What is a "Just War?"
decline of Rome. And when there is decline, tragedy, and crisis, someone needs to be blamed. In Augustine's day it became popular to blame Christians and Christianity. It was this "new religion," many opined, that was leading the empire to ruin. The gods must be mad.
But Augustine states that the city and empire of Rome were in God's control. No one person or organization was responsible for this decline. It was only by the grace of God that Rome lasted as long as it did! (In fact, the Roman empire appears to be the longest sustaining empire in world history.) God simply had used the empire for His purpose, extended a generous time of grace to the empire, and now saw fit to let another world power enter the scene.
Augustine also contrasted the citizens of two cities--not physical cities, but spiritual. And he describes the residents of these two cities--one evil and one good. Many of the "just war" principles are gleaned from these contrasts and were possibly used for justification to fight for good, for a just cause, to fight a just war.
Thomas Aquinas wrote his Summa in the 1200's. This was only a century after the Great Schism. It was also the time of the Crusades--a "just war" fighting men waging a "holy war." It was Aquinas who more clearly defined "just war," pulling verse from Augustine's De Civitas Dei. As you can see, the "just war" theory could be used in enlisting men to join an army and going off to fight a war against "unholy forces." A war, I might add, that meant unprovoked Christians were marching against another nation.
Today, "just war" is invoked by many Christians on both sides of the debate over the rightness of war. In my research, I found many sites that applied these principles for conscientiously objecting to war as well as sites that state the Christian's duty to fight in a war to defeat evil. Some even co-opt arguments from both sides to say that while a certain conflict had its merits, in the end there were enough invalid motives and reasons to object to the war as to make it an unjust war. The sites are noted at the end of this article.
Why the "Just War" Doctrine?
Augustine did write in Book V, Chapter 22--"The Durations And Issues Of War Depend On The Will Of God:"
Thus also the durations
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