When War is Unjust: Being Honest in Just-War Thinking [Paperback]

John Howard Yoder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2001

Yoder provides a readable and provocative primer on the history, criteria, and application of Just War teaching in Christian churches.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers; 2 edition (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579107818
• ISBN-13: 978-1579107819
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #751,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A concilitory critique of the Just War Tradition, October 9, 2000

By 

Clothesline Musings "peace_hawk" - See all my reviews

This review is from: When War Is Unjust: Being Honest in Just-War Thinking (Paperback)

Though a pacifist, John Yoder approaches the Just War tradition on its own terms and respectfully outlines the questions raised by the tradition itself. This is a must read for anyone seeking to apply the Just War Tradition into their own lifestyle and politics.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just War Accountability, September 10, 2008

By 

L. Dabeck "Lance" (Alaska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: When War is Unjust: Being Honest in Just-War Thinking (Paperback)

Yoder does well to hold our feet to the fire. He does well as a pacifist not to argue against the Just War Tradition. In the purest sense he upholds it and affirms it for those of us in the tradition. We are not let off the hook with sloppy reasoning. A good, short read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Give pacfisim a chance, July 13, 2010

By 

Comet - See all my reviews

This review is from: When War is Unjust: Being Honest in Just-War Thinking (Paperback)

Yoder walks the reader through the evolution and weaknesses of the just(ifiable) war tradition in this book. Although a pacifist himself, Yoder was fair to the JWT so much so that I thought he was a JWT believer himself until the last 1/4 of the book, which was the most interesting part for me.

Yoder is concerned with just war tradition's utilitarianism and its tendency towards slippery sloping, e.g. Michael Walzer's moments of 'supreme emergency' argument that justifies aerial bombing of German cities in World War II. In giving one concession after another in the name of 'necessity', just war tradition risks becoming a mere tool for justifying wars, rather than a restraint for preventing and/or mitigating them.

He poses this challenge for just war theorists: "If the tradition which claims that war may be justified does not also admit that it could be unjustified, the affirmation is not morally serious".