ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to recover the idea of just war in its historical origins and development, where it takes shape as a historical tradition of thought and practice, expressed in religious theory, in law and in both political and military theory. It explores the implications of this still-developing tradition for contemporary uses of military force. It provides a summary examination of this historical tradition from its original coalescence to its classic form. It examines the effort to recover just war discourse for contemporary moral reflection on war, focusing on Paul Ramsey and the United States Catholic bishops. The chapter looks at several thematic issues in recent just war discourse, analyzing them critically from a perspective based in the classic form of just war tradition. The deep roots of just war thinking in Western culture lie in the experiences and reflection on war and political life in classical Greece and Rome and in the Old Testament.
