From Just War To Modern Peace Ethics – Jetzt auch als Taschenbuch

From Just War to Modern Peace Ethics – der eng­li­sche Sam­mel­band aus der Serie „Arbei­ten zur Kir­chen­ge­schich­te“, her­aus­ge­ge­ben von Prof. Dr. Heinz-Gerhard Jus­ten­ho­ven (Insti­tut für Theo­lo­gie und Frie­den) und Dr. Wil­liam A. Bar­bie­ri (Catho­lic Uni­ver­si­ty of Ame­ri­ca) kann für 19,95 Euro auch als Taschen­buch erwor­ben werden.

This book re­wri­tes the his­tory of Chris­ti­an peace ethics. Chris­ti­an re­flec­tion on re­du­cing vio­lence or over­co­m­ing war has roots in an­ci­ent Roman phi­lo­so­phy and even­tually grew to in­flu­ence mo­dern in­ter­na­tio­nal law. This his­to­ri­cal over­view be­gins with Cice­ro, the source of Chris­ti­an aut­hors like Augus­ti­ne and Tho­mas Aqui­nas. It is high­ly de­ba­ta­ble whe­ther Augus­ti­ne had a sys­te­ma­tic in­te­rest in just war or whe­ther his wri­tings were used to de­ve­lop a sys­te­ma­tic just war tea­ching only by the la­ter tra­di­tion. May Chris­ti­ans ju­s­ti­fia­bly use force to over­come dis­or­der and achie­ve peace? The book tra­ces the clas­si­cal de­bate from Tho­mas Aqui­nas to ear­ly modern-age thin­kers like Vito­ria, Sua­rez, Mar­tin Luther, Hugo Gro­ti­us and Imma­nu­el Kant. It high­lights the di­ver­sity of the ap­proa­ches of theo­lo­gi­ans, phi­lo­so­phers and la­wy­ers. Modern cos­mo­po­li­tia­nism and in­ter­na­tio­nal law-thinking, it shows, are roo­ted in the Spa­nish Scho­la­s­tics, whe­re Gro­ti­us and Kant each found the in­spi­ra­tion to in­au­gu­rate a mo­dern peace ethic. In the 20th cen­tury the tra­di­tion has ta­ken aim not only at re­du­cing vio­lence and over­co­m­ing war but at de­ve­lo­ping a con­struc­tive ethic of peace buil­ding, as is re­flec­ted in Pope John Paul II’s teaching.