![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
Abstract
The moral permissibility of possessing and employing nuclear weapons is something with which Christians have long wrestled. At least three distinct approaches exist to addressing the use of nuclear weapons within broader Christian thought. The three explored here are those of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, and of extreme Christian Apocalypticists. Although these approaches are each rooted in Christian principles, each exhibits unique strengths and weaknesses and leads to a different conclusion. Instead, Prudential Christian Realism is suggested as an approach worthy of discussion given today’s global security environment.
Notes
1 “Frontline: The Jesus Factor – Interview Doug Wead,” (Public Broadcasting Service, 2003), https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jesus/interviews/wead.html (accessed February 15, 2019).
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Mark David Hall, “Did America Have a Christian Founding?” (The Heritage Foundation, 2011), http://www.heritage.org/political-process/report/did-america-have-christian-founding (accessed October 15, 2018).
5 The United Methodist Council of Bishops, In Defense of Creation: The Nuclear Crisis and a Just Peace (Nashville, TN: Graded Press, 1986), 6.
6 Ibid., 13.
7 Ibid., 12.
8 Ibid., 12.
9 Ibid., 33.
10 “Ethics – War: Just War.” (BBC, 2014), www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/war/just/introduction.shtml (accessed March 1, 2019).
11 Christine Emba, “Just War Theory: A Primer” (Washington, DC: WP Company, 2015), www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2015/11/30/just-war-theory-a-primer/?noredirect=on&utm_term=a66e1ea9660a (accessed February 1, 2019).
12 Ibid.
13 “Ethics – War: Just War.” (BBC, 2014), www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/war/just/introduction.shtml (accessed March 1, 2019).
14 The United Methodist Council of Bishops, In Defense of Creation: The Nuclear Crisis and a Just Peace (Nashville, TN: Graded Press, 1986), 13.
15 Ibid., 92.
16 Ibid., 49.
17 Ibid., 7–8.
18 Ibid., 63.
19 National Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response, edited by Sohail H. Hashmi and Steven P. Lee (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 1983), 1.
20 Ibid., 2.
21 Martin L. Cook, “Christian Apocalypticism and Weapons of Mass Destruction.” in Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction: Religious and Secular Perspectives (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 200.
22 Ibid., 202.
23 Ibid., 202.
24 Ibid., 204.
25 Ibid., 200.
26 Ibid., 201.
27 Ibid., 206.
28 Ibid., 207.
29 Kermit D. Johnson, Realism and Hope in a Nuclear Age (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1988), 4.
30 “Matthew 24:36.” Bible Gateway, http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24&version=NIV (accessed November 23, 2018).
31 “Prudence” (Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA), https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prudence (accessed December 5, 2018).
32 “Prudence | Definition of Prudence in English by Oxford Dictionaries” Oxford Dictionaries | English, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/prudence (accessed December 5, 2018).
33 U.S. Department of Defense, Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy of the United States of America: Sharpening the American Military’s Competitive Edge (Washington, DC, 2018), https://dod.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/2018-National-Defense-Strategy-Summary.pdf (accessed March 10, 2019).
34 “Romans 13:1-5.” Bible Gateway, http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+13%3A1-5&version=NIV (accessed November 24, 2018).
35 John Mark Mattox, Saint Augustine and the Theory of Just War (London: Continuum, 2006), 134.
36 Ibid., 135.