The very title of this article seems to suggest a fundamental and irrevocable contradiction that exists between the harsh realities of contemporary warfare and the Christian way of life, built upon the primacy of love. Contemporary warfare has been determined by military necessity and weapons technology, and political policy and theory have had to a large degree to accommodate themselves to the harsh exigencies of twentieth-century survival.

There are two sentences which seem to suggest themselves in this discussion. One is from the first chapter of the gospel of Saint John: “In the beginning was the logos.” The second is from Goethe: “In the beginning was the deed.”