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There are different viewpoints on the relationship between Christianity and violence.

Christian doctrine has been used to justify violence, and war and violence have been exercised by Christians in the name of Christianity. There are also different viewpoints on the relationship between Christianity and peace or nonviolence. This relationship is exemplified in Christian pacifism.

Bible

The Bible includes several texts regarding and describing violence.

Leigh Gibson and Shelly Matthews, associate professor of Religion at Furman University, write that some scholars, such as René Girard, "lift up the New Testament as somehow containing the antidote for Old Testament violence". According to John Gager, such an analysis risks advocating the views of the heresiarch Marcion of Sinope (c. 85-160), who made a distinction between the God of the Old Testament responsible for violence and the God of mercy found in the New Testament.

Mahatma Gandhi embraced the concept of nonviolence which he had found in the New Testament, particularly the Sermon on the Mount, which he then utilized in his strategy for social and political struggles.

Christian violence

Among common examples of violence in Christianity, J. Denny Weaver, professor emeritus of religion at Bluffton University, lists "the crusades, the multiple blessings of wars, warrior popes, support for capital punishment, corporal punishment under the guise of 'spare the rod and spoil the child,' justifications of slavery, world-wide colonialism in the name of conversion to Christianity, the systemic violence of women subjected to men". In the view of many historians, the Constantinian shift turned Christianity from a persecuted into a persecuting religion.

Miroslav Volf has identified the intervention of a "new creation", as in the Second Coming, as a particular aspect of Christianity that generates violence. Writing about the latter, Volf says: "Beginning at least with Constantine's conversion, the followers of the Crucified have perpetrated gruesome acts of violence under the sign of the cross. Over the centuries, the seasons of Lent and Holy Week were, for the Jews, times of fear and trepidation; Christians have perpetrated some of the worst pogroms as they remembered the crucifixion of Christ, for which they blamed the Jews. Muslims also associate the cross with violence; crusaders' rampages were undertaken under the sign of the cross."

The statement attributed to Jesus "I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword" has been interpreted by some as a call to arms for Christians. Mark Juergensmeyer argues that "despite its central tenets of love and peace, Christianity—like most traditions—has always had a violent side. The bloody history of the tradition has provided disturbing images and violent conflict is vividly portrayed in the Bible. This history and these biblical images have provided the raw material for theologically justifying the violence of contemporary Christian groups. For example, attacks on abortion clinics have been viewed not only as assaults on a practice that Christians regard as immoral, but also as skirmishes in a grand confrontation between forces of evil and good that has social and political implications.", sometimes referred to as Spiritual warfare.

Higher law has been used to justify violence by Christians.

Historically, according to René Girard, many Christians embraced violence when it became the state religion of the Roman Empire: "Beginning with Constantine, Christianity triumphed at the level of the state and soon began to cloak with its authority persecutions similar to those in which the early Christians were victims."

War

Robert Clouse says that both currently and historically there have been four views and practices within Christianity toward violence and war: non-resistance, Christian pacifism, just war theory, and the crusade (or preventive war).

Attitude toward the Military

The Church Before Constantine

Alan Kreider in "Military Service in the Church Orders" describes the study of Christian participation in military service in the pre-Constantinian era as "a minefield" adding the amount of literature on this subject is now "immense."

John Helgeland asserts early Christians held widely divergent views on military service and participated in the military from the beginning of the faith. While others like George Kalantzis in Caesar and the Lamb: Early Christian Attitudes on War and Military Service argue the historical record contradicts that.

"From the conversion of Cornelius the Centurion at about 39 A.D. to 173 A.D., we have absolutely no sources referencing Christian participation in the army. None." As Peter Leithart says: "It may have happened, it may not have happened. Either way, we know nothing about it so speculating is futile." The first record extant is a story, documented in five sources, set in 173 A.D. confirmimg there were Christians in the army when Marcus Aurelius was emperor and waged a campaign along the Danube.

John F. Shean in his book Soldiering for God: Christianity and the Roman Army writes that prior to Constantine, there is very limited evidence of Christians in the army, but archaeology has shed new light on the second and third centuries with the discovery of gravestones that list a soldier's religion as well as his unit. "H. Leclerq recorded 8 pre-Constantinian Christian gravestones of soldiers." The earliest is a gravestone of a Christian who died in 201 A.D.; since he served Legio II Parthia which was only raised in 197, he did not serve long before he died. Richard Sider in his bibliographical collection The Early Church on Killing identified an increasing number of Christians in the military in the late Third century and says the number of Christians in the military in the fourth century, after Constantine, was substantial.

Latourette in his history of Christianity records that, ""for the first three centuries no writing which has survived to our time condoned Christian participation in war. Some Christians held that, for them, all bloodshed whether as soldier or executioners, was unlawful. At one stage in its history, the influential church of Alexandria seems to have looked askance upon receiving soldiers into its membership and to have permitted enlistment in the legions only in exceptional circumstances.""

In an article for Christianity Today, Richard Sider emphasizes that in every extant pre-Constantinian document by Christian authors that discusses the topic of Christians killing, even in war--or joining the military--there is a unified: no. There is no literature that says otherwise. He adds that: "The question of what writers and teachers were saying about Christians joining the army is a different question from what some Christians actually did. Over the centuries, Christians have often ignored or disobeyed what their leaders taught."

Kreider argues his study of church orders demonstrates the early church viewed killing as the big problem where joining the military was concerned. But he adds the early church was divided on the issue of Christian participation in the legions, and in practice, the actual authority of the church orders is "never clear."

Attitudes toward the Military in the Middle Ages

In the first years after the fall of Rome, life was precarious, largely reduced to an agrarian existence, and the little security available was provided by the Christian church through its spreading network of monasteries and convents; these served as hospitals, hospices, orphanages, and their communities through strict law, self-denial and the motto "work and pray." Three Germanic tribes arose and occupied parts of the old Roman empire, became dominant, and gradually Germanic warrior traditions fused with the existing Christian/Greco/Roman culture of the church. This society had an upper warrior class headed by the King. Charlemagne (768-814) is an example of this fusion of culture. He established the first real empire in medieval Europe since Rome, promoted education and the arts, creating what is sometimes referred to as the "First Renaissance," and ordered the mass execution of 4500 Saxons at Verden for refusing to convert to Christianity in what is known as the Massacre of Verden. <ref="Matthews and Platt"/> Matthews, in The Western Humanities explains: "With origins in both Roman and German practices, feudalism evolved... Europe became dominated by a military aristocracy" by the High Middle Ages (1000 A.D.- 1300 A.D.)

Causes for the Eastern and the European Crusades are as hotly debated as the pacifism of the early church, but no one debates the effect on the Christian church: the church militant arose. After 1100, there is a merger of violence and holiness at all levels of Christian life. ""The liturgy was expanded to include the blessing of weapons and standards. Knights were consecrated by ceremonies which often were continuations of old pagan customs. There were new religious orders established such as the Templars who promised to fight the enemies of God... When violence became sacred...it became wrong to show mercy to those enemies... The code of the just War was in abeyance...""

Christian theologians of the High Middle ages accepted war as a condition of society. There was little serious dispute about the necessity of fighting the Turks. In the culture at large, the chivalric ideal emerges as the hero image, and the humble monk and servant Priest are replaced as the Christian ideal with the Knight. It is not until the sixteenth century that Christian pacifism, non-resistance and just war theory begin to recover theologically, and the church's attitude toward the use of military force becomes more diverse and less overtly militant.

Just war

Just war theory is a doctrine of military ethics of Roman philosophical and Catholic origin studied by moral theologians, ethicists, and international policy makers, that holds that a conflict can and ought to meet the criteria of philosophical, religious or political justice, provided it follows certain conditions.

The concept of justification for war under certain conditions goes back at least to Cicero. However its importance is connected to Christian medieval theory beginning from Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas. According to Jared Diamond, Augustine of Hippo played a critical role in delineating Christian thinking about what constitutes a just war, and about how to reconcile Christian teachings of peace with the need for war in certain situations.

In Ulrich Luz's formulation; "After Constantine, the Christians too had a responsibility for war and peace. Already Celsus asked bitterly whether Christians, by aloofness from society, wanted to increase the political power of wild and lawless barbarians. His question constituted a new actuality; from now on, Christians and churches had to choose between the testimony of the gospel, which included renunciation of violence, and responsible participation in political power, which was understood as an act of love toward the world." Augustine of Hippo's Epistle to Marcellinus (Ep 138) is the most influential example of the "new type of interpretation."

Just war theorists combine both a moral abhorrence towards war with a readiness to accept that war may sometimes be necessary. The criteria of the just war tradition act as an aid to determining whether resorting to arms is morally permissible. Just War theories are attempts "to distinguish between justifiable and unjustifiable uses of organized armed forces"; they attempt "to conceive of how the use of arms might be restrained, made more humane, and ultimately directed towards the aim of establishing lasting peace and justice."

The just war tradition addresses the morality of the use of force in two parts: when it is right to resort to armed force (the concern of jus ad bellum) and what is acceptable in using such force (the concern of jus in bello). In more recent years, a third category — jus post bellum — has been added, which governs the justice of war termination and peace agreements, as well as the prosecution of war criminals.

Holy War

In 1095, at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II declared that some wars could be deemed as not only a bellum iustum ("just war"), but could, in certain cases, rise to the level of a bellum sacrum (holy war). Jill Claster, dean of New York University College of Arts and Science, characterizes this as a "remarkable transformation in the ideology of war", shifting the justification of war from being not only "just" but "spiritually beneficial". Thomas Murphy examined the Christian concept of Holy War, asking "how a culture formally dedicated to fulfilling the injunction to 'love thy neighbor as thyself' could move to a point where it sanctioned the use of violence against the alien both outside and inside society". The religious sanctioning of the concept of "holy war" was a turning point in Christian attitudes towards violence; "Pope Gregory VII made the Holy War possible by drastically altering the attitude of the church towards war... Hitherto a knight could obtain remission of sins only by giving up arms, but Urban invited him to gain forgiveness 'in and through the exercise of his martial skills'." A holy war was defined by the Roman Catholic Church as "war that is not only just, but justifying; that is, a war that confers positive spiritual merit on those who fight in it".

In the 12th century, Bernard of Clairvaux wrote: "'The knight of Christ may strike with confidence and die yet more confidently; for he serves Christ when he strikes, and saves himself when he falls.... When he inflicts death, it is to Christ's profit, and when he suffers death, it is his own gain."

Jonathan Riley-Smith writes,

The consensus among Christians on the use of violence has changed radically since the crusades were fought. The just war theory prevailing for most of the last two centuries — that violence is an evil which can in certain situations be condoned as the lesser of evils — is relatively young. Although it has inherited some elements (the criteria of legitimate authority, just cause, right intention) from the older war theory that first evolved around a.d. 400, it has rejected two premises that underpinned all medieval just wars, including crusades: first, that violence could be employed on behalf of Christ's intentions for mankind and could even be directly authorized by him; and second, that it was a morally neutral force which drew whatever ethical coloring it had from the intentions of the perpetrators.

Genocidal warfare

The Biblical account of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho was used by Oliver Cromwell to justify genocide against Catholics. Daniel Chirot, professor of Russian and Eurasian studies at the University of Washington, interprets 1 Samuel 15:1–15:3 as "the sentiment, so clearly expressed, that because a historical wrong was committed, justice demands genocidal retribution."

Inquisition

The Inquisition is a group of institutions within the judicial system of the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy The Spanish Inquisition is often cited in popular literature and history as an example of Catholic intolerance and repression. The total number of people who were processed by the Inquisition throughout its history was approximately 150,000; applying the percentages of executions that appeared in the trials of 1560–1700—about 2%—the approximate total would be about 3,000 of them were put to death. Nevertheless, it is likely that the actual death toll was higher, keeping in mind the data provided by Dedieu and García Cárcel for the tribunals of Toledo and Valencia, respectively. It is likely that between 3,000 and 5,000 people were executed. About 50 people were executed by the Mexican Inquisition. Included in that total are 29 people who were executed as "Judaizers" between 1571 and 1700 out of 324 people who were prosecuted for practicing the Jewish religion.

In the Portuguese Inquisition the major targets were those who had converted from Judaism to Catholicism, the Conversos, also known as New Christians or Marranos, were suspected of secretly practising Judaism. Many of these were originally Spanish Jews, who had left Spain for Portugal. The number of victims is estimated to be around 40,000. One particular focus of the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions was the issue of Jewish anusim and Muslim converts to Catholicism, partly because these minority groups were more numerous in Spain and Portugal than they were in many other parts of Europe, and partly because they were often considered suspect due to the assumption that they had secretly reverted to their previous religions. The Goa Inquisition was the office of the Portuguese Inquisition acting in Portuguese India, and in the rest of the Portuguese Empire in Asia. It was established in 1560, briefly suppressed from 1774–1778, and finally abolished in 1812. Based on the records that survive, H. P. Salomon and Rabbi Isaac S.D. Sassoon state that between the Inquisition's beginning in 1561 and its temporary abolition in 1774, some 16,202 persons were brought to trial by the Inquisition. Of this number, it is known that 57 were sentenced to death and executed, and another 64 were burned in effigy (this sentence was applied to those who had fled or died in prison; in the latter case, the remains were burned in a coffin at the same time as the effigy). Others were subjected to lesser punishments or penance, but the fate of many of those who were tried by the Inquisition is unknown.

The Roman Inquisition, during the second half of the 16th century, was responsible for prosecuting individuals accused of a wide array of crimes relating to religious doctrine or alternate religious doctrine or alternate religious beliefs. Out of 51,000 — 75,000 cases judged by the Inquisition in Italy after 1542, around 1,250 resulted in a death sentence.

The period of witch trials in Early Modern Europe was a widespread moral panic caused by the belief that malevolent Satanic witches were operating as an organized threat to Christendom from the 15th to the 18th centuries. A variety of punishments was imposed upon those who were found guilty of witchcraft, including imprisonment, flogging, fines, or exile. In the Old Testament, Exodus 22:18 states that "Thou shalt not permit a sorceress to live". Many people faced capital punishment if they were convicted of witchcraft during this period, either by being burned at the stake, hanged on the gallows, or beheaded. Similarly, in the New England Colonies, people convicted of witchcraft were hanged (See Salem witch trials). The scholarly consensus on the total number of executions for witchcraft ranges from 40,000 to 60,000.

The legal basis for some inquisitorial activity came from Pope Innocent IV's papal bull Ad extirpanda of 1252, which explicitly authorized (and defined the appropriate circumstances for) the use of torture by the Inquisition for eliciting confessions from heretics. By 1256, inquisitors were given absolution if they used instruments of torture. "The overwhelming majority of sentences seem to have consisted of penances like wearing a cross sewn on one's clothes, going on pilgrimage, etc." When a suspect was convicted of unrepentant heresy, the inquisitorial tribunal was required by law to hand the person over to the secular authorities for final sentencing, at which point a magistrate would determine the penalty, which was usually burning at the stake although the penalty varied based on local law. The laws were inclusive of proscriptions against certain religious crimes (heresy, etc.), and the punishments included death by burning, although imprisonment for life or banishment would usually be used. Thus the inquisitors generally knew what would be the fate of anyone so remanded, and cannot be considered to have divorced the means of determining guilt from its effects.

Except for the Papal States, the institution of the Inquisition was abolished in Europe in the early 19th century, after the Napoleonic Wars and in the Americas, it was abolished after the Spanish American wars of independence. The institution survived as part of the Roman Curia, but in 1904, it was renamed the "Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office". In 1965, it was renamed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Christian terrorism

Christian terrorism comprises terrorist acts committed by groups or individuals who use Christian motivations or goals for their actions. As with other forms of religious terrorism, Christian terrorists have relied on interpretations of the tenets of faith – in this case, the Bible. Such groups have cited Old Testament and New Testament scriptures to justify violence and killing or to seek to bring about the "end times" described in the New Testament.

Forced conversions

After the Constantinian shift, Christianity became entangled with government. While anthropologists have shown that throughout history the relationship between religion and politics has been complex, there is no doubt that religious institutions, including Christian ones, have been used coercively by governments, and that they have used coercion themselves. Augustine found that persuasion by argument was insufficient to the task of correcting heresy. He advocated government force in his Epistle 185, A Treatise Concerning the Correction of the Donatists, justifying coercion from scripture. He cites Jesus striking Paul during Paul's vision on the road to Damascus. He also cites the parable of the great banquet in Luke 14:22–23. Such short term pain for the sake of eternal salvation was an act of charity and love, in his view.

Examples of forced conversion to Christianity include: the Christian persecution of paganism under Theodosius I, the forced conversion and violent assimilation of pagan tribes in medieval Europe, the Inquisition, including its manifestations in Goa, Mexico, Portugal, and Spain, the forced conversion of indigenous children in North America and Australia, and, since 1992, the forced conversion of Hindus in Northeast India.

Support of slavery

Early Christianity variously opposed, accepted, or ignored slavery. The early Christian perspectives on slavery were formed in the contexts of Christianity's roots in Judaism, and as part of the wider culture of the Roman Empire. Both the Old and New Testaments recognize that the institution of slavery existed.

The earliest surviving Christian teachings about slavery are from Paul the Apostle. Paul did not renounce the institution of slavery. Conversely, he taught that Christian slaves ought to serve their masters wholeheartedly. Nothing in the passage affirms slavery as a naturally valid or divinely mandated institution. Rather, Paul’s discussion about the duties of Christian slaves and the responsibilities of Christian masters transforms the institution, even if it falls short of calling for slavery's outright abolition. In the ancient world the slave was a thing. Aristotle wrote that there could never be friendship between a master and a slave, for a master and a slave have nothing in common: “a slave is a living tool, just as a tool is an inanimate slave.” Paul’s words are entirely different. He calls the slave a “slave of Christ,” one who wants to do “the will of God” and who will receive a “reward” for “whatever good he does”. Likewise, the master is responsible to God for how he treats his slave, who is ultimately God’s property rather than his own. This is another way of saying that the slave, no less than the master, has been made in God’s image. As such, he possesses inestimable worth and great dignity. He is to be treated properly. In such a framework slavery, even though it was still slavery, could never be the same type of institution that was imposed on non-Christians. It was this transformation (which came from viewing all persons as being made in God’s image) that ultimately destroyed slavery. Tradition describes Pope Pius I (term c. 158–167) and Pope Callixtus I (term c. 217–222) as former slaves.

Nearly all Christian leaders before the late 17th century recognised slavery, within specific Biblical limitations, as consistent with Christian theology. In early Medieval times, the Church discouraged slavery throughout Europe, largely eliminating it. That changed in 1452, when Pope Nicholas V instituted the hereditary slavery of captured Muslims and pagans, regarding all non-Christians as "enemies of Christ."

Genesis 9:25–27, the Curse of Ham, says: "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. He also said, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem." This verse has been used to justify racialized slavery, since "Christians and even some Muslims eventually identified Ham's descendents as black Africans". Anthony Pagden argued that "This reading of the Book of Genesis merged easily into a medieval iconographic tradition in which devils were always depicted as black. Later pseudo-scientific theories would be built around African skull shapes, dental structure, and body postures, in an attempt to find an unassailable argument—rooted in whatever the most persuasive contemporary idiom happened to be: law, theology, genealogy, or natural science—why one part of the human race should live in perpetual indebtedness to another."

Rodney Stark makes the argument in For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery, that Christianity helped to end slavery worldwide, as does Lamin Sanneh in Abolitionists Abroad. These authors point out that Christians who viewed slavery as wrong on the basis of their religious convictions spearheaded abolitionism, and many of the early campaigners for the abolition of slavery were driven by their Christian faith and a desire to realize their view that all people are equal under God.

Modern-day Christians generally condemn slavery as wrong and contrary to God's will. Only peripheral groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and other Christian hate groups on the racist fringes of the Christian Reconstructionist and Christian Identity movements advocate the reinstitution of slavery. Full adherents of Christian Reconstructionism are few and marginalized among conservative Christians. With these exceptions, all Christian faith groups now condemn slavery, and they see the practice as incompatible with basic Christian principles.

Violence against Jews

A strain of hostility among Christians towards Judaism and the Jewish people developed from the early years of Christianity, persisted over the ensuing centuries, was driven by numerous factors including theological differences, the Christian drive for converts decreed by the Great Commission, a misunderstanding of Jewish beliefs and practices, and a perceived Jewish hostility towards Christians, and culminated in The Holocaust, which has driven many within Christianity to reflect on the relationship between theology, practices, and the genocide.

These attitudes were reinforced in Christian preaching, art and popular teaching over the centuries which contained contempt for Jews.

Modern Antisemitism has primarily been described as hatred against Jews as a race with its modern expression rooted in 18th century racial theories, while anti-Judaism is described as hostility towards the Jewish religion, but in Western Christianity it effectively merged into antisemitism during the 12th century.

Domestic violence

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Christian opposition to violence

Historian Roland Bainton described the early church as pacifist – a period that ended with the accession of Constantine.

In the first few centuries of Christianity, many Christians refused to engage in military service. In fact, there were a number of famous examples of soldiers who became Christians and refused to engage in combat afterwards. They were subsequently executed for their refusal to fight. The commitment to pacifism and the rejection of military service are attributed by Mark J. Allman, professor in the Department of Religious and Theological Studies at Merrimack College, to two principles: "(1) the use of force (violence) was seen as antithetical to Jesus' teachings and service in the Roman military required worship of the emperor as a god which was a form of idolatry."

In the 3rd century, Origen wrote: "Christians could not slay their enemies." Clement of Alexandria wrote: "Above all, Christians are not allowed to correct with violence the delinquencies of sins." Tertullian argued forcefully against all forms of violence, considering abortion, warfare and even judicial death penalties to be forms of murder.

Pacifist and violence-resisting traditions have continued into contemporary times.

Several present-day Christian churches and communities were established specifically with nonviolence, including conscientious objection to military service, as foundations of their beliefs.

In the 20th century, Martin Luther King, Jr. adapted the nonviolent ideas of Gandhi to a Baptist theology and politics.

In the 21st century, Christian feminist thinkers have drawn attention to opposing violence against women.

See also

• Christianity and capital punishment
• Christians in the military
• Christofascism
• God's Army (revolutionary group)
• Iron Guard
• Islam and violence
• Islamic terrorism
• Jewish terrorism
• Lord's Resistance Army
• Moral absolutism
• Medieval inquisition
• Mormonism and violence
• National-Christian Defense League
• Religious hate groups
• Religious intolerance
• Religious terrorism

Notes

1. Boustan, Ra'anan S. (2010). Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practice in Early Judaism and Christianity. BRILL. p. 3.
2. Jenkins, Philip (March 8, 2009). "Dark Passages". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2010-11-26. the Bible overflows with "texts of terror," to borrow a phrase coined by the American theologian Phyllis Trible. The Bible contains far more verses praising or urging bloodshed than does the Koran, and biblical violence is often far more extreme, and marked by more indiscriminate savagery. … If the founding text shapes the whole religion, then Judaism and Christianity deserve the utmost condemnation as religions of savagery.
3. "Shelly Matthews - Brite Divinity School". Retrieved 24 June 2017.
4. Gibson, Leigh; Matthews, Shelly (2005). Violence in the New Testament. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 1–3. Marcion's second-century distinction between the God of the Old Testament as responsible for violence and vengeance and the God of the New Testament as a God of mercy and love looms large in the consciousness of the West. More troubling than studies of violence in the Bible that ignore the New Testament are those that lift up the New Testament as somehow containing the antidote for Old Testament violence. This is ultimately the case, for instance, in the work of Girard But as John Gager shows in this volume through his examination of the work of Girard's disciple, Robert Hamerton-Kelly, such a line of thinking has the potential to reinscribe insidiously the prejudices of Marcion.
5. Rynne, Terrence J. (2008). Gandhi and Jesus: The Saving Power of Nonviolence. Orbis Books. ISBN 978-1-57075-766-2. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
6. office, Public relations. "J. Denny Weaver Forum". www.bluffton.edu.
7. J. Denny Weaver (2001). "Violence in Christian Theology". Cross Currents. Retrieved 2010-10-27.
8. see e.g.: John Coffey, Persecution and Toleration on Protestant England 1558–1689, 2000, p.22
9. Volf, Miroslav (2008). "Christianity and Violence". In Hess, Richard S.; Martens, E.A. (eds.). War in the Bible and terrorism in the twenty-first century. Eisenbrauns. pp. 1–17. ISBN 978-1-57506-803-9. Retrieved June 1, 2010. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
10. Volf 2008, p. 13
11. ^ Mark Juergensmeyer (2004). Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-24011-1.
12. Smith, Ted (2015). "Religious Violence? Politics of a Higher Law". The Christian Century. 5: 24–27 – via Ebsco host.
13. Girard, Rene. The Scapegoat. p. 204.
14. ^ Clouse, Robert G. (1986). War Four Christian views. Winona Lake, Indiana: BMH Books. p. 12-22.
15. ^ Kreider, Alan. "Military Service in the Church Orders". The Journal of Religious Ethics. 31.3 (Winter, 2003). Blackwell Publishing Ltd.: 415-416.
16. Helgeland, John (1979). H. Temporini and and W. Haase (ed.). Christians and the Roman Army from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine. Vol. 23.1. Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 724–834.
17. Kalantzis, George (2012). Caesar and the Lamb: Early Christian Attitudes on War and Military Service. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books.
18. ^ Leithart, Peter J. (2009). Defending Constantine. Madison, Wisconsin: InterVarsity Press. p. 260.
19. ^ last=Shean| first=John F.| title=Soldiering for God: Christianity and the Roman Army|date=2010| publisher=Brill|location=Leiden, Netherlands|ISBN 10: 9004187316| page=183}}
20. last=Leclerq| first=H.| edited by Richard Solabji and David Rodin| editors= Fernand Cabrol and Henri Leclerq| title="Militarisme" in Dictionnaire d'archéologie chretienne de le liturgie|vol.XI/1|date=1933 | publisher=Letouzey et Ané | location=Paris, France|page=1107-1181}}
21. last=Sider| first=Richard| editor=Richard J. Sider| title=The Early Church on killing| date=2012| publisher=Baker Publishing Group| location= Grand Rapids Michigan| ISBN 978-0-8010-3630-9| page=Afterword}}
22. Latourette, Kenneth Scott (1953). A History of Christianity: Beginnings to 1500. Vol. 1. HarperSanFransisco, a division of Harper Collins. pp. 242–243.
23. http:www.booksandculture.com/articles/2016/janfeb/early-church-on-war-and-killing.html?paging=off
24. ^ Matthews, Roy D. (1992). The Western Humanities. Mountainview, California: Mayfield Publishing Co. pp. 198–204, 209, 210, 329–342. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |co-authors= ignored (help)
25. Lazar, Seth (24 June 2017). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University – via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
26. "Just War Theory [The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]". Iep.utm.edu. 2009-02-10. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
27. "Religion & Ethics – Just War Theory -introduction". BBC. Archived from the original on April 6, 2008. Retrieved 2010-03-16. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
28. Christians and War: Thomas Aquinas refines the "Just War" Theory Archived February 25, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
29. Diamond, Jared (2008). 1000 Events That Shaped the World. National Geographic Society. p. 74. ISBN 1-4262-0314-4.
30. Ulrich Luz, Matthew in History, Fortress Press, 1994, p26-27
31. "JustWarTheory.com". JustWarTheory.com. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
32. "Home > Publications >". Eppc.org. 1998-09-01. Archived from the original on 2009-05-09. Retrieved 2010-03-16. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
33. "Christian Jihad: The Crusades and Killing in the Name of Christ". Archived from the original on 2008-07-09. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
34. "Favorite Professors: Remembering Jill Claster (WSC '52, GSAS '54)".
35. Claster, Jill N. (2009). Sacred violence: the European crusades to the Middle East, 1095–1396. University of Toronto Press. pp. xvii–xviii. ISBN 978-1-4426-0060-7.
36. E. Randolph Daniel; Murphy, Thomas Patrick (1978). "The Holy War (review)". Speculum. 53 (3): 602–603. doi:10.2307/2855169. JSTOR 2855169.
37. Thomas Patrick Murphy, editor (1976). The holy war. Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Ohio State University Press. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
38. Bernard of Clairvaux, In Praise Of The New Knighthood, ca. 1135
39. Smith, Jonathan R. "Rethinking the Crusades". Catholic Education Resource Center.
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44. this is roughly comparable to the number of people executed for witchcraft in Europe during the same time span as the Inquisition (estimated at c. 40,000–60,000, i.e. roughly ten times higher in a territory with a population roughly ten times higher). Data for executions for witchcraft: Levack, Brian P. (1995). The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe (Second Edition). London and New York: Longman, and see Witch trials in Early Modern Europe for more detail.
45. Jose Rogelio Alvarez, ed. "Inquisicion" (in Spanish). Enciclopedia de Mexico. VII (2000 ed.). Mexico City: Sabeca International Investment Corp.. ISBN 1-56409-034-5
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51. Salomon, H. P. and Sassoon, I. S. D., in Saraiva, Antonio Jose. The Marrano Factory. The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians, 1536–1765 (Brill, 2001 reprint/1975 revision), pp. 345–7.
52. Andrea Del Col: L'Inquisizione in Italia. Milano: Oscar Mondadori, 2010, pp. 779–780. ISBN 978-88-04-53433-4.
53. mostly in the Holy Roman Empire, the British Isles and France, and to some extent in the European colonies in North America; largely excluding the Iberian Peninsula and Italy; "Inquisition Spain and Portugal, obsessed with heresy, ignored the witch craze. In Italy, witch trials were comparatively rare and they did not involve torture and executions." Anne L. Barstow, Witchcraze : a New History of the European Witch Hunts, HarperCollins, 1995.
54. Thurston, Robert W. (2001). Witch, Wicce, Mother Goose: The Rise and Fall of the Witch Hunts in Europe and North America. Edinburgh: Longman. p. 1. ISBN 978-0582438064. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
55. Scarre, Geoffrey; Callow, John (2001). Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Europe (second ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave. p. 34. ISBN 9780333920824. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
56. Scarre & Callow 2001, p. 12.
57. Scarre & Callow 2001, pp. 1, 21.
58. Historical Dictionary of Stuart England, edited by Ronald H. Fritze and William B. Robison. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996. ISBN 978-0-313-28391-8. (p.552).
59. Hutton 2010, p. 247 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFHutton2010 (help). Scarre and Callow (2001) put forward 40,000 as an estimate for the number killed.(Scarre & Callow 2001, pp. 1, 21) Levack (2006) came to an estimate of 45,000. Levack, Brian (2006). The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe Third Edition. Longman. Page 23. Hutton (2010) estimated that the numbers were between 40,000–50,000,(Hutton 2010, p. 247) harv error: no target: CITEREFHutton2010 (help) Wolfgang Behringer and Lyndal Roper had independently calculated that the number was between 50,000–60,000.(Behringer 2004, p. 149 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBehringer2004 (help); Roper 2004, pp. 6–7 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFRoper2004 (help)) In an earlier unpublished essay, Hutton counted local estimates, and in areas where estimates were unavailable, he attempted to draw extrapolations from nearby regions with similar demographics and similar attitudes towards witch hunting. "Estimates of Executions (based on Hutton's essay 'Counting the Witch Hunt')"..
60. Bishop, J (2006). Aquinas on Torture New Blackfriars, 87:229.
61. Larissa Tracy, Torture and Brutality in Medieval Literature: Negotiations of National Identity, (Boydell and Brewer Ltd, 2012), 22; "In 1252, Innocent IV licensed the use of torture to obtain evidence from suspects, and by 1256, inquisitors were allowed to absolve each other if they used instruments of torture themselves, rather than relying on lay agents for the purpose...".
62. "Internet History Sourcebooks Project". legacy.fordham.edu.
63. Peters writes: "When faced with a convicted heretic who refused to recant, or who relapsed into heresy, the inquisitors were to turn him over to the temporal authorities – the "secular arm" – for animadversio debita, the punishment decreed by local law, usually burning to death." (Peters, Edwards. "Inquisition", p. 67.)
64. Lea, Henry Charles. "Chapter VII. The Inquisition Founded". A History of the Inquisition In The Middle Ages. Vol. 1. ISBN 1-152-29621-3. Obstinate heretics, refusing to abjure and return to the Church with due penance, and those who after abjuration relapsed, were to be abandoned to the secular arm for fitting punishment. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
65. Kirsch, Jonathan. The Grand Inquisitors Manual: A History of Terror in the Name of God. HarperOne. ISBN 0-06-081699-6.
66. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith". Vatican: Author. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
67. Pope Paul VI (7 December 1965), Apostolic letter: Given motu proprio: Integrae servandae, retrieved 10 May 2017
68. B. Hoffman, "Inside Terrorism", Columbia University Press, 1999, pp. 105–120. ISBN 978-0231126991
69. Firth, Raymond (1981) Spiritual Aroma: Religion and Politics. American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 83, No. 3, pp. 582–601
70. Fletcher, Richard (1999). "Converting By the Sword". Christian History (63). Retrieved 9 May 2017.
71. Jonathan Ebel (2011). Andrew R. Murphy (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 154–155. ISBN 978-1405191319.
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73. Bernard Hamilton, The Crusades, Sutton Publishing, United Kingdom, 1998. See Chapter 9: Later Crusades
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76. Bhaumik, Subhir (April 18, 2000). "'Church backing Tripura rebels'". BBC News. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
77. ^ Robinson, B. A. (2006). "Christianity and slavery". Retrieved 2007-01-03.
78. Ephesians 6:5–8
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80. Catholic Encyclopedia Slavery and Christianity
81. ^ Ostling, Richard N. (2005-09-17). "Human slavery: why was it accepted in the Bible?". Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News. Retrieved 2007-01-03.
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96. "No known Christian author from the first centuries approved of Christian participation in battle; citations advocating pacifism are found in → Tertullian, → Origen, Lactantius, and others, and in the testimonies of the martyrs Maximilian and Marcellus, who were executed for refusing to serve in the Roman army. Grounds for opposition to military service included fear of idolatry and the oath of loyalty to Caesar, as well as the basic objection to shedding blood on the battlefield.", Fahlbusch, E., & Bromiley, G. W. (2005). Vol. 4: The encyclopedia of Christianity (2). Grand Rapids, Mich.; Leiden, Netherlands: Wm. B. Eerdmans; Brill.
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103. Nicholson, Helen J. (2004). Medieval warfare: theory and practice of war in Europe, 300–1500. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 24. At the beginning of the third century, Tertullian recorded that some Christians did fight, but he indicated that he did not approve. He argued that God's command not to fight overrode Paul's command to obey the authorities that God had appointed. Tertullian observed that one of the last words of Christ before he was led away to be crucified was his instruction that Simon Peter put away his sword.
104. "Members of several small Christian sects who try to literally follow the precepts of Jesus Christ have refused to participate in military service in many nations and they have been willing to suffer the criminal or civil penalties that followed."Encyclopædia Britannica 2004 CD Rom Edition — Pacifism.
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References

• Avalos, Hector. Fighting Words. The Origins of Religious Violence. Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2005.
• Schwartz, Regina M. The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Further reading

• Bekkenkamp, Jonneke and Sherwood, Yvonne, ed. Sanctified Aggression. Legacies of Biblical and Postbiblical Vocabularies of Violence. London/New York: T. & T. Clark International, 2003.
• Collins, John J. Does the Bible Justify Violence? Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004.
• Hedges, Chris. 2007. American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. Free Press.
• Lea, Henry Charles. 1961. The Inquisition of the Middle Ages. Abridged. New York: Macmillan.
• MacMullen, Ramsay, 1989 "Christianizing the Roman Empire: AD 100–400"
• MacMullen, Ramsay, 1997, "Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries"
• Mason, Carol. 2002. Killing for Life: The Apocalyptic Narrative of Pro-Life Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
• McTernan, Oliver J. 2003. Violence in God's name: religion in an age of conflict. Orbis Books.
• Thiery, Daniel E. Polluting the Sacred: Violence, Faith and the Civilizing of Parishioners in Late Medieval England. Leiden: Brill, 2009.
• Tyerman, Christopher. 2006. God's War: A New History of the Crusades. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, Belknap.
• Zeskind, Leonard. 1987. The ‘Christian Identity’ Movement, . Atlanta, Georgia: Center for Democratic Renewal/Division of Church and Society, National Council of Churches.
• Robert Spencer Religion of Peace?: Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't, Regnery Publishing, 2007, ISBN 1-59698-515-1
• Rodney Stark God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades, HarperOne, 2010,

• Christian ethics
• Christianity and violence