The Birth of “Just War” — Stephen Russell

The early church was clearly non-resistant, and then, uh, with Constantine, the Roman emperors become Christianized, and they start to Christian—they start to interact with the church. This government starts to interact with the church, and so, um, that causes the church to do a lot of compromises. Originally, Christians did not serve in the military or in the government, but, uh, after, as the government starts to favor Christianity and eventually make it the state religion, some Christians still thinking about the earlier approach that Christianity had towards the government and the military, but recognizing that the government keeps chaos at bay, would, before they became baptized, they would—they really believed in Jesus. Before they became baptized, they would serve in the military and/or in the government.

Then, at a certain point, they would withdraw and be baptized, and they would not participate again. So there's this compromise that is not going to last, and as the church and state grow closer and closer together, that compromise dies, and it—and I think the thing that did it in was around the year 400, um, Constant—I mean, uh, Augustine came up with a new concept for Christians, the just war theory. The pagans already had a just war theory. Even a pagan realizes war is not a good thing. Oh, okay. Okay. This isn't—I didn't realize that. So Cicero, Cicero, who died about, uh, 50 BC, he's the one that laid this out, and, and, uh, Augustine picks up what he lays out and then adds some Christian things to it.

So, for instance, for even a pagan would say that there—that you, uh, that only the state can can have a war, that we don't feud like the, uh, Hatfields and the McCoys. That's not—so it has to be a state defending a state. Um, so it's a state—it's under the state's control, and, uh, it should be because you have been attacked, you know, you don't initiate the—the—the war, and those who are non-combatants should be left alone: women, children, old people, and you shouldn't devastate the countryside. These are some of the things that the pagans even said should should be observed so that a war is at least somewhat just. Um, Augustine added to that—he accepted those—and then he added to that it should be done in love.

You should be sorry that you have to do it, and the other side is guilty of of actually what we would call war crimes, that they are—that they have actually—they've got the fault on their side. Mm-hmm. And today, that's kind of how, uh, the world looks at a just war, the way that Augustine laid it out, but I don't think—I don't think anybody has ever avoided a war because they said it wasn't just. I mean, and—and I could give you lots of examples of cases where either during World War II, the Allies, or cases where the Americans in other wars have done something that goes against this just war theory. It's—once you start engaging in war, you're going to forget all those things, but so the church gradually shifted from, uh, non-resistance, non-participation in government and in the military to a kind of compromise.

Before we get baptized, we may participate. That's not going to last, and eventually, well, even the baptized can—can, uh, participate in a just war. The interesting thing is, even after that was allowed, Christians still knew that blood—human blood on the hands is not good, and so, uh, in the Middle Ages, in the Catholic Church, if you had participated in a battle, you would go to the priest and talk to him about what you did, and depending on whether you knew you shed blood or not, he would give you different, um, uh, different penances depending on whether you had actually shed blood or might have shed blood or had no idea for sure. Like if you were an archer and shot arrows, you didn't know if you killed anybody or not, but all of this is to say that as the society and government drew closer to the church, as these two things came closer and closer together, compromises started to happen, and so—and so by the time Islam is on the scene, it's pretty well accepted that Christians can fight.

It's not the best thing, and you should only fight if it's a just war, but I don't know that that has ever hindered anyone from fighting. So that's before Islam comes. Uh, there's already a a a massive compromise that's happened.