Just War

In Our Time: Philosophy

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 1999

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea of a just war. There were theories about a justified or noble war before the birth of Christ, but it was his reported teachings and a powerful influence, particularly on the Emperor Constantine, which set the standard which had to be kept or bluntly modified. “I say unto you, love your own image,” Matthew writes, “bless them that curse you, be good to them that hate you and persecute you”. In the fifth century, the mighty St Augustus prised the Christian church away from Christ’s reported teachings and the idea of a Just War took root to be formalised and given power by St Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century, and by other Christian commentators even up to this day. But after a century, our century, of almost unimaginably violent conflict, does the term a Just War have any meaning at all? The historian AJP Taylor wrote that "the medieval pursuit of the just war is a pursuit as elusive as the Holy Grail. For it is almost universally true that in war each side thinks itself in the right, and there is no arbiter except victory to decide between them". So is the Christian idea of the Just War simply a way of justifying aggression or is it a moral position to take?With Professor John Keane, Professor of Politics, University of Westminster and Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy; Dr Niall Ferguson, Fellow and Tutor in Modern History, Jesus College, Oxford and author of The Pity of War.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:10.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.0	Hello, I'm joined today by historian Neil Ferguson and political scientist John Keene
0:16.0	to examine the question of the just war.
0:18.9	The historian A.J. P. Taylor wrote that the medieval pursuit of the just war is a pursuit as elusive as the
0:24.8	Holy Grail for it's almost universally true that in each war each side thinks
0:29.1	itself in the right and there's no arbiter except victory to decide between them.
0:34.0	So is the Christian idea of the just to simply a way of justifying aggression or is it a moral
0:38.3	position to take?
0:40.0	Professor John Keene is Professor of Politics at the University of Westminster and Director of the
0:43.6	Center for the Study of Democracy. He's the author of Tom Payne, a political life, and
0:48.2	reflections on violence, an analysis of war through the 20th century and the ethical implications of violence.
0:54.4	He's taught in Yugoslavia and was supposed to be directing a summer school in Montenegro right
0:58.0	now, but it's been cancelled because of the current conflict.
1:01.4	Dr Neil Ferguson is fellow and tutor in modern history Jesus College, Oxford.
1:05.2	He is an enormously prolific writer and along with regular reviews and commentaries in the newspapers,
1:10.1	his books include a history of the Rothschild family which led one reviewer to say that the book reaffirms
1:14.7	one's faith in the possibility of great historical writing.
1:18.0	Virtual history, a defense of the what-if theory of history, which became a bestseller, and significantly for us today the pity of war
1:24.9	his controversial view of the First World War which comes out in paperback later in the year.
1:30.0	John Keene, George Austin Arch, Deacon of the Yorker, said,
1:33.2	All war is evil, but a just war is a lesser of two evils.
	...

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