The Origins of War: A Catholic Perspective

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Matthew Shadle has authored an important book for a global readership in which he discusses the traditional idea of "just war theory." His is a work that does not investigate just war once it begins (jus in bello ) or the moral questions which emerge after hostilities cease. Rather, his work is an effort to understand the moral questions facing potential belligerents prior to the beginning of hostilities (jus ad bellum ) through the lens of the Catholic intellectual tradition. His investigation spans the two thousand year history of the Church and takes stock of the thoughts of many major figures including ecclesiastical authorities and members of the intellectual establishment.His fundamental point about the origins of war is that what the Catholic tradition traditionally relied upon when dealing with the justifications for entering hostilities is founded on presuppositions that have been "uncritically accepted" by both the Church herself and the intellectual community. He concludes that these presuppositions extend from the early years to recent times of the Church's history. This history takes account of revealed teachings (scripture), ecclesiastical documents, and the works of commentators from Augustine, Aquinas, and neo-Scholastics to those in the present age. Of course, others have concluded that there is much more to the Catholic tradition than Shadle appears to concede.Moreover, he claims that the dominant view or perspectives of the origins of war in Catholic thinking began to make a change from the tradition in the 1980s and 1990s when the "constructivist" school began to make an impact on Catholic thinking pertaining to the origins of war. The constructivist approach according to Shadle is founded on a Catholic evaluation of contemporary attitudes regarding international politics, affairs, and law.The constructivist approach begins with an evaluation of the role of historicity, that is, how beliefs and actions are conditioned by time, place, and culture. It then moves into consideration of the relationship between human nature and the grace of God which formulate the destiny of the human person. These forces combine to formulate a new method for understanding why powers go to war and whether they should or not engage in hostilities.To flesh out his thesis, Shadle begins with a scriptural account of the use of force. He then considers the contributions of Augustine, Aquinas, and the neo-Scholastics, and other major Catholic thinkers. He includes in this investigation voices outside of the Catholic tradition which critique the traditional natural law approach of Catholic thought on the use of force. By way of complement, he then takes stock of contemporary international relations theories dealing with the use of force in the age of modern weapons, including those having the capacity of mass destruction. He then adds into his investigation two major contemporary, Catholic voices of Bryan Hehir and George Weigel, both of whom are known for addressing moral issues within the context of Catholic thought.One concern that many astute readers will have with Shadle's constructivist thesis is his statement that constructivist thinkers "share with the critical theorists and postmodernists the belief that reality is socially constructed. …