Monday, June 2, 2025

It is the 2nd of June 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

A very happy Monday to you- the Savannah Bananas were in town this weekend, I didn’t go because tickets are impossible and expensive- but if you’re looking for some fun baseball shenanigans, check it out.

We head to the mailbag and to Sweden, Gothenburg specifically, and a question from Axel. One: rad name. Two: Can I tell you how much I love Sweden? I didn’t get to the West Coast and Gothenburg, but if I were to pick a place to go in Europe for vacation, I’d go back. In your honor, I’ve been making my notes for this question whilst listening to Doris with Plums, Abba, and Jens Lekman.  

Axel wanted to know about how Christians have thought about war. He listened to the episode about the “radical priest” Daniel Berrigan and had some specific questions pertaining to America, but zoomed out enough for me to make this a “big picture” type of answer.

If I could simplify it at first, there are two main concepts when it comes to the history of Christians and war. The first is pacifism. The second is “just war” theory. And not “just war” like the store “just lamps”, but rather “just” as in “justified”.

So, I would very much like to be a pacifist. It’s certainly a tidy ideology, and I think we can find Jesus as an example here. I would invite you to check out Luke 22 for a wrinkle- but we’ll leave that for the guys over at 30 Minutes in the New Testament and Tough Texts here at the 1517 network.

I remember being really taken by the work of Petr Chelčický- a 15th-century Bohemian who wrote “the Net of Faith,” a critique of the church since its marriage to the state with Constantine.

If we want to stick to hard-to-spell and pronounce names- let me add Paulo Freire, the Brazilian philosopher of the last century, who criticized pacifism as inherently privileged- go ahead and hold your peace rallies while the poor, women, and children are slaughtered. 

You can go to the American Reinhold Niebuhr of the last century, whose view is sometimes called - although it’s a problematic term- “Christian Realism”. This recognizes not only the problems of the state but of sin, which, he and others argue, make “idealism” impractical. (I should note idealism, like realism, is a really loaded term, philosophically- but take them in the general sense). One might retort- whoever said Christianity was practical?

The standard, at least in the modern West, goes back to theologians whose names start with an “A”- Augustine and Aquinas and the development of “Just War” theory- as Axel pointed out. Augustine writes of: just cause, legitimate authority, and right intention. You need to be fighting for something just, it has to come through the state (not individuals), and must be in the cause of justice, such as protecting the vulnerable.

You might see the fancy latin “Jus ad Bellum”- that is, looking at the conditions leading into war (that’s the ‘ad’) then “Jus in Bello”- how to act justly IN war (no bombing hospitals and the like) and then Jus Post Bellum- that is justice “after” or “post” war. That is, the purpose of the war needs to be redressing injustice and needs to lead to the restoration of peace. You can get this from Augustine, but not in any systematic way. You can go to Aquinas’ Summa Theologica- the second part, skip to question 40, and he does what he does best- just break everything down to the last jot and tittle.

It won’t surprise listeners of this program that I will recommend a “Four Views” book- Intervarsity has a newish book on this called “War, Peace, and Violence: 4 Christian Views” that does a nice job of explaining the various positions and forcing some dialogue between them.

Axel- thanks for the question- there is no “easy” answer (I guess pacifism is “easy” in a sense- but beware of the old scholarship that says “all Christians were pacifists before Constantine- many were but there’s no silver bullet historical answer). You can write to me with your questions, concerns, queries, or corrections on how I pronounce midwestern cities or ceviche recipes at danv@1517.org.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and some Acts, from the 16th chapter: 

35 When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” 36 The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”

37 But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”

38 The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. 39 They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. 40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.

 This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 2nd of June 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man, were it not for me making up some dumb joke here, this show would be exactly 1000 words… oh well…Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by one thousand twenty-seven- Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.