“Changing the Rules: Just War Theory in the Twenty-First Century”
By Mark DouglasDespite the long tradition and complex theory underlying the just war tradition, contemporary just war reasoning narrowly focuses simply on the established criteria for war. Yet these criteria were codified by the fifteenth century and favor the kinds of wars that could be fought at that time. Historic changes—in politics, economics, technology, and religion, among other spheres—not only have changed the nature of warfare, but have limited the applicability of the original just war criteria. Contemporary just warriors ought to turn to the deeper Christian values and virtues that underlie traditional just war theory and use them to develop new just war criteria that function better in the twenty-first century.
“‘The Eye of God’: Religious Beliefs and Punishment
in Early Nineteenth-Century Prison Reform”
By Muriel SchmidAt the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, prison reformers were engaged in a broad debate about punishment, legal theories, and the rehabilitation of criminals. At that time, philosophical and theological arguments were tightly entangled. Eastern State Penitentiary, built in 1829 in Philadelphia by Quakers, was the sole, radical example of a strict regime of solitary confinement, and became the embodiment of a Christian view of punishment as penitence. This article suggests a reading of Eastern State within its Christian background and raises the broader issue of how Christian beliefs influenced the modern philosophy of punishment.
“Animals and Innocents: Theological Reflections
on the Meaning and Purpose of Child-Rearing
By John WallThis article develops a Christian ethics of child-rearing that addresses the plight of children in the United States today. It seeks greater clarity on what Christians should view as child-rearing’s larger meaning and purpose, as well as the responsibilities this meaning and purpose impose on parents, communities, churches, and the state. The article first explores three major but quite distinct models of child-rearing ethics in the Christian tradition—those of Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, and Friedrich Schleiermacher—and then proposes a new “critical covenant” that appropriates these traditions, in conjunction with feminist and liberationist critiques, into a publicly meaningful Christian ethics of child-rearing for today.
“A Case for P. D. James as a Christian Novelist”
By Ralph C. WoodP. D. James is the successor to Agatha Christie as the queen of contemporary crime fiction. She is also a writer whose work is imbued with deep Christian convictions. Her novels are concerned to declare not merely who “done” it, but also why. She probes human motives with an unusually keen eye for the mystery of iniquity, especially the desire to murder in the name of good. James’s novels also wrestle with the very largest moral and social questions, and her fiction suggests answers that are deeply incarnational.
“Myth, Gospel, and John Updike’s Centaur”
By John McTavishThe Centaur is one of John Updike’s most gospel-imbued novels. But the explicit symbolism, drawn mainly from Greek mythology, often poses a barrier. This article shows how the symbolism works in The Centaur, how Updike constantly charges his realistic stories with mythical overtones, and how no myth looms larger for the author than the Christian story of the God who literally became human in order to suffer with us and for us. George Caldwell, the hero of The Centaur, turns out to be not only an embodiment of the Greek god Chiron, but a modern-day image of the Christ who shelters the world with his self-sacrificing love.
“Saints and Writers: On Doing One’s Work in Hiding”
By Belden C. LaneThis article is a personal reflection on the relationship between spirituality and the writing process. It deals with the dilemma faced by saints and writers alike in “getting out of the way” of their work, keeping the self-consciousness of the ego from distorting the simplicity of what they do. An aspiration to sainthood can ruin the spiritual life. Just as the desire to be published often keeps a would-be author from ever writing. The article probes the parallels in these two experiences, asking how starting and hiding are joined in the spiritual life and the creative process.