Christians and the Military
Steinfels, Peter
tions the need to worship "some force In our June 6 issue, Debra framework of limited government, al- beyond and above human nature."...
...Stephen Holmes, profes- his ideal of "government by discus- posed when it comes to deciding what the sor of political science at the University sion," of robust public debate within the Gospel demands of Christians today in Commonweal: 382 the face of war and violence...
...strategy...
...scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Director, High Frontier Religious Community Ethics and research professor of ethics and international politics at the School Community living emphasizing individual The author replies: of Foreign Service at Georgetown...
...He also manages extent that Holmes revitalizes Constant's with the elderly Mrs...
...884002, Walled Lake, Ml 48088...
...In it she this claim rests heavily on Constant's fully), reading Constant and talking records how in the past few minutes the personal history...
...But these cler- ing that, on the contrary, SDI would bear inward/outward journeys cutting across all gymen properly insist that pursuit of all the moral burdens of MAD...
...But he was All this is argued with close references to OF MODERN LIBERALISM, by Stephen more than a scholar...
...He flirted with Napoleon, Robert J. Daly, and J. Patout Burns...
...J. BRYAN HEHIR DANIEL 0. GRAHAM Hour cassette: $6.50...
...In the May 12 Elmira, NY 14905 20 June 1986: 383...
...Origen's the paradoxical statement: "I am a reli- lic...
...Gary Martinez, Box 105, Hico, WV 25854...
...he does not consider that "acceptable damage," and I did not say the Reagan AL FRITSCH, S.J...
...SDI as a "non-nuclear" defense, ignorThousands of clergymen of all faiths ing the plans for nuclear-explosionhave signed a declaration of support for driven X-ray lasers and nuclear-armed THE COMPANY AT SDI...
...The diary is superbly edited...
...Continued from page 354) Graham provides a benign image of August 15-17, 1986 -~jthreatening their obliteration...
...Constant brought a formidable histori- Christians did in fact serve in the legions, In Brief cal, social, and psychological learning to although uneasily: those who were marthe formulation of his political tyred for refusing or leaving service were philosophy...
...Russell's pastoral letter, also showed how SDI thing, then it is that no lasting peace can ill-disguised fury at the concept of non- would "celestialize" MAD...
...Write: Sister functioning society, or worse...
...administration did either...
...tion, and that if such defenses prove feas- and still-vulnerable cities...
...I sup- Roland Murphy, Bruce Metzger, Reginald pose I do...
...Madison Ave., NYC 10016...
...Therefore, the argu- "the basic thrust of the Lord's teaching is conceivable - and therefore that it will ment goes, he understood the precious clearly toward nonviolence," this did not not happen...
...Catholic tvomen preachers, Lost n played a critically important role in the When will a leader arise, she asks, who novation (p...
...A proper balance between the public opposition to military service, on the gious agnostic...
...One comes away from political philosophy can spend an entire relates it expertly to his political theory...
...Russett was part of that movement, U.S...
...Holmes genius of a Buddha, a Christ, or a St...
...of Chicago, has written the first major does not address this issue fully, locating Francis of Assisi...
...To explain this sudden nature of privacy and foresaw many of lead the early church to be unambiguchange -- or what some might call a modernity's ominous political tenden- ously pacifist or opposed to military servkeeping open of all options - it is worth cies...
...I Ceased to exist...
...tle on" about the damage done to popula- Faculty: Donald Senior, Carolyn Osiek, tion centers by only 161 warheads...
...ice...
...The last treated as a defender of privacy, someone Strange as it may seem (but Constant entry dated 19 April 1943 was written who hated the state...
...Our apologies to early development of French democracy...
...She ways brought this supposed theorist of Campbell's narne was inadvertently longs to find a church without dogma - omitted at the end of her article on the private back into the public arena...
...Holmes han- by Eusebius, Ambrose, and Augustine is the United States...
...A year earlier she had Constant's political theory...
...nuclear defense reflects the general dis- Most readers will appreciate the subP.S...
...My article was devoted to show- ment to worship, support and stimulate in this technical dispute...
...cannot help but speak to a time in which muddledom...
...In it he offers a sus- among political theorists about the virwander about disconsolate...
...Russett parrots all the anti-SDI arexposed the false dilemma posed by the guments presented by the Soviet Church/world watch "Freeze or Fry" slogan, and utterly de- Union...
...But does Constant speak to late Goethe or an Einstein with the moral now twentieth-century America...
...He but "no such Church seems in sight...
...We are talking on Safeguarding the Creation about nuclear war, not a shooting gallery at Correspondence score where all but 161 out of 10,000 Dayspring Retreat Center looks great...
...COMMONWEAL, 232 ing policy...
...Then suddenly she changes her but found him equally dismaying...
...and the private was the true promise of other hand, stemmed from a Platonic liberal politics...
...I American press...
...KIRKRIDGE and rabbis note that technological argu- My "fury" is directed precisely at the Celebrating our 10th year ments abound, pro and con, on the SDI pretense that SDI is morally superior to Are you looking for a way to be yourself & still be Church...
...exist...
...this historical study feeling that the exsemester on modern political thought Politics made Constant unhappy and ir- perience of the early church may provide without hearing his name...
...mind and underlines her final words for eventually advocated liberal constitu- The authors' thesis is that although greater emphasis: "I feel that this is in- tional monarchy...
...may and disarray in the nuclear freeze tlety of General Graham's statement that movement...
...Washington, D.C...
...He freely grants - in contrast to the message of the famous rainbow televi- Biblical Institute sion cartoon - that SDI can provide no 21st Biblical Institute, Trinity College, Bur"impenetrable shield," and says I "rat- lington, VT 05401, June 15-20, 1986...
...The anti-military writings of Fathers remembering that between belief and Holmes partly agrees with this older like Tertullian and Hippolytus express disbelief, between the idea of annihila- wisdom, but goes far beyond it to recon- not pacifism but opposition to the tion and an afterlife, Beatrice frequently struct a fuller, more persuasive picture of idolatry-to the intricate system of found herself torn...
...cial and political transformations of his not make a brief for just-war theory...
...will unite the intellect of an Aristotle, a the author...
...the excesses of the Jacobins horrified him CHRISTIANS AND THE MILITARY: THE Likewise, she predicts that kingdoms and despite his own great dislike for the an- EARLY EXPERIENCE...
...Thus he often said and did appar- deed, their portrait of the thinking on war stant is almost completely unknown in ently inconsistent things...
...BRUCE M. RUSSETT stroyed the notion that the nuclear freeze (Continued from page 363) movement held the moral high ground...
...After read- tained critical appreciation of Constant as tues and vices of liberal man...
...on the pastoral letter...
...Gen., USA (Ret...
...In essence these ministers, priests, terminal phase defenses...
...RICHARD M. VALELLY wireless has gone dead, and her cup of among an international aristocratic elite, tea has turned cold...
...The authors do Pp...
...Personal/Convalescent use...
...He resembled in this respect rejecting not warfare but army religion...
...Beatrice copies out the To the extent that Constant is known certain types of opinion and speech are paragraph and twice refers to the phrase...
...By John Helgeland, states - even her diary - will cease to cien regime...
...tions the need to worship "some force In our June 6 issue, Debra framework of limited government, albeyond and above human nature...
...Constant also the ancient texts, and with representative Holmes...
...BENJAMIN CONSTANT AND THE MAKING Rousseau and Montesquieu...
...All of that ritable, but his tenacious mental grip on far less guidance than many have supshould change...
...I have no home for study of Constant to be published by an his book instead within a raging debate my religious faculty," she laments...
...Moore and her feel- to be genuinely engaging, for he is a ideal of "government by discussion" he ings of being involved in "a spiritual first-rate writer...
...spiritual growth and Christian ministry General Graham's letter deserves a rooted in critical social analysis...
...Modern/ policymakers will have to read his book...
...I hold a more absolute and now joins it again in groping wildly RATES: 75¢ a word, one time...
...It would boundaries...
...A graduate student in dles this feature of his career well and darkly shadowed...
...I am glad Miriam Ward...
...Yet to the ing A Passage to India, she identifies a democratic theorist...
...680, three view of non-combatant immunity than for arguments against an effort which times...
...tier, no particular friend of-the bishops' philosophy, and theology teach us any- I can only surmise that Mr...
...Wait list only...
...Classified difference requires further changes in Mr...
...InWho was Benjamin Constant...
...Join us in our 10 year experiissue, and the signers assume no expertise MAD...
...be built on anything less than truth...
...on this side of the Atlantic he is typically considered increasingly illegitimate...
...For more information: non-nuclear defenses is morally superior reinforce rather than replace MAD, by Anthony Ciccariello to continued reliance on nuclear destruc- strengthening incentives to target soft 520 W. Gray St...
...They would destroy us as a Fuller, Joseph Cunneen...
...In brief, Nye has joined ethics and One can only hope that the bishops get Cassettes strategy in a way which guarantees that a less-biased and more knowledgeable ethicists, strategists, citizens, and "principal consultant" next time around Biblical Meditation Songs...
...Con- time...
...Classified payable Nye, but his proposal is radical enough to makes common and ethical sense to al- with order...
...The plausibility of would have savored this strangeness eleven days before her death...
...The president's SDI program "Mr...
...Contact brief reply (and only a brief one...
...Bryan Hehir is senior research Lt...
...monthly in advance for more demand the restructuring of U.S...
...He shows oaths, symbols, and sacrifices which defint d her position when she had made that Constant also greatly valued the pub- permeated Roman military life...
...target- most everyone who has no political axe than three times...
...A Swiss-born cos- about him in America may yet become a electric fire has ceased to heat her, the mopolitan philosophe who moved easily political act...
...Crosstones, Box (J...
...to grind...
...Yale University, $27.50, 352 deeply involved himself in the great so- passages cited at length...
...64¢, six times...
...He Fortress Press, $5.95, 101 pp...
...Original...
...spiritualization of the Christian vocation...
...Still the ible the United States is morally obliged issue of The New Republic, Leon Wieselauthors are convinced that "if history, to adopt them...
Vol. 113 • June 1986 • No. 12
