Military, War, Armed Conflict

Care for the Sorrowing Soul: Healing Moral Injuries from Military Service and Implications for the Rest of Us by Duane Larson and Jeff Zust || Our longest military conflict in U.S. history is still underway. Since 9-11 more than 4 million new veterans join the ranks of millions more who have preceded them. Veterans, families and professionals increasingly recognize that some veterans return with a variety of stress-related difficulties, including symptoms of depression, insomnia, withdrawal, isolation, chronic pain, marital strife or substance abuse. Unexpected sleep disorders, sense of regret, sadness, loss of purpose and direction become confusing for the veteran, their family, and friends. Some hurting veterans hesitate to share information, and through a sense of shame or guilt, hold these memories deeply hidden. Veterans silently and secretly carry this unexplained, unremitting, increasing pain and suffering.​​​

[1] For Armed Forces members, “…caught in some of life’s worst heart-rending situations…the practice of the Christian ethic does not operate with the certitude of moral perfection but rather with the assurance of God with us with grace for the way” write the authors of this thoughtful, compact, far-reaching new book (pages 9, 130). Wollom […]

[1] It is always a privilege to review an excellent book, particularly a path-breaking one that plows new ground, like Jensen’s and Childs’ Moral Warriors, Moral Wounds. The sense of privilege is magnified when the authors are long-time friends and colleagues, as is the case for me with “Wally and Jim.” The former and I […]

Editor’s Note: Though this book, so insightfully and thoroughly reviewed, is not our customary work of theological ethics, it is a work of historical and moral significance with implications for today’s world. It might well be considered in tandem with Mary Solberg’s A Church Undone: Documents from the German Christian Faith Movement, 1932-1940, which was […]

[Originally published in JLE July/August 2016] [1] Moral injury often occurs when warriors witness or participate in an act so radically contrary to their values that the bottom drops out of their moral universe and their feelings of shame and guilt are so deep that their sense of self-worth is virtually destroyed. Some would distinguish […]

[1] Moral injury often occurs when warriors witness or participate in an act so radically contrary to their values that the bottom drops out of their moral universe and their feelings of shame and guilt are so deep that their sense of self-worth is virtually destroyed. Some would distinguish this from PTSD that usually results […]

[1] This book reestablishes Williams’s doctoral dissertation work at Fuller Theological Seminary, entitled: “Christ-Centered Empathic Resistance: The Influence of Harlem Renaissance Theology on the Incarnational Ethic of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” Williams’ exploration is a welcome journey into a domain of praxiological substance in a contemporary age where vain ideologies, boisterous pathologies, and impotent philosophies have become […]

Patterson, Eric, (ed), Ethics Beyond War’s End. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2012. Paper, x + 246 pages. $29.95.

Drones have risen in prominence during the war on terror in the last ten years. In theory, they make war safer, by protecting civilians and American soldiers. However, ​is this actually how drones function? And what are the moral and psychological implications of committing acts of violence thousands of miles away behind a screen? Bell examines the darker side of drones and how the rise of robotic warfare will change the moral landscape of combat.

The ELCA social statement For Peace in God’s World​ provides a moral framework for evaluating the relationship between war and justice. ​Herman explores if the statement is theologically deep enough to grapple with modern warfare, which looks very different now than it did twenty years ago when the statement was adopted. Using Nigel Biggar’s In Defence of War​, Herman looks at just war theory and how it applies our political and moral landscape today.