Describe the teachings of the religion which you are studying about war and pacifism.

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Adam Reilly

Describe the teachings of the religion which you are studying about war and pacifism.

Christians have different views and opinions about war (A state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties) and pacifism (the belief that disputes between nations should and can be settled peacefully) because of what the bible says in the New Testament and the Old Testament, what Jesus said about it, the just war theory and the holy war. I will explain these in the following essay and Christians points of views on them.

One of the main reasons for some Christians agreeing with war is because of the just war theory and this was made in the 13th century by a Christian monk called Thomas Aquinas and he wrote this list of rules out because he believed war needed guidelines. The just war theory stated that war is acceptable but only as a last resort and this must be started by the proper authority e.g. the government, the just war theory also says that the amount of force used within the war should only be enough to win not any more and that no citizens should be killed in this and also that no cruelty or torture must be used. Christians would agree with this because it is as a last resort and it isn’t the type of violence that would destroy more then necessary, an example of this is the war in Iraq some Christians would say this meets the requirements of the just war theory bas the united nations had tried various means such as sanctions, inspections and diplomacy and the Americans with support of the British believed all other means had been tried so went to war to solve the problem. However others would say it wasn’t and that violence is not necessary and that they wanted to continue diplomatic efforts in a hope that it would work without violence.

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Some Christians would also agree with violence because of what is said in the Old Testament, in the Old Testament God comes over as an angry character and many quotes in the Old Testament agree with war and violence, they believed that God was calling them into battle, they were told that God was on there side, one of the prophets Joel said “Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack. Beat your ploughshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears… Bring down your warriors, O LORD!” this ...

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