In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

403 chapter 12 Just-War Principles One of the most urgent tasks of Catholic social teaching is to keep the principles of the just-war doctrine before the eyes of government leaders and citizens. This chapter lays out the fundamental tenets of just-war principles and shows the roots of these principles in the thought of Augustine and Aquinas. Familiarity with the thought of Augustine on peace is especially important in order to understand both the necessity for a just-war teaching and the preconditions for a just peace. St. Augustine Augustine argues that the practice of justice preserves the peace. He understands justice primarily as order in the soul of individuals, which contributes to the proper ordering of society, and thus to peace. Ernest Fortin’s summary of Augustine’s reflection on justice is helpful: It exists when the body is ruled by the soul, when the lower appetites are ruled by reason, and when reason itself is ruled by God. The same hierarchy is or should be observed in society as a whole and is encountered when virtuous subjects obey wise rulers, whose minds are in turn subject to the divine law.1 This means that citizens and rulers must strive to achieve order in their soul by the practice of all the virtues. So, Augustine is talking about justice as a general virtue that encompasses all the virtues that produce order in the soul. Augustine’s description of peace in The City of God is closely related to his definition of justice. 1. Ernest Fortin, Classical Christianity and the Political Order: Reflections on the TheologicoPolitical Problem, vol. 2 of Collected Essays, edited by J.Brian Benestad (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1996), 7; Cf. St. Augustine, The City of God (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1972; New York: Modern Library, 1950), book XIX, chap. 21. 404 The International Community and Justice Thus, the peace of the body is the ordered proportion of its parts. The peace of the irrational soul is the ordered repose of the appetites. The peace of the rational soul is the ordered agreement of knowledge and action....The peace between a mortal man and God is an ordered obedience, in faith, under the eternal law. The peace among human beings is ordered concord. The peace of the household is an ordered concord concerning commanding and obeying among those who dwell together. The peace of the city is an ordered concord concerning commanding and obeying among the citizens. The peace of the heavenly city is a fellowship perfectly ordered and harmonious, enjoying God and each other in God. The peace of all things is the tranquility of order [tranquilitas ordinis].2 Augustine is arguing that the achievement of peace in the city and among nations depends heavily on the dispositions in the souls of rulers and ruled. Peace within individuals is disrupted when they fail to act according to their knowledge of the good and indulge disordered appetites. Concord in the family or the city is, of course, disrupted by the disordered passions in the souls of individuals. For example, the inordinate desire for pleasure, power, gain, glory, honor, or revenge could lead individuals to disrupt the concord of the household or the city. The peace between man and God depends on obedience to God’s will. Peace among human beings also depends on the universal obedience to God’s will. Insofar as human beings disobey God, they will be at odds with each other. The very first pages of Genesis emphasize this point with unmistakable clarity. Cain’s killing of Abel quickly follows Adam’s and Eve’s disobedience of God. John Paul II reflects on this truth in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium vitae (The Gospel of Life).3 Political communities cannot be rightly ordered if individuals, especially the leaders, don’t have order in their souls produced by the practice of virtues. What caused World War II in Europe, if not the disorder in the soul of Adolph Hitler? Hitler’s lust to dominate and his hatred of the Jews led to terrible consequences for vast numbers of people, especially the Jews. What is the principal cause of Al Qaeda’s terroristic acts, if not the disordered passions of its leaders and members? I believe it is a misreading of Augustine to think that tranquilitas ordi2 . St. Augustine, Political Writings, tr. Michael W.Tkacz and Douglas Kries, ed. Ernest L.Fortin and Douglas Kries (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1994), 153–54. 3. Pope...

Share