The Early Church on Killing
The Early Church on Killing

Author: Ronald J. Sider

Publisher: Baker Books

Published: 2012-07-01

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1441238689

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What did the early church believe about killing? What was its view on abortion? How did it approach capital punishment and war? Noted theologian and bestselling author Ron Sider lets the testimony of the early church speak in the first of a three-volume series on biblical peacemaking. This book provides in English translation all extant data directly relevant to the witness of the early church until Constantine on killing. Primarily, it draws data from early church writings, but other evidence, such as archaeological finds and Roman writings, is included. Sider taps into current evangelical interest in how the early church informs contemporary life while presenting a thorough, comprehensive treatment on topics of perennial concern. The book includes brief introductions to every Christian writer cited and explanatory notes on many specific texts.

Soldiering for God
Soldiering for God

Author: John F. Shean

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2010-08-23

Total Pages: 476

ISBN-13: 9004187332

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This new study argues that the religious attitude of the Roman army was a crucial factor in the Christianization of the Roman world. Specifically, by the end of the third century, there was a significant Christian presence within the army which was ready to act in the interests of the faith. Conditions at this time were thus ripe for the coming to power of a Christian emperor: when Constantine converted to Christianity he could rely upon the enthusiastic support of his Christian soldiers. Constantine strengthened his Christian base by initiating policies which accelerated the Christianization of the army. The continuation of these policies by Christian Roman emperors eventually allowed them to use the military as a vehicle for the suppression of paganism and ‘heretical’ Christian sects.

Love in Hard Places
Love in Hard Places

Author: D. A. Carson

Publisher: Crossway

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9781581344257

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A readable guide for helping Christians understand what biblical forgiveness and biblical love really look like in the painful situations in life.

War Sermons
War Sermons

Author: Gilles Teulié

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2009-03-26

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1443808741

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This collection of essays ponders upon the intricate relations between the military and the spiritual from the Middle Ages to the present day. In order to analyse human attitudes towards conflicts, it is necessary to dwell upon the nebulous area where the religious and political spheres interweave so tightly that they become virtually impossible to distinguish. Indeed, despite remaining the responsibility of the state, the political decision to go to war depends heavily on some spiritual underpinning since, without a moral, ethical, or religious justification, it stands for gratuitous violence and is often equated with aggression. Situated as they are at the intersection of religious and political awareness, war sermons are an invaluable source of information regarding societies in times of conflict. Indeed, whether favourable or hostile to the waging of war, preachers participated in the edification of parishioners’ opinion. The writing, delivering or reading of sermons shaped the mental process of peoples who sought their ministers’ moral and spiritual guidance in times of crisis. This collection of essays offers contributions to the renewed debate on the function of war, its representations and its rhetoric as generators of identity.

Military Chaplains and Religious Diversity
Military Chaplains and Religious Diversity

Author: Kim Philip Hansen

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2012-09-25

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1137025166

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Based on extensive in-depth interviews with more than thirty active duty chaplains regarding their successes, failures and conflicts, the book is about the way military chaplains handle religious diversity among the enlisted they serve and within their own corps.

Christian Fighter Pilot is Not an Oxymoron
Christian Fighter Pilot is Not an Oxymoron

Author: Jonathan Dowty

Publisher: Jonathan Dowty

Published: 2007-03-22

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 0615144535

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Fighter pilots are known for their bravery, cunning, and skill in combat. They are also known for their expertise in worldly vices. Few people would think that Christian men and women could be a part of that military culture.#xD;#xD;They not only can, but should.#xD;#xD;Godly men and women can be both good Christians and good fighter pilots, Sailors, Soldiers, or Marines - something many people believe is a contradiction. From fighter pilot traditions to the controversy of military evangelism, Christian Fighter Pilot explains not only the popular fighter pilot culture, but also the sometimes secretive world of the men and women who fly and fight. Whether in training or combat, Christians are shown that they can live out their faith and still excel in the world's best military.

With God on Our Side
With God on Our Side

Author: Michael L. Weinstein

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2013-12-10

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 1466859970

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One of the most elite educational institutions in the world, the Air Force Academy has, from its inception, attracted the best and the brightest, producing leaders not only in the military but throughout American society. In recent years, however, the Academy has also been producing a cadre of zealous evangelical Christians intent on creating a fundamentalist power base at the highest levels of our country. With God on Our Side is shocking exposé of life inside the United States Air Force Academy and the systematic program of indoctrination sanctioned, coordinated, and carried out by fundamentalist Christians within the U.S. military. It is also the story of Michael L. Weinstein, a proud Academy graduate and the father of two graduates and a current cadet, who single-handedly brought to light the evangelicals' utter disregard of the constitutional principle of separation of church and state that is so essential to the nation's military mission. Weinstein's war would pit him and his small band of fellow graduates, cadets, and concerned citizens against a program of Christian fundamentalist indoctrination that could transform our fighting men and women into "right-thinking" warriors more befitting a theocracy. In the process, he would come face to face with religious bigotry and at its most extreme and fight an unrelenting battle to save his beloved Academy, the ideals it stood for, and the very future of the country. An important book at a critical time in our nation's history, With God on Our Side is the story of one man's courageous struggle to thwart a creeping evangelism permeating America's military and to prevent a taxpayer-funded theocracy in which only the true believers have power.

Caesar and the Lamb
Caesar and the Lamb

Author: George Kalantzis

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2012-09-24

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 1621894487

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Through the available patristic writings Caesar and the Lamb focuses on the attitudes of the earliest Christians on war and military service. Kalantzis not only provides the reader with many new translations of pre-Constantinian texts, he also tells the story of the struggle of the earliest Church, the communities of Christ at the margins of power and society, to bear witness to the nations that enveloped them as they transformed the dominant narratives of citizenship, loyalty, freedom, power, and control. Although Kalantzis examines writings on war and military service in the first three centuries of the Christian Church in an organized manner, the ways earliest Christians thought of themselves and the state are not presented here through the lens of antiquarian curiosity. With theological sensitivity and historical acumen this companion leads the reader into the world in which Christianity arose and asks questions of the past that help us understand the early character of the Christian faith with the hope that such an enterprise will also help us evaluate its expression in our own time.