Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

THE WAR ON TERRORISM: A JUSTWAR? 47
God’s plan only in the eschatological kingdom to be realized
beyond human history, but recognized a role for the state, and
for war in the present dispensation, as a lamentable necessity. 26
What were Augustine’s views on war as the instrument of
God? The question arose in a special way in connection with a
Gospel text, the interpretation of which has had an ominous and
fateful history: it was used for centuries to justify the use of violence
against the Jewish people. The prophecy of the divine punishment
which will fall on Jerusalem (Lk 19: 41-44; 21: 20-24; Mt
22:7) presents the destruction as punishment for not accepting
God’s call. Augustine believed that those Roman armies who
destroyed Jerusalem were wicked, but they were despite this, the
instruments of God in punishing the Jews. 27 Similarly, the invasions
by the Barbarians are interpreted by Augustine as a punishment
of the wicked for the corruption of morals, and a purifying
trial for the good. 28 However, even if God is using an invading
army to fulfil his purposes, it does not follow that the soldiers
of that army are, for that reason, morally justified in what
they do. God uses what they do, even if what they do is morally
evil. Man may act in a disordered way, but this does not escape
the counsel of God, who uses that disorder for his own purposes.
29 Augustine makes a clear distinction between the sinful soldier
bent on domination and the Christian soldier serving legitimate
authority: God may use the sin of the former for his own
purposes, but will eventually punish it. 30 What of the case of war
waged by legitimate authority for a just purpose? Could it be
26 R. A. MARCUS, Saeculum: History and Society in the Theology of St.
Augustine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988) 70, 98. De Civitate
Dei, XIX, 17. CCSL XLVIII, 685.
27 H. A. DEANE, Political and Social Ideas of St. Augustine (New York and
London: Columbia University Press, 1963) 309, Notes to ch. 5, n.12. (En. in
P., LXXIII, 7-8; CCSL XXXIX, 1010-11).
28
DEANE, Political and Social Ideas, 310, n.12. (De Civitate Dei, I,1; CCSL
XLVII, 2).
29
HENRY PAOLUCCI, ed. The Political Writings of St. Augustine (Chicago:
Henry Regnery 1962) x. Augustine.
30 . JOHN HELGELAND, ROBERT J. DALY and J. PATOUT BURNS, Christians and
the Military: The Early Experience (Philadelphia: Fortress Press 1985) 80.