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Christianity and violence

Christians have had diverse attitudes towards violence and nonviolence over time. Both currently and historically, there have been four attitudes towards violence and war and four resulting practices of them within Christianity: non-resistance, Christian pacifism, just war, and preventive war (Holy war, e.g., the Crusades).[1] In the Roman Empire, the early church adopted a nonviolent stance when it came to war because the imitation of Jesus's sacrificial life was preferable to it.[2] The concept of "Just War", the belief that limited uses of war were acceptable, originated in the writings of earlier non-Christian Roman and Greek thinkers such as Cicero and Plato.[3][4] Later, this theory was adopted by Christian thinkers such as St Augustine, who like other Christians, borrowed much of the just war concept from Roman law and the works of Roman writers like Cicero.[5][6][7] Even though "Just War" concept was widely accepted early on, warfare was not regarded as a virtuous activity and expressing concern for the salvation of those who killed enemies in battle, regardless of the cause for which they fought, was common.[8] Concepts such as "Holy war", whereby fighting itself might be considered a penitential and spiritually meritorious act, did not emerge before the 11th century.[8][9]

A battle scene from the First Crusade. The Crusades were a series of military campaigns which were mainly waged between European Christians and Muslims.

Bible edit

 
Having Their Fling (1917) by Art Young

The Bible contains several texts which encourage, command, condemn, reward, punish, regulate and describe acts of violence.[10][11]

Leigh Gibson[who?] and Shelly Matthews, associate professor of religion at Furman University,[12] write that some scholars, such as René Girard, "lift up the New Testament as somehow containing the antidote for Old Testament violence". According to John Gager, such an analysis risks advocating the views of the heresiarch Marcion of Sinope (c. 85–160), who made a distinction between the God of the Old Testament responsible for violence and the God of mercy found in the New Testament.[13]

Mahatma Gandhi embraced the concept of nonviolence which he had found in both Indian Religions and the New Testament (e.g. Sermon on the Mount), which he then utilized in his strategy for social and political struggles.[14]

Christian violence edit

 
I Believe in the Sword and Almighty God (1914). Anti-militaristic cartoon by Boardman Robinson.

J. Denny Weaver, Professor Emeritus of Religion at Bluffton University, suggests that there are numerous evolving views on violence and nonviolence throughout the history of Christian theology.[15] According to the view of many historians, the Constantinian shift turned Christianity from a persecuted into a persecuting religion.[16]

Miroslav Volf has identified the intervention of a "new creation", as in the Second Coming, as a particular aspect of Christianity that generates violence.[17] Writing about the latter, Volf says: "Beginning at least with Constantine's conversion, the followers of the Crucified have perpetrated gruesome acts of violence under the sign of the cross. Over the centuries, the seasons of Lent and Holy Week were, for the Jews, times of fear and trepidation. Muslims also associate the cross with violence; crusaders' rampages were undertaken under the sign of the cross."[18]

The statement attributed to Jesus "I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword" has been interpreted by some as a call to arms for Christians.[19] Mark Juergensmeyer argues that "despite its central tenets of love and peace, Christianity—like most traditions—has always had a violent side. The bloody history of the tradition has provided disturbing images and violent conflict is vividly portrayed in the Bible. This history and these biblical images have provided the raw material for theologically justifying the violence of contemporary Christian groups. For example, attacks on abortion clinics have been viewed not only as assaults on a practice that Christians regard as immoral, but also as skirmishes in a grand confrontation between forces of evil and good that has social and political implications.",[19]: 19–20  sometimes referred to as Spiritual warfare.

Higher law has been used to justify violence by Christians.[20]

Historically, according to René Girard, many Christians embraced violence when it became the state religion of the Roman Empire: "Beginning with Constantine, Christianity triumphed at the level of the state and soon began to cloak with its authority persecutions similar to those in which the early Christians were victims."[21]

Wars edit

 
Saint Augustine of Hippo, a seminal thinker on the concept of just war

Attitudes towards the military before Constantine edit

The study of Christian participation in military service in the pre-Constantinian era has been highly contested and has generated a great deal of literature.[22][23]: 4 

Through most of the twentieth century, a consensus was formed around Adolf von Harnack's view that the early church was pacifist, that during the second and third centuries, a growing accommodation of military service occurred, and by the time of Constantine, a just war ethic had arisen.[23]: 4 [24][25]

This consensus was challenged mostly by the work of John Helgeland[26] in the 1970s and 1980s. He said that most of the early Christians opposed military service because they refused to practice the Roman religion and they also refused to perform the rituals of the Roman army, not because they were against killing.[22][23]: 5 [27] Helgeland also stated that there is a diversity of voices in the written literature, as well as evidence of a diversity of practices by Christians.[23]: 5  George Kalantzis, Professor of Theology at Wheaton College,[28] sided with Harnack in the debate writing that "literary evidence confirms the very strong internal coherence of the Church's non-violent stance for the first three centuries."[23]: 7 

David Hunter has concluded that a "new consensus" has emerged and it includes aspects of Helgeland's and Harnack's views. Hunter suggests that the early Christians based their opposition to military service upon both their "aboherrence of Roman army religion" (Helgeland's view) and their opposition to bloodshed (Harnack's view). Hunter notes that there is evidence that by the 2nd century Christian practices had started to diverge from the theological principles espoused in early Christian literature. Hunter's third point of the "new consensus" is the assertion that the just war theory reflects at least one pre-Constantinian view. Finally, to these three points, Kreider added that Christian attitudes towards violence were likely varied in different geographical locations, pointing out that pro-militarist views were stronger in border areas then they were in "heartland" areas which were more strongly aligned with the Empire.[23]: 6 

There is little evidence concerning the extent of Christian participation in the military; generalizations are usually speculation.[29][30] A few gravestones of Christian soldiers have been found.[31][30]

Just war edit

Just war theory is a doctrine of military ethics of Roman philosophical and Catholic origin[32][33] studied by moral theologians, ethicists, and international policy makers, that holds that a conflict can and ought to meet the criteria of philosophical, religious or political justice, provided it follows certain conditions.

The concept of justification for war under certain conditions goes back at least to Roman and Greek thinkers such as Cicero and Plato.[3] However its importance is connected to Christian medieval theory beginning from Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas.[34] According to Jared Diamond, Augustine of Hippo played a critical role in delineating Christian thinking about what constitutes a just war, and about how to reconcile Christian teachings of peace with the need for war in certain situations.[35] Partly inspired by Cicero's writings, Augustine held that war could be justified in order to preserve the state, rectify wrongs by neighboring nations, and expand the state if a tyrant will lose power in doing so.[6]

 
Forward with God! (1915). Anti-militaristic cartoon by Boardman Robinson.

In Ulrich Luz's formulation; "After Constantine, the Christians too had a responsibility for war and peace. Already Celsus asked bitterly whether Christians, by aloofness from society, wanted to increase the political power of wild and lawless barbarians. His question constituted a new actuality; from now on, Christians and churches had to choose between the testimony of the gospel, which included renunciation of violence, and responsible participation in political power, which was understood as an act of love toward the world." Augustine of Hippo's Epistle to Marcellinus (Ep 138) is the most influential example of the "new type of interpretation".[36]

Just war theorists combine both a moral abhorrence towards war with a readiness to accept that war may sometimes be necessary. The criteria of the just war tradition act as an aid to determining whether resorting to arms is morally permissible. Just War theories are attempts "to distinguish between justifiable and unjustifiable uses of organized armed forces"; they attempt "to conceive of how the use of arms might be restrained, made more humane, and ultimately directed towards the aim of establishing lasting peace and justice."[37]

The just war tradition addresses the morality of the use of force in two parts: when it is right to resort to armed force (the concern of jus ad bellum) and what is acceptable in using such force (the concern of jus in bello).[38] In more recent years, a third category—jus post bellum—has been added, which governs the justice of war termination and peace agreements, as well as the prosecution of war criminals.

Holy War edit

In 1095, at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II declared that some wars could be deemed as not only a bellum iustum ("just war"), but could, in certain cases, rise to the level of a bellum sacrum (holy war).[39] Jill Claster, dean of New York University College of Arts and Science,[40] characterizes this as a "remarkable transformation in the ideology of war", shifting the justification of war from being not only "just" but "spiritually beneficial".[41] Thomas Murphy[who?] examined the Christian concept of Holy War, asking "how a culture formally dedicated to fulfilling the injunction to 'love thy neighbor as thyself' could move to a point where it sanctioned the use of violence against the alien both outside and inside society".[citation needed] The religious sanctioning of the concept of "holy war" was a turning point in Christian attitudes towards violence; "Pope Gregory VII made the Holy War possible by drastically altering the attitude of the church towards war... Hitherto a knight could obtain remission of sins only by giving up arms, but Urban invited him to gain forgiveness 'in and through the exercise of his martial skills'." A holy war was defined by the Roman Catholic Church as "war that is not only just, but justifying; that is, a war that confers positive spiritual merit on those who fight in it".[42][43]

In the 12th century, Bernard of Clairvaux wrote: "'The knight of Christ may strike with confidence and die yet more confidently; for he serves Christ when he strikes, and saves himself when he falls.... When he inflicts death, it is to Christ's profit, and when he suffers death, it is his own gain."[44]

Jonathan Riley-Smith writes,

The consensus among Christians on the use of violence has changed radically since the crusades were fought. The just war theory prevailing for most of the last two centuries—that violence is an evil which can in certain situations be condoned as the lesser of evils—is relatively young. Although it has inherited some elements (the criteria of legitimate authority, just cause, right intention) from the older war theory that first evolved around a.d. 400, it has rejected two premises that underpinned all medieval just wars, including crusades: first, that violence could be employed on behalf of Christ's intentions for mankind and could even be directly authorized by him; and second, that it was a morally neutral force which drew whatever ethical coloring it had from the intentions of the perpetrators.[45]

Genocidal warfare edit

 
Pope Innocent III excommunicating the Albigensians (left), Massacre against the Albigensians by the crusaders

The Biblical account of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho was used to justify genocide against Catholics by Oliver Cromwell.[46]: 3 [47] Daniel Chirot, professor of Russian and Eurasian studies at the University of Washington,[48] interprets 1 Samuel 15:1–3 as "the sentiment, so clearly expressed, that because a historical wrong was committed, justice demands genocidal retribution."[46]: 7–8 

Inquisition edit

The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the judicial system of the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy[49] The Spanish Inquisition is often cited in popular literature and history as an example of Catholic intolerance and repression. The total number of people who were processed by the Inquisition throughout its history was approximately 150,000; applying the percentages of executions that appeared in the trials of 1560–1700—about 2%—the approximate total would be about 3,000 of them were put to death. However, the actual death toll was probably higher, according to the data which Dedieu and García Cárcel provided to the tribunals of Toledo and Valencia, respectively.[citation needed] It is likely that between 3,000 and 5,000 people were executed.[50] About 50 people were executed by the Mexican Inquisition.[51] Included in that total are 29 people who were executed as "Judaizers" between 1571 and 1700 out of 324 people who were prosecuted for practicing the Jewish religion.[52]

 
Contemporary illustration of the auto-da-fé of Valladolid, in which fourteen Protestants were burned at the stake for their faith, on May 21, 1559

In the Portuguese Inquisition, the major targets were people who had converted from Judaism to Catholicism, the Conversos, also known as New Christians or Marranos, because they were suspected of secretly practising Judaism. Many of these people were originally Spanish Jews, who had left Spain for Portugal. The number of victims of the Portuguese Inquisition is estimated to be around 40,000.[53][54] One particular focus of the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions was the issue of Jewish anusim and Muslim converts to Catholicism, partly because these minority groups were more numerous in Spain and Portugal than they were in many other parts of Europe, and partly because they were often considered suspect due to the assumption that they had secretly reverted to their former religions. The Goa Inquisition was the office of the Portuguese Inquisition which operated in Portuguese India, as well as in the rest of the Portuguese Empire in Asia. It was established in 1560, it was briefly suppressed from 1774 to 1778, and it was finally abolished in 1812.[55] Based on the records that survive, H. P. Salomon and Rabbi Isaac S.D. Sassoon state that between the Inquisition's beginning in 1561 and its temporary abolition in 1774, some 16,202 persons were brought to trial by the Inquisition. Of this number, 57 of them were sentenced to death and executed, and another 64 were burned in effigy (this sentence was imposed on those persons who had either fled or died in prison; in the latter case, the executed person's remains and the effigy were both placed in a coffin and burned at the same time).[56] Others were subjected to lesser punishments or penance, but the fate of many of those who were tried by the Inquisition is unknown.[57]

During the second half of the 16th century, the Roman Inquisition was responsible for prosecuting individuals who were accused of committing a wide range of crimes which were related to religious doctrine, alternative religious doctrine or alternative religious beliefs. Out of 51,000–75,000 cases which were judged by the Inquisition in Italy after 1542, around 1,250 of them resulted in death sentences.[58]

The period of witch trials in Early Modern Europe[59] was a widespread moral panic caused by the belief that malevolent Satanic witches were operating as an organized threat to Christendom from the 15th to the 18th centuries.[60] A variety of punishments was imposed upon those who were found guilty of witchcraft, including imprisonment, flogging, fines, or exile.[61] In the Old Testament, Exodus 22:18 states that "Thou shalt not permit a sorceress to live".[62] Many people faced capital punishment if they were convicted of witchcraft during this period, either by being burned at the stake, hanged on the gallows, or beheaded.[63] Similarly, in the New England Colonies, people convicted of witchcraft were hanged (See Salem witch trials).[64] The scholarly consensus on the total number of executions for witchcraft ranges from 40,000 to 60,000.[65]

The legal basis for some inquisitorial activity came from Pope Innocent IV's papal bull Ad extirpanda of 1252, which explicitly authorized (and defined the appropriate circumstances for) the use of torture by the Inquisition for eliciting confessions from heretics.[66] By 1256, inquisitors were given absolution if they used instruments of torture.[67] "The overwhelming majority of sentences seem to have consisted of penances like wearing a cross sewn on one's clothes, going on pilgrimage, etc."[68] When a suspect was convicted of unrepentant heresy, the inquisitorial tribunal was required by law to hand the person over to the secular authorities for final sentencing, at which point a magistrate would determine the penalty, which was usually burning at the stake although the penalty varied based on local law.[69][70] The laws were inclusive of proscriptions against certain religious crimes (heresy, etc.), and the punishments included death by burning, although imprisonment for life or banishment would usually be used. Thus the inquisitors generally knew what would be the fate of anyone so remanded, and cannot be considered to have divorced the means of determining guilt from its effects.[71]

Except for the Papal States, the institution of the Inquisition was abolished in Europe in the early 19th century, after the Napoleonic Wars and in the Americas, it was abolished after the Spanish American wars of independence. The institution survived as a part of the Roman Curia, but in 1904, it was renamed the "Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office". In 1965, it was renamed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.[72][73]

Christian terrorism edit

Christian terrorism comprises terrorist acts that are committed by groups or individuals who use Christian motivations or goals as a justification for their actions. As with other forms of religious terrorism, Christian terrorists have relied on interpretations of the tenets of their faith—in this case, the Bible. Such groups have cited Old Testament and New Testament scriptures as justifications for acts of violence and killings or they have sought to bring about the "end times" which are described in the New Testament.[74]

These interpretations are typically different from the interpretations of established Christian denominations.

Forced conversions edit

After the Constantinian shift, Christianity became entangled in government. While anthropologists have shown that throughout history the relationship between religion and politics has been complex, there is no doubt that religious institutions, including Christian ones, have been used coercively by governments, and that they have used coercion themselves.[75] Augustine advocated government force in his Epistle 185, A Treatise Concerning the Correction of the Donatists, justifying coercion from scripture. He cites Jesus striking Paul during Paul's vision on the road to Damascus. He also cites the parable of the great banquet in Luke 14:22–23. Such short term pain for the sake of eternal salvation was an act of charity and love, in his view.[76]

Examples of forced conversion to Christianity include: the Christian persecution of paganism under Theodosius I,[77] the forced conversion and violent assimilation of pagan tribes in medieval Europe,[78] the Inquisition, including its manifestations in Goa, Mexico, Portugal, and Spain, the forced conversion of indigenous children in North America[79] and Australia[80]

Support of slavery edit

Early Christianity variously opposed, accepted, or ignored slavery.[81] The early Christian perspectives on slavery were formed in the contexts of Christianity's roots in Judaism, and they were also shaped by the wider culture of the Roman Empire. Both the Old and New Testaments recognize the existence of the institution of slavery.

The earliest surviving Christian teachings about slavery are from Paul the Apostle. Paul did not renounce the institution of slavery, though perhaps this was not for personal reasons (similar to Aristotle). He taught that Christian slaves ought to serve their masters wholeheartedly.[82] Nothing in the passage affirms slavery as a naturally valid or divinely mandated institution. Rather, Paul's discussion about the duties of Christian slaves and the responsibilities of Christian masters transforms the institution, even if it falls short of calling for slavery's outright abolition. In the ancient world the slave was a thing. Aristotle wrote that there could never be friendship between a master and a slave, for a master and a slave have nothing in common: "a slave is a living tool, just as a tool is an inanimate slave." Paul's words are entirely different. He calls the slave a "slave of Christ", one who wants to do "the will of God" and who will receive a "reward" for "whatever good he does". Likewise, the master is responsible to God for how he treats his slave, who is ultimately God's property rather than his own. This is another way of saying that the slave, no less than the master, has been made in God's image. As such, he possesses inestimable worth and great dignity. He is to be treated properly. In such a framework slavery, even though it was still slavery, could never be the same type of institution that was imposed on non-Christians. It was this transformation (which came from viewing all persons as being made in God's image) that ultimately destroyed slavery.[83] Tradition describes Pope Pius I (term c. 158–167) and Pope Callixtus I (term c. 217–222) as former slaves.[84]

Nearly all Christian leaders before the late 15th century recognised the institution of slavery, within specific Biblical limitations, as being consistent with Christian theology.[citation needed] [85][better source needed] In 1452, Pope Nicholas V instituted the hereditary slavery of captured Muslims and pagans, regarding all non-Christians as "enemies of Christ".[86]

Genesis 9:25–27, the Curse of Ham, says: "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. He also said, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem." This verse has been used to justify racialized slavery, since "Christians and even some Muslims eventually identified Ham's descendents as black Africans".[81][87] Anthony Pagden argued that "This reading of the Book of Genesis merged easily into a medieval iconographic tradition in which devils were always depicted as black. Later pseudo-scientific theories would be built around African skull shapes, dental structure, and body postures, in an attempt to find an unassailable argument—rooted in whatever the most persuasive contemporary idiom happened to be: law, theology, genealogy, or natural science—why one part of the human race should live in perpetual indebtedness to another."[88]

Rodney Stark makes the argument in For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery,[89] that Christianity helped to end slavery worldwide, as does Lamin Sanneh in Abolitionists Abroad.[90] These authors point out that Christians who believed that slavery was wrong on the basis of their religious convictions spearheaded abolitionism, and many of the early campaigners for the abolition of slavery were driven by their Christian faith and they were also driven by a desire to realize their view that all people are equal under God.[91]

Modern-day Christians generally condemn slavery as wrong and contrary to God's will. Only peripheral groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and other Christian hate groups which operate on the racist fringes of the Christian Reconstructionist and Christian Identity movements advocate the reinstitution of slavery.[81] Full adherents of Christian Reconstructionism are few and they are marginalized among conservative Christians.[92][93][94] With these exceptions, all Christian faith groups now condemn slavery, and they see the practice of slavery as being incompatible with basic Christian principles.[81][85]

Violence against Jews edit

 
Jews burned alive for the alleged host desecration in Deggendorf, Bavaria, in 1337

A strain of hostility towards Judaism and the Jewish people developed among Christians in the early years of Christianity, persisted over the ensuing centuries, was driven by numerous factors including theological differences, the Christian drive for converts,[95] which is decreed by the Great Commission, a misunderstanding of Jewish beliefs and practices, and the perception that Jews are hostile towards Christians.[96]

Over the centuries, these attitudes were reinforced by Christian preaching, art and popular teaching, all of which expressed contempt for Jews.[97]

Modern antisemitism has primarily been described as hatred against Jews as a race, a form of racism, rather than hatred against Jews as a religious group, because its modern expression is rooted in 18th century racial theories, while anti-Judaism is described as hostility towards the Jewish religion, a sentiment which is rooted in but more extreme than criticism of Judaism as a religion, but in Western Christianity, anti-Judaism was transformed into antisemitism during the 12th century.[98]

Christian opposition to violence edit

 
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent advocate of Christian nonviolence

Historian Roland Bainton described the early church as pacifist—a period that ended with the accession of Constantine.[99]

In the first few centuries of Christianity, many Christians refused to engage in military service. In fact, there were a number of famous examples of soldiers who became Christians and refused to engage in combat afterwards. They were subsequently executed for their refusal to fight.[100] The commitment to pacifism and the rejection of military service are attributed by Mark J. Allman, professor in the Department of Religious and Theological Studies at Merrimack College,[101] to two principles: "(1) the use of force (violence) was seen as antithetical to Jesus' teachings and service in the Roman military required worship of the emperor as a god which was a form of idolatry."[102]

In the 3rd century, Origen wrote: "Christians could not slay their enemies."[103] Clement of Alexandria wrote: "Above all, Christians are not allowed to correct with violence the delinquencies of sins."[104][105] Tertullian argued forcefully against all forms of violence, considering abortion, warfare and even judicial death penalties to be forms of murder.[106][107]

Pacifist and violence-resisting traditions have continued into contemporary times. One of those religious organizations are Jehovah's Witnesses, they are politically neutral and were one of the only religious groups as a whole to object to enlisting in WW2.

[108][109][110]

Several present-day Christian churches and communities were established specifically with nonviolence, including conscientious objection to military service, as foundations of their beliefs.[111] Members of the Historic Peace Churches such as Quakers, Mennonites, Amish and the Church of the Brethren object to war based on their conviction that Christian life is incompatible with military actions, because Jesus enjoins his followers to love their enemies and refrain from committing acts of violence.[citation needed]

In the 20th century, Martin Luther King Jr. and others adapted the nonviolent ideas of Gandhi to a Baptist theology and politics.[112]

In the 21st century, Christian feminist thinkers have drawn attention to their views by opposing violence against women.[113]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Clouse, Robert G. (1986). War Four Christian views. Winona Lake, Indiana: BMH Books. pp. 12–22.
  2. ^ Duffey, Michael (2015-06-22). "2. Christianity From Peacemaking to Violence to Home Again". In Omar, Irfan; Duffey, Michael (eds.). Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 55–56. ISBN 9781118953426.
  3. ^ a b "Religion & Ethics – Just War Theory -introduction". BBC. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
  4. ^ Syse, Henrik (2010). "The Platonic roots of just war doctrine: a reading of Plato's Republic". Diametros. 23: 104–123.
  5. ^ Duffey, Michael (2015-06-22). "2. Christianity From Peacemaking to Violence to Home Again". In Omar, Irfan; Duffey, Michael (eds.). Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 58. ISBN 9781118953426. The purpose of war for Augustine was to preserve "good order". It was a long lasting influence of St. Augustine's teaching on war and violence that shaped mainstream Christianity for 1500 years. Augustine fathered the mainstream Christian view that violence was just a means for political ends...Indeed, Augustine's perspective was not based on the New Testament.
  6. ^ a b Wells, Donald, ed. (1996). An Encyclopedia of War and Ethics. Greenwood Press. pp. 30–31. ISBN 9780313291166. In 383, Christianity was declared the official religion of the Roman Empire, and Christians who had previously been aloof from political and social responsibility were compelled to rethink their role. Augustine, and his teacher St. Ambrose (340–397), in part inspired by the writings of Cicero (106-43 s.c.), developed just war criteria to show why Christians could consistently serve in the military as armed soldiers, at least in some wars. Although Augustine deplored the ambitions that promoted wars for sovereignty over others, he believed that there were conditions under which it was just to extend an empire... As instances of worthy causes Augustine named preservation of the well-being of the state, punishment of neighbor nations that had refused to make amends for wrongs committed by their subjects, to restore what had been taken unjustly, and even to expand an empire if one was taking land a way from a tyrant (Questions Concerning the Heputteuch. Question 10; and City of God. Book 4, Part 15).
  7. ^ Bonney, Richard (2011). "Just War". The Encyclopedia of War. doi:10.1002/9781444338232.wbeow328. ISBN 9781405190374. Questions such as under which circumstances war may be legitimized, and the rules of war controlled, are the concern of just war theory in the Christian tradition from the writings of St. Augustine in the fourth century, through the scholastics of the Middle Ages (above all, St. Thomas Aquinas) and early modern period (Vitoria, Sua´rez, and Grotius) to modern commentators such as George Weigel and Michael Walzer. The early Christian writers in turn drew upon Roman Law and the writings of Cicero; indeed, in the view of Alex J. Bellamy, they "added little that was substantially new" (Bellamy 2006: 8). {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  8. ^ a b Peters, Edward (1998). "Introduction". The First Crusade: The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and Other Source Materials (2 ed.). Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0812216561.
  9. ^ Duffey, Michael (2015-06-22). "2. Christianity From Peacemaking to Violence to Home Again". In Omar, Irfan; Duffey, Michael (eds.). Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9781118953426.
  10. ^ Boustan, Ra'anan S. (2010). Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practice in Early Judaism and Christianity. BRILL. p. 3.
  11. ^ Jenkins, Philip (March 8, 2009). "Dark Passages". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2010-11-26. the Bible overflows with "texts of terror," to borrow a phrase coined by the American theologian Phyllis Trible. The Bible contains far more verses praising or urging bloodshed than does the Koran, and biblical violence is often far more extreme, and marked by more indiscriminate savagery. … If the founding text shapes the whole religion, then Judaism and Christianity deserve the utmost condemnation as religions of savagery.
  12. ^ "Shelly Matthews – Brite Divinity School". Retrieved 24 June 2017.
  13. ^ Gibson, Leigh; Matthews, Shelly (2005). Violence in the New Testament. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 1–3. Marcion's second-century distinction between the God of the Old Testament as responsible for violence and vengeance and the God of the New Testament as a God of mercy and love looms large in the consciousness of the West. [...] More troubling than studies of violence in the Bible that ignore the New Testament are those that lift up the New Testament as somehow containing the antidote for Old Testament violence. This is ultimately the case, for instance, in the work of Girard [...] But as John Gager shows in this volume through his examination of the work of Girard's disciple, Robert Hamerton-Kelly, such a line of thinking has the potential to reinscribe insidiously the prejudices of Marcion.
  14. ^ Rynne, Terrence J. (2008). Gandhi and Jesus: The Saving Power of Nonviolence. Orbis Books. ISBN 978-1-57075-766-2. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  15. ^ J. Denny Weaver (2001). . Cross Currents. Archived from the original on 2012-05-25. Retrieved 2010-10-27.
  16. ^ see e.g.: John Coffey, Persecution and Toleration on Protestant England 1558–1689, 2000, p.22
  17. ^ Volf, Miroslav (2008). "Christianity and Violence". In Hess, Richard S.; Martens, E.A. (eds.). War in the Bible and terrorism in the twenty-first century. Eisenbrauns. pp. 1–17. ISBN 978-1-57506-803-9. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
  18. ^ Volf 2008, p. 13
  19. ^ a b Mark Juergensmeyer (2004). Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24011-7.
  20. ^ Smith, Ted (2015). "Religious Violence? Politics of a Higher Law". The Christian Century. 5: 24–27 – via Ebsco host.
  21. ^ Girard, Rene. The Scapegoat. p. 204.
  22. ^ a b Kreider, Alan (2003). "Military Service in the Church Orders". The Journal of Religious Ethics. 31.3 (Winter, 2003): 415–416. doi:10.1111/1467-9795.00146. JSTOR 40008336.
  23. ^ a b c d e f Kalantzis, George (2012). Caesar and the Lamb: Early Christian Attitudes on War and Military Service. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books. ISBN 978-1608992539.
  24. ^ Latourette, Kenneth Scott (1953). A History of Christianity: Beginnings to 1500. Vol. 1. Harper San Francisco, a division of Harper Collins. pp. 242–243.
  25. ^ Sider, Ronald J. (2012). Ronald J. Sider (ed.). The Early Church on killing. Grand Rapids Michigan: Baker Publishing Group. Afterword. ISBN 978-0-8010-3630-9.
  26. ^ Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies and History at North Dakota State University: "Helgeland – History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies (NDSU)". www.ndsu.edu. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  27. ^ Helgeland, John (1979). H. Temporini and W. Haase (ed.). Christians and the Roman Army from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine. Vol. 23. Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 724–834.
  28. ^ College, Wheaton. . www.wheaton.edu. Archived from the original on 2 September 2017. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
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References edit

  • Avalos, Hector. Fighting Words. The Origins of Religious Violence. Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2005.
  • Behringer, Wolfgang (2004). Witches and Witch-Hunts. Cambridge: Polity.
  • Hutton, Ronald (2010). "Writing the History of Witchcraft: A Personal View". The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies. 12 (2): 239–262. doi:10.1558/pome.v12i2.239.
  • Roper, Lyndal (2004). Witch Craze. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Schwartz, Regina M. The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Further reading edit

  • Bekkenkamp, Jonneke and Sherwood, Yvonne, ed. Sanctified Aggression. Legacies of Biblical and Postbiblical Vocabularies of Violence. London/New York: T. & T. Clark International, 2003.
  • Collins, John J. Does the Bible Justify Violence? Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004.
  • Hedges, Chris. 2007. American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. Free Press.
  • Hodgson, Natasha R., Amy Fuller, John McCallum, Nicholas Morton (eds.), 2021, Religion and Conflict in Medieval and Early Modern Worlds: Identities, Communities and Authorities. London, Routledge.
  • Lea, Henry Charles. 1961. The Inquisition of the Middle Ages. Abridged. New York: Macmillan.
  • Kimball, Charles (2013). Jerryson, Michael; Juergensmeyer, Mark; Kitts, Margo (eds.). "Religion and Violence from Christian Theological Perspectives". The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199759996.001.0001. ISBN 9780199759996.
  • King, Karen L. (2013). Jerryson, Michael; Juergensmeyer, Mark; Kitts, Margo (eds.). "Christianity and Torture". The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199759996.001.0001. ISBN 9780199759996.
  • MacMullen, Ramsay, 1989 "Christianizing the Roman Empire: AD 100–400"
  • MacMullen, Ramsay, 1997, "Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries"
  • Mason, Carol. 2002. Killing for Life: The Apocalyptic Narrative of Pro-Life Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  • McTernan, Oliver J. 2003. Violence in God's name: religion in an age of conflict. Orbis Books.
  • Nakashian, Craig M. Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England, 1000–1250: Theory and Reality. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2016
  • Paynter, Helen and Michael Spalione (eds.) (2020). The Bible on Violence: A Thick Description. Sheffield Phoenix Press.
  • Thiery, Daniel E. Polluting the Sacred: Violence, Faith and the Civilizing of Parishioners in Late Medieval England. Leiden: Brill, 2009.
  • Tyerman, Christopher. 2006. God's War: A New History of the Crusades. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, Belknap.
  • Zeskind, Leonard. 1987. The 'Christian Identity' Movement, [booklet]. Atlanta, Georgia: Center for Democratic Renewal/Division of Church and Society, National Council of Churches.
  • Steffen, Lloyd (2013). Jerryson, Michael; Juergensmeyer, Mark; Kitts, Margo (eds.). "Religion and Violence in Christian Traditions". The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199759996.001.0001. ISBN 9780199759996.
  • Rodney Stark God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades, HarperOne, 2010.

External links edit

  •   Media related to Christianity and violence at Wikimedia Commons

christianity, violence, christians, have, diverse, attitudes, towards, violence, nonviolence, over, time, both, currently, historically, there, have, been, four, attitudes, towards, violence, four, resulting, practices, them, within, christianity, resistance, . Christians have had diverse attitudes towards violence and nonviolence over time Both currently and historically there have been four attitudes towards violence and war and four resulting practices of them within Christianity non resistance Christian pacifism just war and preventive war Holy war e g the Crusades 1 In the Roman Empire the early church adopted a nonviolent stance when it came to war because the imitation of Jesus s sacrificial life was preferable to it 2 The concept of Just War the belief that limited uses of war were acceptable originated in the writings of earlier non Christian Roman and Greek thinkers such as Cicero and Plato 3 4 Later this theory was adopted by Christian thinkers such as St Augustine who like other Christians borrowed much of the just war concept from Roman law and the works of Roman writers like Cicero 5 6 7 Even though Just War concept was widely accepted early on warfare was not regarded as a virtuous activity and expressing concern for the salvation of those who killed enemies in battle regardless of the cause for which they fought was common 8 Concepts such as Holy war whereby fighting itself might be considered a penitential and spiritually meritorious act did not emerge before the 11th century 8 9 A battle scene from the First Crusade The Crusades were a series of military campaigns which were mainly waged between European Christians and Muslims Contents 1 Bible 2 Christian violence 2 1 Wars 2 1 1 Attitudes towards the military before Constantine 2 1 2 Just war 2 1 3 Holy War 2 1 4 Genocidal warfare 2 2 Inquisition 2 3 Christian terrorism 2 4 Forced conversions 2 5 Support of slavery 2 6 Violence against Jews 3 Christian opposition to violence 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External linksBible edit nbsp Having Their Fling 1917 by Art Young Main article The Bible and violence The Bible contains several texts which encourage command condemn reward punish regulate and describe acts of violence 10 11 Leigh Gibson who and Shelly Matthews associate professor of religion at Furman University 12 write that some scholars such as Rene Girard lift up the New Testament as somehow containing the antidote for Old Testament violence According to John Gager such an analysis risks advocating the views of the heresiarch Marcion of Sinope c 85 160 who made a distinction between the God of the Old Testament responsible for violence and the God of mercy found in the New Testament 13 Mahatma Gandhi embraced the concept of nonviolence which he had found in both Indian Religions and the New Testament e g Sermon on the Mount which he then utilized in his strategy for social and political struggles 14 Christian violence editSee also Religious violence nbsp I Believe in the Sword and Almighty God 1914 Anti militaristic cartoon by Boardman Robinson J Denny Weaver Professor Emeritus of Religion at Bluffton University suggests that there are numerous evolving views on violence and nonviolence throughout the history of Christian theology 15 According to the view of many historians the Constantinian shift turned Christianity from a persecuted into a persecuting religion 16 Miroslav Volf has identified the intervention of a new creation as in the Second Coming as a particular aspect of Christianity that generates violence 17 Writing about the latter Volf says Beginning at least with Constantine s conversion the followers of the Crucified have perpetrated gruesome acts of violence under the sign of the cross Over the centuries the seasons of Lent and Holy Week were for the Jews times of fear and trepidation Muslims also associate the cross with violence crusaders rampages were undertaken under the sign of the cross 18 The statement attributed to Jesus I come not to bring peace but to bring a sword has been interpreted by some as a call to arms for Christians 19 Mark Juergensmeyer argues that despite its central tenets of love and peace Christianity like most traditions has always had a violent side The bloody history of the tradition has provided disturbing images and violent conflict is vividly portrayed in the Bible This history and these biblical images have provided the raw material for theologically justifying the violence of contemporary Christian groups For example attacks on abortion clinics have been viewed not only as assaults on a practice that Christians regard as immoral but also as skirmishes in a grand confrontation between forces of evil and good that has social and political implications 19 19 20 sometimes referred to as Spiritual warfare Higher law has been used to justify violence by Christians 20 Historically according to Rene Girard many Christians embraced violence when it became the state religion of the Roman Empire Beginning with Constantine Christianity triumphed at the level of the state and soon began to cloak with its authority persecutions similar to those in which the early Christians were victims 21 Wars edit nbsp Saint Augustine of Hippo a seminal thinker on the concept of just war Attitudes towards the military before Constantine edit The study of Christian participation in military service in the pre Constantinian era has been highly contested and has generated a great deal of literature 22 23 4 Through most of the twentieth century a consensus was formed around Adolf von Harnack s view that the early church was pacifist that during the second and third centuries a growing accommodation of military service occurred and by the time of Constantine a just war ethic had arisen 23 4 24 25 This consensus was challenged mostly by the work of John Helgeland 26 in the 1970s and 1980s He said that most of the early Christians opposed military service because they refused to practice the Roman religion and they also refused to perform the rituals of the Roman army not because they were against killing 22 23 5 27 Helgeland also stated that there is a diversity of voices in the written literature as well as evidence of a diversity of practices by Christians 23 5 George Kalantzis Professor of Theology at Wheaton College 28 sided with Harnack in the debate writing that literary evidence confirms the very strong internal coherence of the Church s non violent stance for the first three centuries 23 7 David Hunter has concluded that a new consensus has emerged and it includes aspects of Helgeland s and Harnack s views Hunter suggests that the early Christians based their opposition to military service upon both their aboherrence of Roman army religion Helgeland s view and their opposition to bloodshed Harnack s view Hunter notes that there is evidence that by the 2nd century Christian practices had started to diverge from the theological principles espoused in early Christian literature Hunter s third point of the new consensus is the assertion that the just war theory reflects at least one pre Constantinian view Finally to these three points Kreider added that Christian attitudes towards violence were likely varied in different geographical locations pointing out that pro militarist views were stronger in border areas then they were in heartland areas which were more strongly aligned with the Empire 23 6 There is little evidence concerning the extent of Christian participation in the military generalizations are usually speculation 29 30 A few gravestones of Christian soldiers have been found 31 30 Just war edit Main article Just war theory Just war theory is a doctrine of military ethics of Roman philosophical and Catholic origin 32 33 studied by moral theologians ethicists and international policy makers that holds that a conflict can and ought to meet the criteria of philosophical religious or political justice provided it follows certain conditions The concept of justification for war under certain conditions goes back at least to Roman and Greek thinkers such as Cicero and Plato 3 However its importance is connected to Christian medieval theory beginning from Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas 34 According to Jared Diamond Augustine of Hippo played a critical role in delineating Christian thinking about what constitutes a just war and about how to reconcile Christian teachings of peace with the need for war in certain situations 35 Partly inspired by Cicero s writings Augustine held that war could be justified in order to preserve the state rectify wrongs by neighboring nations and expand the state if a tyrant will lose power in doing so 6 nbsp Forward with God 1915 Anti militaristic cartoon by Boardman Robinson In Ulrich Luz s formulation After Constantine the Christians too had a responsibility for war and peace Already Celsus asked bitterly whether Christians by aloofness from society wanted to increase the political power of wild and lawless barbarians His question constituted a new actuality from now on Christians and churches had to choose between the testimony of the gospel which included renunciation of violence and responsible participation in political power which was understood as an act of love toward the world Augustine of Hippo s Epistle to Marcellinus Ep 138 is the most influential example of the new type of interpretation 36 Just war theorists combine both a moral abhorrence towards war with a readiness to accept that war may sometimes be necessary The criteria of the just war tradition act as an aid to determining whether resorting to arms is morally permissible Just War theories are attempts to distinguish between justifiable and unjustifiable uses of organized armed forces they attempt to conceive of how the use of arms might be restrained made more humane and ultimately directed towards the aim of establishing lasting peace and justice 37 The just war tradition addresses the morality of the use of force in two parts when it is right to resort to armed force the concern of jus ad bellum and what is acceptable in using such force the concern of jus in bello 38 In more recent years a third category jus post bellum has been added which governs the justice of war termination and peace agreements as well as the prosecution of war criminals Holy War edit Further information Holy war Christianity and Crusades In 1095 at the Council of Clermont Pope Urban II declared that some wars could be deemed as not only a bellum iustum just war but could in certain cases rise to the level of a bellum sacrum holy war 39 Jill Claster dean of New York University College of Arts and Science 40 characterizes this as a remarkable transformation in the ideology of war shifting the justification of war from being not only just but spiritually beneficial 41 Thomas Murphy who examined the Christian concept of Holy War asking how a culture formally dedicated to fulfilling the injunction to love thy neighbor as thyself could move to a point where it sanctioned the use of violence against the alien both outside and inside society citation needed The religious sanctioning of the concept of holy war was a turning point in Christian attitudes towards violence Pope Gregory VII made the Holy War possible by drastically altering the attitude of the church towards war Hitherto a knight could obtain remission of sins only by giving up arms but Urban invited him to gain forgiveness in and through the exercise of his martial skills A holy war was defined by the Roman Catholic Church as war that is not only just but justifying that is a war that confers positive spiritual merit on those who fight in it 42 43 In the 12th century Bernard of Clairvaux wrote The knight of Christ may strike with confidence and die yet more confidently for he serves Christ when he strikes and saves himself when he falls When he inflicts death it is to Christ s profit and when he suffers death it is his own gain 44 Jonathan Riley Smith writes The consensus among Christians on the use of violence has changed radically since the crusades were fought The just war theory prevailing for most of the last two centuries that violence is an evil which can in certain situations be condoned as the lesser of evils is relatively young Although it has inherited some elements the criteria of legitimate authority just cause right intention from the older war theory that first evolved around a d 400 it has rejected two premises that underpinned all medieval just wars including crusades first that violence could be employed on behalf of Christ s intentions for mankind and could even be directly authorized by him and second that it was a morally neutral force which drew whatever ethical coloring it had from the intentions of the perpetrators 45 Genocidal warfare edit nbsp Pope Innocent III excommunicating the Albigensians left Massacre against the Albigensians by the crusaders The Biblical account of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho was used to justify genocide against Catholics by Oliver Cromwell 46 3 47 Daniel Chirot professor of Russian and Eurasian studies at the University of Washington 48 interprets 1 Samuel 15 1 3 as the sentiment so clearly expressed that because a historical wrong was committed justice demands genocidal retribution 46 7 8 Inquisition edit Main articles Inquisition Reconquista and Counter Reformation Politics See also Christian views on magic and List of people burned as heretics The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the judicial system of the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy 49 The Spanish Inquisition is often cited in popular literature and history as an example of Catholic intolerance and repression The total number of people who were processed by the Inquisition throughout its history was approximately 150 000 applying the percentages of executions that appeared in the trials of 1560 1700 about 2 the approximate total would be about 3 000 of them were put to death However the actual death toll was probably higher according to the data which Dedieu and Garcia Carcel provided to the tribunals of Toledo and Valencia respectively citation needed It is likely that between 3 000 and 5 000 people were executed 50 About 50 people were executed by the Mexican Inquisition 51 Included in that total are 29 people who were executed as Judaizers between 1571 and 1700 out of 324 people who were prosecuted for practicing the Jewish religion 52 nbsp Contemporary illustration of the auto da fe of Valladolid in which fourteen Protestants were burned at the stake for their faith on May 21 1559 In the Portuguese Inquisition the major targets were people who had converted from Judaism to Catholicism the Conversos also known as New Christians or Marranos because they were suspected of secretly practising Judaism Many of these people were originally Spanish Jews who had left Spain for Portugal The number of victims of the Portuguese Inquisition is estimated to be around 40 000 53 54 One particular focus of the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions was the issue of Jewish anusim and Muslim converts to Catholicism partly because these minority groups were more numerous in Spain and Portugal than they were in many other parts of Europe and partly because they were often considered suspect due to the assumption that they had secretly reverted to their former religions The Goa Inquisition was the office of the Portuguese Inquisition which operated in Portuguese India as well as in the rest of the Portuguese Empire in Asia It was established in 1560 it was briefly suppressed from 1774 to 1778 and it was finally abolished in 1812 55 Based on the records that survive H P Salomon and Rabbi Isaac S D Sassoon state that between the Inquisition s beginning in 1561 and its temporary abolition in 1774 some 16 202 persons were brought to trial by the Inquisition Of this number 57 of them were sentenced to death and executed and another 64 were burned in effigy this sentence was imposed on those persons who had either fled or died in prison in the latter case the executed person s remains and the effigy were both placed in a coffin and burned at the same time 56 Others were subjected to lesser punishments or penance but the fate of many of those who were tried by the Inquisition is unknown 57 During the second half of the 16th century the Roman Inquisition was responsible for prosecuting individuals who were accused of committing a wide range of crimes which were related to religious doctrine alternative religious doctrine or alternative religious beliefs Out of 51 000 75 000 cases which were judged by the Inquisition in Italy after 1542 around 1 250 of them resulted in death sentences 58 The period of witch trials in Early Modern Europe 59 was a widespread moral panic caused by the belief that malevolent Satanic witches were operating as an organized threat to Christendom from the 15th to the 18th centuries 60 A variety of punishments was imposed upon those who were found guilty of witchcraft including imprisonment flogging fines or exile 61 In the Old Testament Exodus 22 18 states that Thou shalt not permit a sorceress to live 62 Many people faced capital punishment if they were convicted of witchcraft during this period either by being burned at the stake hanged on the gallows or beheaded 63 Similarly in the New England Colonies people convicted of witchcraft were hanged See Salem witch trials 64 The scholarly consensus on the total number of executions for witchcraft ranges from 40 000 to 60 000 65 The legal basis for some inquisitorial activity came from Pope Innocent IV s papal bull Ad extirpanda of 1252 which explicitly authorized and defined the appropriate circumstances for the use of torture by the Inquisition for eliciting confessions from heretics 66 By 1256 inquisitors were given absolution if they used instruments of torture 67 The overwhelming majority of sentences seem to have consisted of penances like wearing a cross sewn on one s clothes going on pilgrimage etc 68 When a suspect was convicted of unrepentant heresy the inquisitorial tribunal was required by law to hand the person over to the secular authorities for final sentencing at which point a magistrate would determine the penalty which was usually burning at the stake although the penalty varied based on local law 69 70 The laws were inclusive of proscriptions against certain religious crimes heresy etc and the punishments included death by burning although imprisonment for life or banishment would usually be used Thus the inquisitors generally knew what would be the fate of anyone so remanded and cannot be considered to have divorced the means of determining guilt from its effects 71 Except for the Papal States the institution of the Inquisition was abolished in Europe in the early 19th century after the Napoleonic Wars and in the Americas it was abolished after the Spanish American wars of independence The institution survived as a part of the Roman Curia but in 1904 it was renamed the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office In 1965 it was renamed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith 72 73 Christian terrorism edit Main article Christian terrorism Christian terrorism comprises terrorist acts that are committed by groups or individuals who use Christian motivations or goals as a justification for their actions As with other forms of religious terrorism Christian terrorists have relied on interpretations of the tenets of their faith in this case the Bible Such groups have cited Old Testament and New Testament scriptures as justifications for acts of violence and killings or they have sought to bring about the end times which are described in the New Testament 74 These interpretations are typically different from the interpretations of established Christian denominations Forced conversions edit Main articles Forcible conversion to Christianity and History of Christian thought on persecution and tolerance After the Constantinian shift Christianity became entangled in government While anthropologists have shown that throughout history the relationship between religion and politics has been complex there is no doubt that religious institutions including Christian ones have been used coercively by governments and that they have used coercion themselves 75 Augustine advocated government force in his Epistle 185 A Treatise Concerning the Correction of the Donatists justifying coercion from scripture He cites Jesus striking Paul during Paul s vision on the road to Damascus He also cites the parable of the great banquet in Luke 14 22 23 Such short term pain for the sake of eternal salvation was an act of charity and love in his view 76 Examples of forced conversion to Christianity include the Christian persecution of paganism under Theodosius I 77 the forced conversion and violent assimilation of pagan tribes in medieval Europe 78 the Inquisition including its manifestations in Goa Mexico Portugal and Spain the forced conversion of indigenous children in North America 79 and Australia 80 Support of slavery edit Main articles Christian views on slavery and Slavery and religion See also Black people and Mormonism Criticism of Christianity Slavery Curse and mark of Cain Curse of Ham and Pre Adamite Early Christianity variously opposed accepted or ignored slavery 81 The early Christian perspectives on slavery were formed in the contexts of Christianity s roots in Judaism and they were also shaped by the wider culture of the Roman Empire Both the Old and New Testaments recognize the existence of the institution of slavery The earliest surviving Christian teachings about slavery are from Paul the Apostle Paul did not renounce the institution of slavery though perhaps this was not for personal reasons similar to Aristotle He taught that Christian slaves ought to serve their masters wholeheartedly 82 Nothing in the passage affirms slavery as a naturally valid or divinely mandated institution Rather Paul s discussion about the duties of Christian slaves and the responsibilities of Christian masters transforms the institution even if it falls short of calling for slavery s outright abolition In the ancient world the slave was a thing Aristotle wrote that there could never be friendship between a master and a slave for a master and a slave have nothing in common a slave is a living tool just as a tool is an inanimate slave Paul s words are entirely different He calls the slave a slave of Christ one who wants to do the will of God and who will receive a reward for whatever good he does Likewise the master is responsible to God for how he treats his slave who is ultimately God s property rather than his own This is another way of saying that the slave no less than the master has been made in God s image As such he possesses inestimable worth and great dignity He is to be treated properly In such a framework slavery even though it was still slavery could never be the same type of institution that was imposed on non Christians It was this transformation which came from viewing all persons as being made in God s image that ultimately destroyed slavery 83 Tradition describes Pope Pius I term c 158 167 and Pope Callixtus I term c 217 222 as former slaves 84 Nearly all Christian leaders before the late 15th century recognised the institution of slavery within specific Biblical limitations as being consistent with Christian theology citation needed 85 better source needed In 1452 Pope Nicholas V instituted the hereditary slavery of captured Muslims and pagans regarding all non Christians as enemies of Christ 86 Genesis 9 25 27 the Curse of Ham says Cursed be Canaan The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers He also said Blessed be the Lord the God of Shem May Canaan be the slave of Shem This verse has been used to justify racialized slavery since Christians and even some Muslims eventually identified Ham s descendents as black Africans 81 87 Anthony Pagden argued that This reading of the Book of Genesis merged easily into a medieval iconographic tradition in which devils were always depicted as black Later pseudo scientific theories would be built around African skull shapes dental structure and body postures in an attempt to find an unassailable argument rooted in whatever the most persuasive contemporary idiom happened to be law theology genealogy or natural science why one part of the human race should live in perpetual indebtedness to another 88 Rodney Stark makes the argument in For the Glory of God How Monotheism Led to Reformations Science Witch Hunts and the End of Slavery 89 that Christianity helped to end slavery worldwide as does Lamin Sanneh in Abolitionists Abroad 90 These authors point out that Christians who believed that slavery was wrong on the basis of their religious convictions spearheaded abolitionism and many of the early campaigners for the abolition of slavery were driven by their Christian faith and they were also driven by a desire to realize their view that all people are equal under God 91 Modern day Christians generally condemn slavery as wrong and contrary to God s will Only peripheral groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and other Christian hate groups which operate on the racist fringes of the Christian Reconstructionist and Christian Identity movements advocate the reinstitution of slavery 81 Full adherents of Christian Reconstructionism are few and they are marginalized among conservative Christians 92 93 94 With these exceptions all Christian faith groups now condemn slavery and they see the practice of slavery as being incompatible with basic Christian principles 81 85 Violence against Jews edit Main article Antisemitism in Christianity See also Religious antisemitism Christian antisemitism Christian Identity Jewish deicide Persecution of Jews and Serpent seed nbsp Jews burned alive for the alleged host desecration in Deggendorf Bavaria in 1337 A strain of hostility towards Judaism and the Jewish people developed among Christians in the early years of Christianity persisted over the ensuing centuries was driven by numerous factors including theological differences the Christian drive for converts 95 which is decreed by the Great Commission a misunderstanding of Jewish beliefs and practices and the perception that Jews are hostile towards Christians 96 Over the centuries these attitudes were reinforced by Christian preaching art and popular teaching all of which expressed contempt for Jews 97 Modern antisemitism has primarily been described as hatred against Jews as a race a form of racism rather than hatred against Jews as a religious group because its modern expression is rooted in 18th century racial theories while anti Judaism is described as hostility towards the Jewish religion a sentiment which is rooted in but more extreme than criticism of Judaism as a religion but in Western Christianity anti Judaism was transformed into antisemitism during the 12th century 98 Christian opposition to violence editMain articles Christian pacifism Peace churches and Religion and peacebuilding Christianity and peacebuilding See also Christian humanism nbsp The Rev Martin Luther King Jr a prominent advocate of Christian nonviolence Historian Roland Bainton described the early church as pacifist a period that ended with the accession of Constantine 99 In the first few centuries of Christianity many Christians refused to engage in military service In fact there were a number of famous examples of soldiers who became Christians and refused to engage in combat afterwards They were subsequently executed for their refusal to fight 100 The commitment to pacifism and the rejection of military service are attributed by Mark J Allman professor in the Department of Religious and Theological Studies at Merrimack College 101 to two principles 1 the use of force violence was seen as antithetical to Jesus teachings and service in the Roman military required worship of the emperor as a god which was a form of idolatry 102 In the 3rd century Origen wrote Christians could not slay their enemies 103 Clement of Alexandria wrote Above all Christians are not allowed to correct with violence the delinquencies of sins 104 105 Tertullian argued forcefully against all forms of violence considering abortion warfare and even judicial death penalties to be forms of murder 106 107 Pacifist and violence resisting traditions have continued into contemporary times One of those religious organizations are Jehovah s Witnesses they are politically neutral and were one of the only religious groups as a whole to object to enlisting in WW2 108 109 110 Several present day Christian churches and communities were established specifically with nonviolence including conscientious objection to military service as foundations of their beliefs 111 Members of the Historic Peace Churches such as Quakers Mennonites Amish and the Church of the Brethren object to war based on their conviction that Christian life is incompatible with military actions because Jesus enjoins his followers to love their enemies and refrain from committing acts of violence citation needed In the 20th century Martin Luther King Jr and others adapted the nonviolent ideas of Gandhi to a Baptist theology and politics 112 In the 21st century Christian feminist thinkers have drawn attention to their views by opposing violence against women 113 See also editBuddhism and violence Christian fascism Christian fundamentalism Christian Identity Christian nationalism Christian Nationalist Crusade Christian Party United States 1930s Christianity and capital punishment Christians in the military Clerical fascism Criticism of Christianity God s Army revolutionary group History of Christian thought on persecution and tolerance History of Christianity Inquisition Iron Guard Islam and violence Islamic fundamentalism Islamism Judaism and violence Lord s Resistance Army Medieval inquisition Goa Inquisition Mormonism and violence Religious hate groups Persecution of Christians Religious abuse Religious discrimination Religious intolerance Religious nationalism Religious persecution Religious segregation Role of Christianity in civilization Religious terrorism Religious violence Religious war Sectarian violence Sectarian violence among Christians Ustase Witch hunt Witch trials in the early modern periodNotes edit Clouse Robert G 1986 War Four Christian views Winona Lake Indiana BMH Books pp 12 22 Duffey Michael 2015 06 22 2 Christianity From Peacemaking to Violence to Home Again In Omar Irfan Duffey Michael eds Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions Wiley Blackwell pp 55 56 ISBN 9781118953426 a b Religion amp Ethics Just War Theory introduction BBC Retrieved 2010 03 16 Syse Henrik 2010 The Platonic roots of just war doctrine a reading of Plato s Republic Diametros 23 104 123 Duffey Michael 2015 06 22 2 Christianity From Peacemaking to Violence to Home Again In Omar Irfan Duffey Michael eds Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions Wiley Blackwell p 58 ISBN 9781118953426 The purpose of war for Augustine was to preserve good order It was a long lasting influence of St Augustine s teaching on war and violence that shaped mainstream Christianity for 1500 years Augustine fathered the mainstream Christian view that violence was just a means for political ends Indeed Augustine s perspective was not based on the New Testament a b Wells Donald ed 1996 An Encyclopedia of War and Ethics Greenwood Press pp 30 31 ISBN 9780313291166 In 383 Christianity was declared the official religion of the Roman Empire and Christians who had previously been aloof from political and social responsibility were compelled to rethink their role Augustine and his teacher St Ambrose 340 397 in part inspired by the writings of Cicero 106 43 s c developed just war criteria to show why Christians could consistently serve in the military as armed soldiers at least in some wars Although Augustine deplored the ambitions that promoted wars for sovereignty over others he believed that there were conditions under which it was just to extend an empire As instances of worthy causes Augustine named preservation of the well being of the state punishment of neighbor nations that had refused to make amends for wrongs committed by their subjects to restore what had been taken unjustly and even to expand an empire if one was taking land a way from a tyrant Questions Concerning the Heputteuch Question 10 and City of God Book 4 Part 15 Bonney Richard 2011 Just War The Encyclopedia of War doi 10 1002 9781444338232 wbeow328 ISBN 9781405190374 Questions such as under which circumstances war may be legitimized and the rules of war controlled are the concern of just war theory in the Christian tradition from the writings of St Augustine in the fourth century through the scholastics of the Middle Ages above all St Thomas Aquinas and early modern period Vitoria Sua rez and Grotius to modern commentators such as George Weigel and Michael Walzer The early Christian writers in turn drew upon Roman Law and the writings of Cicero indeed in the view of Alex J Bellamy they added little that was substantially new Bellamy 2006 8 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a journal ignored help a b Peters Edward 1998 Introduction The First Crusade The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and Other Source Materials 2 ed Philadelphia PA University of Pennsylvania Press ISBN 978 0812216561 Duffey Michael 2015 06 22 2 Christianity From Peacemaking to Violence to Home Again In Omar Irfan Duffey Michael eds Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions Wiley Blackwell ISBN 9781118953426 Boustan Ra anan S 2010 Violence Scripture and Textual Practice in Early Judaism and Christianity BRILL p 3 Jenkins Philip March 8 2009 Dark Passages Boston Globe Retrieved 2010 11 26 the Bible overflows with texts of terror to borrow a phrase coined by the American theologian Phyllis Trible The Bible contains far more verses praising or urging bloodshed than does the Koran and biblical violence is often far more extreme and marked by more indiscriminate savagery If the founding text shapes the whole religion then Judaism and Christianity deserve the utmost condemnation as religions of savagery Shelly Matthews Brite Divinity School Retrieved 24 June 2017 Gibson Leigh Matthews Shelly 2005 Violence in the New Testament Continuum International Publishing Group pp 1 3 Marcion s second century distinction between the God of the Old Testament as responsible for violence and vengeance and the God of the New Testament as a God of mercy and love looms large in the consciousness of the West More troubling than studies of violence in the Bible that ignore the New Testament are those that lift up the New Testament as somehow containing the antidote for Old Testament violence This is ultimately the case for instance in the work of Girard But as John Gager shows in this volume through his examination of the work of Girard s disciple Robert Hamerton Kelly such a line of thinking has the potential to reinscribe insidiously the prejudices of Marcion Rynne Terrence J 2008 Gandhi and Jesus The Saving Power of Nonviolence Orbis Books ISBN 978 1 57075 766 2 Retrieved 1 April 2017 J Denny Weaver 2001 Violence in Christian Theology Cross Currents Archived from the original on 2012 05 25 Retrieved 2010 10 27 see e g John Coffey Persecution and Toleration on Protestant England 1558 1689 2000 p 22 Volf Miroslav 2008 Christianity and Violence In Hess Richard S Martens E A eds War in the Bible and terrorism in the twenty first century Eisenbrauns pp 1 17 ISBN 978 1 57506 803 9 Retrieved June 1 2010 Volf 2008 p 13 a b Mark Juergensmeyer 2004 Terror in the Mind of God The Global Rise of Religious Violence University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 24011 7 Smith Ted 2015 Religious Violence Politics of a Higher Law The Christian Century 5 24 27 via Ebsco host Girard Rene The Scapegoat p 204 a b Kreider Alan 2003 Military Service in the Church Orders The Journal of Religious Ethics 31 3 Winter 2003 415 416 doi 10 1111 1467 9795 00146 JSTOR 40008336 a b c d e f Kalantzis George 2012 Caesar and the Lamb Early Christian Attitudes on War and Military Service Eugene Oregon Cascade Books ISBN 978 1608992539 Latourette Kenneth Scott 1953 A History of Christianity Beginnings to 1500 Vol 1 Harper San Francisco a division of Harper Collins pp 242 243 Sider Ronald J 2012 Ronald J Sider ed The Early Church on killing Grand Rapids Michigan Baker Publishing Group Afterword ISBN 978 0 8010 3630 9 Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies and History at North Dakota State University Helgeland History Philosophy and Religious Studies NDSU www ndsu edu Retrieved 29 June 2017 Helgeland John 1979 H Temporini and W Haase ed Christians and the Roman Army from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine Vol 23 Berlin De Gruyter pp 724 834 College Wheaton George Kalantzis Wheaton www wheaton edu Archived from the original on 2 September 2017 Retrieved 29 June 2017 Leithart Peter J 2009 Defending Constantine Madison Wisconsin InterVarsity Press p 260 a b Shean John F 2010 Soldiering for God Christianity and the Roman Army Leiden Netherlands Brill p 183 ISBN 978 9004187313 Leclerq Henri 1933 Militarisme In Cabrol Fernand Leclerq Henri eds Dictionnaire d archeologie chretienne de le liturgie Vol XI 1 Paris Letouzey et Ane pp 1107 1181 Lazar Seth 24 June 2017 Zalta Edward N ed The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Metaphysics Research Lab Stanford University via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Just War Theory The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Iep utm edu 2009 02 10 Retrieved 2010 03 16 Christians and War Thomas Aquinas refines the Just War Theory Archived February 25 2008 at the Wayback Machine Diamond Jared 2008 1000 Events That Shaped the World National Geographic Society p 74 ISBN 978 1 4262 0314 5 Ulrich Luz Matthew in History Fortress Press 1994 p26 27 JustWarTheory com JustWarTheory com Retrieved 2010 03 16 Home gt Publications gt Eppc org 1998 09 01 Archived from the original on 2009 05 09 Retrieved 2010 03 16 Christian Jihad The Crusades and Killing in the Name of Christ Archived from the original on 2008 07 09 Favorite Professors Remembering Jill Claster WSC 52 GSAS 54 Claster Jill N 2009 Sacred violence the European crusades to the Middle East 1095 1396 University of Toronto Press pp xvii xviii ISBN 978 1 4426 0060 7 E Randolph Daniel Murphy Thomas Patrick 1978 The Holy War review Speculum 53 3 602 603 doi 10 2307 2855169 JSTOR 2855169 Thomas Patrick Murphy ed 1976 The holy war Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies Ohio State University Press Bernard of Clairvaux In Praise Of The New Knighthood ca 1135 Smith Jonathan R Rethinking the Crusades Catholic Education Resource Center a b Daniel Chirot Why Some Wars Become Genocidal and Others Don t PDF Jackson School of International Studies University of Washington Archived from the original PDF on August 17 2008 Robert Carrol Stephen Prickett 1997 The Bible Authorized King James Version with Apocrypha Oxford University Press p 337 ISBN 9780192835253 oliver cromwell joshua ireland Daniel Chirot Department of Sociology University of Washington soc washington edu Archived from the original on 6 December 2017 Retrieved 25 June 2017 Peters Edward Inquisition p 54 this is roughly comparable to the number of people executed for witchcraft in Europe during the same time span as the Inquisition estimated at c 40 000 60 000 i e roughly ten times higher in a territory with a population roughly ten times higher Data for executions for witchcraft Levack Brian P 1995 The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe Second Edition London and New York Longman and see Witch trials in Early Modern Europe for more detail Jose Rogelio Alvarez ed Inquisicion in Spanish Enciclopedia de Mexico VII 2000 ed Mexico City Sabeca International Investment Corp ISBN 1 56409 034 5 Chuchiak IV John F The Inquisition in New Spain 1571 1820 A Documentary History Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 2012 p 236 Saraiva Antonio Jose 2001 Introduction to the English edition The Marrano Factory The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536 1765 Brill p 9 Murphy Cullen 2012 God s Jury New York Mariner Books Houghton Mifflin Harcourt p 150 Zimler Richard 14 September 2005 Goa Inquisition was most merciless and cruel Rediff India Abroad Interview Retrieved 10 May 2017 Saraiva 2001 1975 The Marrano Factory p 107 Salomon H P and Sassoon I S D in Saraiva Antonio Jose The Marrano Factory The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536 1765 Brill 2001 reprint 1975 revision pp 345 7 Andrea Del Col L Inquisizione in Italia Milano Oscar Mondadori 2010 pp 779 780 ISBN 978 88 04 53433 4 mostly in the Holy Roman Empire the British Isles and France and to some extent in the European colonies in North America largely excluding the Iberian Peninsula and Italy Inquisition Spain and Portugal obsessed with heresy ignored the witch craze In Italy witch trials were comparatively rare and they did not involve torture and executions Anne L Barstow Witchcraze a New History of the European Witch Hunts HarperCollins 1995 Thurston Robert W 2001 Witch Wicce Mother Goose The Rise and Fall of the Witch Hunts in Europe and North America Edinburgh Longman p 1 ISBN 978 0582438064 Scarre Geoffrey Callow John 2001 Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Europe second ed Basingstoke Palgrave p 34 ISBN 9780333920824 Scarre amp Callow 2001 p 12 Scarre amp Callow 2001 pp 1 21 Historical Dictionary of Stuart England edited by Ronald H Fritze and William B Robison Greenwood Publishing Group 1996 ISBN 978 0 313 28391 8 p 552 Hutton 2010 p 247 Scarre and Callow 2001 put forward 40 000 as an estimate for the number killed Scarre amp Callow 2001 pp 1 21 Levack 2006 came to an estimate of 45 000 Levack Brian 2006 The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe Third Edition Longman Page 23 Hutton 2010 estimated that the numbers were between 40 000 50 000 Hutton 2010 p 247 Wolfgang Behringer and Lyndal Roper had independently calculated that the number was between 50 000 60 000 Behringer 2004 p 149 Roper 2004 pp 6 7 In an earlier unpublished essay Hutton counted local estimates and in areas where estimates were unavailable he attempted to draw extrapolations from nearby regions with similar demographics and similar attitudes towards witch hunting Estimates of Executions based on Hutton s essay Counting the Witch Hunt Bishop Jordan 2006 Aquinas on Torture New Blackfriars 87 1009 229 237 doi 10 1111 j 0028 4289 2006 00142 x Larissa Tracy Torture and Brutality in Medieval Literature Negotiations of National Identity Boydell and Brewer Ltd 2012 22 In 1252 Innocent IV licensed the use of torture to obtain evidence from suspects and by 1256 inquisitors were allowed to absolve each other if they used instruments of torture themselves rather than relying on lay agents for the purpose Internet History Sourcebooks Project legacy fordham edu Archived from the original on 2016 03 20 Retrieved 2016 05 23 Peters writes When faced with a convicted heretic who refused to recant or who relapsed into heresy the inquisitors were to turn him over to the temporal authorities the secular arm for animadversio debita the punishment decreed by local law usually burning to death Peters Edwards Inquisition p 67 Lea Henry Charles Chapter VII The Inquisition Founded A History of the Inquisition In The Middle Ages Vol 1 ISBN 978 1 152 29621 3 Obstinate heretics refusing to abjure and return to the Church with due penance and those who after abjuration relapsed were to be abandoned to the secular arm for fitting punishment Kirsch Jonathan 2008 09 09 The Grand Inquisitors Manual A History of Terror in the Name of God HarperOne ISBN 978 0 06 081699 5 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Vatican Author Retrieved 10 May 2017 Pope Paul VI 7 December 1965 Apostolic letter Given motu proprio Integrae servandae retrieved 10 May 2017 B Hoffman Inside Terrorism Columbia University Press 1999 pp 105 120 ISBN 978 0231126991 Firth Raymond 1981 Spiritual Aroma Religion and Politics American Anthropologist New Series Vol 83 No 3 pp 582 601 Jonathan Ebel 2011 Andrew R Murphy ed The Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence Wiley Blackwell pp 154 155 ISBN 978 1405191319 Paganism and Rome Penelope uchicago edu Retrieved 2012 11 13 Bernard Hamilton The Crusades Sutton Publishing United Kingdom 1998 See Chapter 9 Later Crusades Wound The Legacy of Native American Schools Amnesty International USA Retrieved February 8 2006 Archived from the original on 2011 05 17 Read Peter 1981 The Stolen Generations bringing them home The Removal of Aboriginal Children in New South Wales 1883 to 1969 PDF Department of Aboriginal Affairs New South Wales government ISBN 978 0 646 46221 9 Archived from the original PDF on 2012 04 09 a b c d Robinson B A 2006 Christianity and slavery Retrieved 2007 01 03 Ephesians 6 5 8 James Montgomery Boice Ephesians An Expositional Commentary Grand Rapids MI Ministry Resources Library 1988 218 219 Catholic Encyclopedia Slavery and Christianity a b Ostling Richard N 2005 09 17 Human slavery why was it accepted in the Bible Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News Archived from the original on 2015 09 24 Retrieved 2007 01 03 Africans and Native Americans by Jack D Forbes p 27 Curp T David A Necessary Bondage When the Church Endorsed Slavery Pagden Anthony 1997 12 22 The Slave Trade Review of Hugh Thomas Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade The New Republic Rodney Stark For the Glory of God How Monotheism Led to Reformations Science Witch Hunts and the End of Slavery ISBN 978 0 691 11436 1 2003 Lamin Sanneh Abolitionists Abroad American Blacks and the Making of Modern West Africa Harvard University Press ISBN 978 0 674 00718 5 2001 Ostling Richard N 2005 09 17 Human slavery why was it accepted in the Bible Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News Archived from the original on 2015 09 24 Retrieved 2007 01 03 Martin William 1996 With God on Our Side The Rise of the Religious Right in America New York Broadway Books Diamond Sara 1998 Not by Politics Alone The Enduring Influence of the Christian Right New York Guilford Press p 213 Ortiz Chris 2007 Gary North on D James Kennedy Archived 2009 10 11 at the Wayback Machine Chalcedon Blog 6 September 2007 Nancy Calvert Koyzis 2004 Paul monotheism and the people of God the significance of Abraham traditions for early Judaism and Christianity Continuum International Publishing Group ISBN 978 0 567 08378 4 Philippe Bobichon Is Violence intrinsic to Religious Confrontation The case of Judeo Christian Controversy Second to Seventeenth Century in S Chandra dir Violence and Non violence across Times History Religion and Culture Routledge London and New York 2018 pp 33 52 online The Origins of Christian Anti Semitism Jerusalem Center For Public Affairs After the evil Christianity and Judaism in the shadow of the Holocaust Richard Harries p 16 Oxford University Press 2003 Roland Bainton quoted in Robin Gill A Textbook of Christian Ethics 3rd ed Continuum 2006 ISBN 0 567 03112 8 p 194 No known Christian author from the first centuries approved of Christian participation in battle citations advocating pacifism are found in Tertullian Origen Lactantius and others and in the testimonies of the martyrs Maximilian and Marcellus who were executed for refusing to serve in the Roman army Grounds for opposition to military service included fear of idolatry and the oath of loyalty to Caesar as well as the basic objection to shedding blood on the battlefield Fahlbusch E amp Bromiley G W 2005 Vol 4 The encyclopedia of Christianity 2 Grand Rapids Mich Leiden Netherlands Wm B Eerdmans Brill Mark Allman Merrimack College www merrimack edu Allman Mark J 2008 Who Would Jesus Kill War Peace and the Christian Tradition Saint Mary s Press nbsp Origen 1885 248 Against Celsus Translated by Crombie Frederick VII XXVI Stanton Rachel 21 January 2007 The Early Church on Violence Retrieved 10 May 2017 Clement of Alexandria earlychristianwritings com Osborn Eric 2003 Tertullian First Theologian of the West Cambridge University Press p 230 ISBN 978 0 521 52495 7 Tertullian rejects all forms of violence even killing by soldiers or killing by courts of law any form of abortion and even attendance at the amphitheatre Nicholson Helen J 2004 Medieval warfare theory and practice of war in Europe 300 1500 Palgrave Macmillan p 24 At the beginning of the third century Tertullian recorded that some Christians did fight but he indicated that he did not approve He argued that God s command not to fight overrode Paul s command to obey the authorities that God had appointed Tertullian observed that one of the last words of Christ before he was led away to be crucified was his instruction that Simon Peter put away his sword Members of several small Christian sects who try to literally follow the precepts of Jesus Christ have refused to participate in military service in many nations and they have been willing to suffer the criminal or civil penalties that followed Encyclopaedia Britannica 2004 CD Rom Edition Pacifism John Paul II 25 March 1995 Evangelium Vitae retrieved 10 May 2017 Orthodoxy and Capital Punishment Incommunion 24 February 2008 Speicher Sara and Durnbaugh Donald F 2003 Ecumenical Dictionary Historic Peace Churches King Jr Martin Luther Clayborne Carson Peter Holloran Ralph Luker Penny A Russell 1992 The papers of Martin Luther King Jr University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 07950 2 Hood Helen 2003 Speaking Out and Doing Justice It s No Longer a Secret but What are the Churches Doing about Overcoming Violence against Women PDF EBSCO Publishing pp 216 225 Archived from the original PDF on July 10 2011 Retrieved May 19 2010 References editAvalos Hector Fighting Words The Origins of Religious Violence Amherst NY Prometheus 2005 Behringer Wolfgang 2004 Witches and Witch Hunts Cambridge Polity Hutton Ronald 2010 Writing the History of Witchcraft A Personal View The Pomegranate The International Journal of Pagan Studies 12 2 239 262 doi 10 1558 pome v12i2 239 Roper Lyndal 2004 Witch Craze New Haven Yale University Press Schwartz Regina M The Curse of Cain The Violent Legacy of Monotheism Chicago University of Chicago Press 1998 Further reading editBekkenkamp Jonneke and Sherwood Yvonne ed Sanctified Aggression Legacies of Biblical and Postbiblical Vocabularies of Violence London New York T amp T Clark International 2003 Collins John J Does the Bible Justify Violence Minneapolis Fortress 2004 Hedges Chris 2007 American Fascists The Christian Right and the War on America Free Press Hodgson Natasha R Amy Fuller John McCallum Nicholas Morton eds 2021 Religion and Conflict in Medieval and Early Modern Worlds Identities Communities and Authorities London Routledge Lea Henry Charles 1961 The Inquisition of the Middle Ages Abridged New York Macmillan Kimball Charles 2013 Jerryson Michael Juergensmeyer Mark Kitts Margo eds Religion and Violence from Christian Theological Perspectives The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence doi 10 1093 oxfordhb 9780199759996 001 0001 ISBN 9780199759996 King Karen L 2013 Jerryson Michael Juergensmeyer Mark Kitts Margo eds Christianity and Torture The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence doi 10 1093 oxfordhb 9780199759996 001 0001 ISBN 9780199759996 MacMullen Ramsay 1989 Christianizing the Roman Empire AD 100 400 MacMullen Ramsay 1997 Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries Mason Carol 2002 Killing for Life The Apocalyptic Narrative of Pro Life Politics Ithaca Cornell University Press McTernan Oliver J 2003 Violence in God s name religion in an age of conflict Orbis Books Nakashian Craig M Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England 1000 1250 Theory and Reality Woodbridge The Boydell Press 2016 Paynter Helen and Michael Spalione eds 2020 The Bible on Violence A Thick Description Sheffield Phoenix Press Thiery Daniel E Polluting the Sacred Violence Faith and the Civilizing of Parishioners in Late Medieval England Leiden Brill 2009 Tyerman Christopher 2006 God s War A New History of the Crusades Cambridge MA Harvard University Press Belknap Zeskind Leonard 1987 The Christian Identity Movement booklet Atlanta Georgia Center for Democratic Renewal Division of Church and Society National Council of Churches Steffen Lloyd 2013 Jerryson Michael Juergensmeyer Mark Kitts Margo eds Religion and Violence in Christian Traditions The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence doi 10 1093 oxfordhb 9780199759996 001 0001 ISBN 9780199759996 Rodney Stark God s Battalions The Case for the Crusades HarperOne 2010 External links edit nbsp Media related to Christianity and violence at Wikimedia Commons Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Christianity and violence amp oldid 1210978694, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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