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2 - Early Christianity and War

from Part I - Classical Foundations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2023

By
Paul Middleton
Edited by
Margo Kitts
Margo Kitts
Affiliation:
Hawai'i Pacific University, Honolulu
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Summary

While many accounts of early Christianity see the early Church as a pacifist movement, closely following Jesus’ non-retaliatory teaching, this chapter argues that there is a more ambiguous relationship to violence in the first three centuries of the Christian movement, including military service. Aside from the violent rhetoric in the eschatological parables of Jesus, Christians appropriated the violence of the Hebrew Bible to shape negative views of outsiders, which in turn prepared the way from actualised violence in the post-Constantine era.

Keywords

eschatologymartyrdomRoman ArmyNew Testament
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Religion and War , pp. 52 - 75
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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