Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 28:2 (Jun 1985)
Article: The Bible And War In America: An Historical Survey
Author: Alan Johnson

JETS 28:2 (June 1985) p. 169

The Bible And War In America: An Historical Survey

Alan Johnson*

War is a terrible trade; but in the cause that is righteous, sweet is the smell of power.

—Miles Standish

Christian attitudes toward war have a long, complex and unfortunately ambiguous history in the Christian Church. This ambiguity has led to diametrically opposed moral viewpoints on the questions of war and the Christian means to peace in the world. My interests for sometime now have been in the area of theological ethics. While I do not believe that Scripture supplies direct answers for most of our modern moral questions, as an evangelical I assume that the Bible is the primary source and final authority for moral guidance on any issue that calls for a specific moral judgment. Christian attitude toward war is just such a moral judgment. How directly has the Bible affected the Christian attitude in America about war? Has the Bible ever shaped and does it now significantly shape the moral views of the Church on this important issue? In this paper I have chosen to limit the investigation largely to the major wars of America. The goal is to explore whether the Bible actually has significantly affected the Christian attitude toward war in American history. Modern nuclear arms have intensified for this generation the Christian’s need for moral clarity vis-à-vis the issue of war as never before. Toward this end the present study is directed.

I. The Pacifist And Just-War Roots

The Christian Church, represented by the various colonists at the onset of the Revolutionary War, brought with it from Britain and Europe the Christian traditions about war that had descended to them from the earlier periods. Bainton has given us a threefold typology to fit these views: pacifist, crusade, and just war.1

James T. Johnson in his recent foundational studies convincingly suggests, probably correctly, that Bainton’s analysis is misleading and that the crusade and just-war views are in principle virtually identical. Accordingly he argues there are only two basic Christian positions in history: pacifist and just war.2

The classic Christian just-war doctrine, Johnson argues, though it has roots

*Alan Johnson is professor of New Testament and Christian ethics at Wheaton College in Illinois.

JETS 28:2 (June 1985) p. 170

that go back to Augustine, did not emerge until the sixteenth century. The classic doctrine must be distinguished from the modern just-war concept. Classic just-war adherents blended the jus ad bellurn (a statement on the right to make war), wh...