The author, James, Heft, basically gives a general overview of Christian history and goes on to show the attitude of a sizable group within the church, as well as the papal authority. What the author describes is a pendulum of Church (and the populace's) doctrine. He states that Christians, in the first century did not want to join the Roman Army, but then later on, joined in on the Crusades, and as a final swing, most Christians (particularly) Catholics, have embraced the idea that even more limited war and rules for those wars are needed to usher in peace.
Heft lists the Popes who have tried to push the Church into a "peace" era but notes that Pope John Paul II, like the Enlightenment philosophers, changed the perception of peace by linking war action to an affront on the rights of every human being involved. John Paul II drastically moved the "just war" theory in a new direction by exposing the sins of the Church from centuries ago, also imploring that relations between factions continue to exist even after armed conflict has ruined the countries involved. Heft says mainline Protestants has endorsed John Paul II's ideas of restrictive warfare and forgiving aftermath but somehow a good number of evangelical churches actually support preemptive war and do not share the same talk of peace that Jesus himself gave to his disciples.
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