In this volume, Mark Douglas presents an environmental history of the Christian just war tradition. Focusing on the transition from its late medieval into its early modern form, he explores the role the tradition has played in conditioning modernity and generating modernity's blindness to interactions between 'the natural' and 'the political.' Douglas criticizes problematic myths that have driven conventional narratives about the history of the tradition and suggests a revised approach that better accounts for the evolution of that tradition through time. Along the way, he provides new interpretations of works by Francisco de Vitoria and Hugo Grotius, and, provocatively, the Constitution of the United States of America. Sitting at the intersection of just war thinking, environmental history, and theological ethics, Douglas's book serves as a timely guide for responses to wars in a warming world as they increasingly revolve around the flashpoints of religion, resources, and refugees.

‘This is a thorough, well-researched study of the evolution of just war theory from its Greek and Roman beginnings through its refinement in Christian history and its secular expression in international law. … Recommended.’

C. L. Kammer Source: Choice

‘As an early contribution to a nascent and necessary discussion of the connections between climate and the ethics of war … Douglas’s ambitious project is a significant achievement: it names an urgent problem, provides some preliminary answers, identifies areas for future research, and contributes to ongoing scholarly debates in the field of religious ethics by suggesting a methodology for this work that takes into account the significance of both ethics and the historical contexts in which it is developed. It is my hope that contemporary just war thinkers will take up this call …’

Rosemary Kellison Source: Journal of the American Academy of Religion

‘This book would certainly be accessible to advanced undergraduates and serve as an effective introduction not only to the just war tradition, but also to the development - and trajectory - of modernity and the ‘Secular Age’ à la Charles Taylor. The author presents complex ideas in remarkably lucid prose, with many lovely and pithy turns of phrase …’

Laurie Johnston Source: Studies in Christian Ethics