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...
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| Medienart: | Elektronisch Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2025
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| In: |
Journal of religious ethics
Jahr: 2025, Band: 53, Heft: 4, Seiten: 438-463 |
| weitere Schlagwörter: | 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-Zugang: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Zusammenfassung: | 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 |
| Enthält: | Enthalten in: Journal of religious ethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/jore.70010 |
