R376 War and Peace in Western Religions                                     Professor Richard Miller

Department of Religious Studies                                                             Sycamore 221

Indiana University                                                                                  855-1431

Spring 2005                                                                                          miller3@indiana.edu

Class meets M,W 11:15-12:30                                                           Office hours:

                                     T 3:30-5:00                                                                                                                                          

                                                                     Description

 

Consider these questions:

·        Is the United States’ intervention and current occupation of Iraq justified?  If so, why?  If not, why not? 

·        When President Bush announced a war against terrorism in response to the attacks of September 11, did he do the right thing?  Were those who planned and carried out the attacks outlaws who should be captured and tried in a court of law, or warriors who should be fought? 

·        Victims of genocide in Rwanda and in the Sudan found their cries for help unanswered.  Is Western inaction justified?  If so, why?  If not, who should help, and why? 

·        When President Clinton sent ground troops to Bosnia (1995) and authorized air strikes in Kosovo (1999), did he do the right thing? 

·        Western allies in the Gulf War (1991) turned back the aggression of a powerful tyrant.  But didn’t they help him develop his enormous arsenal? 

·        The Vietnam war was hotly disputed.  Is it true that those who died there wasted their lives for an unworthy cause? 

·        World War II seems clearly justified to many people.  Does that mean that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the firebombing of German and Japanese cities, was morally acceptable? 

·        War is often compared to hell, with no limits on what soldiers may do.  Does that mean that soldiers are free to rape the women of an enemy nation? 

·        On what grounds (if any) may a government ask its citizen-soldiers to kill, or to risk making the supreme sacrifice?  More generally, is it possible to distinguish between war and murder? 

 

This course will help us think about these and related questions in a critical and comparative way.  Drawing on Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and secular sources, we will examine a wide range of perspectives, e.g., the Bible, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther King, Jr., Reinhold Niebuhr, the U.S. Catholic bishops, Islamic law, and Michael Walzer.  We will examine moral ideas in theory and as they apply to specific conflicts, e.g., World War II, the intervention in Kosovo, September 11, Gulf War II, etc.  The main goal is to reflect critically about the morality of war in light of beliefs, symbols, and principles in Western religion and ethics.  We will focus on justice and human rights, care for the innocent, nonviolence, the presumption against harm, the rule of double effect, military necessity, civic virtue, and the value of political community. 

 

                                                                  Requirements

 

1.  Regular class attendance and participation (20%).  This will include 3 short quizzes, based on materials by the following authors: Michael Walzer, John Kelsay, Stanley Hauerwas.  These are marked with an asterisk on the syllabus.  There are no make up quizzes except for illness, which must be documented by a physician.

2.  2 Midterm Exams (20% each).

3. Two short papers (10% each). A 3-5 page commentary on a reading from our texts.

4. Final exam (20%).

 

                                                                         Texts

 

Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love

Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations (2d or 3rd ed.)

Richard B. Miller, ed., War in the Twentieth Century: Sources in Theological Ethics

Richard B. Miller, Interpretations of Conflict: Ethics, Pacifism, and the Just-War Tradition

John Kelsay, Islam and War: The Gulf War and Beyond

Terry Nardin, The Ethics of War and Peace: Religious and Secular Perspectives

R376 Reader (available through e-reserves)

 

                                                                        Format

 

The course meets twice a week and follows a lecture‑and‑discussion format.  Students are encouraged to raise comments and questions during class.  Time will be reserved during most, if not all, classes for discussion.

 

                                                                       Schedule

 

I.  Introduction  (1st class: January 10: Requirements, readings, topics, format, etc.)

 

     (Jan.10)       “Defining a Just War" and "Doubt and Individual Decision,” in Miller, Sources,

pp. xiii-xviii; 181-84 (recommended)

 

II.  Just War: Theoretical Considerations  (4 ½ weeks: Jan. 12-Feb. 14)

 

      (Jan. 12):   J. Childress, “Just‑War Criteria” in Miller, ed., Sources

                                           

      (Wk 2)      Augustine, Letter 47 to Publicola, excerpted in Reader City of God (Book 19, selections in Reader)

           

                       Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II‑II (selections in Reader)

 

                        Q. 25   A. 8  (On loving one's enemy) 

                        Q. 64   Aa. 7, 8 (On Homicide)

                        Q. 40   A. 1  (On War)

                        Q. 42   Aa. 1, 2 (On Sedition)

 

Miller, Interpretations of Conflict, pp. 16-27 (required); Miller, “Aquinas on the Presumption against Killing and War,” Journal of Religion, in Reader (recommended).

 

      (Wk 3)      Reinhold Niebuhr, “Why the Christian Church Is Not Pacifist,” and Paul Ramsey, “Is Vietnam a Just War?” in Miller, ed., Sources

 

Recommended: David Mapel, “Realism and the Ethics of War,” in Nardin, ed., The Ethics of War and Peace; A.J. Coates, “Realism,” in Reader

           

FIRST SHORT PAPER DUE: Friday, January 28 (in Sycamore 230 mailbox, 5pm)

 

     (Wks 4,5)   Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars,  Chap. 4 (pp. 51-63); chap. 6 (pp. 91-108); chap. 9;chap. 19 (also read New York Times
                        articles on war crimes trial of Drazen Erdemovic, Gen. Tihomir Blaskic in Reader)

 

FIRST MIDTERM: Monday, February 14

 

III. The Second World War (2 weeks: Feb. 16-23)

 

      (Wk 6)       H. Richard Niebuhr, "War as the Judgment of God," and "War as Crucifixion," in Miller, ed., Sources

 

Recommended: Miller, Interpretations of Conflict, chap. 5        

 

G.E.M. Anscombe, "The Justice of the Present War Examined," in Miller, ed., Sources

 

      (Wk 7)       *Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, chap. 7 (pp. 109-117); chap.16; articles from New York Times on Hiroshima, Nagasaki by Jim Holt, Stephen Ambrose, Peter Steinfels, in Reader

 

IV. Interventions: The Case of Kosovo (1 ½ weeks: Feb. 28- Mar.7)

 

     (Wks 8-9)   William Jefferson Clinton, “A Just and Necessary War;” R. Miller, “Justification, Legitimation, and the Politics of Rescue;” and J. Bryan Hehir, “Kosovo: A War of Values and the Values of War” in Reader.  Also review Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, chap. 6.

 

                        Recommended: Michael Walzer, “The Politics of Rescue,” Dissent (Winter 1995): 35-41, in Reader.

                                               

SECOND MIDTERM: Wednesday, March 9

 

SPRING BREAK: MARCH 12-20

 

V. Comparative Perspectives (2 Weeks: Mar.  21-30)

 

      (Wk 10)     Michael Walzer, “The Idea of Holy War in Ancient Israel” in Reader and Walzer, “War and Peace in the Jewish Tradition,” in Nardin, ed., The Ethics of War and Peace

 

      (Wk 11)    *Kelsay, Islam and War, chaps. 3-4; essays by Tibi, “War and Peace in Islam,”