2
“Holy community and holy war are related ideas – not necessarily because holiness
makes for hostility toward foreign nations, more likely because community does.”
1
- Michael Walzer
The defense of social order seems to lie at the heart of the just war traditions in all of the
world’s major religions. Domestic stability is perceived as one of the highest values, for it
is only within a well-ordered, stable society that human spirituality can reach its highest
potential. Such domestic stability is predicated on two types of order. Order within
society – in terms of a just socio-political system, usually unified under one legitimate
ruler – is necessary so that the human community may flourish and that the religion in
question can be practiced most faithfully. Likewise, some sort of ordered relationship
between societies (or states) is necessary to ensure the survival of the domestic
community itself.
When the importance of order is highlighted, the logic behind just war thinking takes
on a different cast. Customarily, just war regulations are seen as attempts to limit the
evils of war, alleviating some of war’s destructiveness. Perhaps because of the excessive
brutality of wars in the twentieth century, we tend to conflate war’s destructive nature
with the high toll on human life. But death may not be the worst evil of war. Rather, the
concern with restricting the frequency and scope of wars via just war principles may
instead reflect an interest in ensuring that a particular social order and stability are not
destroyed during the course of the war, so that the war for the defense of the community
does not result in the destruction of the community’s potential to live up to its ideals.
2
1
Michael Walzer. “The Idea of Holy War in Ancient Israel,” The Journal of Religious Ethics, 20(2), Fall
1992, pp. 215-228. p. 225.
2
Societies may disagree as to what such a social order should look like, but all hold some type of social
order dear. The nature of this just order – and subjective judgments about its worth – are beyond the scope
of this paper.
Convention