ABSTRACT

In secular theory, the theology of warfare became a philosophy of warfare. In continuity with the prophets of Israel, modern secular just war theory seeks to define the parameters of righteousness in national and international action. Leaping across the Christian ages of just war theory, including Aquinas and Augustine, Hobbes appealed to a secular heritage that considered war as its own justification. The Hague conventions of 1907 marked the first significant initiative in the twentieth century to define in a secular way and backed with legal and political force, restraints on the war temperament rapidly growing in Europe. The fire-filled winds of Dresden and Tokyo mortally anticipated the scorching atomic fires over Hiroshima and Nagasaki that forever changed the face of war ethics. The agony for humane conscience in the Vietnam War derived from just war ethics in both conception and execution, and the inability to honor those ethics in situations like the US invasion of Vietnam.