Augustine’s Just War Theory Is Not The Alibi Some Think It Is
House Speaker Mike Johnson recently stated that Pope Leo's criticism of the Iran war was unfounded, and that Pope Leo should examine St. Augustine's Just War Theory. This is ridiculous on its face, since Pope Leo spent 12 years as the head of the Augustinian order, so would of course be well-versed on Just War theory. But let's examine what the Just War theory is and how it applies today, because this is the deeper problem: Augustine is routinely invoked not as a moral constraint, but as a permission slip. “St. Augustine of Hippo Receiving the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus,” by Phillipe de Champaigne, 1602-1674, French. (Wikimedia Commons) St. Augustine did not write a tidy doctrine called “just war theory.” What he gave us instead was a set of moral guardrails rooted in a tragic realism about human nature. War, for Augustine, is always a sign of disorder. It may sometimes be necessary, but it is never clean, never righteous in the sense politicians like to imply, and neve...