War and the Christian Conscience: Where Do You Stand?

by Joseph J. Fahey

This primer on war and the Christian conscience, begins in an imaginary college classroom as students react to news that the draft has been reinstated. Why can't I finish college? asks one student. Why do I have to go? These urgent and personal questions, offer the entry to a clear and comprehensive outline of the basic Christian responses to the problem of war. As Fahey shows, the Christian tradition has supplied a variety of answers, including pacifism, just war teaching, the ethic of total war, and the vision of a world community. In the face of these different approaches, how are we to decide which one is right? And more basically, how does one go about forming one's personal conscience?

206 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2005

Reviews

[Maggie Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is great for a broad overview of the topic as it encompasses a broad variety of viewpoints. Very nicely organised in a way which is particularly helpful for those intending to use the content for reports on the subject. Could be slightly developed in some areas but it does provide recommendations for wider reading so it’s hard to fault.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of the Just War doctrine, along with pacifism and the idea of 'total war.' I for one hate war and have for quite some time. I saw it up close in the 1990s (Bosnia and Iraq) and have seen nothing to convince me that--in the absence of a very, very good cause--war is ever necessary. The last part of this book was the most interesting, although I did enjoy the historical overview of the Just War philosophy, too. In the end, the author was advocating for something he called Global Citizenship, which is precisely what it sounds like: no nations, international courts, an international peace keeping force, etc. etc. Part of me says, yeah! Right on! It would be like the Federation in Star Trek. We are one human family! We are one species on one finite planet! But the other part of me has read too much Orwell, and I couldn't help but remember this particular passage from Animal Farm: “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

In the end, when we turn toward the collective, the pigs win. The pigs always win. And pigs lovewar.

One other thing that struck me: the author listed seven or eight conditions that define a fascist state. I was disturbed to read how many we are currently experiencing in the United States. Dark days, dark days.