God and War: Some Exploratory Questions

Abstract:     
Contemporary formulations of the Just War Tradition are resolutely secular: they claim that religious considerations cannot decisively satisfy any of the conditions that specify what makes for a just war – just cause, legitimate authority, right intention, proportionality, and so on. Advocates articulate a number of arguments in favor of that claim – religiously justified wars are indiscriminate or unacceptably brutal, for example. But I argue that none of the arguments adduced in favor of a secular construal of the just war tradition are compelling.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 30

working papers series