The Committed Soldier: Religion as a Necessary Supplement to a Moral Theory of Warfare

Abstract

The right-making properties of wars, if there are any, have been scrutinized in Just War Theory. Recently, authors have turned to a blind spot in that context: Just War Theory has started to focus on moral implications of warfare regarding soldiers who fight a war. In this contribution, we reconstruct that recent turn of normative theory towards the soldier. We argue that in order to give a conclusive account of the moral implications of the soldier's actions, it is necessary to include religion. Religion is not only part of the motivational setting of ‘the committed soldier’; it is also an important institutional factor in realizing war. In order to explain the various functions of religion, we discuss examples of religiously committed soldiers in World War I. Research in this context reveals clusters of personal religious convictions, a religiously founded culture of comradeship, and a visible organization of collectivity in terms of religious institutions. Our claim is that this acknowledgment of religion contributes to another theoretical twist in Just War Theory.