PeaceDocs | Bibliography | Early Christianity
CHAPTER 3: Peacemaking in Early Christianity.
From Paul to Constantine
The Christian Background
156. Altaner, Berthold. Patrology. Hilda C. Graff, trans. Westminster, MD: Herder & Herder, 1960.
Essential introduction to the writings of the early Christian peacemakers, arranged by individuals, providing a listing of works, translations, and scholarship.
157. Attwater, Donald. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. New York: Penguin Books, 1976.
Biographies of many of the early peacemakers and martyrs. Selected suggested reading.
158. Bainton, Roland H. Early Christianity. New York: Van Nostrand, 1960.
A collection of primary sources in translation, along with historical introduction. Good sources for early Christian antimilitarism and peacemaking. See 190.
159. Baus, Karl. From the Apostolic Community to Constantine. In Hubert Jedin and John Dolan. Handbook of Church History (History of the Church). New York: Herder & Herder, Seabury Press, 1965-.
Excellent background for Christianity from its Judaic roots, the life of Jesus, the Greco-Roman world, and the post-Apostolic age. Excellent bibliography.
159.1 Bowersock, G. W., Peter Robert Lamont Brown, and Oleg Grabar. Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World. Harvard University Press reference library. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999.
A collection of essays on all aspects of the late ancient world, with up-to-date research bibliographies. Béatrice Caseau, “Sacred Landscapes”; Garth Fowden, “Religious Communities”; Richard Lim, “Christian Triumph and Controversy”; and Brent Shaw, “War and Violence” offer particularly pertinent background.
160. Brown, Peter R.L. The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.
Excellent introduction to the study of individual Christian saints and martyrs, the first peacemakers. Rejects the theory that popular saints venerated from the time of the early church represented a less pure form of Christianity or culture.
161. Butler, Alban. Lives of the Saints. Donald Attwater and Herbert Thurston, eds. 4 vols. New York: Kennedy, 1956.
The most comprehensive collection available in English for the lives of the early peacemakers.
162. Chadwick, Henry. The Early Church. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1967.
Excellent, brief introduction to the historical period. The church’s growth, its encounter with Rome, the development of its institutions, and an examination of its major thinkers. In general, while the church tolerated existing Roman institutions, including slavery, its emphasis on a new society of equals held deep social and political potential.
163. Cohn, Norman. The Pursuit of the Millennium. New York: Harper & Row, 1961, rev. ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 1970.
Early pages trace the origins of Christian apocalyptic from the Jewish tradition through John’s Revelation and into Lactantius and the age of Constantine. Cohn has been widely criticized for equating the Christian apocalyptic tradition too exclusively with violent social revolt and class struggle, reading the totalitarian upheavals of the twentieth century back into history.
164. Delaney, John J. Pocket Dictionary of Saints. Abridged ed. of Dictionary of Saints. New York: Doubleday, 1983.
A good, concise guide.
165. Fathers of the Church. A New Translation. 68 vols. New York: Cima, 1947-.
Good English editions.
166. Frend, W.H.C. The Early Church. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982.
A good, general history of Christianity from the New Testament to Constantine. Good chapter bibliographies.
167. Grant, Robert M. Augustus to Constantine. The Thrust of the Christian Movement into the Roman World. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.
A good general introduction, with an excellent bibliography. Follows Cadoux (193) in characterizing Christian attitudes to war. While the imperial just war was conceivable, prayer was the Christian’s method of defending the empire.
168. —. Early Christianity and Society. Seven Studies. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1977.
Christian attitudes to the Pax Romana were mixed, ranging from the support of the stability it provided to opposition to Roman tyranny. Taken as a whole, however, the Christians, and the Romans themselves, considered the church as “a state within a state” consciously set up to create a new society.
169. Halton, Thomas P., and Robert D. Sider. “A Decade of Patristic Scholarship 1970-1970,” Classical World (Nov.-Dec., 1982): 67-127.
Supplements such works as Altaner (154) and Quasten (175) in locating the lives and works of the early church writers.
170. Harnack, Adolf. The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries. James Moffatt, trans. and ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1962.
The remarkable success of Christianity was due largely to its message of salvation, its ethical teaching, and its sacramentalism; yet its gospel of love and charity “became a social message” that showed that goodness was not an “impotent claim or pale ideal” but an active power that won over many. See also 228.
171. Lebreton, Jules, S.J., and Jacques Zeiller. History of the Primitive Church. Ernest C. Messinger, trans. 3 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1944-48.
Excellent introduction to the period and to the questions debated by historians, including the martyrs, their numbers and effect, the life of Christians in the early Church, and the question of military service. See 244.
172. Library of Christian Classics. J. Baille, J.T. MacNeill, and H.P. van Dusen, eds. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1953-.
Also available on CD-ROM.
English translations of early Christian writings, including those of the peacemakers.
173. Markus, Robert A. Christianity in the Roman World. New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1974.
A popular, general account of the early church, with fairly good bibliography.
174. McGinn, Bernard, ed. and trans. Apocalyptic Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1979.
Using the Divine Institutes of Lactantius as his example, McGinn notes that early Christian apocalyptic was fundamentally political in its call to resist evil and in consoling the good. Though activist, it was opposed to violence.
175. —. Visions of the End. Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle Ages. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979.
Short selections from a wide variety of apocalyptic writings. Useful for the early church.
176. Meeks, Wayne A. The First Urban Christians. The Social World of the Apostle Paul. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983.
A well received analysis of the origins, lives, organization and attitudes of the early Christians. Informative background reading.
177. Quasten, Johannes. Patrologia. 3 vols. Westminster, MD: Newman Publishing, 1960.
Like Altaner (154) provides useful introduction to the lives, writings of, and scholarship on, the early Christian peacemakers.
178. A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. Philip Schaff and Henry Wall, gen. eds. 28 vols. New York: Christian Literature, 1886-1890; reprint, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1952-56.
Available online through the Online Library of Liberty
Source materials for the early Christian intellectual tradition, including nonviolence.
179. Siegman, E.F. “Apocalypse, Book of,” NCE 1: 654-59.
General introduction to the book and its study.
180. Stevenson, James. A New Eusebius. Documents Illustrative of the History of the Church to A.D. 337. London: S.P.C.K., 1960.
Source readings.
181. Von Hefele, Karl Joseph. A History of the Councils of the Church. 5 vols. Edinburgh: Clark Publishers, 1883-96; reprint, New York: AMS, 1972.
Basic collection of primary source materials for church councils, including the controversial one of Arles in 314, which some scholars believe legitimized military service for Christians.
182. Wright, Frederick Adam, ed. Fathers of the Church. Tertullian, Cyprian, Arnobius, Lactantius, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine. New York: Dutton, 1929.
Primary source readings.
Christianity and Rome
183. Brown, Peter R.L. The World of Late Antiquity. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1971.
Excellent background to the spiritual and intellectual world that witnessed the struggle and triumph of Christianity, including the imperial cult and its political obligations, the militarization of society from c. 250 C.E.., the very real social revolution that Christianity offered.
184. Cochrane, Charles N. Christianity and Classical Culture. A Study of Thought and Action from Augustus to Augustine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1957.
Traces the transformation of Romanitas from a pagan to a Christian ideal, including the meanings of the Pax Romana.
185. Cunningham, Agnes, S.S.C.M. The Early Church and the State. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982.
A collection of source readings, with historical introduction, including Pliny’s description of the legal basis for the persecutions and Tertullian’s Apology.
186. Dörries, Hermann. Constantine the Great. Roland H. Bainton, trans. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
Excellent biography of the Roman emperor converted to Christianity, who for many historians of the Christian peace tradition marks the end of early church pacifism, the beginnings of the Christian alliance of power, and the just- and holy-war traditions of the Catholic Middle Ages. Includes an analysis of the canons of the controversial council of Arles summoned by Constantine in 314, which many interpret as legitimizing Christian military service.
187. Ferguson, John. The Religions of the Roman Empire. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1970.
The nature of Roman religion, the Roman imperial cult, and its essentially political character, and the Christian reluctance to compromise led to inevitable confrontation. Both the monotheism and the nonviolence of Christianity were seen as inimical to the Roman Empire, and the Christian religion was viewed as a subversive movement. One cannot ignore the essentially political character of Christianity. Good bibliography and notes.
188. Jones, A.H.M. “The Social Background of the Struggle Between Paganism and Christianity.” See 189, 17-37.
Useful background information, including the classes, occupations, intellectual and cultural levels of the early Christians, who were generally from the lower and middle ranges and reached prominence only with Constantine’s reorganizations in the fourth century. See also 232.
189. Momigliano, Arnaldo. The Conflict Between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963.
In his “Christianity and the Decline of the Roman Empire,” pp. 1-16, Momigliano states that the rise of Christianity was the single most important factor in the transformation of the Roman world. He notes, however, that this is “not...a simple return to Gibbon. Christianity produced a new style of life, created new loyalties, gave people new ambitions and new satisfactions.”
Peacemaking in the Early Church
190. Arnaldi, Maria Turriani. “Pax,” in Latinitatis Italicae Medii Aevi unde ab A. CDLXXVI usque ad A. MXXII lexicon imperfectum. Brussels: Union Academique Internationale, 1936. 2: 219.
Ranges over the meanings of the Latin word for peace from the early Christian to the medieval.
191. Bainton, Roland. Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace. Knoxville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1960.
Pacifism was the chief attitude of the early church. It was heavily influenced by Stoicism but included an abhorrence to war as murder and the birth of conscientious objection. With the Middle Ages this pacifism shifted to the just-war theory and the holy war or crusade. This too pat distinction has been criticized by J. Bryan Hehir in 29.
192. —. Early Christianity. See 158.
Ancient society knew no modern distinction between Church and State. Religion, politics, and culture were all inextricably linked. Therefore Christian opposition to paganism was essentially political as well as religious. Christian pacifism took several forms but condemned participation in war.
193. —. “The Early Church and War,” Harvard Theological Review 39 (1946): 189-213.
Summarizes the historiography of the problem and the evidence for Christians in Roman ranks. While attitudes to Rome varied from approval to outright hostility, Christian pacifism was not the result of heresy but fully in the mainstream. See 220.
194. Brock, Peter. The Roots of War Resistance. Pacifism from the Early Church to Tolstoy. Nyack, NY: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1981.
The early church marked the high point of Christian pacifism. Provides selections from the best known early Christian pacifists, including Ignatius, Origen, Tertullian, Justin Martyr, and Lactantius. With the coming of the Middle Ages, Brock asserts, “Christian pacifism is submerged for nearly a millennium” and “the barbarians militarized Christianity.” Typical of the Protestant interpretation of Church history.
195. Cadoux, C. John. Early Christian Attitudes to War: A Contribution to the History of Christian Ethics. London: Headley, 1919; reprint, New York: Seabury Press, 1982.
The book is divided into three main sections: on Jesus’ own teachings, Christian attitudes against war, and Christian attitudes accepting war. Cadoux holds that Christ taught nonviolence and love; those texts marshaled to show his approval of violence or the military do not really support that conclusion. Christian disapproval of war covers many topics, including condemnation of war in the abstract, Christianity’s essential pacifism, Christian refusal to participate in war, and the witness of Christian conscientious objectors. On the other hand, Christians used military terminology, accepted the state, and did, rarely, serve in the army. Christian pacifism remained strong into the fourth century. An extremely important and well balanced history. See 224.
196. Cahill, Lisa Sowle. “Nonresistance, Defense, Violence, and the Kingdom in Christian Tradition,” Interpretation 38, 4 (1984): 380-97.
Using Roland Bainton (191) as a basis, provides an overview of Christian attitudes toward pacifism and “nonresistance.” How do pacifists deal with injustice, biblical violence, and Jesus’ nonviolence? Surveys Christian thought from Tertullian through Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, the Quakers, Calvin and the Puritans, and Hugo Grotius.
197. Caspary, Gerard E. Politics and Exegesis. Origen and the Two Swords. Berkeley and London: University of California Press, 1979.
This is part of a larger study on the evolution of the theory of the two swords in Western political and social thought. This important volume, however, deals with the origin the the idea in the biblical passages of Christ’s passion in which the disciples offer him two swords in Gethsemane (Lk 22:36-38) and in which Peter cuts off the servant’s ear (Mt 26:52). In both Christ’s rejection of violence and of Zealot revolt seems clear, and this is how Origen interpreted them.
Origen’s nonviolent interpretation was key to the West’s understanding of these texts and in an allegorical reading of the violence of the Old Testament. Later on, however, the themes was to be transformed into the foundation of Peter’s temporal power, as Origen’s pacifism was lost on a later age.
Excellent thematic discussions, with superb indexes of biblical and early Christian uses of these texts.
198. Du Cange, Charles Du Fresne. “Pax,” Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis. 10 vols. Paris: Osmont, 1937-38. 2:228-31.
Reviews the medieval meanings of the word. The early Church expanded the meanings of the word in the New Testament. Pax also came to mean the tranquility and order established by the church with its triumph over paganism, a Christian Pax Romana, the forgiveness granted sinners by a priest, that gained by the martyrs and confessors, and the greeting of a bishop to his congregation.
199. Egan, Eileen. “The Beatitudes, The Works of Mercy, and Pacifism.” In Thomas A. Shannon, ed. War or Peace? The Search for New Answers. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982, 169-87.
Discusses the pacifism of the early church, basing it not on an aversion to idolatry or an unjust state, or apocalyptism, but on the positive Gospel call to make peace. Includes the examples of Maximilian, Lactantius, and Origen.
200. Fenwick, C.G. “Peace, International,” NCE 11: 38-41.
The historical position of the church is identified with the just-war tradition, from Augustine to the Crusades and Aquinas. Papal internationalism dominates later history. Despite its pre-Vatican II limitations, this serves as good introduction to Catholic definitions.
201. Ferguson, John. The Politics of Love: The New Testament and Nonviolent Revolution. Nyack, NY: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1979.
The basic Christian attitude toward Rome during the early church was nonviolent opposition. The Romans accused the Christians not on the basis of specific breaches of the law but of a general attitude. Cites selections from many early peacemakers, including Tarachus, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tatian, Athenagoras, Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian of Carthage, Minicius Felix, Lactantius, the Canons of Hippolytus, and Pope Damasus I. An important survey of early Christian peacemaking.
202. Frend, W.H.C. Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker House, 1981.
The story of the Christian martyrs is the “story of the successful Christian revolution against the Roman Empire.” This revolution was accomplished through nonviolence, the active witness of thousands of Christians to the truth of the Sermon on the Mount, who convinced the Romans that the people they had previously despised and feared were truly heroic. In the end the pagans grew tired of killing the just; persecution only quickened the pace of conversion.
Traces the tradition of martyrdom from its Jewish roots in Maccabees, Messianic liberation and revolutionary apocalyptism and notes its stark contrast to the Stoics’ emphasis on individual rather than community salvation. The Christians’ struggle was less against Rome on a purely political plane than against the world of force that it represented. The struggle was waged on the level of religious loyalties and the entire political and cultural sphere that this represented. The struggle at times focused on the Christians’ refusal to participate in the state cult, but it went far beyond this.
Frend’s scope is comprehensive, tracing the history of the persecutions from the reign of Nero through that of Diocletian. The issues he raises go far beyond that of martyrdom, including the Roman legal basis for the persecutions and selections from the early Fathers explaining the nature of their struggle with Rome. This book presents the best account of Christian nonviolence in action in the early church. See also 250.
203. Grant, Robert M. “War — Just, Holy, Unjust — in Hellentistic and Early Christian Thought,” Augustinianum 20 (1980): 173-89.
Traces and evaluates ideas on war in early Christianity, with special emphasis on the “rules of war.” The pacifism of the synoptic Gospels and early Christian theologians are too well known to warrant discussion here. Instead Grant focuses on the transmission of Hellenistic ideas of the laws and usages of war from Cicero through Augustine. He stresses, however, that Christian attacks on Roman morality and religion are largely based on Roman conduct in war.
204. Hornus, Jean-Michel. It Is Not Lawful for Me to Fight. Early Christian Attitudes Toward War. Scottsdale, PA: Herald Press, 1980.
Presents a wide variety of selections to demonstrate that early Christian attitudes to the Pax Romana and the Roman state were mixed. Nevertheless, Hornus shows that attempts to dismiss early Christian pacifism as the mood of a small elite, a late development of an intellectual minority, or an aversion to idolatry are not supported by the evidence. Christian peacemaking was positive, informed by a reverence for life, and opposed all forms of killing and violence. Antimilitarism was a definite and strong current, and even opposition to the imperial cult was based not on a specific abhorrence to idolatry but on a general opposition to the Roman state. Includes a very helpful “Systematic Table of Primary Sources” for Christian peacemaking. See also 231.
205. Leclercq, H. “Paix,” DACL 3, 1: 465-83.
A general introduction to early Christian concepts of the meaning of peace, using inscriptions and other funerary motifs as evidence. For the early church pax also meant unity, orthodoxy, or eventually even the physical object that replaced the kiss of peace during the mass.
206. —. “Paix de l’Église,” DACL 3, 1: 483-99.
With the conversion of Constantine and the triumph of Christianity, the pax ecclesiae (peace of the church) replaced the Pax Romana to connote an entire range of meanings involved with the final accommodation between the Christian religion and the empire, at first and primarily a treaty of peace.
207. Le Saint, W. “Tertullian,” NCE 13: 1019-22.
An introduction to the life and thought of this vigorous early Christian pacifist and opponent of the Roman order. This model of nonviolence has remained controversial to this day. According to Le Saint, “he cannot be recommended without reserve to Christian readers or honored with a place among the Fathers of the Church.”
208. MacGregor, C.H.C. The New Testament Basis of Pacifism. Nyack, NY: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1968.
The early Christian outlook was essentially political. While they rendered to Caesar and opposed violent rebellion, they also acknowledged that the oppressor was the oppressor and gave loyalty to God first. Paul’s juxtaposition of Romans 12:17-21 to Romans 13:1-7 sums this up. Do not rise up violently against authority, but do not acquiesce to evil. Nonviolent opposition was the basic Christian approach in the early centuries.
209. Swift, Louis J. “War and the Christian Conscience I: The Early Years.” Aufsteig und Niedergang der römischen Welt 11.23.1 (New York, 1979): 835-68.
On the pre-Constantinian era. Traces the issues of government coercion and authority, conscience and the Gospel of peace. Traces the scriptural foundations of the early Christian message and its development through Tertullian and Cyprian, Clement and Origen, Arnobius and Lactantius. Draws on both literary evidence and practice.
No one interpretation can be offered to explain why Christians refused military service. Aversion to bloodshed, idolatry, military life, and oath taking all played their part. Swift’s work is an excellent broadening of the question away from the narrow issues of “pacifism” toward larger ones of “peacemaking.” As he puts it: “the real issue for those Christian writers who dealt with the problem of war at any length was not idolatry or eschatology or antagonism to the empire but simply the notion that killing and love were incompatible.”
210. Windass, Stanley. Christianity Versus Violence. A Social and Historical Study of War and Christianity. London: Sheed and Ward, 1964.
Until the onset of the Catholic Middle Ages the early Christians were opposed to war. With the end of the early church came a “consecration of violence.” Follows the lines of Protestant peace historiography.
211. —. “The Early Christian Attitude to War,” Irish Theological Quarterly 29 (1962): 235-45.
Not seen.
212. Zampaglione, Gerardo. The Idea of Peace in Antiquity. Richard Dunn, trans. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1973.
Early Christianity was quietist in its attitudes to war and the state. Christians endured martyrdom out of apocalyptic expectation and concern for their own souls. No thought was given to the social dimensions of their acts. In general Christians sought accommodation to the empire and opposed Rome only over the idolatry involved in the imperial cult. Antimilitarism was quickly accommodated to the needs of the state. By the second century only the most extreme fringe groups were still pacifist, while the Sermon on the Mount was imitated only by fanatics, clairvoyants and “those most easily receptive to the immediate intuitions of feeling.” Despite this approach, Zampaglione provides abundant selections for the pacifist positions of many writers of the early church.
Roman Religious Reaction
213. Benko, Stephen. Pagan Rome and the Early Christians. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1984.
Examines Roman attitudes to the early Christians and the consistent charges leveled against them. Problems discussed include the nomen or name of Christian and its implications to the Romans, a portrait of an early Christian, charges of immorality and cannibalism, the Christian kiss and charges of licentiousness, magic and Christian practices, and pagan criticism of Christian theology and ethics.
On the whole, Benko demonstrates, the Romans had some good grounds for their charges and suspicions. A good corrective for those who consider all in the early church saintly martyrs.
214. Cumont, Franz. The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism. Grant Showerman, intro. New York: Dover Books, 1956.
The rapid spread of eastern cults, including Christianity, may be explained by their contrast to the unsatisfying official Roman cult and the emotional, personal, and ethical appeal of the mystery cults. Good background.
215. Dodds, E.R. Pagan and Christian in An Age of Anxiety. New York: Norton, 1965.
In the end “Christianity...was judged to be worth living for because it was worth dying for.” The appeal of the martyrs’ nonviolent witness finally overcame Roman paganism.
216. MacMullen, Ramsay. Christianizing the Roman Empire A.D. 100-400. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984.
While many pagans in the late Empire were converted, the question remains: to what extent was their conversion genuine? To what extent did these new, essentially “bedouin,” Christians simply adopt a religious subculture, barely touched by true Christian doctrine and ethics? MacMullen stresses that these issues may be unimportant. They seem to have been to the ancients themselves, and this is the criterion that we should keep in mind.
Surveys pagan beliefs, their view of Christianity, the role of Constantine’s conversion and its effect on conversion to Christianity for nonreligious motives, and forced conversion. Yet there is evidence of conscious Christian evangelization, for example by Gregory the Wonder Worker or Martin of Tours, who brought many to Christianity as much by their dramatic actions as by their preaching. Conversion of the intellectuals came last of all, and their numbers were insignificant. A good reminder that Christian ethics, and the message of peace, played only one part in the total process of converting the Roman Empire.
217. Nock, A.D. Conversion. The Old and the New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.
A groundbreaking work tracing the process of conversion. Christianity’s basic emphasis, one it shared with many Eastern cults, was individual and oriented to personal salvation. Yet the Roman world had precedents in its own religion, philosophy, and literature for the personal drama of conversion and martyrdom that it saw played out by the Christians. This preparation permitted the Romans to understand the Christian struggle and finally to change their own hearts and join it.
218. Smith, John Holland. The Death of Classical Paganism. New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1976.
Traces the progress of the Christianization of the empire from Diocletian to Isidore of Seville and the early Middle Ages. Includes such topics as the imperial cult, the essential link between politics and religion in the late antique world, and the suspicion cast on Christians as potential traitors, a potential that drove Diocletian to begin purging them from the army when the probability of war on the frontiers approached.
219. Ste.-Croix, G. de. “Why Were the Early Christians Persecuted?” Past and Present 26 (1963): 6-38.
Rejects theories that their refusal to sacrifice out of aversion to idolatry was the main cause. They were persecuted for the nomen (name), the very fact of being Christian, never for any particular act. The central issue, as revealed by Pliny, was that of religious, and thus of political, loyalty to the empire. Underscores the essentially political stance of Christianity and of Christian nonviolence as a revolutionary power.
Christians and the Roman Army
220. Bainton. “Early Church.” See 193.
Christian opposition to service in the Roman army was based primarily on Christ’s love command in the Sermon on the Mount. Apocalyptic and purely political motives played a minor role, as did the Christian aversion to idolatry involved in soldiers’ sacrificing to the emperor. While army service was not condemned outright, fighting in wars was. There were no Christians known in the Roman army before A.D. 170, and no Christian approved of war prior to the age of Constantine. Police work, serving in the army during the tranquil years of the Pax Romana, was acceptable to Christians.
221. Berchem, Andreas. Le martyre de la Légion Thébaine. Basel: Schweizerische Beitrage zur Altertumswissenschaft 8, 1968.
Not seen.
222.Brand, Clarence R. Roman Military Law. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1968.
A very tidy delineation of all aspects of the topic, including religion and discipline” (pp. 83-98) and offenses and punishments (pp. 99-109).
222.1—. The Military Question in the Early Church: A Selected Bibliography of Century’s Scholarship, 1888-1987. Toronto: University of Toronto, Dept. of History, 1988.
223. Brock, Peter. The Roots of War Resistance. Pacifism from the Early Church to Tolstoy. Nyack, NY: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1981.
Draws the distinction between a soldier’s military and his police duties, which most often involved little violence during the tranquil years of the Pax Romana. Those Christians in Roman ranks are better known for their conscientious objection than for their military service. Maximilianus is an example.
224. Cadoux. Early Christian Attitudes. See 193.
No evidence exists for Christians in the military before A.D. 170. Episodes, such as the Christian Thundering Legion, are based on faulty and later sources and must be dismissed. Also reviews Tertullian’s ideas opposing military service and recounts evidence for Christian soldiers who refused to obey war orders.
225. Davies, R.W. “Police Work in Roman Times,” History Today 18 (1968): 700-707.
Even according to Christian witnesses like Tertullian, the majority of Roman military work was actually peacekeeping within the empire, tracking down brigands, maintaining general law and order, investigating missing persons and arson cases, and policing the larger cities. Roman soldiers also acted as frontier guards, traffic controllers, and secret police. An important study that may help explain the fact that while Christians might find many of these tasks repugnant, they were, nevertheless, essentially nonmilitary. This may explain the small numbers of Christians who were found in Roman military ranks before Constantine.
226. Fontaine, J. “Christians and Military Service in the Early Church.” T. Westow, trans. Concilium 7 (1965): 107-119.
Reviews the historiography on the topic and concludes that the entire interest in early Christian pacifism is “dangerous.” The evidence on both sides of the debate is fragmentary and emotional. While his advice on partisanship is certainly worth heeding, one cannot prevent the historian from attempting to make sense of controversial, even “dangerous” problems.
227. Gero, Stephen. “‘Miles gloriosus,’ The Church and Military Service According to Tertullian,” Church History 39 (1970): 285-98.
Tertullian’s works provide an index to the changing Christian attitudes to armed service. Before the second century there is no evidence of Christians in the army. From 170-80 there was a rapid shift under the Severan emperors as society became increasingly militarized, and the new attractiveness of the army began to draw Christians. Tertullian’s condemnations of military service thus represent an attempt to stem back this tide, and his works grow stronger in their attacks. Violence and not idolatry was the stumbling block to Christian participation. Gero’s method argues from known Christian polemics against the military to Christian enlistment “perhaps in large numbers,” but he fails to provide any but this rather indirect, and essentially negative, evidence.
228. Harnack. Mission. See 170.
Christian objection to military service stemmed from a variety of motives. These included opposition to bloodshed, army discipline that involved the use of the death penalty and other duties opposed to Christians’ duty to God, the cult of the emperor essential to military life, pagan symbolism used by the military, and the normal immorality of camp life. A well balanced treatment.
229. Helgeland, J. “Christians and the Roman Army, A.D. 173-337,” Church History 43 (1974): 149-63, 200.
Interpretations of the early Christian attitude to military service have generally followed sectarian lines. Catholics have stressed Christian loyalty to the state, attributing opposition to service to an aversion to the idolatry involved in soldier’s military oaths; Protestant sectaries and pacifists stress the priority of the Sermon on the Mount; while Lutherans and mainline Protestants trace a progress of gradual support for the state. On the whole, however, military service was not really a hot issue in the early church; only a handful of writers voiced concern over it, and no evidence of military service exists before 173 C.E.
While “generally speaking, the Fathers abhorred violence...the evidence gathered from all the Church Fathers of the first three centuries proves that there was no such thing as an early church pacifism.” Helgeland accepts such stories as the Christian Thundering Legion and the Theban Legion as accurate evidence of Christian military service. He asserts that Marinus, Maximilianus, Marcellus and other soldier martyrs were executed for breaches of military discipline when they refused to fight. He states that only seven tombstones prior to Constantine can be attributed to Christian soldiers; but that “more are undoubtedly from the time, but it is not possible to say which ones are.”
230. —. “Christians and the Roman Army from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine.” Austeig und Niedergang der Römischen Welt 11.23.1 (1979): 724-834.
An excellent and important introduction to the data and problems, despite Helgeland’s all too obvious opinion that opposition to service was based solely on aversion to idolatry and his sometimes overzealous attempt to dispute all other possible interpretations. Helgeland may be too categorical in his dismissal of interpretations comparing the early church’s peacemaking to “modern pacifism” as tearing quotations out of context. He, in fact, never defines what he means by this “pacifism” but apparently dismisses it a priori.
Topics include war, violence and military service in the thought of the early church, a very valuable review of the historiography, a review of the problem of Christians in the Roman army, the sources and interpretations, and the issue of military service in the age of Constantine. Excellent bibliography.
231. —. “Roman Army Religion,” Austeig und Niedergang der romischen Welt II.16.1. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1978.
This “official cult” was highly liturgical and external. Inner belief was not necessary for the participant since external devotions guaranteed the link between the rites performed and the favor of the Gods on the empire, crops, and prosperity.
232. —. Robert J. Daly, and J. Robert Burns. Christians and the Military: The Early Experience. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985.
This handy, short book discusses and presents essential texts for most of the major issues in the debate over Christian participation in the Roman army and Christian attitudes to it. Topics include the political and ethical background of Jesus’ message and the New Testament, the love command and nonviolence; the early church’s use of military metaphors to describe the struggle
of the Christian, the testimony of Tertullian, the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus, and Origen on Christian pacifism. The authors also present analyses of evidence for Christian violence and military service: the Apocryphal Gospels, the story of the Thundering Legion, the the Christian military martyrs, and the Canons of the council of Arles. Eusebius, Ambrose and Augustine all saw a divine mission for Christian soldiers. The authors tend to the view that if Christians did resist military service and its violence, it was from an aversion to idolatry, not to any Christian principle of nonviolence based on the Gospels.
233. Hornus. It Is Not Lawful. See 204.
While there were soldiers in the Roman army, the evidence put forth is exaggerated. No evidence exists for the first two centuries; Leclercq’s (236) evidence of 11 Christian soldiers out of 4700 inscriptions is scanty, but nonetheless significant. Literary evidence, Tertullian’s opposition, stories of soldier martyrs, apocryphal legends of military saints, and the Christian soldiers who died during Diocletian’s purge all point to an overwhelming Christian pacifism.
234. Jones. “Social Background.” See 188.
Examines the social origins of the Roman army and demonstrates that well into the fourth century it remained peasant, barbarian, within the families of former soldiers, and “overwhelmingly pagan.” There is no evidence of large-scale Christian enlistment. This remained exceptional throughout the early church.
235. Klein, Richard. “Tertullian und das römische Reich,” Bibliothek der Klassischen Altertumswissenshaften n.f. 2 Reihe, Bd. 22. Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1968.
Not seen.
236. Leclercq, H. “Militarisme,” DACL 11: 1108-81.
Using epigraphical evidence the author finds eleven tombs, out of 4,700 extant, to show that Christians served as soldiers. Yet the significance of these inscriptions is still much in debate.
237. MacMullen, Ramsay. Soldier and Civilian in the Later Roman Empire. Harvard Historical Monographs 52, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
Roman military service at the height of the empire consisted mainly of peaceful police work. Military life was largely confined to the camps along the border or in provinces and consisted of settling quarrels, calming riots, overseeing customs, and pursuing bandits and other criminals. It was rarely military duty in the strict sense.
238. Munier, C., ed. Concilia Galliae A. 314-A. 506. CCSL 148, Turnholt: Brepols, 1963.
For the Council of Arles in 314, which some historians say appears to have approved Christian military service.
239. Powers, R.T., and H.A. Freeman. “Conscientious Objectors,” NCE 4: 204-6.
Pacifism has never been a viable alternative for the Catholic or Christian. Any professed opposition to military service in the early church was based on resistance to idolatry, and Christians were always loyal citizens. Conscientious objection then, as now, is a selfish escape. A pre-Vatican II view.
240. Ruyter, Knut Willem, O.F.M. “Pacifism and Military Service in the Early Church.” Cross Currents 32 (1982): 54-70.
Disputes the categorical dismissal of John Cardinal O’Connor, then U.S. Military Vicar, that whatever the early church may have believed about pacifism is irrelevant to today’s situation. The witness of the early church is important for us today, as the lives and words of the Berrigans and Plowshares demonstrate.
There is little doubt that the early church rejected military service. The years 170 to 180, however, did witness a true moral dilemma for the church as Christians began to appear in Roman army lists. There were few Christian volunteers, however, and those few Christian soldiers were probably converts already in the service. Ensuing Christian objection to service involved several factors: violence, the immorality of military life, and emperor worship.
While pacifism was not normative in later centuries, it did exist; and even the just war was a Christian attempt to limit the brutality of war. Today pacifism may well grow with the change of the church from an institution into a flock.
241. Ryan, E.A., S.J. “The Rejection of Military Service by Christians.” Theological Studies 13 (1952): 1-32.
Christian opposition to military service, when it existed was not based on pacifism, but from an abhorrence to idolatry. Christians, on the whole, were loyal subjects of the empire.
242. Swift, Louis J. The Early Fathers on War and Military Service. Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1983.
An excellent, brief introduction to the issues facing the early Christians that are still relevant today. The New Testament pacifist tradition survived well into the third century, but did lessen with time. Christian motives for opposing war and military service were varied from the very start, ranging from this pacifism, to an aversion to idolatry, to taking oaths, to the vices of military life. No clear consensus ever emerged in the early church, and by the fourth century there was clearly a shift toward the just war. The primary sources reflect this variety. Good bibliography.
243. Tanzarella, Sergio. “I cristiani e il servizio militare nella chiesa antica. Il problema dalle origine alla fine del II secolo.” Asprenas 31 (1984): 75-87.
Not seen.
244. Von Campenhausen, Hans. “Christians and Military Service in the Early Church,” in Tradition and Life in the Church. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1968.
While Christians approached military service with many different attitudes, the basic Christian attitude was one of neutrality toward the passing, non-Christian world and never condemned war.
245. Watson, G.R. “Conscription and Voluntary Enlistment in the Roman Army,” Proceedings of the African Classical Association 16 (1982): 191-209.
While conscription was the rule in the fourth century, military service was voluntary in the late Republic. When precisely can be mark the shift? Watson concludes that it is impossible to tell, and that conditions varied with period. Before the first century C.E., for example, conscription was used frequently, but under the Severans, in the second and third centuries military recruits were mostly volunteers.
Interesting, if inconclusive, evidence for the background of Christian military service.
246. Zeiller, Jacques. “The Question of Military Service.” See 171, 2: 1155-59.
The early Christians were “more truly citizens of the earthly fatherland than has sometimes been thought.” Conscientious objection was the province of an intellectual elite, which did not affect “ordinary life.” Even Tertullian’s opposition was “from an already heretical mouth.” Official church teachings stressing pacifism, like the Canons of Hippolytus, were ignored or resisted by the “good sense of the people.” Argues backwards from the purges of Christians from the Roman army under Diocletian as “the best proof that from the end of the second to that of the third century...’a conscientious objection’ was not felt by the majority.” Zeiller’s approach is typical of Catholicism smarting from its various Kulturkampfen and eager to prove its alliance with the mainstream and the official line.
Soldier Saints
247. Delehaye, Hippolyte. Les légendes grecques de saints militaires. Paris: A. Picard, 1909.
Many of our favorite Christian warrior saints, including Trophimus, Sabbatinus, Procopius, and George, are pure fabrications of a later age or simply translations of pagan myths.
248. —. The Legends of the Saints. Donald Attwater, trans. New York: Fordham University Press, 1962.
A general introduction to reading and understanding saints lives and legends according to the literary and religious conventions of the day. Important background to understanding how legends of Christian warriors were produced.
249. Erdmann, C. The Origins of the Idea of Crusade. Marshall W. Baldwin and Walter Goffart, transls. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.
The fame of many Christian military saints, such as George, Maurice, Sebastian, and Martin rests not on their military exploits but on their Christian virtues.
250. Frend. Martyrdom. See 202.
Examines the issue of Christians in the Roman army during the persecutions of the early fourth century. Such stories as that of the mostly Christian Theban or the Thundering Legion are based on pagan legends or faulty later sources and have little basis in fact. Soldiers known to be Christian are more likely in reality to have been conscientious objectors.
251. Merton, Thomas. “Saint Maximus the Confessor on Nonviolence.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 172-77.
A modern reflection on the ancient martyr. The message of Maximus is that our materialism ties us down to violence and injustice. Nonviolence is not passive acceptance of injustice. We are to resist not the evildoer but evil, since our resistance to hate vanquishes hate.
252. Musurillo, Herbert A., S.J. The Acts of the Christian Martyrs. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972.
The lives and deeds of twenty-eight early Christian martyrs, including the soldiers Marinus, Maximilianus, and Marcellus.
253. Siniscalco, Paolo. Massimiliano: Un obiettore di coscienza del tardo impero. Studi sulla “Passio S. Maximiliani.” Turin: Paravia, 1974.
Not seen.
* *
*
