Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

52 BRIAN V. JOHNSTONE
stood as the order of creation and charity, which is the foundation
of the community of all humanity. The destruction of this
community is sinful, moreover, because it destroys that human
reality which is meant to be a participation of the divine idea of
peace. However, war may be justified under certain very restrictive
conditions: the argument in summary form is that, in certain
particular situations of violence arising from the sinfulness
of humankind, violence may be a means to peace, and the waging
of war may, indeed, be required of the prince. War, then, may
be justified, if it is directed to a just cause, ultimately peace; if it
is directed by right authority, and thus respects political order; if
it is guided by a right intention, that is not aimed at domination
or self-glorification, but at the restoration of peace. This is not
merely a justification of war in the name of natural law and a
theory of natural justice. This was to come later, particularly in
the work of Grotius. 50 The political element, for St. Thomas, has
its own proper moral orientation towards peace in this world,
and so can be the appropriate matter for human action directed
ultimately towards the definitive peace of the Kingdom of God.
How may we judge whether the complex argument presented
in outline here entailed a corruption of the tradition or not?
I suggest the way to proceed would be to ask whether we, as persons
committed to this tradition, and therefore also committed
to a critical reception of that tradition, can follow the process
through without detecting demonstrable incoherence between
the positions taken and the goals of the tradition, and between
the doctrine proposed and the goals present to our consciences,
which are formed by the tradition, and, in turn, form that tradition.
This does not require that we agree with everything that St.
Augustine or St. Thomas wrote on the subject; it is rather an
invitation to reason with the tradition which they have shaped,
so as to form a responsible judgment in our own circumstances.
It would take much further work to prove that this is the case
with regard to the JWD. However, I would argue that, at least in
50 DAVID LITTLE, “Hugo Grotius and Just War Theory,” in Suche nach Frieden:
Politische Ethik in der Frühen Neuzeit I., Norbert Brieskorn and Markus
Riedenauer eds. (Stuttgart Berlin Cologne: Kohlhammer, 2000) 259-273.