War and the Christian Conscience

Overview

This primer on war and the Christian conscience begins in an imaginary college classroom as students react to news that the draft has been reinstated. "Why can't I finish college?" asks one student. "Why do I have to go?"

These urgent and personal questions offer the entry to a clear and comprehensive outline of the basic Christian responses to the problem of war. As Fahey shows, the Christian tradition has supplied a variety of answers, including pacifism, just war teaching, the ethic of "total war," and the vision of a "world community" with options other than war to resolve conflicts. In the face of these different approaches, how are we to decide which one is right? And more basically, how does one go about forming one's personal conscience?

For all who ponder these moral challenges--whether as young people facing the question of military service, or as counselors, chaplains, or teachers--this book offers an essential and practical guide.

Joseph J. Fahey, a co-founder and General Secretary of Pax Christi USA is professor of religious studies at Manhattan College, New York, and author of A Peace Reader: Essential Readings on War, Justice, Nonviolence and World Order.