Virtuous warfare and the just war: A Christian approach.

摘要

Christian just war theory is ripe for reappraisal and reformulation in the wake of the recent resurgence of virtue ethics. By examining the just war in terms of virtue, we are able, with the help of Aquinas and Calvin, to reintroduce the "Christian" into Christian just war theory and to show how Jesus Christ is necessary for proper Christian just war theory.;The sort of model of the just war defended in this dissertation is an especially useful approach for Christians to the moral problems of war. For it is an approach to war that shows how Christians may be shaped morally and spiritually so that they can act well on the battlefield as well as in everyday life. In other words, it is an approach to warfare that maintains that acting well on the battlefield may be accomplished without acting in ways inharmonious with holy living. Thus, the goal of the first two chapters is to show that the soldier need not suspend sanctification or step off the path toward his final end---beatitude with God---when he goes to battle.;The goal of the remaining chapters is to argue against two moral approaches to war, that, broadly speaking, would, indeed, put the Christian off the path to God if he is to go to war and fight effectively. They are Christian Realism and those approaches that mix pacifism with just war theory. Both are examples of "dirty hands" approaches to the moral problems of war. Christian Realism's consequentialism allows for (and in some cases even demands) evil acts in a good cause. Pacifism, because it cannot find a way to cohere holy living with acts of force, prevents Christians from understanding their acts in war as acts conducive to beatitude.