Originally published in the early 1960s, "Christian Attitudes Toward War & Peace" is a little dated by this time, and the imminent danger of nuclear warfare, although not having disappeared, seems to be less on the consciences of the world's inhabitants. Although cast in the dark shadow of the atomic age, Roland H. Bainton's survey of the history of the Church and its relationship to warfare and peace-making is insightful and helpful. Bainton, a pacifist, devotes the majority of his work to the historical stances of the Church throughout major eras and ages of world history, but allows for his own beliefs and opinions on the subject of war and peace to surface in the final two chapters.

The traditional stances of the Church throughout history have been threefold: adherence to pacifism, to the just war, and to the crusade. I found this book helpful in showing the diversity within the Church in regard to war and peace, primarily after the time of Constantine (prior to Constantine, the majority Christian attitude was one of peace-making and pacifism). The Just War Theory, although the most popular of the traditional stances, proves to be much more of a complex theory when it is taken realistically and pragmatically. When one takes into account the various stipulations required for declaring a war truly "just," one would have to declare "there has never been such a war." It causes me to wonder what stance the majority of Christians, then, espouse? It must be a middle way between the Just War Theory and the crusade; sadly, at times, the crusade seems easier for many Christians in the U.S. to accept, because of a longstanding belief in the myth of a "Christian nation." While I espouse a more pacifist (or "nonviolent") approach, I commend the Just War Theory and would love if truly our wars were waged with a sense of this theory, as I believe it would deter us from the majority of national and international conflict.