The Horrors We Bless: Rethinking the Just-War Legacy

Is war inevitable? Is it so woven into the fabric of our beingthat it always was and always will be? "Early Christians,"says Maguire, "were unanimous in opposing this view." Theydidn't see war as normal but an outrage and even a sacrilege.Maguire argues that later Christians succumbed to thesupposed "normalcy" of war and developed what later becameknown as the "just-war theory," which was actually devised asa deterrent to the rush to war.