"A Basic Guide to the Just War Tradition" (Eric Patterson)

TITLE: A Basic Guide to the Just War Tradition: Christian Foundations and Practices
AUTHOR: Eric Patterson
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2023, (176 pages).
 

In wars, there are generally no winners. All parties involved would have suffered losses regardless of the numbers. How can anyone quantify suffering? How do we measure the emotional trauma we bring back home after a war? How can we even justify the loss of a single human being? The costs of war go far more than mere soldiers and machinery. It involves many conflicts ranging from ethical dilemmas to mental distress. At a theological level, making justification for wars could be breaking the Sixth Commandment in some way. How then can we justify any war? CS Lewis believes that it is a Christian duty to fight evil. In order to preserve peace, order, and justice, states need to be vigilant against evil, for doing nothing is worse. According to author Eric Patterson, a just war is basically a means to achieving peace and justice. Ironically, just war is a quest for peace. Governments need to uphold their duty to protect and defend their people, and sometimes this means going to war. This book explains, describes, and defends the use of just war in the quest for peace and upholding justice. 

Chapter One defines what just war is and what it is not. Going back to the roots of WWI and WWII, Patterson uncovers the deficiencies of a pacifist or non-aligned policy that emboldened countries like Germany to invade other territories. The just war foundational premise is: "legitimate political authorities have a responsibility to protect and defend those in their charge (just cause) and should do so with restraint in motivation and action (right intent)." Once the decision has been made, the next set of criteria is about "military necessity, proportionality, and discrimination." Just war advocates include people like Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, Luther, and Wesley. 

"Praying with the Enemy" (Steven T. Collis)

TITLE: Praying with the Enemy
AUTHOR: Steven T. Collis
PUBLISHER: Salt Lake City, UT: Shadow Mountain Publishing, 2022, (384 pages).
 

Flying over North Korea with Napalm explosives. Near-death encounters with Chinese snipers and North Korean soldiers. Staying alive in terrible pits as a Prisoner of War. Missing in Action. Escaping. Challenge of faith in the midst of the horrors of war. Conflicting philosophies. Deceit. Military strategies, and more. Three countries involved in a devastating war that has divided families across the Korean Peninsula. Three different men from each country. These and many more form a pulsating action-packed novel filled with multiple twists and turns. The three protagonists in this novel are Captain Ward Millar (aka Ward), Kim Jae Pil (aka Jae Pil), and to a lesser extent, Lieutenant Kang. All of them are able to speak and communicate in English! The chapters begin by alternating their stories, beginning with Ward as a pilot flying over North Korea during the Korean War in 1951. When his plane crashed landed on enemy territory, though he managed to survive, he broke his ankles making it difficult to even escape. 

Jae Pil's story begins with him being drafted to serve in the Communist Army. His family were Christians. The communist party's ideals were constantly at odds with what he and his family believed. His family mission was to build a church and to enable people to worship properly without fear. Unfortunately, living in a land with a godless ideology makes their mission difficult. These constant struggles present Jae Pil with a dilemma to choose between his country or his faith; the Communist Party or God. Eventually, at great risks to his own life, he decides to do what he could to escape from the communists. That begins a gripping journey from a place he felt enslaved to his desired place of freedom. Alas! Even the land of South Korea is not kind to a defector from North Korea. 

"Nonviolent Action" (Ronald J. Sider)

TITLE: Nonviolent Action: What Christian Ethics Demands but Most Christians Have Never Really Tried
AUTHOR: Ronald J. Sider
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2015, (208 pages).

Must the opposite of violence be a violent counter strike? Is war necessarily a tit-for-tat exchange of bullets and missiles? Can alternative methods like peaceful response be feasible, even possible in the first place? These questions are answered with pacifist conviction by renowned author and professor, Ron Sider, whose previous book, "Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger" had gripped the hearts of evangelicals many years ago. What that book had done to many Christians in terms of their wealth and giving responsibilities, this latest book will push the limits with regards to peaceful offerings and intentional "nonviolent action." Underlying any "just war" or "pacifist" theory is a philosophy of justification whether war is the key response in the first place. What about peace as the underlying action? For any entrance into war does not mean the consequences are limited on a military scale. There are other damages inflicted on all sides, morally financially, ethically, physically, mentally, and many more as the years go by. Soldiers who survived the wars may end up having scars for life. Unable to get back to the normal life, many become marginalized in society. Such effects must not be underestimated. Rather than to a backward thrust, like the consequences of war as a main justification, Sider in this book leads from the front. He issues a clarion call for all to use nonviolence as THE way forward. Our vocabulary for action must extend beyond war and weapons, violence and vehemence.

He begins with well-known examples of nonviolent actions through the centuries. During the time of Pharaoh, the Hebrew midwives responded to violence through civil disobedience, which saved the life of Moses. Pope Leo I responded to the vicious acts of Attila the Hun with a cross and a papal crown. In central America, peasants and common people overcame the violence of dictators through general strikes. India's Mahatma Gandhi led peaceful protests that rallied millions of citizens to do the same.  America's Martin Luther King Jr did the same with peaceful rallies against racism in the 50-60s. Philippines' "People Power" movement toppled the Marcos regime not with tanks but with people, not with violence but with peace. From America to Asia, Africa to Central America, Europe to the Middle East, examples abound with regards to the practice of nonviolent action that deserves to be taken more seriously. With stories after stories of how peaceful actions lead to the bloodless overthrow of regimes, changes of political forces, and new waves of hope, Sider consistently asserts that there is a better way instead of physical violence and military options. He proposes peacemaker teams that comprise representatives from all sectors. He admonishes the Christian public, especially the "just war" proponents for forgetting that war must always be a last resort. For peaceful actions are more successful than many had thought. Giving statistics and stories to back up his arguments for peace, the next step is to increase the common space for all to work with together. It there is ever to be a war, it must be a war against war.

Peace is a given. Christians are called to be peacemakers in the first place. In fact, the biggest tragedy for many policy makers is not to give peace a bigger piece of the pie. It is the lack of willingness to persevere in non-violent actions that has led to an ease in pushing the war option. Contrary to what some readers may think, Sider is not some hermit calling for people to retreat back into their caves. Rather, he is calling people to arm themselves with determination to fight, with the weapons of love, the passion for peace. He wants more Christians to fight fear with faith, war with peace, and hatred with love. For most of the decisions to go to war, the problem is not only in the decision, but the lack of will in pursuing the peace option. Negotiations can be very complicated. What about violent terrorists that refuse to listen to rationale arguments? What about fanatics who have abandoned reason altogether? What about the warped and wanton evil that are happening around the world that demand a strong response? Will peace be the answer for that?

Personally, I believe Sider's point is not perfect. For there will be cases that war and violence may be the only way to end wars, like the Atomic bomb that accelerated the end of WWII in the Asia Pacific. Ethical problems will continue to rear their heads with regards to some violence in order to bring about peace. While peace should be the primary "weapon" of choice, to abandon the military option would be foolhardy, in an increasingly dangerous and violent world. Like the case of a lion. Without teeth, the lion is easy prey for hyenas.

Rating: 4.5 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book is provided to me courtesy of Brazos Press and Graf-Martin Communications in exchange for an honest review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

"Violence in Scripture - Interpretation" (Jerome F. D. Creach)

TITLE: Violence in Scripture: Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church
AUTHOR: Jerome F. D. Creach
PUBLISHER: Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013, (286 pages)

We have all heard about the common accusation. "There is so much violence in the Bible. How can a loving God permits such gross violence, vengeance, and the vices of murder and evil deeds?" What does the Bible then say about violence? Is there justification for its use? In what manner does God condone or condemn violence? How can modern readers understand the contexts then and the implications now especially in a post 9/11 era? These challenging questions and more are tackled by Dr Jerome Creach, Robert C. Mulholland Professor of Old Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. As terrorism and violence grows unabated in various parts of the world, more and more attention are being paid toward the biblical segments on violence, especially in the Old Testament. It raises questions like:

• Why does the Old Testament depict a loving God as one who is also vengeful and violent?
• Do servants of God then have a license to kill?
• How do we make sense of God when Jesus preaches love while the Old Testament seems to veer in the opposite direction?
• Who is God?
• How do we read the Bible?

Even believers are often stuck with the predicament of violence in the Scriptures. On the one hand, they can try to justify God. On the other hand, plain reading does show that there is violence advocated explicitly by God. The key is to learn how to read and interpret Scriptures as a whole. This interpretation needs to be consistent with two guiding principles. First, there is no one way to read Scripture, except to read it each part of Scripture with a constant eye on the bigger picture. The author suggests Christ as the key window to interpretation. Second, God's use of violence is always against forces aligned to evil. The author suggests that violence is not an end in itself but always a motivation against some ills of the world.