I’m heading out the door in a minute to meet with two guys who want to create a youth camp called “IKON” with me as a lead teacher. They have many years of experience in this field, yet they’re letting me have a say in just about everything. (?) They want my input on what this camp should look like, where it should be, what the schedule of the day will be, what will be taught and how, any other activities we’ll offer and anything else I have suggestions for.
Problem is I didn’t go to camp much as a youth - only three times. Maybe you did. So if you could create the perfect camp experience for a younger high school aged you, knowing what you know now, what would it look like?
PREVIOUS POSTS IN THIS SERIES:
PART 1: THE TIMES OF AUGUSTINE
“In Augustine’s theory, three kinds of war were morally defensible: a defensive war against aggression, a war to gain just reparations for previous wrong, and a war to recover stolen property."(1) There may be biblical foundations for Augustine’s deciding only to accept these three kinds of wars, or to accept any war at all, but none are given by the many sources I’ve read on the subject. Instead, what I’ve found most often given in Augustine’s defense, as his rationale, is his seeking a practical logical compromise between rejecting all wars as evil and accepting all wars as virtuous.
“By limiting war to these categories the great theologian and bishop believed he had been faithful to both his religious doctrines and his civic duty."(2)
Augustine adapted church doctrine on war, largely accepted but not without it’s detractors, and made it easier for Rome to swallow - whether this was his intention or not. Christians fearing for their lives and the Emperor fearing for his empire were now given permission by God’s representative to wage three kinds of war. This change in doctrine had momentous repercussions, for the Catholic Church was soon the dominant institution in the West, posing less threat to principalities fond of the sword.
“In midieval Europe the writings of Augustine acquired a status next to the Bible and became the chief authority in matters of faith and ethics...And so, for hundreds of years the writings of Augustine provided Western civilization with its notion of the morality of war. The chief feature of this understanding was that at times a nation had a right, indeed a duty, to go to war."(3)
SOURCES:
1. George Weigel, Tranquilitas Ordinis (new York: Oxford University Press, 1987), p29
2. Air Power History, Vol.39, No.3, Fall 1992, p38. Copyright and published 1992 by the Air Force Historical Foundation
3. Ibid
Inset picture: ca. 1490 “Saint Augustine in His Study” by Sandro Botticelli
Got thoughts? Post a comment below or discuss on my message-board.
Why make a SHLOG.COM shirt? Because I can.
This is the one idea created so far. If there are more I’ll let you guys choose the final design to be printed. The artwork is in black and white for now but colors will be chosen later...by you again. Comments are welcomed as always.
FRONT:
BACK:
Images not actual size.
-SG
I DON’T CARE ABOUT JUST WAR!! - you say. I know you don’t. I didn’t either until I accidentally studied it and realized that it’s history has much to teach us about how we modern Christians decide what is right and wrong. In the end this series is not about just Just War doctrine but instead has serious implications for any Christian belief we cling to today without question or reservation. I hope we all ask ourselves when this series is over what other beliefs we hold fast to without knowing their history or biblical basis. Why do we baptize the way we do at my church? Why do we have these books in the bible and not some others? Why do I believe that about salvation and this about heaven? I hope we start asking tough questions about ideas we’ve believed too easily.
Upfront I must admit I am not a subscriber to Just War doctrine. But I will do my best to present the facts of it’s history and give many sources along the way from those wise men and women who do support it. This history then is not hewn from the theories of its detractors but from it’s most notable supporters. It flows from the pen of one of it’s fiercest opponents: me.
As always I teach to learn. Help me get my facts straight and my thoughts sharper. Post comments as often and as long as you’d like. I’ll read them all and learn a lot I’m sure.
So let’s get started. Part 1: The Times of Augustine.
The story of the Just War tradition begins with Augustine, a Catholic bishop in Hippo. Augustine, who died in A.D. 430, wrote and ministered at a time when Christians were becoming popular - a significant percentage of the Roman population. This popularity occurred in part because of the strange conversion of the Roman Emperor to Christianity - what some see as a miraculous blessing to our faith and others view as the beginning of the end of true orthodox Christianity.
Constantine “converted” to Christianity, unifying the Christians and the kingdom of Rome in the process, while at the same time keeping his position as high priest of the official pagan state religion of the Empire. Then, in A.D. 313, Emperor Constantine made Christianity’s acceptance law, declaring the religion legal and embarking on a grand church building project and eventually the establishment of Catholicism - modeled after the Roman government’s structures and hierarchy.
Now, with Constantine’s blessing, Christians could engage in every facet of civic life. And with the government’s support Christians soon infiltrated every level of government, acting as soldiers and advisors and rulers in a kingdom created and maintained by warfare. Christian theology on war would soon change.
Enter Augustine. Living in Hippo, a Roman province in Africa, he was endangered by the Vandals moving across Spain and, by the time of his death, attacking Hippo itself. Augustine also feared the fall of the Roman Empire and the now massive Church in Rome as a result of constant pressure from the “barbarians” attacking every major city and the Visgoths invading Rome. Rome was built through conquest and had earned many enemies along the way. It was envied and lusted after by seemingly every neighbor and continually under attack on all sides. To make matters worse, some Christians had splintered off from the Catholic Church and were burning Catholic churches and harassing their members. Rome was under siege from within and without. At stake was not just an Empire but the very kingdom of God on earth: the Roman Catholic Church.
In the face of such dangers “Augustine could not simply reaffirm the strain of Christian thinking that had rejected all use of force. He foresaw social disaster if evildoers were not opposed, and he sought an answer that both PROTECTED SOCIETY and MAINTAINED CHRISTIAN FAITH. “(1)
It was under these hostile conditions and with this intent that Augustine began crafting a theology that other generations would build upon and later call Just War doctrine.
SOURCES:
(1) Air Power History, Vol.39, No.3, Fall 1992, pp.37. Copyright and published 1992 by the Air Force Historical Foundation
Inset picture: “Constantine the Great”
Got thoughts? Post a comment below or discuss on my message-board.
I’m grateful for an imagination, for the ability to run through reality a thread of fantasy. I like that my present is always infected with blurry fragments of the past and unbound wonderings about the future that keep me sane. My life is less boring and my mind a lot cluttered and circus-like because my inner child is surrounded by mad scientists and historians, philosophers and adventurers whose sole purpose for taking up space inside my brain seems to be to distort and enrich my perspective on everything - to increase my appreciation and awe of the most mundane experiences.
Caesar talks to me on a visit to Manhattan to see my sister-in-law. He asks me how so many people are governed and can’t understand how we’ve turned stone into such shimmering towers. He holds his ears in defense against the constant buzz of the modern city and ducks at the siren shrieks of a passing police car.
Mozart scratches his head on a recent car ride to the grocery store. He stares, head tilted to one side, at the melodies of centuries-dead musicians pouring from the speakers in the door. And he argues with me about whether Nirvana, or any modern music for that matter, is music at all. But as it turns out he’s a closet fan of VanHalen, the David Lee Roth era, and doesn’t know why - and that disturbs us both.
Moses meets Jesus. Jesus meets Luther. Luther meets Spurgeon. They all meet Tammy Fay Baker and Benny Hinn and decide to change the channel. Then we grab some Starbucks at church and debate every nuance of the service until Jesus makes us feel foolish for doing so by simply shaking His head and laughing to Himself at the grape juice passed to Him in a tiny plastic cup. At Cracker Barrel afterwards I try to get the gang’s take on predestination but they’re too fascinated by the singing snowmen and light up nativity scenes in the gift shop to ever give a satisfying answer.
Solomon cleans out the basement with me and marvels at the stuff I throw out and put in the Goodwill sack by the door. He tries on an old velvet jacket, petting its silk lining and fumbling with it’s buttons. He gently holds a discarded scratched CD in his hand and slowly turns it in the sunlight, stunned by it’s other worldly beauty.
A cro-magnon man clutches the arm rest as we take off from Denver. White knuckled and extremely confused he eventually eases his body close enough to the window to peer down through the clouds at the twinkling cityscape. His chest puffs out as his hairy face littered with pretzel crumbs beams with childlike exuberance. He must feel like a god.
I talk to an independent artist after a show and I’m joined by a younger more optimistic and unguarded me. I see my shoulders slumped and my finger nails chewed. I hear the quiver in my voice and spot a bulge in my back pocket - a cassette tape of the three songs of mine my mom likes the most.
My dad once told me around age five, on a grueling trip to see grandparents, that a bored person is a boring person. I second that and add that a bored person has lost perspective. Perspective is recaptured for me by peering at the world through another set of eyes, even if those eyes are imaginary. Anything can become technicolor. The present can become science fiction. The numb modern man can become sensitive again to the wonderful details all around him. And the mundane can be made over. Gratitude and inspiration are just right around the corner then and life is anything but boring.
The trick is to somehow keep listening to the voices in my head, keep nurturing the optimism and whimsy in my brain while parents, therapists, spouses, bosses and responsibilities do their best at times to strap us all down, pour into us a heaping dose of gray reality, brand today and us “average” and shove us in with the rest of the herd.
But Einstein won’t let them take me like that. Not today. He’s got Pythagoras coming by to help me hang some pictures in the bedroom for Becky. After that we’re taking a trip to the zoo with Francis of Assisi and we might take in a little Veggie Tales after nap time and get Walt Disney’s and Rembrandt’s take on the talking cucumber and tomato. Should be anything but an ordinary day.
