Augustine
The Violent “Church Triumphant”
Category: General
Tags: Augustine, Constantine, Cruciform Theology, Jesus, Violence
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence, The Church
In light of how central enemy-loving non-violence is to Jesus’ teaching and to his cross-centered revelation of God, we have to wonder why the church has refused to listen to its head and instead condoned…
Defining Love
Category: Essays
Tags: Augustine, God is Love, God's Character, Jesus, Non-Violence, Religious Violence
Topics: Attributes and Character
If God’s eternal essence is love, as discussed in this post, then we must ask: What does this confession actually mean? We must explore this question carefully because “love” has been defined in many theological…
Theology That Accounts for Terrorism
Category: General
Tags: Augustine, Evil, Satan, War, Warfare Worldview
The general assumption of both the Old and the New Testaments is that the earth is virtually engulfed by cosmic forces of destruction, and that evil and suffering are ultimately due to this diabolical siege….
The Rule of Love
Category: General
Tags: Augustine, Cross, Cruciform Theology, Jesus, Love, Rule of Love
The traditional confession that Scriptura sacra sui ipsius interpres (“Sacred Scripture is its own interpreter”) presupposes that there is one divine mind behind Scripture, for example. Moreover, Church scholars have traditionally assumed that Scripture’s unity can be…
Does the Old Testament Justify “Just War”?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Augustine, Cruciform Theology, Just War, Kingdom Living, Non-Violence, Old Testament, OT Violence, Violence
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Since the time of Augustine, Christians have consistently appealed to the violent strand of the Old Testament to justify waging wars when they believed their cause was “just.” (This is Augustine’s famous “just war” theory.)…
Love and Violence
Category: General
Tags: Augustine, Cruciform Theology, God is Love, Violence
What does it mean to confess that “God is love” and that we are called to “live in love” (Eph. 5:2)? One of the more common ways of understanding God’s love has its roots in…
Evil, St. Augustine, & the “Secret” Higher Harmony
Category: General
Tags: Augustine, Blueprint Worldview, Free Will, God at War, Problem of Evil, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: The Problem of Evil
The problem of evil constitutes the single most difficult challenge to Christian theism. Volumes upon volumes have been written with the express purpose of rationally reconciling the belief in an all-good and all-powerful God with…
Blessing the Soldiers of ISIS
Category: General
Tags: Augustine, Enemy Love, Holy War, ISIS, Love Your Enemies, Non-Violence
In light of the overwhelming response to Greg’s post about loving the soldiers of ISIS, we thought we would explore Jesus’ teaching on this topic further. The following is an excerpt from Myth of a…
The Kingdom, Just War Theory, and Ukraine
Category: Essays
Tags: Augustine, Current Events, Enemy Love, Essay, Just War, Non-Violence, War
Topics: Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
History textbooks often read like surveys of how countries handled war with other nations. The stuff between the conflicts reads like precursors and aftermath to the history-making actions of war. Now we observe the rising…