"Just War" - History

[ClemtheCatholic]

Hi,

I’m really into history! So I was wondering, should the Church’s modern-day teachings on what makes a “just war” be used to decide on the justness of wars that happened hundreds of years ago? (for example, the American War for Independence)

In the Catechism there are (I think) about 6 criteria which need to be met in order for war to be acceptable. Again, should we use the same system to work out if wars in the past (before this teaching was documented) were acceptable?

Thank You and God Bless!
ClemtheCatholic

 

[Leo13_Pius10]

In setting out the requirements for the morality of the waging of war, the Church is not setting or creating morality, but rather, explaining what was already moral or immoral. To give a rather simple example, if I told you that the sky was blue, it is not the act of telling you that the sky is blue that makes it so.

Objectively an action is either moral or immoral, and thus the intrinsic morality of a war is not relative to the culpiblity of those participating in the conflict. Either a war is just or is not just. On the other hand of course, participation in war that is immoral does not necessarily impute guilt as there could be ignorance on the part of the person in either the reasons for the war or knowledge of what constitutes an unjust war.

It should be noted that the Christian concept of just war has been with us for quite while. Augustine, back in the 4th century, set out the groundwork for what constitutes a just war, while Aquinas in the 13th century laid out what we now hold as the requirements for a just war.

 

[tafan]

Hi,

I’m really into history! So I was wondering, should the Church’s modern-day teachings on what makes a “just war” be used to decide on the justness of wars that happened hundreds of years ago? (for example, the American War for Independence)

In the Catechism there are (I think) about 6 criteria which need to be met in order for war to be acceptable. Again, should we use the same system to work out if wars in the past (before this teaching was documented) were acceptable?

Thank You and God Bless!
ClemtheCatholic

Why do you think it has only been recent that the Church has had a documented and acceptable just war theory? It has been expressed differently throughout history, but it has been there a long, long time and always considered acceptable and certainly documented.
St Augustine: jstor.org/discover/10.2307/40014967?uid=3739920&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101240942751
St Thomas Aquinas: newadvent.org/summa/3040.htm

When studying history, it is certainly proper to analyze past wars to determine if they were just. I would argue it is necessary, or else we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes:

For example: The American War for Independence, I would consider this war very questionable from both sides. The English certainly had not exhausted all means besides war to resolve the dispute. The Americans likely had questionable cause to justify a war.

 

[ClemtheCatholic]

Thank you for your replies It is ignorance on my part in thinking that the “just war theory” is new

 

[JIB]

Just War Theory (or Just War Theory Doctrine) is a very interesting topic. No war fought by the United States would qualify as just.