The Church Speaking: Protestant Ecclesiology, War, and the Problem of Public Judgment

Classical Protestant ecclesiology sought to uphold the ordered, public authority of the church while preserving the freedom of the individual Christian. A twofold concern over illegitimately binding the conscience and usurping the believer's personal responsibility constrained the church's authority to issue specific ethical judgments. In the case of war, the results could lead one of two ways: either deferring to the judgment of political authorities or to the private judgment of the individual. In either case, the authority of the church to render a public judgment qua the church was left unsupported. In the aftermath of World War I, a number of Protestant theologians sought to reclaim the church's public authority in political affairs, especially in matters of war. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's thought signaled a turn toward concreteness within Protestant social ethics that shaped the trajectory of twentieth-century Protestant ecumenism. The American theologian Paul Ramsey came to oppose this development, arguing that Protestant church leaders had abandoned the ecclesiological vision of the Reformation. This essay explores the theological tensions and motivations underlying these diverse accounts and considers how Protestant thinking about just war is necessarily bound up with reflection on the nature of the church and its public ministry.