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Summary

The conventional narrative of the history of the Christian just war tradition has dominated the literature of Christian just war thought. It is a deeply problematic and peculiarly modern narrative, repeating both a myth of progress and a great man view of history. Toward constructing a more historically accurate, theologically coherent, and functionally relevant narrative, it helps to have a clearer understanding of the relationship between just war thinking, just war traditions, and just war theory. Moreover, at the entrance to the Anthropocene, as the interplay between natural and political systems becomes more apparent, the relationship between evolving social imaginaries and the movements of traditions through time needs to be better understood. A starting point is recognizing that the primary questions of the tradition are those of theological anthropology: what does it mean to be human, how are human beings valued, who counts among those who are valued, and what social structures do human beings create to shape and reinforce those values?

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.

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Introduction: Troubling a Tradition

Summary

Modernity, the Environment, and the Christian Just War Tradition

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Introduction: Troubling a Tradition

Summary

Modernity, the Environment, and the Christian Just War Tradition