Woodstock Report | Off the Press

At the periphery of the debate over America's war in Iraq have been moral questions about the proper use of deadly force, questions embodied in the ancient Christian theory of a "just war." Now, a new book is seeking to help bring the just-war tradition and other religious perspectives closer to the center of public debate.

Just War, Lasting Peace: What Christian Traditions Can Teach Us, published by Orbis Press, is the fruit of collaboration between Woodstock and the U.S. Jesuit Conference. With Woodstock senior fellow Dolores Leckey serving as general editor, the text draws on discussions that originated in a November 2003 symposium held during the run-up to war in Iraq. Also related in the book are the voices of Jewish and Islamic scholars.

Among the many questions taken up are: How does just-war theory apply to the situation in Iraq? How can religion, which has been at the heart of so many wars, illuminate a new path to peace? What can Christian traditions teach us about defining a just war and constructing a lasting peace?

The key theme is that Catholic views on war and peace "fall along a continuum, where total pacifism forms one end of the continuum and a belief in the acceptability of war under certain conditions forms the other," according to the authors: the Jesuit Conference's John Kleiderer, freelance writer Paula Minaert, and Mark Mossa, S.J. "This whole range of positions is acceptable within the Church."

However, the Catholic Church officially holds only one position, the "contemporary just-war position." The other two perspectives are that of strict non-violence, or pacifism, and the "classical" just-war position, which takes a less restrictive view of the recourse to war than does the "contemporary" perspective.

Forum Planned

On October 4 at 7:30 p.m., Woodstock will hold a public forum in Georgetown University's Intercultural Center Auditorium titled, "Just War, Lasting Peace: What Does This Mean?" Leckey will be the moderator, with co-authors Kleiderer and Mossa among the presenters. The forum will address such questions as whether Catholic traditions of teaching on war and peace can help guide policy makers today especially in the struggle against terrorism.