Provides a new understanding of the traditions of Christian pacifism in order to address wars in a warming world.

Christian ethics is a wide and varied field; so diverse are the methods and approaches, theological perspectives and starting points, and scopes of inquiry and purposes—dare we even call it a discipline?—that the field is rarely considered as a whole. Christian ethics includes historical, descriptive, critical, constructive, and applied projects on countless topics. Lending creative energy to this field of study are a range of partner disciplines, including, most prominently, theology, philosophy, and sociology, each containing multiple schools themselves. To envision the entire field of Christian ethics is a difficult task; to reenvision the entire field may perhaps be impossible for one person. Thus, this publication includes original research by multiple scholars, each offering a distinct perspective from their primary partner discipline. Chapters include Roman Catholic and Protestant voices from Europe, Asia, and North America. In aggregate, these writings contribute to a composite reenvisioning of Christian ethics, refracting our collective vision through the prisms of diverse academic and methodological perspectives in this vast field of inquiry, study, and practice.

Explicates the way the Christian just war tradition shaped modernity and modernity's blindness to the interpenetration of nature and politics. This book sits uniquely at the intersection of just war thinking, environmental history, and theological ethics.

In a world of war, terrorism, and constant threats to global stability, how should Christians honor Jesus Christ? Four experts in Christian ethics, political philosophy, and international affairs present four different views of just war, nonviolence, Christian realism, and church history, orienting readers to today's key positions.

Christian nonviolence is not a settled position but a vibrant and living tradition. This book offers a concise introduction to diverse approaches to, proponents of, and resources for this tradition. It explores the myriad biblical, theological, and practical dimensions of Christian nonviolence as represented by a variety of twentieth- and twenty-first-century thinkers and movements, including previously underrepresented voices. The authors invite readers to explore this tradition and discover how they might live out the gospel in our modern world.

Christianity and political conflict are paired so often in daily headlines that Harold Heie’s message is astonishing. A lifelong practitioner of respectful engagement with others, Heie lifts up core Christian values that can transform toxic confrontations into constructive conversations. He proposes a “Way Forward” beyond the us-versus-them tribalistic fighting mentality that currently plagues politics. As a Christian, Heie believes that “Jesus has called all his followers to love their neighbors. Providing someone who disagrees with you a safe and welcoming space to express that disagreement and then talking respectfully about your disagreement is a deep expression of love.” In Reforming American Politics, Heie aims to model respectful conversations among Christians who have strong disagreements about: ● How Christians and others should talk to one another about political issues ● The meaning of politics and the appropriate scope of political activity ● Public policy proposals that are hotly debated. He recommends a “Way Forward” for Christians, and others, to seek to reform American politics that presents a stark contrast to current ways of doing politics. In his research for this book, Heie worked with 23 diverse conversation partners for 10 months of online discussions. His electronic forum is an “eCircle” that attracted readers nationwide. Best-selling evangelical historian Mark Noll writes, “In an age of flaming rhetoric, fractious politics and fissiparous ideology, Harold Heie exemplifies a much better way. The discussions he moderates in this book treat red-hot issues like immigration, health care, economic inequality and money in politics, as well as more general considerations of Christian principles, Christian prudence and Christian practice. The marvel for readers will be to see believers airing their differences frankly, but doing so with Christian friendship preserved and Christian wisdom to the forefront. It is hard to imagine a better book for times like these.” Award-winning journalist and scholar of American religion Randall Balmer also urges readers to explore Heie’s thoughtful approach to encouraging dialogue by basing his appeal on timeless Christian principles. Balmer writes: “At a time when public discourse has devolved from disagreement to partisanship to tribalism, Harold Heie has determinedly promoted ‘respectful conversations.’ As evident in this, his latest summation, Heie does not settle for bromides or platitudes. He insists on thoughtful, theological, informed discussions, and he points us, all of us, toward a better way.” As Noll and Balmer point out, Heie addresses some of the toughest questions millions of American families face in trying to live out their Christian faith as well engaging in important public issues. Chapters include: “What Does Christian Love Demand?” and “The Role of Money and Special Interests in Politics” as well as “Wealth and Poverty in America” and “Christians and Churches Doing Politics.” In these pages, individuals, small groups and entire congregations will discover hopeful and effective new strategies to engage the larger world while embodying the central calling of their faith.

How should Christians respond to war? This age-old question has become more pressing given Western governments' recent overseas military interventions and the rise of extremist Islamist jihadism. Grounded in conservative evangelical theology, this book argues the historic church position that it is inadmissible for Christians to use violence or take part in war. It shows how the church's propensity to support the "just wars," crusades, rebellions, or "humanitarian interventions" of its host nations over time has been disastrous for the reputation of the gospel. Instead, the church's response to war is simply to be the church, by preaching the gospel and making peace in the love and power of God. The book considers challenges to this argument for "gospel peace." What about warfare in the Old Testament and military metaphors in the New? What of church history? And how do we deal with tyrants like Hitler and terrorists like Islamic State? Charting a path between just war theory and liberal pacifism, numerous inspiring examples from the worldwide church are used to demonstrate effective and authentically Christian responses to violence. The author argues that as Christians increasingly drop their unbiblical addiction to war, we may be entering one of the most exciting periods of church history.

This book is a contribution to the Christian ethics of war and peace. It advances peacebuilding as a needed challenge to and expansion of the traditional framework of just-war theory and pacifism. It builds on a critical reading of historical landmarks from the Bible through Augustine, Aquinas, the Reformers, Christian peace movements, and key modern figures like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reinhold Niebuhr, and recent popes. Similar to just-war theory, peacebuilding is committed to social change and social justice but includes some theorists and practitioners who accept the use of force in extreme cases of self-defense or humanitarian intervention. Unlike just-war theorists, they do not see the justification of war as part of the Christian mission. Unlike traditional pacifists, they do see social change as necessary and possible and, as such, requiring Christian participation in public efforts. Cahill argues that transformative Christian social participation is demanded by the gospel and the example of Jesus, and can produce the avoidance, resolution, or reduction of conflicts. And yet obstacles are significant, and expectations must be realistic. Decisions to use armed force against injustice, even when they meet the criteria of just war, will be ambiguous and tragic from a Christian perspective. Regarding war and peace, the focus of Christian theology, ethics, and practice should not be on justifying war but on practical and hopeful interreligious peacebuilding.

This book is a learned essay at the intersection of politics, philosophy, and religion. It is first and foremost a diagnosis and critique of the secular religion of our time, humanitarianism, or the “religion of humanity.” It argues that the humanitarian impulse to regard modern man as the measure of all things has begun to corrupt Christianity itself, reducing it to an inordinate concern for “social justice,” radical political change, and an increasingly fanatical egalitarianism. Christianity thus loses its transcendental reference points at the same time that it undermines balanced political judgment. Humanitarians, secular or religious, confuse peace with pacifism, equitable social arrangements with socialism, and moral judgment with utopianism and sentimentality. With a foreword by the distinguished political philosopher Pierre Manent, Mahoney’s book follows Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in affirming that Christianity is in no way reducible to a “humanitarian moral message.” In a pungent if respectful analysis, it demonstrates that Pope Francis has increasingly confused the Gospel with left-wing humanitarianism and egalitarianism that owes little to classical or Christian wisdom. It takes its bearings from a series of thinkers (Orestes Brownson, Aurel Kolnai, Vladimir Soloviev, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn) who have been instructive critics of the “religion of humanity.” These thinkers were men of peace who rejected ideological pacifism and never confused Christianity with unthinking sentimentality. The book ends by affirming the power of reason, informed by revealed faith, to provide a humanizing alternative to utopian illusions and nihilistic despair.

Humility, Pride, and Christian Virtue Theory proposes an account of humility that relies on the most radical Christian sayings about humility, especially those found in Augustine and the early monastic tradition. It argues that this was the view of humility that put Christian moral thought into decisive conflict with the best Greco-Roman moral thought. This radical Christian account of humility has been forgotten amidst contemporary efforts to clarify and retrieve the virtue of humility for secular life. Kent Dunnington shows how humility was repurposed during the early-modern era-particularly in the thought of Hobbes, Hume, and Kant-to better serve the economic and social needs of the emerging modern state. This repurposed humility insisted on a role for proper pride alongside humility, as a necessary constituent of self-esteem and a necessary motive of consistent moral action over time. Contemporary philosophical accounts of humility continue this emphasis on proper pride as a counterbalance to humility. By contrast, radical Christian humility proscribes pride altogether. Dunnington demonstrates how such a radical view need not give rise to vices of humility such as servility and pusillanimity, nor need such a view fall prey to feminist critiques of humility. But the view of humility set forth makes little sense abstracted from a specific set of doctrinal commitments peculiar to Christianity. This study argues that this is a strength rather than a weakness of the account since it displays how Christianity matters for the shape of the moral life.