Offering Hospitality: Questioning Christian Approaches to War

In Offering Hospitality: Questioning Christian Approaches to War, Caron E. Gentry reflects on the predominant strands of American political theologyChristian realism, pacifism, and the just war traditionand argues that Christian political theologies on war remain, for the most part, inward-looking and resistant to criticism from opposing viewpoints.

In light of the new problems that require choices about the use of forcegenocide, terrorism, and failed states, to name just a fewa rethinking of the conventional arguments about just war and pacifism is timely and important. Gentrys insightful perspective marries contemporary feminist and critical thought to prevailing theories, such as Christian realism represented in the work of Reinhold Niebuhr and the pacifist tradition of Stanley Hauerwas. She draws out the connection between hospitality in postmodern literature and hospitality as derived from the Christian conception of agape, and relates the literature on hospitality to the Christian ethics of war. She contends that the practice of hospitality, incorporated into the jus ad bellum criterion of last resort, would lead to a better peace.

Gentrys critique of Christian realism, pacifism, and the just war tradition through an engagement with feminism is unique, and her treatment of failed states as a concrete security issue is practical. By asking multiple audiencestheologians, feminists, postmodern scholars, and International Relations expertsto grant legitimacy and credibility to each others perspectives, she contributes to a reinvigorated dialogue.