Чи Може Християнин Брати До Рук Зброю? Мартін Лютер І Жан Кальвін Про Справедливу Війну

The article analyzes the early Protestant apologetics of the just war theory in the works of Martin Luther and John Calvin. They supplemented the classical interpretation of the theory laid down by the early Church Fathers with the ideas of the legitimacy of armed struggle for freedom of conscience, which justified religious wars, and armed resistance to tyrannical power, which legitimized the participation of Protestants in political insurgency, uprisings, and civil wars. Special attention is paid to the issue of Christian participation in war, the solution of which, proposed by Luther and Calvin, has not lost its relevance in modern Protestantism. The common (regarding the sacralization of secular power) and at the same time different (regarding the functions of secular power) concepts in the political theology of Luther and Calvin are attested, which led to the formation of temperate and radical traditions of early Protestantism in assessing the criteria and rules of just war. The influence of Calvin’s views on the interpretation by Reformed theologians of the 16th–17th centuries of the popular uprising against violators of God’s Law as a just war is proven. The fact of the reflection of the views of the two reformers in normative church documents of the Lutheran and Calvinist traditions is noted.