War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-first Century

In February 2004, Denver Seminary’s annual Biblical Studies conference addressed the question of modern war and the teachings of biblical ethics regarding it. The conference was envisioned as a collaborative effort between the Association for Christian Conferences, Teaching, and Service (ACCTS), and the Biblical Studies division of Denver Seminary. A year earlier, the invasion of Iraq had taken place. The questions created by the outbreak of war prompted an urgency in the consideration of the topic. ACCTS, which sponsors international symposia in military ethics with officers from armed forces around the globe, provided ethicists and practitioners from within the military of both the U.S. and Great Britain. Hess and Martens also solicited papers from leading theologians and advocates representing pacifist and just-war views. They have succeeded in bringing together in this fine volume a group of Christians representing a wide range of perspectives to debate and discuss their heritage and biblical roots with regard to questions of war and its ethical dilemmas.