Christianity and War and Other Essays Against the Warfare State

by Laurence M. Vance

A main support group for Bush's "war on terror" and war on Iraq and other nations were evangelical Christians. They cited a religious justification for attacking Islam and claim Biblical and moral support for their position. They were the firmest warfare statists in Bush's ideological arsenal. Laurence Vance shares their religious position but not their politics. He grappled with them throughout the decade, and through this struggle wrote a book that closely examines the moral responsibilities of religious people in times of war. He points out that to sign on to war means endorsing the most grim aspect of the state, including its lies and theft and mass death. Vance paid a high personal price for his writings, which are gathered in this excellent book. He lost his teaching position at a Bible college. But in doing so, he has also left all future generations of Christians an excellent defense of a truly historical Christian position in favor of peace and freedom. The book is 432 page

Genres: Politics, Theology, History, War, Christianity

418 pages, Paperback

Published January 14, 2008

Reviews

[TRE · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started this book with the expectation that it was going to be about the development of Just War theory within Christian Europe till Iraq War, and instead I got disjointed essays reprinted from an Anti-War website, with each one pigeon-holing the author's particular niche views (independent Baptist anarchist libertarian) to confirm his bias.

Only giving an extra star because it may have been somewhat redeeming toward a particular audience (Fox News watching boomer evangelical) at a particular time (2005-08, during the Iraq War) but even in that it still fails because the author has the same lack of subtlety and independent scholarship that every devoted ideologue has.

Case in point was when he attacked Francis Bellamy, inventor of the Pledge of Allegiance as a socialist, directly stating that anything he touched was also socialist (i.e. bad)...despite the author's constant fawning over another socialist fellow traveler from the same era, Smedley Butler. One proves his point, the other doesn't; simple as.

If you're looking for an anti-war an-cap screed with the "thorough scholarship" and "consistency" of your average cafeteria Christian "independent Baptist," this is your book, have at it.

[Daniel Moss · Rating 3 out of 5]

My main gripe is that this book - like so many essay collections - is that it's extremely repetitive. And on top of that, I was really disappointed that there weren't more chapters on the perspective christianity (collectively or its great thinkers) has - historically - had towards war.

My favorite chapter in the whole book is titled "The Early Christian Attitude to War", which, is a really good, albeit short, account of the perspective on war that the early church fathers had. Vance frequently cites C. John Cadoux's book, The Early Christian Attitude to War: A Contribution to the History of Christian Ethics. Anyone who is looking for more on this topic should turn to Cadoux himself, which, to be fair, Vance makes known in his essay.

Another essay that touches briefly on this particular topic (i.e., the history of Christian thought on war) is the one titled "Support Our Troops?" In this essay Vance cites Andrew Bacevich's book, The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War. The intrigue of this chapter is Bacevich's argument that what really pushed Christians toward the extreme (dare we say: religious?) brand of militarism was Vietnam.

Bacevich regarding the aftermath of Vietnam:

Some evangelicals looked to the armed services to play a pivotal role in saving America from internal collapse. In a decadent and morally confused time, they came to celebrate the military itself as a bastion of the values required to stem the nation's slide toward perdition: respect for tradition, an appreciation for order and discipline, and a willingness to sacrifice self for the common good. In short, evangelicals looked to soldiers to model the personal qualities that citizens at large needed to rediscover if America were to reverse the tide of godlessness and social decay to which the 1960's had given impetus."

The other chapter I thought very worthwhile was the chapter titled "What About Hitler?", in which, Vance takes on the famed "Just War Theory" put forth by Augustine and Aquinas. Again, this is a short essay, especially for such a heavy topic, yet, brevity in this case wasn't such a bad thing.

[Michelle Huelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

A friend bought this for me and I tried to find an interest in it. It's just not for me.
I'm not a Christian, but I am against war in the same way the author seems to be. But I have no interest in the Christian reasons. When I was one, though, I never could (still can't) understand how they could justify being so pro-war. It was unnerving.

[Mike Ford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vance makes a lot of great points that a lot of Christians could profit from reading. He quotes a lot of celebrated theologians and preachers that held strong anti-war views that would probably surprise a lot of contemporary evangelicals. However, he does a lot of condemning of Christians who disagree with his views (though probably justified), but offers no hope in Christ. He ends several essays essentially saying that we'll see who is right on Judgement Day. I was often reminded of Luther's image in his commentary on Galatians where God uses the law as a hammer only to extend the Gospel of grace to the beaten down, only in this collection, there is only hammer and no grace.

This book's biggest flaw is a lack of editing, which made it pretty tedious to read. Once you read a couple of Vance's essays on a given topic, you pretty much know what he is going to say for the rest of them. There are many quotes and statistics that are repeated what seemed to be a dozen time throughout the book (I hate to skim books, but felt like I was wasting my time at many points). Some essays are almost identical except for updated numbers of casualties and countries occupied by the United States. He also brings up objections that he claims are too stupid for him to answer or he notes that have been answered in previous essays (why bring them up in the first place?). Some essays tested my willpower with lengthy quotes with nothing of value added by Vance except superfluous transitory sentences. This book probably could have been condensed by a third without losing any content (since Vance knows economics, he should be aware of his readers' opportunity cost!). All the essays first appeared on lewrockwell.com and there are plenty of references to hyperlinks and pictures that are not in the text.

I did learn a lot reading this collection however. I wasn't aware of how high the death counts were in Vietnam or from Iraqi civilians and, coming from a Reformed Christian perspective, I found the quotes from Charles Spurgeon fascinating.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm familiar with Lew Rockwell and am a "classic liberal" sympathetic to the libertarian position. Whenever I read Vance's articles I would wonder why they so often rang a sour note.

After gagging and choking my way through this book now I know why. There are strong theological and historical reasons to support just war theory and to be very cautious about how we as a church speak regarding the state's use of the sword. That's a great topic and a collection of essays on those points would be valuable indeed.

This "book" however is a mess. The scholarship is atrocious and he has no understanding of history or the implications of even the broad strokes of theology. And where it touches on the reformation Vance is positively unhinged.

[John Barbour · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book of essays on the subject of war for the Christian that I have come across. It is must reading for all the "right wing" conservative Christians that seem to be mesmerized by the Republican Party and the neo-conservatives.