Augustine on War and Military Service

10. Conclusion

10 Conclusion Unlike some of his more rigorist contemporaries, and certainly unlike earlier African Christians such as Tertullian and Lactantius, Augustine did not regard with detestation militia, service to the state. Though state service had its pitfalls and was imbued with anxieties and perils, a Christian could conceivably hold state office and not by that alone incur mortal sin. For there was a societal order, and in that order higher authorities to whom the governance of human affairs had been entrusted. There were those in that societal order, Christian as well as pagan, to whom obedience was legitimately due, and who could legitimately issue commands to their inferiors that had to be obeyed. These authorities were forced at times to use coercive measures to preserve societal order, even the application of capital punishment. Unlike contemporaries such as Sulpicius Severus and Paulinus of Nola, Augustine also thought Christians could serve in the military and not by that alone commit a sin. As with executioners in civil society, soldiers could even kill other human beings in obedience to the lawful commands of their superiors. It is true this amounted to an exception to the Decalogue commandment “Thou shalt not kill,” but, pace Lactantius, it was an exception authorized by Scripture itself. Scripture also provided warrant for Christians serving in the military, since John the Baptist had not told soldiers coming to him to be baptized to throw down their arms and desert the service. Simply put, Christian soldiers were obligated to obey the orders of their superiors, even those of a pagan emperor or commander. Military service could, in fact, be regarded as pleasing to God. Augustine’s acceptance of Christian military service is certainly partly due to his belief that participants in society are by virtue of that participation to act in ways preservative of societal order. But the particularities of military service in Roman Africa also seem to have influenced Augustine’s generally positive view of it. Although there are early statements by Augustine showing an awareness of the possibility and reality of soldierly misconduct, he went on to point out that such conduct was illegal and punishable, and even shows some 321 admiration for the sufferings of soldiers. He goes so far as to acknowledge that for some, military service was a desirable career choice. Augustine’s generally positive view of Christian military service does not mean, however, that he had a similar view of war. To him, war was one of the evils of this world. Roman history amply illustrated the truth that human beings in fighting each other acted worse than the most savage animals. He himself had witnessed firsthand the baleful effects of war, particularly in the civil wars that plagued his time. Though wars were evil, they nonetheless fell within the purview of divine providence. God used war to punish the wicked, or to test the virtue of the good. In wars that served particular ends of divine justice, God of course was ultimately in charge, but he chose boni, good men found in the appropriate rank in human society, to wage wars under divine auspices. Such boni, unlike ancient and some contemporary Romans, eschewed the pursuit of power and gloria for their own sakes. Most such wars had occurred in Old Testament times, but in the battle of the Frigidus the Christian emperor Theodosius, a contemporary example of a bonus, had fought after receiving assurance of divine support, a support manifested during the battle itself by a providential wind that was like the miracles in the battles of the Old Testament. As for the “just war” of the Romans, it was at best a necessary evil, at worst a pretext for crime. In line with his general rejection of secular conceptions of war, Augustine derided the potent Roman political idea of victoria, preferring to reserve the term “victory” for that of Christians over death, particularly the final victory at the Resurrection in the battle, never to be resolved in this lifetime, against internal vices. He sought to demystify victoria for both pagans and Christians. It could be deceptive as well as barren, was motivated by the lust for power and glory, and was purchased at the cost of monstrous savagery and bloodshed. Its personification as Victoria revealed a goddess that was both useless and superfluous, who in the end did not even exist. No, the outcome of war rested in the hands of the one, true God. Augustine sought to transpose into a Christian...