"War and the Eclipse of Moral Reasoning"

I highly recommend this remarkable paper by Dr. Philip Blosser, August 16, 2002, at the Ratzinger Fan Club:

.... The greatest challenge to the tradition of just war reasoning historically came from the side of Machiavellian realism, which views war as natural and subject to no moral constraints. In recent decades, however, the primary challenge has come from the other views -- on the secular front, from the view that war is abnormal and eradicable, and on the religious front (which we are focusing on here), the view that war is fallen and inherently sinful, and must be either renounced completely (the "absolute pacifist" view), or accepted some cases as the only responsible alternative, although unavoidably sinful (the "dirty hands" view). These views have made significant inroads among Catholic thinkers in recent decades, even though they represent a radical break with the mainstream of Catholic tradition. Here I will examine only the last two religious views, which have posed the most serious challenges to just war reasoning, especially the pacifist view....

(Thanks, Christopher.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 03/31/03 03:45:49 PM
Categorized as Religious.