Show Notes
In this episode of Peaceable and Kind, Derek Vreeland reflects on the ongoing reality of war and offers a thoughtful critique of Just War Theory, a framework long embraced by both Catholic and Protestant traditions.
Beginning with the classical principles of Just War as articulated by Thomas Aquinas and developed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Derek acknowledges the theory’s historical role in restraining violence. At its best, Just War thinking treats war as tragic but permissible only under strict conditions. But Derek raises a critical question: even if it limits war, does it also legitimize it?
Drawing from Scripture, church history, and personal experience, Derek explores how the coming of Jesus reframes the conversation about violence. Jesus’ teachings to love your enemies, turn the other cheek, and put away the sword radically reorient how with think about war. The question is no longer “When is war justified?” but “What does faithfulness to Jesus look like in a world shaped by war?”
This episode challenges listeners to reconsider long-held assumptions and to take seriously the possibility that the way of Jesus calls us beyond justified violence toward a life shaped by nonviolence, peacemaking, and costly love.
Key Takeaways
Just War Theory has historically functioned to limit violence but may also legitimize it.
The criteria for “just war” are often interpreted by those who benefit from war.
Jesus reframes violence through the perspective of enemy love and nonviolence.
The early church consistently leaned away from violence in its witness.
Just War Theory can shrink our moral imagination by keeping war as an available option.
Christian discipleship calls us to ask what is faithful, not merely what is justifiable.
Scriptures Mentioned
Galatians 3:24
Matthew 5–7 (Sermon on the Mount)
Isaiah 2
Resources Mentioned
Article: Questioning the Just War Assumption by Derek Vreeland
https://missioalliance.org/questioning-the-just-war-assumption/
Safeguarding Peace from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops
A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence edited by David C. Cramer & Myles Werntz
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Transcript
Welcome back.
Welcome to another episode of Peaceable and Kind.
I am your host, Derek Vreeland, and I hope you are enjoying springtime because spring has sprung.
It is true what they say.
April showers brings May flowers.
I was just talking to a small group last night about developing habits of capturing beauty wherever you can find it.
And here where I live in northwest Missouri, we have four definite seasons.
And spring is such a delight because we have
To endure winter and cold temperatures and snow and ice and all that comes with winter, but spring is all around us, and I do have these
habits of just paying attention to the beauty of God’s creation all around us.
I find that to be helpful.
And today I want to talk about the subject of war, a less beautiful topic, but one that I think is necessary.
But before we jump into today’s episode,
Let me invite you to subscribe to Peaceable and Kind wherever you are listening to this podcast and leave us a rating or a review.
I would love to hear from you, love to hear what you think.
about the content we are producing here.
Now at the time of this recording, the US and Israel are still at war with Iran.
And U.
S.
officials have been criticizing Pope Leo, who rightly said, God does not hear the prayer of warmongers.
This was back from March during his Palm Sunday Mass.
Pope Leo said, quote, Jesus is the King of Peace who rejects war.
whom no one can use to justify war.
He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them
Well, this has raised a number of questions, not only about the Catholic Church, but many, many Protestant churches.
who teach what has been called the just war theory.
In Catholic dogma, they speak of the just war doctrine.
So I thought I’d offer up some of my own thoughts and reflections about war
and the Christian response.
But let’s start first with just war theory.
It finds its origins in Augustine
And St.
Thomas Aquinas laid out three principles for what has now been called just war theory.
Aquinas says, for a war to be justifiable, it must first have legitimate authority.
That is war can’t just be declared by some Yahoo in his backyard who’s upset with his neighbor, that war must be declared by a lawful sovereign.
So first principle of just war theory for Aquinas, it must come from a legitimate authority.
Second principle is there must be a just cause.
This is where just war develops.
As a title for this theory.
But Aquinas taught there must be a just cause.
There must be a real and grave reason.
to engage in warfare, things like defense against aggression.
The third principle is right intention
The goal must be to advance the good or avoid evil, not vengeance or payback or conquest.
So these three principles form a foundation for just war theory.
It must have a legitimate authority, a just cause, and a right intention.
And over the years this doctrine has been developed by the Catholic Church in particular.
And in the catechism of the Catholic Church there is a section on safeguarding peace
Where they flesh out the principles of the just war theory.
I’m going to put a link in the show notes to an article I read recently from the Conference of U.
S.
Catholic Bishops.
If you want to read more of the excerpts from this safeguarding piece, but let me just share a few lines with you
So in this section on safeguarding peace, it opens with lines like this: All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war.
And I appreciate this.
I think Catholic teaching at this point is consistent with the teachings of Jesus
But from here, the catechism of the Catholic Church does open the door to war, but it does so with some hesitation, with some limitations.
They go on to say, as long as the danger of war persists and there is no international authority with the necessary competence and power,
Governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self-defense once all peace efforts have failed
And what I have found is that most Christians, Catholic and Protestants, would agree with that, that God has given the sword to the state
And the state, that is, governments, wield the sword to punish evil and to do good.
So, war, according to Catholic teaching, is the right of governments, which is consistent with Aquinas’ first principle, right?
Legitimate authority
But then Catholic teaching goes on to lay out four principles of the just war theory, including one, just cause
That is, the harm inflicted by aggressors must be grave, lasting, and certain
Right?
So this is this is one of the three principles from Aquinas, that there must be a just cause, a true reason, that there is an aggressor.
That must be suppressed, that this military aggressor, what they’re doing, is creating destruction that is grave, lasting, and certain
The second principle is that war should be a last resort.
That means that every diplomatic and peaceful alternative must have been tried.
And proven to be ineffective.
Third principle is the probability of success.
That is, there must be a serious
chance and probability of achieving the attended goal.
And within Just War Theory, this means before
a war is started, there must be clear objectives and goals, and a high probability that engaging in warfare would bring about the fulfilment of those goals.
Then the fourth principle, according to Catholic teaching, is proportionality.
That is, the violence used in war must not create evils worse
Then the original injustice, and this is somewhat close to Aquinas’ right intention
So I think these four principles that again come from the development of just war theory in Catholic moral teaching.
Sums up what I think most Christians would say is, yeah, this is this is what makes justifiable war.
If there is a just cause
If this is the last result, if there is a high probability of success, and if the war is proportional.
Then, beyond those four principles, Catholic moral teaching goes on to list other qualifications that must be met
in order for warfare to be justifiable.
They list restrictions like noncombatants or wounded soldiers or prisoners of war must be respected
and treated humanely.
They mention the extermination of people, nation, or ethnic minorities must be condemned as a moral sin.
Right.
So there is no wiping out an entire civilization, right?
There’s no genocide.
There’s no ethnic cleansing.
That is off the table for just war
They also talk about every act of war being directed towards the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities.
This they call a crime against God and man.
So just war theory assumes that war is awful, that it’s
tragic, that it should be avoided and only ever tolerated under certain conditions
But this theory causes me to ask the question, is
This really necessary, or have we simply learned to live with what Jesus came to overcome?
For me, just war theory in moral theology is what the law of Moses is to the people of God.
Now you’ll remember in Galatians 3.
24, when Paul is talking about the law
That is the law of Moses, the Mosaic Law.
Paul writes, so then the law was our guardian until Christ came.
in order that we might be justified by faith.
Now, that word guardian, I think, is important in how Paul describes the law of Moses.
The law of Moses is good,
The law of Moses is holy.
The law of Moses was necessary.
But the law was a guardian until Jesus came.
That word guardian is translated differently in different English translations.
It’s all also translated tutor or custodian.
I like the King James Version.
It uses the word schoolmaster.
And it’s the Greek word pedagogos.
Which refers to a slave in Greek society who was in charge of looking after and teaching children
In one sense, the Petagogos was a babysitter, a temporary guardian or tutor
to watch over children temporarily.
So Paul in Galatians is saying, While the law is good, it was temporary
And so for me, just war theory is a little bit like that.
Just war theory is good historically in that it
constricted evil and it did push back tyrants who wanted to wage what we now call total war, but I think that it’s mistaken
I think that it misses the fact that Jesus has come and taught us the way of nonviolence.
So for me
I thought just war theory was the only Christian response to war for a long time.
I just made the assumption
that Christians could embrace war if it met certain criteria.
It was the only assumption for me.
In 2014, I published an article for Misio Alliance called Questioning the Just War Assumption.
I’ll put a link to that article in the show notes.
And in that article, I talk about my work as a pastor.
When I began in ministry as a youth pastor.
I’ve been a pastor for over 25 years, but the first five years of my pastoral ministry
I was an associate pastor, a youth minister, working primarily with students.
And back in 2003, when I was a youth pastor,
The Bush-led war in Iraq dominated primetime television.
And I felt it necessary to instruct my students on a Christian response to war.
And so I preached an entire sermon, and this was days after the war in Iraq started.
I preached an entire sermon teaching my students
Essentially, the Just War Theory.
Hey friends, I want to pause this episode for just a moment to let you know that Resurrection, eight lessons on how God restores us.
The third and final book in the God in the Neighborhood Bible study series is out now.
Go to the show notes for ordering information.
It turned out to be a 30-minute sermon, and I’ve looked back at my sermon notes and I entitled the sermon.
war.
And it was a 30-minute presentation on the just war theory, because I believe that under certain circumstances, armed military combat
Was both necessary and morally justifiable.
As I look back to it, I felt that this preaching moment was honorable.
I I felt like I had to do my part as a pastor to help my students understand that war is okay.
War is
normal, it’s necessary in order to promote good and defend American freedom.
I preached my war sermon to a small handful of teenagers
Because I assumed the just war theory was the only Christian response to war.
But I would soon learn and I would grow to understand that Christians historically have had different views
on a Christian response to war.
Now, I do admit that
Historically, just war theory functioned in a way to limit violence, not to celebrate it.
And I think that’s important.
So, as I have critiqued just war theory, I don’t want to deny that the spirit of the theory is to limit violence.
But there is tension, for me at least, in the application of just war theory.
I mean, even if it limits war
My question is, does it also legitimize it?
Because once you create a criteria, which the church has done over the centuries
and label it just war, don’t you actually create a pathway for war and not just a barrier to it?
And so for me, that’s where things get complicated.
One of my central arguments is this
The coming of Jesus doesn’t just affirm previous assumptions, particularly about violence and the sanctity of human life
I believe that the coming of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit reframes what we think about as we think about human life.
Now, some people will argue something like this.
If God allowed or commanded war in the Old Testament, then war must still be permissible.
And what I often hear Christians who are very, very pro-war is they will quote from the Old Testament.
They will pray prayers.
That are inspired by Old Testament verses about warfare, but that reasoning is making a flawed but crucial assumption.
It assumes that for God to prohibit violence, which I believe he has done in and through Jesus, he would have to change his character.
In other words, if the God of the Old Testament prohibited and even commanded warfare, then God still commands warfare.
But what’s missed in that is that with the coming of Jesus, Jesus did not change who God is
But Jesus has revealed more fully the nature and the purposes of God.
Going back to Paul in Galatians 3.
24, the law is good and holy.
But the law was temporary.
The law was just our schoolmaster, our guardian, our tutor given to us until Jesus came.
Jesus now is our King.
Jesus shows us how to live, and Jesus shows us who God is.
So, Jesus doesn’t contradict God as God is revealed in the Old Testament.
Rather, Jesus reveals God more clearly
And what does Jesus teach us?
He teaches us to love our enemies.
Jesus teaches us not to take revenge, but to turn the other cheek.
I often think about Jesus at his arrest.
When they’re coming to take Jesus, and Peter draws the sword and cuts off uh the ear of the man there, and Jesus heals the man, and Jesus says to Peter,
Put away the sword, which I think is consistent with what Jesus taught.
Jesus did not come to bring the sword of warfare
Now, there is an inevitable sword of Jesus.
I mean, there is a division that is created
when people follow Jesus and other friends and family of that person don’t follow Jesus.
You’ll remember in the scriptures where Jesus says, Don’t think I came to bring peace, but a sword
And Christians have used that to justify violence and warfare.
But if you read that verse in context, Jesus is not talking about a literal sword to be used in battle.
Jesus is talking about the sword of division between families.
Jesus is the Prince of Peace, as Pope Leo said.
in his Palm Sunday address.
Jesus is the Prince of Peace who teaches us the way of peace.
Now there will be division.
Among those of us who believe in Jesus, who want to walk in the peaceable ways of Jesus, and then other people who either reject Jesus or his peace teachings
So when Jesus came teaching enemy love, I don’t think that was simply a minor
ethical adjustment.
It was a radical reorientation.
The question becomes, what does faithfulness to Jesus look like in a world of war?
Particularly with the introduction of nuclear war.
I think the teachings of Jesus is a massive
reorientation that causes us to rethink who God is and what God would have us do.
And so here is where the tension begins to sharpen a bit.
Because if we take Jesus seriously, really seriously
Can we easily reconcile his teaching with state-sponsored violence in the name of war?
And so the historic just war theory tries to bridge that gap.
It says under certain conditions, war can be justified.
But here’s the issue.
Those conditions are often interpreted by the very people who stand to benefit from the war.
This is one of my problems with just war theory, not in its logic, not in its construction, not in its spirit, but in its application.
Because those who look towards just war theory and claim the justification of their warfare are people who are
not suffering under war, but reaping the benefits.
So governments and nations and leaders
and defense contractors who Bob Dylan rightly calls the masters of war
And history shows us that nearly every war is justified by someone.
I mean each side in a war believes their cause is right.
Each side believes that violence and killing and warfare is necessary.
So the just war theory, while it starts and the very spirit of it is noble
I think it actually causes people to find a way to justify their war.
So the question becomes, does just war theory actually restrain war, which I believe is the purpose of it?
Or does it provide a moral vocabulary in order to justify it?
And that really is my primary concern.
So while just war theory tries to negate or limit violence,
What I think it’s done is shrunken our moral imagination.
Just war theory keeps war on the table.
And if war remains on the table, then war mongers are going to find a way to justify it
Because it doesn’t create the environment in which we can imagine non-violent alternatives.
We may stop asking
What would creative peacemaking look like?
What would enemy love look like at a at a global political scale?
What would it mean to embody the cross in the face of conflict?
I think all these questions don’t exist as long as just war theory remains on the table.
The early church fathers asked those questions.
And it’s interesting to me if you look at the historic development of just war theory.
It’s not found in the first three centuries of the Christian movement.
Just war theory began to be developed after
The Roman Empire and Christian faith began to be integrated.
But before that, when there was a true separation of church and state
Between Christians and Empire.
The early church fathers were asking questions
They were asking the peacemaking questions, the enemy love questions, the what does it look like to remain faithful to Jesus?
Those kind of questions.
And their answers led them away from war, not towards it.
Here’s a few quotes from some of the early church fathers.
Tertullian
uh from the second and early third century.
He asserted that the Christian does no harm even to his enemies.
He argued that taking up the sword contradicted
Jesus’ teachings, and he deemed military service unlawful for believers.
Not all early church fathers agreed with him.
Some bishops in the early church gave some provisions
For Christians to enter into military service.
But Tertullian’s point is that Christians are obligated
To walk in the ways of Jesus and do obey his teaching to love enemy.
Origin
Also about that same time, end of the second century, into the third century, declared, quote, Christians no longer take up sword against nation, nor do we learn
War anymore.
He maintained that Christians serve the state better through prayer than by armed combat
And then Justin Martyr from the second century, he described Christians as having beaten our swords into plowshares.
So he interpreted the prophecies of Isaiah 2 as a call to a radical
Jesus-centered present-day work for peace.
So in looking at the Church Fathers, I think this raises another question.
for us living now some 2,000 years after Jesus and the apostles.
And that is, have we inherited a framework
That aligns itself more with empire building or with the proclamation of the kingdom of God by King Jesus.
Remember, Jesus became king not by killing his enemies, but by being killed
Jesus in his crucifixion not only rescues us from sin and death, but Jesus in his crucifixion reveals how he becomes king, how the kingdom of God comes.
And just war theory is a framework.
It’s a way of thinking about war.
And so does just war theory, does it give us a framework that aligns itself more with.
Empire building, nation building, or staying faithful to how and what Jesus said about the coming of the kingdom of God.
I think that there is a better starting point.
Instead of starting with what are the qualifications for a justifiable war
I do believe we should start with Jesus.
Shocker.
I believe that as Christians, as we work through any complicated social issue
We shouldn’t work with the concessions first.
We should start with Jesus.
And in doing so, we’re not starting with the question: when is war justifiable?
We’re starting with the question, what does it mean to be faithful to walk in the steps of the Prince of Peace?
Because once you start there, and and where you start, I think is important in the framework that you build.
So if we start there, everything begins to shift.
War is no longer an assumption.
It is interrogated.
Violence is no longer normalized.
It’s resisted
And peace is not just a future wish dream.
It becomes our calling.
Now none of this makes anything easier.
I think some people like just war theory.
Because, well, there it is.
Christians from centuries ago, they have helped us figure out when war is justifiable.
I’m so glad they did that heavy lifting for us.
It’s just easier to go with that.
And in some sense, it is easier because these questions and starting with a framework
in the teachings of Jesus makes things a whole lot harder.
Because the question’s not what can we justify?
The question is how can we remain faithful
And so in that, there is an invitation.
And it’s not an invitation to abandon careful thinking and analysis.
Both socially, philosophically, biblically, uh this doesn’t cause us to ignore
the complexity of the world and the complexity of of the church living in a fallen world.
But to me, it does begin to question
Whether or not just war theory is the one and only assumption for Christians.
Because in my spiritual journey, I have come to recognize that there is a better way.
There is a better way than just war.
And that is to take seriously the possibility that the way of Jesus calls us
further and deeper into a life shaped not by justifiable warfare, but costly peace.
Because in the end, the question isn’t simply can war be justified?
The deeper question is, does the life and teaching of Jesus
Form a people who learn how to live without it.
What I’m suggesting
Is that we reject the just war assumption, and in its place, we start from the position of Christian nonviolence.
That is the peace teachings of Jesus.
And we make that our default assumption.
And then we can make
certain concessions towards armed conflict when in extreme situations it becomes necessary.
And I do think this is the spirit of the just war theory, but because that that spirit of seeking peace has been lost in its application.
I think it’s time for a change in how Christians think about war.
We start with the teachings of Jesus
and not the concessions, not the qualifications that would justify warfare.
A helpful resource in this regard is a field guide to Christian nonviolence
A 2022 book that was edited by David Kramer and Miles Wernz.
And they argue, among other things, that the practice of Christian nonviolence.
Is actually a virtue that forms us in the way of peacemaking.
Virtue, you will remember, is a good habit
Habit is the sort of dispositions of our heart.
So if we start with Christian nonviolence and we begin to put Christian nonviolence into practice,
That forms nonviolence within our hearts.
And that’s just one chapter in A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence.
I highly recommend that book.
We’ll put a link to it in the show notes
But I do believe that this is a much more faithful approach for Christians.
That we don’t start with the qualifications that justify war.
Rather we start with Christian nonviolence.
And I believe this leads us to more faithfulness in prayer.
Practicing Christian nonviolence causes us to pray that the songs of peace
Would drown out the drums of war so that the nations of the world would learn war no more
I believe these are the prayers that God hears.
Prayers for peace.
Prayers that the nations of the world would learn war no more.
Well, that’s all that I have for this episode.
If you found what I shared to be
Encouraging, challenging, provocative.
If you want to have a conversation, hit me up on social media.
All my social media accounts are in the show notes.
I would love to have a conversation.
Because hopefully what you’ve heard me say in my critique of just war theory is that it’s not all bad, that the spirit of just war theory
Is really the spirit of Christian nonviolence, I just believe Christian nonviolence is where we should start
So if you want to have a conversation, hit me up on social media, send me a DM.
I’d love to talk with you more about this important topic.
Well, that’s it for this episode.
Thank you for joining me.
Go
Go in peace and be kind.
This transcript was generated with AI and may contain errors.