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48 BRIAN V. JOHNSTONE said that God wills or commands such a war? It would seem rather that for Augustine, waging a just war is something imposed on the just man by those necessities which arise in a sinful world. Good men may be required to undertake war “at God’s command, or the command of a legitimate authority” but such a divine command would come into play only in those situations where maintaining order in a sinful world required violence. This was his view at least when writing against Faustus (397-398). 31 Divine authority does not descend arbitrarily from the heavens; it applies to situations where war would be considered just on other grounds than the divine fiat. What of Augustine’s notorious support of state coercion against heretics, in his case against the Donatists? This would be a clear case of religion fostering coercion, if not violence or war. The Edict of Unity (405) which branded the Donatists as heretics, and so brought them under the general laws on heresy, was an act of the imperial court. 32 However, Augustine accepted the change of policy it embodied as an act of providence. In interpreting its significance, Augustine fell back on some of the ideas we have already discussed. The edict and the suppression which followed, he viewed as an act of divine “disciplina” by which God, the stern father, inflicts punishment on his delinquent children, checking their evil tendencies, by a series of catastrophes as he did in the Old Testament period and continues to do now. 33 As Peter Brown describes it, Augustine saw this necessary persecution of the Donatists heretics as another form of such necessary discipline or “controlled catastrophe.” 34 31 Contra Faustum, 22.74; Migne, PL t. XLII, 447; Swift, The Early Fathers, 120. 32 PETER BROWN, Augustine of Hippo (Berkely: University of California Press, 1969) 234. It needs to be remembered that the edict imposed “inconveniences” (as Augustine called them) restricting the Donatists ability to dispose of property and to hold office. It did not impose the death penalty. Augustine was opposed in principle to the death penalty, ibid., 241 although the means of disciplina included flogging, ibid., 239. 33 Letter, 93.2.6. The Fathers of the Church, St. Augustine, Letters, vol. 2 (Washington, D.C. The Catholic University of America Press, 1985) 61. Swift, The Early Fathers, 148. 34 BROWN, Augustine, 237.
THE WAR ON TERRORISM: A JUSTWAR? 49 For Augustine, while no political community can claim to embody true justice, this does not mean that all human political communities are equally unjust and immoral. Political societies are better or worse according to what they love. 35 Thus, the earthly peace which such a political community sustains is a genuine good, and gift of God. But it may not be identified with the true peace of the Kingdom. It follows, therefore, that those who work to preserve this limited, but necessary, peace do a good work and should not shirk or withdraw from it, even though they may feel pain in the exercise of their task. Living in a sinful world, in the Kingdom of this world, we ought use what is available to us to preserve the wretched kind of peace that we can attain here. Provided it is directed to this end, namely peace, the activity of war may be justified. According to St. Augustine, a soldier may be justified in waging war, and in killing in war, if he acts as the agent of the law. Since the law is necessary, given the condition of sinful mankind, to prevent men from destroying each other and to maintain a certain kind of peace, the activities of a soldier who acts as an instrument of the law can be justified. In later writings, however, St. Augustine seems to have moved away from such a justification in favour of one looking to the protection of others, and the common good. 36 Whatever may be said of these differences, it is generally accepted that, “Augustine of Hippo developed a theory of the complementarity of the earthly and heavenly cities which legitimated the waging of war by Christian rulers” 37 and the participation of Christian soldiers in submission to authority. What we find in St. Thomas’s treatment of war is a theological context heavily dependent on St. Augustine, combined, however, with a return to a Greek view, specifically that of Aristotle, of political order. However, in the question on war itself, while there are many citations from Augustine in St. Thomas’ princi- 35 De Civitate Dei, 19.24. CCSL XLVIII, 695. 36 GREGORY LEONARD COONEY, C.M. The Magisterium in Moral Matters of Bishops’ Conferences in the Light of the Document The Challenge of Peace. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Faculty of Theology, Gregorianum University, Rome, 1989) 76. 37 HELGELAND, Christians, 73.
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THE WAR ON TERRORISM: A JUSTWAR? 49<br />
For Augustine, while no political community can claim to<br />
embody true justice, this does not mean that all human political<br />
communities are equally unjust and immoral. Political societies<br />
are better or worse according to what they love. 35 Thus, the<br />
earthly peace which such a political community sustains is a<br />
genuine good, and gift of God. But it may not be identified with<br />
the true peace of the Kingdom. It follows, therefore, that those<br />
who work to preserve this limited, but necessary, peace do a<br />
good work and should not shirk or withdraw from it, even<br />
though they may feel pain in the exercise of their task. Living in<br />
a sinful world, in the Kingdom of this world, we ought use what<br />
is available to us to preserve the wretched kind of peace that we<br />
can attain here. Provided it is directed to this end, namely peace,<br />
the activity of war may be justified. According to St. Augustine,<br />
a soldier may be justified in waging war, and in killing in war, if<br />
he acts as the agent of the law. Since the law is necessary, given<br />
the condition of sinful mankind, to prevent men from destroying<br />
each other and to maintain a certain kind of peace, the activities<br />
of a soldier who acts as an instrument of the law can be justified.<br />
In later writings, however, St. Augustine seems to have moved<br />
away from such a justification in favour of one looking to the<br />
protection of others, and the common good. 36 Whatever may be<br />
said of these differences, it is generally accepted that, “Augustine<br />
of Hippo developed a theory of the complementarity of the<br />
earthly and heavenly cities which legitimated the waging of war<br />
by Christian rulers” 37 and the participation of Christian soldiers<br />
in submission to authority.<br />
What we find in St. Thomas’s treatment of war is a theological<br />
context heavily dependent on St. Augustine, combined, however,<br />
with a return to a Greek view, specifically that of Aristotle,<br />
of political order. However, in the question on war itself, while<br />
there are many citations from Augustine in St. Thomas’ princi-<br />
35 De Civitate Dei, 19.24. CCSL XLVIII, 695.<br />
36 GREGORY LEONARD COONEY, C.M. The Magisterium in Moral Matters of<br />
Bishops’ Conferences in the Light of the Document The Challenge of Peace.<br />
(Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Faculty of Theology, Gregorianum<br />
University, Rome, 1989) 76.<br />
37 HELGELAND, Christians, 73.
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