Christians and war : a brief history / A. James Reimer.
Material type:![Text](/opac-tmpl/lib/famfamfam/BK.png)
- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 1506488560
- 9781506488561
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
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Main Library | NonFiction | 261.873 R363 | Available | 33111011208226 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Religion, and specifically Christianity, has often been blatantly invoked to support or oppose war and violence of all kinds. Christians are deeply divided over whether and when such violence is justifiable.
James Reimer offers a fair presentation of these controversial standpoints, including the classical Christian attitudes toward war: crusading or holy war, just war, and pacifism. His thoughtful survey of Christian teachings and practices on issues of war, violence, and the state takes readers from classical Greco-Roman times to postmodernity. Arguing that the church's responses to war can only be understood through the church's changing relationship to culture, Reimer concludes with an analysis of the contemporary debate and proposes criteria for legitimate and illegitimate use of force by nation-states.
Through confronting the Christian church's history, which is complex and sometimes difficult to endure, Reimer encourages readers to think criticially and come to hold their own position that promotes both peace and justice.
Includes bibliographical references.
Definitions and assumptions -- Hebrew Scriptures : God of war and God of peace -- New Testament : Jesus and loving the enemy -- Early church : divided evidence -- Constantinian shift : the justifiable war -- Middle Ages : from just war to crusade -- Reformation : magisterial reformers -- Radical reformation : from revolution to pacifism -- Enlightenment : humanism and peace -- Twentieth century I : age of realism -- Twentieth century II : nuclear pacifism -- Postmodernity : terror and the war on terror -- Policing, human security, and the responsibility to protect -- Conclusion : some theological considerations.
Religion has often been blatantly invoked to support and oppose war and violence of all kinds, including terrorism and ethnic cleansing. Christians are deeply divided over whether and when such violence is justifiable. James Reimer offers a fair presentation of these controversial standpoints, especially the three classical Christian attitudes toward war: crusading or holy war, just war, and pacifism. His thoughtful survey of Christian teachings and practices on issues of war, violence, and the state takes readers from classical Greco-Roman times to the present. Arguing that the church's responses to war can only be understood through the church's changing relationship to culture, Reimer concludes with an analysis of the contemporary debate and proposes criteria for legitimate and illegitimate use of force by nation-states.