The Morality of Self-Defense and Military Action: The Judeo-Christian Tradition

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Shedding new light on a controversial and intriguing issue, this book will reshape the debate on how the Judeo-Christian tradition views the morality of personal and national self-defense. Are self-defense, national warfare, and revolts against tyranny holy dutiesor violations of God's will Pacifists insist these actions are the latter, forbidden by Judeo-Christian morality. This book maintains that the pacifists are wrong. To make his case, the author analyzes the full sweep of Judeo-Christian history from earliest times to the present, combining history, scriptural analysis, and philosophy to describe the changes and continuity of Jewish and Christian doctrine about the use of lethal force. He reveals the shifting patterns of thought in both religions and presents the strongest arguments on both sides of the issue. The book begins with the ancient Hebrews and Genesis and covers Jewish history through the Holocaust and beyond. The analysis then shifts to the story of Christianity from its origins, through the Middle Ages and the Reformation, up the present day. Based on this scrutiny, the author concludes thatcontrary to popular beliefthe legitimacy of self-defense is strongly supported by Judeo-Christian scripture and commentary, by philosophical analysis, and by the respect for human dignity and human rights on which both Judaism and Christianity are based.

Reviews

Engaging and certainly controversial, this book lays out a tendentious argument and reading of history in its promotion of a gun culture. . . . Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * Choice *
A well-researched and magnificently written tome. Kopel has succeeded in The Morality of Self-Defense and Military Action by David B. Kopelobjectively discussing difficult and controversial topics of moral philosophy that spill into hotter political issues of armed self-defense and justification for wars and revolution, and he does this in an eloquent, logical, and enthralling fashion. . . . The Morality of Self-Defense and Military Action: The Judeo-Christian Tradition is highly recommended for moral philosophers, lawyers, sociologists, criminologists, and the lay public, and it would be of more than passing interest to citizens following or participating in the gun control and gun rights debate. * Hacienda Publishing *

Author Bio

David B. Kopel, JD, is adjunct professor of advanced constitutional law at Denver University, Sturm College of Law.