Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

THE WAR ON TERRORISM: A JUSTWAR? 51
human family as not merely creatures but children of God. The
city state or polis, for Aristotle, had its basis in philia. This
means not so much friendship in our modern sense, but “companionship
with trust.” 45 For Aristotle, acts against this philia
are absolutely ruled out. Thus, St. Thomas distinguishes
between “... not living the life of the spirit well,” perhaps by not
cultivating the virtues through prayer, for such dispositions are
not merely something which we acquire by education and exercise,
but are gifts of the Holy Spirit, and “... those acts which are
simply incompatible with membership of the community sustained
and defined by caritas.” 46 War is such an act. By placing
his discussion of war in the context of charity, St. Thomas is saying
that it is the kind of sin which tears apart, not only the very
foundations of the universal human community, that community
which is the necessary support of the good life for all, but that
community which is the foundation of the family of all as the
children of God.
St. Thomas develops his treatment of war within a virtue
ethic, complimented by an ethic of office, and an ethic of law. 47
But all is contained within the wider teleological vision, such
that the ethic itself must be integrated into a life of peace and
friendship with God, and with one another, of which the causal
power is the divine energy, the Spirit of Jesus risen. 48 This peace
and friendship, as I have already noted, is to be embodied in the
community of the faithful, and extended to the whole human
community by the opus or work of peace. This theological teleology
is embodied in a political teleology, where community law
serves to foster the common good, whose principal feature is
peace. 49
The first question in the Summa’s treatment of war is: “Is
war always a sin?”. The presumption being that it is. Why it is
so, is explained in terms of the violation of order, now under-
45
HERBERT MCCABE, “Manuals and Rule Books,” in Understanding
Veritatis Splendor, ed. John Wilkins (London: SPCK, 1994) 64.
46
MCCABE., “Manuals,” 65.
47
RUSSELL, The Just War, 262-263.
48 S. Th. III, q. 56.
49
RUSSELL, The Just War, 261.