Why does the name of St. Augustine come up in the discussion of Just War?
St. Augustine lived in the time between the Constantine’s Edict of Toleration of Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (354-417). Rome fell in 410 to Alaraic, a Visigoth, although things had been falling apart for years. The pacifism of Christianity was being blamed for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Into this scenario Augustine writes that even in war Christians acting as public authorities are bound by laws of charity and justice. This abstract appears Florida State University’s web site: The Elements of St. Augustine’s Just War Theory John Langan, S.J. St. Augustine’s just war theory involves eight principal elements: • a punitive conception of war • assessment of the evil of war in terms of the moral evil of attitudes and desires • a search for authorization for the use of violence • a dualistic epistemology which gives priority to spiritual goods • interpretation of Evangelical norms in terms of inner attitudes • passive attitude to authority and social
