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{"id":8232,"date":"2012-12-10T05:03:20","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T05:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=1967"},"modified":"2012-12-10T05:03:20","modified_gmt":"2012-12-10T05:03:20","slug":"just-war-roman-and-christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2012\/12\/just-war-roman-and-christian\/","title":{"rendered":"Just War, Roman and Christian"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

<\/p>

\u201cIn Roman thought,\u201d Brundage says, \u201cthe term \u2018just war\u2019 tended to have as much ceremonial as moral content. A bellum justum et pium <\/em> was a war that had been properly declared, with full observance of the appropriate public ceremonies and religious rites.\u201d The theory was not \u201cutterly devoid of moral content: aequitas <\/em> required that a just war have a just cause,\u201d and this typically mean \u201ca violation of Rome\u2019s legal interests in foreign territories, infringement on Roman territory itself by foreign powers, or disrespect for the immunities of Rome\u2019s allies or her representatives on alien soil.\u201d <\/p>\n

Augustine employed the same terminology, but he did not simply defend the Roman way of war. To the existing tradition, Augustine added substantive and universal moral standards, the familiar just war criteria: \u201ca declaration of war by a legitimate authority; . . . a reasonable and morally acceptable cause for the war; . . . the war must be necessary, that is, there must be no other way of achieving the legitimate objective; and the war must be fought by acceptable means.\u201d <\/p>\n

Just war theory is a product of this Christian modification of the Roman theory. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"