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Christians have had diverse attitudes towards violence and nonviolence over time. Both currently and historically, there have been four attitudes towards violence and war and four resulting practices of them within Christianity: non-resistance, Christian pacifism, just war, and preventive war (Holy war, e.g., the Crusades). [1]
A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war (Latin: sanctum bellum), is a war and conflict which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion and beliefs. In the modern period , there are frequent debates over the extent to which religious, economic , ethnic or other aspects of a conflict are ...
Christian holy war had a long history pre-dating the 11th century when papal reformers began equating the universal church with the papacy [clarification needed]. This resulted in the Peace and Truce of God movement supporting military defence of the church, clergy and its property.
The fourth-century theologian Augustine of Hippo had Christianised this, and it eventually became the paradigm of Christian holy war. Theologians widely accepted the justification that holy war against pagans was good, because of their opposition to Christianity. [215] The Holy Land was the patrimony of Christ; its recovery was on behalf of God.
A Christian theology of war inevitably evolved from the point when Roman citizenship and Christianity became linked. Citizens were required to fight against the empire's enemies. Dating from the works of the 4th-century theologian Augustine of Hippo, a doctrine of holy war developed. Augustine wrote that aggressive war was sinful, but war could ...
In this way the church was able to combine the ideas of holy war and Christian pilgrimage to create the legal and theocratic justifications for the crusading movement. [26] The historian Carl Erdmann mapped out the three stages for the argument creating the institution of the crusading movement: Defending Christian unity was a just cause.
Ideas such as holy war and Christian chivalry, in both thought and culture, continued to evolve gradually from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries. [103]: 184, 185, 210 This can be traced in expressions of law, traditions, tales, prophecy, and historical narratives, in letters, bulls and poems written during the crusading period.
Christian pacifists state that Jesus himself was a pacifist who taught and practiced pacifism and that his followers must do likewise. Notable Christian pacifists include Martin Luther King Jr., Leo Tolstoy, [2] Adin Ballou, Dorothy Day, Ammon Hennacy, and brothers Daniel and Philip Berrigan.