Pacifists, Patriots, or Both?: Second Thoughts on Pre-Constantinian Early-Christian Attitudes toward Soldiering and War

I. Introductory Heretical Thoughts on Early-Christian History

In his influential book Christian Attitudes toward War and Peace, Roland Bainton begins the chapter titled "The Pacifism of the Early Church" with the following assertion: "The three Christian positions with regard to war … matured in chronological sequence, moving from pacifism to the just war to the Crusade. The age of persecution down to the time of Constantine was the age of pacifism to the degree that during this period no Christian author to our knowledge approved of Christian participation in battle."¹ And because, according to Bainton, "the history of the [early] Church is viewed by many as a progressive fall from a state of primitive purity," the conclusion would seem unavoidable that "if the early Church was pacifist then pacifism is the Christian position."² Bainton's position, which for decades has had broad ecumenical acceptance, would seem to take on a prescriptive and not merely historical cast; that is, a proper theological understanding of the earliest Christian history requires a pacifist reading of the Fathers.

In the writings of the enormously influential Anabaptist theologian John Howard Yoder, one finds fundamental agreement with this viewpoint: the early church was pacifist, and this precommitment is rooted in Jesus's teaching on nonviolent love. Proof of this model is the fact that Jesus offers himself as a sacrificial lamb rather than resisting those in power. Yoder reasons in the following manner:

If it is granted that nonresistant love is the way of the disciple … can the Christian be the policeman? In the past, every party to this discussion has rapidly concluded that the answer is negative.… That such a conclusion is the most normal one can hardly be contested.… The answer of the pre-Constantinian church was negative; the Christian as an agent of God for reconciliation has other things to do than to be in police service.… Christians saw their task as one of patient suffering, not taking over themselves the work of the police.… The post-Constantinian church obviously accepted government service by Christians, but for reasons which cannot be deemed adequate.³

As with Bainton, Yoder's position, clarified and reinforced in sundry writings, is meant to be prescriptive: the early church was pacifist, an orientation embodied once more by Anabaptists of the "radical Reformation" who, in contrast to the church of the previous ten centuries, properly discerned the radical demands of obedience to Christ that are incumbent upon all.⁴ Yoder is adamant that Christians of any era, following the normative pacifism of the pre-Constantinian church, are not to participate in the affairs of the state. For to do so is to collaborate with evil, to be "co-opted" by the powers, and thereby to "compromise" the Church's witness.

In his magisterial work on New Testament ethics published in 1996, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, esteemed New Testament scholar Richard Hays observes that "Christian theology, at least since the time of Augustine's City of God, has usually countenanced the participation of believers in police forces and armies deemed necessary for the preservation of order and a relative approximation of justice."⁵ The straightforward implication for Hays is that before the early fifth century Christians would not have countenanced—much less, participated in—social structures "deemed necessary for the preservation of order and a relative approximation of justice." Later in his assessment of early-Christian attitudes, Hays states explicitly what had been implicit in previous commentary: "Although the tradition of the first three centuries was decidedly pacifist in orientation, Christian tradition from the time of Constantine to the present has predominantly endorsed war."⁶ Throughout his exegetical and theological commentary, Hays's position assumes a prescriptive cast. In posing the question "Is it ever God's will for Christians to employ violence in defense of justice?" he instructs us: "The New Testament contains important texts that seem to suggest that this question must be answered in the negative."⁷

More recently, in an essay titled "The Christian Church...