The Just War Tradition: An Introduction

by David D. Corey, J. Daryl Charles

How can some politicians, pundits, and scholars cite the principles of "just war" to defend military actions—and others to condemn those same interventions? Just what is the just war tradition, and why is it important today?Authors David D. Corey and J. Daryl Charles answer those questions in this fascinating and invaluable book. The Just War Tradition: An Introduction reintroduces the wisdom we desperately need in our foreign policy debates.

Genres: History, Philosophy, War

288 pages, Paperback

First published December 5, 2011

Reviews

[Timothy Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overview: The authors start by saying that they will trace the inception of the just war tradition, observe its development over time, and observe how voices within the tradition relate to one another and other rival understandings of war. I gave the book four stars because they do exactly what they said they were going to do.

Strengths: The book does a great job of showing how diverse the most important just war thinkers in history actually were. For example, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin all had substantially different understandings of why and how force could be exercised by Christians. Perhaps the most relevant chapter in the book is the last one. It compares christian realism (Reinhold Niebuhr), pacifism (John Howard Yoder), and just war tradition. Even if you don't agree with the conclusions, this chapter provides helpful insight for any Christian who wants to understand the most influential, contemporary arguments about how Christians should engage political involvement and warfare.

Weaknesses: In the second chapter, the authors attempt to argue that the anti-nicene church was not consistently opposed to Christians using lethal force or serving in the military. The quotations they cite are strained and they ignored the huge quantity of evidence that is contrary to their argument.

[Emily Kidd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost finished the whole thing, we skipped two or three chapters. Wrote on it extensively for Dr. McMillion's Christian Faith in Contemporary Politics class fall semester junior year. He actually knows one of the authors. So good and I would recommend for every Christian.

[Daniel Yutzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I’m sure they make many fine point about just war from a moral perspective, I did not find it convincing as a Christian theology because it contradicts the words of Jesus and the first 300 plus years of church history.

[Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

JWT is most interesting and compelling when it sheds its religious upbringing; the authors' adherence to that nonsecular past seems intent on tethering the theory and my interest to the realm of "lackluster". I found the chapters on Locke, Kant, and the contemporary authors of JWT to be the most useful for my purposes. The rest was useful inasmuch as it provides a (clearly biased) general historical background for JWT.