November 4, 2007

MINNEAPOLIS – In light of recent events, reflective people are asking, what do we mean by a ‘just war'"? What are the moral criteria for justifiably going to war and fighting in war? How did these criteria come about? What about Christian pacifism? Can congregations and their ecumenical partners be peace churches and be within the JWT? What are the post-9/11 challenges for the just-war tradition?

These are the questions that author Gary Simpson explores the history of this concept and addresses its contemporary meaning in his timely book, War, Peace, and God from the Augsburg Fortress Lutheran Voices series.

Chapters include:
Introduction: In a Time of War
Part One. The Shape of Just-War Tradition
1. Why Lutherans Care
2. War is Always Judged Twice: Moral Criteria for the Just-War Tradition
Part Two: God, War, and Peace
3. Classical Footsteps of Just-War Tradition
4. Transforming Footsteps of Just-War Tradition
Part Three: God's Preferential Future for Earthly Peace
5. Reconsidering Just-War Tradition and Pacifism
6. A Lutheran Unified Theology of Earthly Peace
7. Four Global Challenges

The book contains questions for reflection and is an excellent guide for congregational study groups.

"Discussions about war usually generate a lot of heat-but not much light. Not so with Simpson's book. Simpson brings this lively tradition of moral reflection on war and peace into the twenty-first century, examining how threats of nuclear war, terrorism, and imperialism enter the conversations that comprise the tradition of thinking about just war. The result is sobering, satisfying, and above all wise." – Martha Stortz, Professor of Historical Theology and Ethics, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, The Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California.

"Professor Simpson's clear and elegant outline of just-war teachings and their contemporary relevance deserve the attention of every thoughtful citizen. Of particular importance are his attempts to relate classical Lutheran perspectives on war and peace to the contemporary threat of global terrorism, and to the challenges of just peacemaking in a world divided by ethnic passions, poverty, and cruel injustice. His intelligent and compassionate responses to these challenges are worthy of careful study and reflection." – George R. Lucas, Professor of Philosophy and Director of Navy and National Programs, The Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership, US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD.

Gary M. Simpson is Professor of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. He is the author of Critical Social Theory: Prophetic Reason, Civil Society, and Christian Imagination (Fortress Press, 2002) and co-author of Living Out Our Callings in the Community (2006).

War, Peace, and God: Rethinking the Just-War Tradition, By Gary M. Simpson, Format: Paperback, 5.25" x 7.75," 111 pp, ISBN: 978-0-8066-5110-1, Publisher: Augsburg Fortress, Price: $10.99.

To order War, Peace, and God please call Augsburg Fortress at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at http://www.augsburgfortress.org/.

Augsburg Fortress