Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- I INTRODUCTIONS
- II MORAL OBLIGATION AND RELIGIOUS BELIEF
- III RELIGION AND SOME CONTEMPORARY MORAL CONTROVERSIES
- IV THE INTERACTION BETWEEN RELIGION AND THE SECULAR LAW
- 12 “Render unto Caesar”: Religion and (Dis)Obedience to Law
- 13 Religiously Grounded Morality and the Reach of Public Law
- 14 Capital Punishment
- 15 War
- V RESPONDING TO RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY
- VI RELIGIOUSLY GROUNDED MORAL DECISION-MAKING IN PROFESSIONAL LIFE
- Copyright Permission Acknowledgments
- Authors of Works Reprinted
- Scriptural Passages
- Index
15 - War
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- I INTRODUCTIONS
- II MORAL OBLIGATION AND RELIGIOUS BELIEF
- III RELIGION AND SOME CONTEMPORARY MORAL CONTROVERSIES
- IV THE INTERACTION BETWEEN RELIGION AND THE SECULAR LAW
- 12 “Render unto Caesar”: Religion and (Dis)Obedience to Law
- 13 Religiously Grounded Morality and the Reach of Public Law
- 14 Capital Punishment
- 15 War
- V RESPONDING TO RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY
- VI RELIGIOUSLY GROUNDED MORAL DECISION-MAKING IN PROFESSIONAL LIFE
- Copyright Permission Acknowledgments
- Authors of Works Reprinted
- Scriptural Passages
- Index
Summary
In hoc signo vincit
This was the battle standard of the Roman Emperor Constantine. In the year 312, on the eve of an encounter with Emperor Maxentius, Constantine experienced a vision of a cross in the sky with the inscription, In hoc signo vincit (“In this sign you shall conquer).” Despite his much smaller army, Constantine won the battle. He attributed his victory to Christ, and ordered the shields of his soldiers ornamented with the Greek letters chi and rho, the monogram for Christ.
We do utterly deny, all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretence whatsoever. And this is our testimony to the whole world.
That spirit of Christ, by which we are guided, is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil and again to move unto it; and we do certainly know, and so testify to the world, that the spirit of Christ, which leads us into all Truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world.
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- Information
- Religion in Legal Thought and Practice , pp. 458 - 486Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010