| It Is Not Lawful for Me to Fight Contributor(s): Hornus, Jean-Michel (Author), Kreider, Alan (Translator), Coburn, Oliver (Translator) |
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ISBN: 1532667019 ISBN-13: 9781532667015 Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers OUR PRICE: $59.40 Product Type: Hardcover Published: September 2009 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Religion | Christian Church - History - Religion | Christian Theology - History - Religion | Christianity - History |
| Physical Information: 0.88" H x 5.5" W x 8.5" (1.28 lbs) 372 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: ""It is not lawful for me to fight."" With these words Saint Martin of Tours left the Roman army in AD 356. In so doing, he-who ironically in later centuries was named patron saint of numerous garrison chapels-was acting in accordance with the teaching and discipline of the pre-Constantinian church. The Early Church, as Dr. Hornus demonstrates in this historical and theological study, consistently maintained the stance of enemy loving and nonviolence. It forbade believers to take life, and was deeply suspicious of the military profession. Only in the course of the fourth century, in the context of general ethical decline and cultural accommodation, did anti-militarism cease to be the church's official position. Dr. Hornus concludes his study by reflecting upon the relevance of the thought and action of the early Christians for our own violent age. |
Contributor Bio(s): Hornus, Jean-Michel: - Jean-Michel Hornus, a French Reformed historian and theologian, was lecturer in the Theology of Mission and Ecumenism at the Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, England. |