Is Violence Ever Justified?

By Paul Copan

No matter how just sounding the reasons for killing might be, some Christians will insist it is merely doing evil that good may come (Rom 3:8). The killing of any person—even in self-defense—does not leave one guiltless.

This brings us to the notion of “dirty hands”—a tradition that can be traced back to the sixteenth century, with the publication of Niccolò Machiavelli’s book The Prince (Il Principe). Most people interpret Machiavelli as advocating the politician’s compromise of moral standards—that doing evil is justifiable in order to achieve “the greater good” for society. Contrary to popular belief, however, Machiavelli was not denying objective moral standards or the reality of evil. However, in cases of supreme emergency, those in power may need to dirty their hands because there simply is no way out of their tragic dilemma. Guilt is simply unavoidable.[1]

So what about killing a home intruder in self-defense to prevent him from raping or kidnapping or murdering household members? Wouldn’t a Christian who kills the intruder be exonerated in God’s sight? After all, many human judges would rule in favor of the homeowner in such an attack. And doesn’t the Old Testament law permit it (Ex 22:2‑3)?

Noted New Testament scholar (and my former professor) Scot McKnight rightly insists that “Jesus is the one to whom we listen.”[2] The point of Jesus’ countercultural teaching in the Sermon on the Mount is “to avoid violence, absorb injustice, and live in light of what the kingdom is like in spite of what the world is like now.”[3] What does he think about “just” killing? He says this: “I’ve been asked time and time again these two questions: Do you think the entire country should demilitarize? (What the country does is the country’s business. As a citizen I advocate following Jesus.) What about a person who invades your home? (I’d use force to the point of not murdering him.)”[4] McKnight rejects the distinction of the just war theorist that, while all murder is killing, not all killing is murder. The British philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe argued that a pacifist is unable to distinguish between the shedding of innocent blood and the shedding of any blood.[5] But for McKnight, all killing is murder, even if one might allow for degrees of culpability in cases of self-defense or killing to protect innocent victims.

The famed theologian of the cross Jürgen Moltmann takes a slightly different view. He gives the example of a bus driver who suddenly goes mad and drives toward the precipice. What to do? Moltmann claims that it may be “unavoidable” to not only disable but perhaps to kill the bus driver. After all, “doing nothing would have meant being responsible for the deaths of many people.” However, in itself, “such an act of violence cannot be approved [guilt is still incurred], but it can be answered for. Responsible action in such cases demands a love that is ready to incur guilt in order to save.”[6]

He goes beyond this. He states that in the case of violent people who have exhausted all options and steadfastly refused attempts at mutual respect, shared power, and so on, then “counterviolence is often the only remedy.”[7] Yet Moltmann insists that the “spilling of innocent blood should never be tolerated if it can be avoided.”[8] Even in such extreme circumstances, however, those engaging in this virtuous “counterviolence” nevertheless incur guilt.[9]

As Christ’s appointed peacemakers and messengers of reconciliation, what does the Lord require of us? How should we respond to violence—including terrorism—that threatens communities, countries, and large regions of the world? What does it mean for Christians to live as citizens of heaven, citizens within our own respective earthly countries, and members of an international community? When it comes to war or policing, can one truly love one’s enemies when resorting to (potentially) lethal force to take their lives, even if the intent is to protect innocents? Should enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding be utilized to extract information from those threatening large-scale violence? Does the use of lethal force actually reflect the spirit of our self-sacrificing, life-surrendering Savior? And what were the disciples doing with swords in their possession if Jesus was so clear about nonviolence (Lk 22:35‑38)? These are important questions worthy of a discussion in a book such as this.

Notes

[1] See Giovanni Giorgini, “Machiavelli on Good and Evil: The Problem of Dirty Hands Revisited,” in Machiavelli on Liberty and Conflict, ed. David Johnston, Nadia Urbinati, and Camila Vergara (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), 58‑86.

[2] Scot McKnight, The Sermon on the Mount, Story of God Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013), 131.

[3] McKnight, Sermon on the Mount, 131.

[4] McKnight, Sermon on the Mount, 131.

[5] G. E. M. Anscombe, “War and Murder,” in War, Morality, and the Military Profession, ed. Malham M. Wakin (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1979), 294.

[6] Jürgen Moltmann, The Experiment Hope (1975; repr., Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2003), 142.

[7] Moltmann, The Experiment Hope, 135.

[8] Moltmann, The Experiment Hope, 97.

[9] See Paul Parker, “An Evangelical Assessment of Jürgen Moltmann’s Ethics,” in Jürgen Moltmann and Evangelical Theology: A Critical Engagement, ed. Sung Wook Chung (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2012), 232‑33.

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The above excerpt is taken from War, Peace, and Violence: Four Christian Views edited by Paul Copan. Copyright (c) 2022 by Paul Harold Copan. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press. www.ivpress.com  

“Key to understanding one's own views on a subject is the requirement that one charitably considers legitimate alternatives. These four authors reliably map the terrain on war, peace, and violence in a way that will help readers sort out their own views on these perennial topics.”

— C. Ben Mitchell, Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University

Find War, Peace, and Violence: Four Christian Views at Amazon, InterVarsity Press, and other major booksellers.

— Paul Copan is the Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Learn more about Paul and his work at paulcopan.com.

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