"What About Hitler?" Book Club

I am a part of a book club looking at an interesting book called What about Hitler: Wrestling with Jesus Call to Nonviolence in an Evil World.We are taking the book one chapter at a time.

The first chapter of the book was about foundations of Just War Theory. Specifically, the author Richard Brimlow compares Tertullian's pacifism (pre-Constantinian) to Augustine's just war thinking (post-Constantinian).

One of the things that Brimlow shares that I think is accurate is that Augustine's development of Just War Thinking was really an apology for Christianity during the decline of the Roman Empire. Christians were being labeled as bad citizens, mostly because of the historic position of the early church to not participate in the military of police force of the Roman Empire. (p 23)In developing this apology, he goes against the historical teachings of the early church. In doing so, he also seems to go against the plain teachings of Jesus counseling non-violence that we see throughout Scripture.

This raises all sorts of questions for us today. First of all, it raises all sorts of questions about how we do theology, ethics and mission. I am firm believer that all good theology is theology that can be lived in one way or another. Yet, I wonder in what ways we also adapt our theology and ethics to fit our context, even when it goes against what appears to be the plain teaching of Scripture? It seems here Augustine clearly moves against the clear teaching of Jesus in order to make Christianity more pallatable to a nation that has adopted Christianity as its official religion. Does the gospel ever win when the interests of the state/government are enmeshed with the beliefs and mission of a community of Christ (the church) which is called to be prophetic and countercultural? I doubt it.

I wonder personally if I approach this issue faithfully here in Colorado Springs, CO. In our city so many people are either millitary or ex-millitary. And in this context, I do not stand on the street corners and preach the Biblical worldview of non-violence. I have shared my pacifist views with my senior pastor and some close to me here, but I do not go out to make it a focus of my teaching. It seems a little condescending to tell the Gulf War amputee that he was wrong to be in Iraq when I am just getting to know him.

Another interesting point that Brimlow brings to the forefront is the dualistic, platonist, and somewhat gnostic line of reasoning that Augustine expresses in the City of God, and specifically in his reasoning about "just war". Augustine seems to locate sin in sinful motive, and fails to recognize that some actions are sinful regardless of the motive of the heart. He specifically uses this line of reasoning in relation to warfare. Brimlow states his concern well when he says,:

When Augustine argues that it is the internal disposition of the soldier that makes the warfare either right or wrong, he introduces a division in our conception of persons and what it means to be a disciple of Christ that plagues the church to the present. To argue that the church is concerned with our souls while the state is concerned with our bodies...is to introduce a dichotomy that yields all sorts of dilemmas and unltimately leads us further from the Lord. This view can be used to sanction the participation of Christians not only in warfare but in other forms of violence as well, from recognizing the legitimacy of abortion to the exploration fo workers and eventually the commodification of all God's children. What matters, on Augustine's view, is the Chritian's internal disposition: all is permissible if we are only disposed to the right way.

It makes me wonder where we tend to do the same thing as well. How do we separate what we do from who we are, instead of seeing ourselves as whole persons? A biblical worldview does not let us choose with what part of ourselves to love God, but calls us to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. We cannot segregate our bodies from our minds, and label our bodies as bad and our minds and motives as good. This is true whether we are speaking about warfare, substance abuse, sexuality, or any other behavior. Because all of our lives in our bodies are spiritual lives, and all of our actions have spiritual and material consequences.

What do you think? How do you process through following Jesus who calls us to love our enemies and following a military leadership that urges us to kill our enemies on our nations behalf? What are your thoughts?