Yesterday, I summed up an article by Phillip Gray arguing that Yoder and Hauerwas end up Donatist, and also fail to account for the history of the church since they assume that the true church is pacifist.
Yoder, though, isn’t as perfectionist as that. In When War Is Unjust , he not only commends just war theorists like John Courtney Murray and Paul Ramsey, but recognizes that the history of Christendom is seasoned with “real models of Christian statesmanship and civil heroism,” leaders “who, in the exercise of public responsibility, saved or created nations, kept the blood-thirstiness of war from getting out of control, and made some kind of peace through limited power, with restraint, wisdom, and magnanimity.” He recognizes that some saints were soldiers, though he adds that they were not “Machiavellian.”
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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