Christianity and Jus ad bellum

AbstractThe early Christian church refused to accept war as moral in any circumstances and until A.D. 170 Christians were forbidden to enlist. This period of extreme pacifism lasted for three centuries after Christ.During the 4th and 5th centuries Roman Society was progressively Christianized following the conversion of the emperor Constantine. The growth in the church made it difficult to maintain pacifism because Christians were no longer a minority in Society. Also, the danger posed by the barbarian invasions made defensive war seem necessary. Augustine led the way in revising Christian attitudes toward war by formulating a series of rules to regulate violence and permit believers to fight for the empire. The Just war concept is elaborated and given authority in the Christian world by Augustine. The crusades were the most obvious example of the merger between violence and holiness which took place in the medieval church. The holy war or crusade in which the moral stakes were considered so high that any action necessary to bring victory was legitimate, particularly if the war was between God's partisans and the infidels. The early Christian church refused to accept war as moral in any circumstances and until A.D. 170 Christians were forbidden to enlist. This period of extreme pacifism lasted for three centuries after Christ.