released 1/23/2026

Daniel M. Bell, Jr. discusses the just war tradition, a tradition which is often invoked by figures who, upon closer inspection, tend to lack a robust understanding of its history and criteria. Bell observes that the just war tradition, historically, arose out of the Christian community trying to grapple with and understand how the Church, as a community, could love one’s neighbor even when it comes to war; he contrasts this historical understanding, rooted in the faith and practice of the Church, with just war theory as a contemporary politician’s policy checklist to justify one’s decision for war in the context of the modern nation-state and international law. As a public policy checklist, it is detached from the lived Christian moral tradition that sees the questions of war as being in continuity with the everyday ethical questions faced in a particularly Christian communal life of loving one’s neighbor and answered in accordance with the work of the Spirit accomplished in the character of the Christian community living out the faith in practice as disciples of Jesus. Bell argues that just war is not, from this perspective, a tradition that can be coherently or wisely divorced from the ethical life and character of the practicing Church and suddenly invoked on the eve of war by politicians, which is how it is often used today. Bell discusses why this is by drawing upon the recorded experiences of actual soldiers in war and the conditions he observes allowed them to fight justly and refuse the temptations to commit atrocities in the trauma and fear of battle. Bell moves on to discussing the development of the consideration of war as a necessary evil, and suggests that this involves a denial of the doctrine of sanctification. Drawing on early Church writers, Bell discusses how the counterintuitive claim that just war is a form of love even toward our enemies can be understood by modern Christians. He is the author of Just War as Christian Discipleship (Brazos, 2009). A portion of this interview was first published on Volume 102 of the Journal.

57 minutes

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