Inquiry: Christianity and War | Chapter 2

Inquiry into Christianity and War | CHAPTER 2

1. Palpable ferocity of war

2. Reasonableness of the inquiry

3. Revealed will of God the sole standard of decision

4. Declarations of great men that Christianity prohibits war

5. Christianity

6. General character of Christianity

7. Precepts and declarations of Jesus Christ

8. Arguments that the precepts are figurative only

9. Precepts and declarations of the apostles

10. Objections to the advocate of peace from passages of the Christian Scriptures

11. Prophecies of the Old Testament respecting an era of peace

12. Early Christians – Their belief – Their practice – Early Christian writers

13. Mosaic institutions

14. Example of men of piety

15. Objections from the distinction between the duties of private and public life

16. The absence of a common arbitrator among nations

17. The principles of expediency

18. Examination of the principles of expediency as applied to war

19. Examination of the mode of its application

20. Universality of Christian obligation

21. Dr. Paley’s Moral and Political Philosophy

22. Inconsistent with the usual practice of the author

23. Inapplicability of the principles proposed to the purposes of life

24. Dr. Paley’s Evidences of Christianity

25. Inconsistency with the principles of the Moral Philosophy

26. Argument in favour of war from the excess of male births

27. Argument from the lawfulness of coercion on the part of the civil magistrate

28. Right of self-defence

29. Principles on which killing an assassin is defended

30. Consequences of these principles

31. Unconditional reliance upon Providence on the subject of defence

32. Safety of this reliance – Evidence by private and natural experience

33. General observations