In Reply to: Re: Anovagrrl posted by Acheick on September 24, 2003 at 07:02:17:
The just war doctrine is an official catholic christian teaching that has been adopted and taught by many mainstream christian churches for centuries. The just war doctrine predates the advent of Luther and protestantism. It was formally articulated by Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologica in the 13th century on the basis of scripture.
There are people of faith and conscience who argue that the pre-emptive strike doctrine is anathema from the standpoint of christian tradition and scripture.
I'm all for moving this thread to the academic board, btw, since my question had more to do with research on Jefferson and other deists' view of the just war doctrine rather than opinion about which doctrine of warfare is more reflective of scripture and christian tradition.