Just War
When, if ever, may a Christian rightly take up the sword?
Just war names the criteria under which the use of armed force may be morally justified. The tradition was developed mainly in the Latin West, drawing on Augustine and Aquinas and elaborated by later thinkers. It remains contested and stands in tension with an early and continuing Christian witness to pacifism. Christians thus differ over whether force can ever be righteous or whether the gospel calls instead to nonviolence.
How it traveled
- The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and EusebiusCaesarea · c. 339 CEapplies
- The LettersCaesarea (Cappadocia) · c. 379 CEapplies
- City of GodHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- Letters of St. AugustinHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic ChurchGeneva · c. 1564 CEexplains
Key passages(20)
Each passage is tagged by what it does with the idea: explains it, applies it in practice, redefines it with a new meaning, or challenges it. Relevance shows how directly the passage is about this idea.
Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
11. As it is sometimes necessary for kings and states to take up arms in order to execute public vengeance, the reason assigned furnishes us with the means of estimating how far the wars which are thu
Tap to expand
City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 15.—Whether It is Suitable for Good Men to Wish to Rule More Widely. Let them ask, then, whether it is quite fitting for good men to rejoice in extended empire. For the iniquity of those with
Tap to expand
Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo
11. But who, even though he be a stranger to our religion, is so deaf as not to know how many precepts enjoining concord, not invented by the discussions of men, but written with the authority of God,
Tap to expand
Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
9. The duty of magistrates, its nature, as described by the word of God, and the things in which it consists, I will here indicate in passing. That it extends to both tables of the law, did Scripture
Tap to expand
City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 7.—Of the Diversity of Languages, by Which the Intercourse of Men is Prevented; And of the Misery of Wars, Even of Those Called Just. After the state or city comes the world, the third circle
Tap to expand
City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 21.—Of the Cases in Which We May Put Men to Death Without Incurring the Guilt of Murder. However, there are some exceptions made by the divine authority to its own law, that men may not be pu
Tap to expand
Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo
Letter CLXXXIX. (a.d. 418.) To Boniface,My Noble Lord and Justly Distinguished and Honourable Son, Augustin Sends Greeting in the Lord. Count Boniface, to whom St. Augustin also addressed Letters C
Tap to expand
Against Heresies: Book V · Irenaeus of Lyons
1. As therefore the devil lied at the beginning, so did he also in the end, when he said, “All these are delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give them.”For it is not he who has appointed the
Tap to expand
Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
30. Herein is the goodness, power, and providence of God wondrously displayed. At one time he raises up manifest avengers from among his own servants, and gives them his command to punish accursed tyr
Tap to expand
The Correction of the Donatists · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 8.—32. But they, as we have sometimes said before in other places, do not charge themselves with what they do to us; while, on the other hand, they charge us with what they do to themselves. F
Tap to expand
The Letters · Basil of Caesarea
The Ben. note refers to the case of Dracontius, who had sworn that he would escape if he were ordained bishop, and so did; but was urged by Athanasius to discharge the duties of his diocese, notwithst
Tap to expand
Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
18. Let such persons then understand that judicial proceedings are lawful to him who makes a right use of them; and the right use, both for the pursuer and for the defender, is for the latter to sist
Tap to expand
City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 6.—Concerning the Covetousness of Ninus, Who Was the First Who Made War on His Neighbors, that He Might Rule More Widely. Justinus, who wrote Greek or rather foreign history in Latin, and bri
Tap to expand
Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo
1 Kings xviii. 4, 40. 7. Look also to the New Testament times, in which the essential gentleness of love was to be not only kept in the heart, but also manifested openly: in these the sword of Peter
Tap to expand
Chapter XIX.—Concerning Military Service. In that last section, decision may seem to have been given likewise concerning military service, which is between dignity and power.masters—God and Cæsar. An
Tap to expand
Elucidations. ———————————— I. (The Second Commandment, p. 64.) Tertullian’s teaching agrees with that of Clement of Alexandriafor, in the Scriptures we are informed that God himself commanded imag
Tap to expand
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan · Augustine of Hippo
71. Then, as for Faustus’ objection to the spoiling of the Egyptians, he knows not what he says. In this Moses not only did not sin, but it would have been sin not to do it. It was by the command of G
Tap to expand
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan · Augustine of Hippo
77. If our foolish opponents are surprised at the difference between the precepts given by God to the ministers of the Old Testament, at a time when the grace of the New was still undisclosed, and tho
Tap to expand
Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo
Letter XLVII. (a.d. 398.) To the Honourable Publicola, My Much Beloved Son, Augustin Sends Greeting in the Lord. 1. Your perplexities have, since I learned them by your letter, become mine also, no
Tap to expand
Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
189. Augustin answered: Let your Circumcelliones remain quiet, and let me entreat you not to terrify us about barbarians. But as to whether we or you are schismatics, let the question be put neither t
Tap to expand