Augustine on War

What, indeed is wrong with war? That people die who will eventually die anyway so that those who survive may be subdued in peace? A coward complains of this but it does not bother religious people. No, the true evils in warfare are the desire to inflict damage, the cruelty of revenge, disquiet and implacability of spirit, the savagery of rebellion, the lust for domination, and other such things. Indeed, often enough good men are, commanded by God or a lawful ruler to wage war precisely in order to punish these things in the face of violent resistance, In the course of human affairs, proper order sometimes forces the good either to command this sort of thing or rightly to obey such a command. Otherwise, when soldiers came to John to be baptized and asked him, "What should we do?" he would have told them: give up your weapons, leave the service, do not hit, wound, or disable anyone. He knew, however, that in doing these things in military service, they acted as enforcers of the law and defenders of public safety, not as murderers or avengers of private wrongs, For this reason, he told them, "Do not extort money from anyone; do not bring false charges against anyone; be satisfied with your pay" [Lk 3:12-14]. Since, however, the Manichees have made a habit of open attacks on John, they should note that the Lord Jesus Christ directed that, these wages be paid to Caesar which John told the soldiers to accept as adequate. "Pay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God" [Mt 22.21]. These taxes are paid in order to provide the wages which are necessary for war. Moreover, when the centurion said, "I indeed am a man subject to authority and have soldiers subject to me. I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; to another, 'Come,' and he comes," the Lord praised his faith. He did not order him to abandon military service. At this point, a discussion of just and unjust wars would take too long and is unnecessary.

75. When humans undertake war, the person responsible and the reasons for acting are quite important. The natural order which is directed to peace among, mortals, requires that the ruler take counsel and initiate war; once war has been commanded, the soldiers should serve in it to promote the general peace, and safety. No one must ever question the rightness of a war which is waged on God's command, since not even that which is undertaken from human greed can cause any real harm either to the incorruptible God or to any of his holy ones. God commands war to drive out, to crush or to subjugate the pride of mortals. Suffering war exercises the patience of his saints, humbles them and helps them to accept his fatherly correction. No one has any power over them unless it is given from above. All power comes from God's command or permission. Thus a just man may rightly fight for the order of civil peace even if he serves under the command of a ruler who is himself irreligious. What he is commanded to do is either clearly not contrary or not clearly contrary to God's precept. The evil of giving the command might make the king guilty but the order of obedience would keep the soldier innocent. How much more innocently, therefore, might a person engage in war when he is commanded to fight by God, who can never command anything improperly, as anyone who serves him cannot fail to realize.

76. They (the Manichees) might think that God could not have given a command to wage war because the lord Jesus Christ later said, "I say to you, do not resist evil; if anyone strikes your right cheek, give him your left" [Mt 5.39]. They should understand, however, that this is a readiness of the heart, not the body. The heart is the holy seat of virtue, its dwelling place even in those just ancient fathers of ours. The ordered sequence of events and distinction of the ages require, however, that it should first have been made clear that earthly goods, including human kingdoms and victories over the enemy, belong to the power and the judgment of the one true God, not to the idols and demons to whom the city of the evil which has spread over the earth prays for them. For this reason, the Old Testament used earthly promises to conceal the Kingdom of Heaven and keep it in shadow until the proper time for it to be revealed. When the fullness of time came and the New Testament, which had been covered by the old figures was unveiled, unambiguous witness had already pointed out that other life,, for whose sake this life should be disregarded, and that other kingdom, for whose sake the hostility of all earthly states should he born in great patience. Similarly, God was pleased to confirm this through the confession, suffering and death of those who are called martyrs, which means witness in Latin. From heaven, Christ called Saul, changed him from being a wolf, and sent him like a sheep among wolves. Such a large number of martyrs sprang up, however, that if Christ had chosen to gather them into an army, to equip and aid them in battle as he had helped the Hebrew patriarchy, what people could have withstood them, what kingdom would have survived? In order to give clear witness to the truth which teaches that God is to be served not for temporal happiness in this life but for eternal happiness after it, what is popularly considered misfortune should be born and endured for the sake of that happiness. (Against Faustus 22.74-76)

 

Quoted in Helgeland, John, et al. Christians and the Military: The Early Experience. (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1985).