Love on the Ground: Reflections on Christian Faith and the Profession of Arms

ABSTRACT In this paper, I explore how Christian moral teaching properly shapes deliberation and decision‐making in the very interstices of war—the face‐to‐face violence between small units in the context of urban combat. I will focus throughout on one junior officer in one combat setting in one war—on how a young Marine lieutenant aspired to comply with the requirement that, as Nigel Biggar says, love of neighbor must “qualify” the way combatants use military violence. In so doing, I support one of Biggar’s more controversial claims, viz., that Christian love, robustly understood, can “walk the battlefield”—although love need not tread exactly as Biggar recommends. I will thereafter briefly reflect on the role that religious faith properly plays in the professional decisions of officers who serve in the military of a liberal democracy. I conclude by noting some implications of my discussion for how we best think about the relation between religion and war more generally.