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Week 1: Late Antiquity

During the fourth century, the Eastern Roman empire was menaced by the threat of Goths. Traditionally, Roman culture had always connected military success with religious piety and the veneration of the Gods. In the fourth century, with the rise of Christianity as the imperial religion, it fell to theologians like Ambrose of Milan to reformulate this culture within the parameters of Christian ethics. Ambrose produced some of the first Christian texts regarding the justification of war and proposed that the Christian God would favour rulers who waged war in a just manner. In doing so, Ambrose moved Christian theology away from some of its pre-Constantinian pacifism (exemplified by figures like Marcellus and Maximilian of Tebessa). In week 1, we will examine the Gothic wars and Ambrose’s response to them with a particular focus on his condemnation of Theodosius following the Massacre of Thessalonica.

Week 2: Medieval

The framework of Catholic Just War tradition developed in the thirteenth century owing in no small part to the scholarship of St Thomas Aquinas. Today, many Christians will recognise the claims of Aquinas’ Just War Theory. The norms described by Aquinas are reflected in the the language of international law today. However it is important to read Aquinas in context. He lived during a time of great religious conflict, a time when violent means were employed to protect the territorial integrity of Christendom. In Week 2 we will examine Aquinas’ writings on war alongside the history of the thirteenth century crusades including the Albigensian crusade.

Week 3: Early Modern

The seventeenth century saw the gradual emergence of nation states. From the middle of the seventeenth century and the middle of the nineteenth century, the notion of royal sovereignty was gradually replaced by the notion of national sovereignty. As such, soldiers at the end of this period were expected to die for their country rather than for their prince. The same period also saw the gradual development of European imperialism. Nations accrued great wealth by sending out soldiers to claim territory in the Americas, in Africa and in Asia. One of the great Jesuit theologians – Francisco Suarez – developed a new way of thinking about the morality of war which responded to these rapid cultural changes. In Week 3, we will encounter Suarez’s response to the question of whether Christian evangelisation was legitimate argument for colonial expansion.  

Week 4: Twentieth Century

Arguably, no century in human history has seen more bloodshed resulting from war than the twentieth. On two occasions in this century, almost all of the nations of the world found themselves embroiled in gruelling, bloody conflict. In 1963, a papal encyclical – Pacem in Terris – was promulgated. The text sought to develop Church teachings on war in response to the nuclear age. Amongst the most influential architects of this text was the Jesuit theologian John Courtney Murray. This week we will examine Murray’s writing in light of the Second World War and the developing Cold War which dominated the later decades of the century.

Week 5: War Today

Today our world remains wracked with war. In the last session of the course we will critically examine the churches responses to wars in Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza and elsewhere.  

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