to deliver us into the eternal promised land. Jesus is the Prince of
Peace (Isa 9:6) who teaches that one should turn the other cheek and offer our
attackers even more than they demand (Matt 5, Lk 6). Pacifists have argued that
any resistance is therefore disobedience and placing our trust in ourselves
rather than in God.
The Salvation Army, in which I am an officer, is not a pacifist movement. We
have both pacifists and national soldiers in our ranks. We have a long tradition
of standing up for the weak and disadvantaged. John 15 says that a man can show
no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends; we do owe a debt of
gratitude to all our soldiers who have died for us and, from my perspective, I
think Canada’s peacekeeping tradition of sending our troops to defend civilian
populations and stand between warring factions is a noble expression of faith in
action.
I further believe that our war here is with principalities and powers and that,
as this is the case, officers in the Salvation Army pledge to make the saving of
people a primary focus of our lives. It is to this end that I have committed to
fight; Jesus saves and when His kingdom is fully realised on earth, there will
be no further wars, no more tears. This is most certainly a just war.
This is a cursorily look at the topic. For more reading, I
have posted a bibliography (below) on www.sheepspeak.com.
I invite you to read more and offer me any insights you may have at war@sheepspeak.com..
For further reading:
Captain Michael Ramsay's Remembrance Day address, 2007: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/11/greater-love-has-no-man-than-to-lay.html
(Comment on that address by the Journal: http://www.nipawinjournal.com/News/354539.html
)
An interview with General Shaw Clifton: http://www1.salvationarmy.org/ihq/www_ihq_general.nsf/vw-dynamic-index/87BD3DF62F0F179F802572ED00564052?Opendocument
Hugo Grotius and Just War: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/grotius.html
The Just War Theory: http://biblia.com/jesusbible/joshua3c.htm
Cole, Darrell. The Problem of War: C.S. Lewis on Pacifism, War & the
Christian Warrior.
More reading (I have not read all of these):
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/304000.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/ethics/war/justwarintro.shtml
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/j/justwar.htm
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pol116/justwar.htm
http://www.progressive.org/0901/zinn1101.html
"A
Just Cause, Not a Just War," The Progressive
http://www.monksofadoration.org/justwar.html
Catechism
of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 2307 through 2317
The
Harvest of Justice Is Sown in Peace
http://www.iraqwar.org/justwar.htm
http://www.cpjustice.org/stories/storyReader$595
http://www.americanvalues.org/html/1b___elshtain.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/parry1.html
Cole, Darrell When God Says War Is Right: The
Christian’s Perspective on When and How to Fight (Waterbrook Press,
2002).
Howard, Michael. War and the
Liberal Conscience (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press,
1978).
Hunter, David G. “A Decade
of Research on Early Christians and Military Service,” Religious Studies
Review 18.2 (April 1992), 87–94; and Louis J. Swift, The Early Fathers
on War and Military Service (Wilmington, Delaware: Michael Glazier,
1983).
Lewis, C.S. “Why I Am Not
a Pacifist,” in The Weight of Glory, edited by Walter Hooper (New
York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1980), 33–53.
Ibid., Mere Christianity
(Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman, 1996).
O’Donovan, Oliver. In
Pursuit of a Christian View of War (Bramcotte Notts: Grove Books, 1977).
Theology:
A Monthly Review, vol. xxxvii, no. 227 (May 1939).
Other
interesting ideas on the topic of the World Wars and The Salvation Army:
The
Salvation Army position on World Peace: http://www1.salvationarmy.org/can/www_can.nsf/vw-dynamic-arrays/6D015085D510E57F80256EA100723430?openDocument#peace
Canadian
Salvation Army in the World Wars (1): http://www.salvationist.ca/about/history/
Canadian
Salvation Army in the World Wars (2): http://www.civilization.ca/cwm/salvationarmy/index_e.html
"It would be easier to forget one's name than fail
to remember the times without number when the Salvation Army was, in truth,
our comforter and friend."
- General Harry Crerar (Former Commander of the First
Canadian Army, Second World War)
Read more: http://www.civilization.ca/cwm/salvationarmy/index_e.html
Canada
and Nov 11, 1813 - an earlier World War: http://www.havelock-viha.com/FPNov11AmericanInvasion.html
The
Salvation Army (Aus / NZ) in the World Wars: http://www.anzacday.org.au/spirit/cross/index.html
The
Salvation Army (USA) in the World Wars: http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/salvhist.htm
Ephesians
6:11-13
11Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil.
12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places.
Read whole chapter: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=56&chapter=6&version=9