Curious Christian

In his article, “War and the Old Testament: A Proposal“, Ted Grimsrud makes the astute observation that “The violence in the Old Testament creates problems for all Christians”, not just pacifict Christians, as “The OT is not about ‘just wars’ in the sense that the western moral tradition has used that term.”

In other words, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If just war Christians seek the biblical high ground in ethical debates over war and peace, it is imperative to their case that they, not only NEGATIVELY argue against pacifism from the Old Testament, but also POSITIVELY argue for just war from the Old Testament.

This, however, is more difficult than it sounds, as a closer inspection reveals (1) that just war criteria are never explicitly affirmed in the Old Testament, (2) that just war criteria are often contravined by God in the Old Testament and (3) that just war criteria owe more to the pagan philosopher Cicero (via sympathetic Christian theologians) than the Old Testament. What we do find in the Old Testament is holy war, not just war, and that’s just as biblically problematic for just war Christians as it is pacifist Christians.

Now, I should make clear that, contra Grimsrud, I think there are ways of squaring pacifist Christianity with the Old Testament without sacrificing biblical historicity. In this respect I tend to follow Yoder’s approach of viewing the crucifixion and resurrection of the Messiah as the climax of the war’s of YHWH, favouring more a “particularist” Christ-centred ethic over a more “univeralist” God-centred ethic. But this disagreement over answers should not distract from the relevance of his questions.