The Ethics of War: A Zondervan Digital Short

By Scott Rae

Derived from Scott B. Rae’s widely adopted textbook, Moral Choices, this digital short looks carefully at war in the Bible and at major Christian views on war, including pacifism, nonviolence and nonparticipation, and Just War theory. Not afraid to tackle hot-button issues like nuclear weapons and waterboarding, Rae also includes cases and questions for further discussion. The Ethics of Business thus provides a wise and well-grounded introduction to a key ethical question for Christians, namely, “Can I support or participate in war?”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Apr 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9780310496496

Scott Rae

Scott B. Rae (PhD, University of Southern California) is professor of Christian ethics at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, La Mirada, California.

Book preview

ZONDERVAN

The Ethics of War

Previously published in Moral Choices

Copyright © 1995, 2000, 2009 by Scott B. Rae

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

EPub Edition JANUARY 2012 ISBN: 978-0-310-49649-6

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the original edition as follows:

Rae, Scott B.

Moral choices: an introduction to ethics / Scott B. Rae—3rd ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-310-29109-1 (hardcover)

1. Ethics. I. Title.

BJ1012.R32 2009

170—dc22                                                                                         2009005151

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Cover design: Ron Huizinga

Interior design: Matthew Van Zomeran

Contents

Copyright Page

The Ethics of War

The Ethics of War

In 2003 the United States launched an invasion of Iraq, with the initial intention of ousting Saddam Hussein and generating a stable democracy in the Arab Middle East. Many people saw it as a part of the response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, a response that also included the war in Afghanistan, which was aimed at destroying terrorist bases of operations there. In the days leading up to the commencement of the invasion, there was a good deal of debate, both in Congress and in the media, over whether this was a war that should be undertaken. To be sure, there was a strategic component to the debate—that is, whether it was feasible to take on an invasion such as this. But a substantial degree of the discussion was about the morality of such a war—whether the Iraq war was a morally justified operation.

Interestingly, much of the debate centered on an idea that was at least a thousand years old—the idea of just war. Although this concept was clarified and codified in the Middle Ages, its criteria for determining the justice of a war were still