416 pages--$9.95 (paperback)
These seventy-six essays, organized under the headings of Christianity and
War, Christianity and the Military, Christianity and the Warfare State, and
Christianity and Torture, have one underlying theme: the relation of
Christianity to war, the military, and the warfare state. If there is any group
of people that should be opposed to war, torture, militarism, and the warfare
state with its suppression of civil liberties, imperial presidency, government
propaganda, and interventionist foreign policy it is Christians, and especially
conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist Christians who claim to strictly
follow the dictates of Scripture and worship the Prince of Peace.
Although many of these essays reference contemporary events, the principles
discussed in all of them are timeless: war, militarism, the warfare state, and
especially the proper Christian attitude toward these things.
In chapter 1, “Christianity and War,” Christian enthusiasm for war and
the military is shown to be an affront to the Saviour, contrary to Scripture,
and a demonstration of the profound ignorance many Christians have of history.
In chapter 2, “Christianity and the Military,” the idea that Christians
should have anything to do with the military is asserted to be illogical,
immoral, and unscriptural. In chapter 3, “Christianity and the Warfare State,”
I argue that Christians who condone the warfare state, its senseless wars, its
war on a tactic (terrorism), its nebulous crusades against “evil,” its
aggressive militarism, its interventions into the affairs of other countries,
and its expanding empire have been duped. In chapter 4, “Christianity and
Torture,” I contend that it is reprehensible for Christians to support torture
for any reason.
See
here for information on the companion volume to this book: War, Empire, and the Military
See
here for a review of both books in The New American
