08.11.05 Just War Part 4: Under The Influence (Crusades)

PREVIOUS POSTS IN THIS SERIES:
JUST WAR PART 1: THE TIMES OF AUGUSTINE
JUST WAR PART 2: THE THEORY OF AUGUSTINE
JUST WAR PART 3: AQUINAS BUILDS

It’s not enough to discuss what theological bricks each builder of Just War doctrine contributed to the Just War platform most modern day Americans and politicians stand upon and preach from.  Not only is it not enough but it’s not the point of this series.

The main benefit to me in studying Just War, and the history of other modern Christian beliefs, has been gaining a better understanding of how we Christians have historically decided what is “right” and “wrong”.  What influences theologians and people like you and me on the every day quest towards truths big and small?  What should influence us?

So the last post in this series jumped to Aquinas’ conclusions about what makes war just.  But today’s contribution backtracks to unearth what might have influenced - what probably did influence - his theology of war.

Like Augustine, fearful of losing the Catholic Church and his nation to warring parties within and without, Aquinas may also have been shaped by the wars of his day.  The crusades, now admitted by the Catholic church as a grave mistake and misrepresentation of God’s values on earth, had just ended - and ended badly - when Aquinas wrote about war.  The crusades were a series of wars waged by the Catholic Church (only Western European Christians at the time) and Rome.  They were carried out at the demand of Pope Gregory VII in an effort to claim cities considered holy by both Muslims and Christians.  Muslims had used force to prohibit Christians from making pilgrimages to these holy cities. The campaigns of the crusades (seven in all) would mean the death of a multitude of Muslims and Catholics - men, women and children - soldiers, civilians and clergy. 

The Church leaders of his day seem to have unanimously accepted these wars as tragic but also holy and God pleasing.

Aquinas, born in 1225 AD, was twenty-three when the seventh and last crusade battle ended.  While I have been unable to find any writings by Aquinas explaining whether or not and to what extent the crusades affected his theology of war, it’s reasonable to assume isn’t it that such a lengthy military effort instigated by the Popes and Church he pledged his life to would have some affect on such matters? Reasonable in the same way we can assume the views of war held by us patriotic modern American Christians are somewhat influenced by our nation’s past and present military campaigns.

Got thoughts?  Post a comment below or discuss on my message-board.

08.10.05 The Purchase Driven Life

Check out this eye-opening post from a SHLOG.COM reader.

08.10.05 ALMOST 300 DAILY

Every day close to, but never more than, 300 people read SHLOG.COM.  We’re going to change that today.

If you have a website or a blog, I need your help.  If you post a link to SHLOG.COM on your site today odds are someone will click it and visit this page.  When they do my site tracker will log your url (website address) in a ranked list.  At the end of the day today I’ll look at the rankings to see which site sent the most people to me.  Then, I’ll e-mail the winner, get your address, and send you a Shaun Groves t-shirt and new WHITE FLAG CD - a $30 value.  (Hey, it’s all I have.) And everyone who links to me will have their site linked TO from SHLOG.COM the next day - as if you need as much help getting visitors as I do.

Wow, what a deal!

Why?  I just hate being so close to a mile marker and unable to break through it.  I’m a goal setter.  Humor me.

-SG

PS. Some sites’ url’s are “blocked” and will not display their address to my site tracker.  Sorry.

08.09.05 Just War Part 3: Aquinas Builds

PREVIOUS POSTS IN THIS SERIES:
JUST WAR PART 1: THE TIMES OF AUGUSTINE
JUST WAR PART 2: THE THEORY OF AUGUSTINE

Augustine got the Just War ball rolling in the late 4th Century by outlining three kinds of wars he believed God’s people can support.  And his theories were not changed for the most part but instead grew in popularity among Catholics.

Then along came Thomas Aquinas 900 years later, in the 13th Century (1225-1274), to spearhead the next big evolution in Just War theory.  The High Middle Ages in which Aquinas lived were more academic and systematic than the times of Augustine.  So Aquinas felt the need to make Augustine’s teachings more relevant to his culture and its modern situations and did so by systematizing them, setting definite criteria that must be met in order to justify a war.

He crafted three conditions, based on logic/pragmatism and not scripture, for deeming a war legitimate:
1. A just cause
2. A right intention
3. A declaration from a “legitimate authority”

Aquinas also made it clear that he and Augustine saw no glory in war and did not view war or violence as a “positive moral good"(1).  “He made a presumption in favor of peace and held that one who wants to go to war had to be able to explain why the greater good demanded rupture of the peace."(2) A good explanation, a just war, were the exception and not the rule, not the majority of man’s wars at the time - in Aquinas’ thinking.

Just War theory began gaining massive theological authority among Catholics once Aquinas agreed with Augustine’s basic premise on the justification of war and then added his own criteria on top of it.  So much so that the opinions of these two men approached the status of dogma within the Church.

SOURCES:
1. George Weigel, Tranquilitas Ordinis (new York: Oxford University Press, 1987), p37
2. Air Power History, Vol.39, No.3, Fall 1992, p38. Copyright and published 1992 by the Air Force Historical Foundation
Picture Inset: 1476 St. Thomas Aquinas by Carlo Crivelli

Got thoughts?  Post a comment below or discuss on my message-board.

08.09.05 Williamson County Fair

GOATS, RIDES, FUNNEL CAKES AND FERRIS WHEELS.