Saints and the Theology of Warfare

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The histories of sainthood, war, and theology are strangely intertwined. Accounts of violent warfare in the Old Testament led the Manichaeans and the Marcionites to reject the Old Testament and its God and to deny the holiness of Jewish patriarchs (Abraham, Jacob, Moses), prophets, and kings (David). Defending the unity of the Bible as the inspired Word of God, Saint Augustine defended the holiness of Old Testament battle-leaders and laid the foundation for a “Just War” theory. Many Christian saints (Martin of Tours, Christopher, Guthlac, Francis of Assisi) became hermits and ascetics after quitting military service, turning battle against the enemy into a discipline of struggle against the devil and his temptations. Some former soldiers (e.g., Saint Ignatius of Loyola) adopted military discipline, language, and images in their striving for holiness. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux taught that Christian knighthood and the Crusades could be paths to sainthood, even as he warned against the spiritual dangers of warfare. Saints Joan of Arc and Saint George were warrior saints and are invoked by soldiers. In modern times, reflection on warfare has inspired extraordinary writings by mystically gifted souls (e.g., Teilhard de Chardin’s Mass on the Altar of the World, Simone Weil’s Iliad, Poem of Force) who served in war zones. Other saints, martyrs, and mystics (Dorothy Day, Franz Jagerstaetter, Franz Reinisch) have, however, refused military service as idolatrous. The Church’s social teaching constantly proclaims the call to peace and peacemaking, the possibility of conscientious objection, and the criteria for just and unjust war. This course seeks to understand the diversity of saintly decisions and practices and to discern their faithfulness to Christian doctrine.