Augustine on War and Military Service

2. War and Military Service in Early Christianity, and the Constantinian Revolution

2 War and Military Service in Early Christianity, and the Constantinian Revolution I. Christian Attitudes toward War before Constantine: Tertullian and Origen The most meaningful general statement to be made about early Christian attitudes toward war and participation in it1 is that no such general statement 1. The secondary literature on the question of pre-Constantinian Christian attitudes toward war and military service is considerable and growing; consequently, what follows is summary. Andreas Bigelmair, Die Beteiligung der Christen am öffentlichen Leben (Munich, 1902), esp. 164–201; Adolf von Harnack, Militia Christi: Die christliche Religion und der Soldatenstand in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (Tübingen, 1905) (translated by David McInnes Gracie as Militia Christi: The Christian Religion and the Military in the First Three Centuries [Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981]); James Moffatt, “War,” in Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, ed. James Hastings (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1918), 2:646–73; C. John Cadoux, The Early Christian Attitude to War: A Contribution to the History of Christian Ethics (London: Headley Bros., 1919); Henri Leclercq, “Militarisme,” in Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie (Paris: Letouzey, 1933), 11:1, cols. 1108–81; Edward A. Ryan, S.J., “The Rejection of Military Service by the Early Christians,” Theological Studies 13 (1952): 1–32; Jean-Michel Hornus, Évangile et Labarum: Étude sur l’attitude du christianisme primitif devant les problèmes de l’État, de la guerre et de la violence (Genève: Labor et Fides, 1960) (translated by Alan Kreider and Oliver Coburn as It Is Not Lawful for Me to Fight [Scottsdale, PA: Herald Press, 1980; cited here]); Anna Morisi, La guerra nel pensiero cristiano dalle origini alle crociate (Florence: G. C. Sansoni, 1963), 3–83; W. Rordorf, “Tertullians Beurteilung des Soldatenstandes,” Vigiliae Christianae 23 (1969): 105–41; John Helgeland, “Christians and the Roman Army from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine,” ANRW 23, no. 1 (1979): 725–834; John Helgeland, Robert J. Daly, and J. Patout Burns, Christians and the Military: The Early Experience (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985); Enrico Pucciarelli, I cristiani e il servizio militare: testimonianze dei primi tre secoli (Florence: Nardini, 1987); Hanns Christof Brennecke, “‘An fidelis ad militiam converti possit [Tertullian, de idolatria 19,1]?’ Frühchristliches Bekenntnis und Militärdienst im Widerspruch?,” in Die Weltlichkeit des Glaubens in der Alten Kirche: Festschrift für Ulrich Wickert zum siebzigsten Geburtstag, ed. Dietmar Wyrwa (Berlin: Walter 33 can be meaningfully made.2 Such an observation is not merely the negativizing expression of a scholarly caveat, but the affirmative revelation of a fundamental characteristic of early Christian statements on the matter, a feature as much revelatory of the nature and structure of the early church as of the diversity of opinion within it. Christian attitudes toward war varied both synchronically and diachronically, sometimes in the latter respect in the same individual. Especially in the case of the earliest period, the impediments to setting out a simple storyline caused by the impossibility of generalization are also compounded by the fact that the relevant texts, with few exceptions, refer to war and military service only casually or obliquely.3 The contrary assumption, that there was a singular and authoritative Christian attitude toward war, is the central fallacy in Alfred Vanderpol’s brave attempt to derive a Christian law of war from his medieval and early modern sources. If one assumes that such a consistent, authoritative body of doctrine existed, then it only makes sense that the doctrine had to have had an originator. Clearly for medieval canonists and theologians the most authoritative voice on matters of war was Augustine, and it was then only a matter of synthesizing an Augustinian system out of the citations made by later writers, and if necessary then further assuming the intention on Augustine’s part of originating such a doctrine in the first place. Finally, as has been the case repeatedly throughout the history of Christian attitudes toward war and military service, from very early the relevant sentiments were expressed in a context of contestation with other Christians, de Gruyter, 1997), 45–100; John F. Shean, “Militans pro Deo: The Christianization of the Roman Army” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1998); Alan Kreider, “Military Service in the Church Orders,” Journal of Religious Ethics 31, no. 3 (2003): 415–42; A. D. Lee, War in Late Antiquity: A Social History (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007); Paul Stephenson, Constantine: Unconquered Emperor, Christian Victor (London: Quercus, 2009), 49–61, an excellent survey of attitudes in the preConstantinian church, and our sources...