In the period leading up to the 2003 Iraq War, John Paul II articulated strong moral objections to war, partly on the ad bellum grounds that more time should have been given to pursue sanctions further as a measure short of war. Matthew Shadle deftly teases out the geopolitical machinations driving the oil-for-food program, showing that the pope's hopeful reliance on international institutions actually conflicted with his deeper theological convictions about peace even with the available evidence about viable alternatives to war in that conflict situation (202–3).
What might account for the optimistic view among many twentieth- and twenty-first-century Catholic theorists regarding the role of the international system in preventing war? The author argues that Jacques Maritain, John Courtney Murray, John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II, as well as contemporaries Bryan Hehir and George Weigel, are indebted to aspects of liberal political theory (6).
Using a constructivist approach to international relations theory, Shadle makes an insightful contribution in this text to Catholic literature on war and peace: in sweeping strokes, he explores the role of culture in shaping human, communal, and systemic identities and norms, which in turn have informed Catholic accounts of the origins of war throughout history, from biblical narratives through the patristic, medieval, and modern eras. He holds that the constructivist perspective could be helpful in developing a Catholic understanding of the origins of war that challenges some of the presuppositions of liberalism by applying three principles dating back to premodern Christian thought: “that human existence is oriented toward a relationship with God; that this orientation shapes all areas of human life, including politics, and is not relegated to its own isolated sphere; and that politics must be understood within a broad philosophical and ethical framework” (95).
Viewing international politics from a theological perspective shaped by these principles, the author offers a cultural examination of conscience about the origins of war, including the question, “How might the Gospel challenge those cultural forces [leading to war] so that people could live in peace?” (108). Over against the influence of liberalism in modern Catholic thought, he suggests a more cautious and even resistant approach to international institutions, reflecting awareness of the ways in which both sin and grace may be at work in the international system itself. Might official Catholic teaching recognize the possibility of conscientious objection to immoral international laws, for example (203–4)?
In addition to the modern Catholic thinkers already mentioned, the author engages Dorothy Day as his lone pacifist interlocutor. A more developed account of the significance both of the Sermon on the Mount for her Catholic pacifist position and of sacramentality for her understanding of Christian anarchism could further support the author's argument. Unlike the other Catholic theorists treated, Day did question the morality of the international system itself.
This volume will be especially valuable as a provocative companion piece in undergraduate and graduate courses on social ethics and peace studies with an interdisciplinary focus.
