Love on the Ground: Reflections on Christian Faith and the Profession of Arms
In this paper, I explore how Christian moral teaching properly shapes deliberation and decision-making in the very interstices of war—the face-to-face violence between small units in the context of urban combat. I will focus throughout on one junior officer in one combat setting in one war—on how a...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Journal of religious ethics
Year: 2025, Volume: 53, Issue: 4, Pages: 438-463 |
| Further subjects: | B
intentional killing
B counter-insurgency B Fallujah B love of enemy B Religion B Military ethics B Just War B Nigel Biggar B Liberalism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In this paper, I explore how Christian moral teaching properly shapes deliberation and decision-making in the very interstices of war—the face-to-face violence between small units in the context of urban combat. I will focus throughout on one junior officer in one combat setting in one war—on how a young Marine lieutenant aspired to comply with the requirement that, as Nigel Biggar says, love of neighbor must “qualify” the way combatants use military violence. In so doing, I support one of Biggar’s more controversial claims, viz., that Christian love, robustly understood, can “walk the battlefield”—although love need not tread exactly as Biggar recommends. I will thereafter briefly reflect on the role that religious faith properly plays in the professional decisions of officers who serve in the military of a liberal democracy. I conclude by noting some implications of my discussion for how we best think about the relation between religion and war more generally. |
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| ISSN: | 1467-9795 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religious ethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/jore.70010 |
