Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

46 BRIAN V. JOHNSTONE
possible within the limits of an article, particular attention will
be directed to the point at which the alleged corruption in the
tradition is said to have taken place, namely in the work of St.
Augustine and in the consolidation of the doctrine by St.
Thomas Aquinas and his followers.
Although the negative influence of Augustine’s teaching has
been well documented, 22 it is not appropriate to read St.
Augustine merely as the father of the just war doctrine, or the
original justifier of religiously sanctioned violence. Indeed,
Augustine has been studied as the “doctor of peace.” 23 Augustine
held that war can be justified only if it is directed to peace. 24 But
to understand this position, we must place it in its context.
Augustine dealt with three options in regard to the political
order. He could adopt the strongly eschatological view of the
early Church, which saw the Church as alien to worldly affairs
and in particular to the State. It would be in keeping with such
a view to hold that Christians should have nothing to do with
war. A second model was that of Eusebius of Caesarea (d.340
A.D.) according to which the use of secular power had a sacral
significance, in that the use of such power for religious ends was
considered as an instrument of God in the working out of the
history of salvation. 25 It would be in keeping with such a position
to see war, in particular the wars of the Roman state as
instruments in the providential plan of God. It would seem that
Augustine accepted this second model for some years. Only later
(after the sack of Rome by Alaric in 410) did he move away from
seeing the coercive policies of the empire in favour of
Christianity as the instruments by which God was fulfilling his
plan. Especially in the City of God, he then developed a doctrine
of the political order, which insisted firmly on the fulfilment of
22 FREDERICK H. RUSSELL, The Just War in the Middle Ages (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1975) 16-39.
23 STANISLAW BUDZIK, Doctor Pacis: Theologie des Friedens bei Augustinus
(Innsbruck: Tyrolia Verlag, 1988).
24 Letter 189.6 (CSEL 57.489)
25 EUSEBIUS, Preparation for the Gospel, 1.4.4, SC 206, 121. Cited in, Louis
J. Swift, The Early Fathers on War and Military Service (Wilmington,
Delaware: Michael Glazier, 1983) 83.