PART A

1. Religion and religious beliefs are major components of culture. They influence values, morals, family expectations, food, clothing, world view, and even political principles. Some nations are theocracies, in which religion determines all actions of the government. In more secular countries, religious beliefs and values also colour political decisions. Throughout history, religion has been used to justify political actions, even violence. Read the documents below and determine how each belief system rewards its believers and the political implications and historical consequences of each system. Using those facts and your knowledge of world history, answer the following question:

do religious beliefs and principles justify war?

What other documents might have been included?

Source: Bhagavad-Gita, the Hindu song of God

O Arjuna, the Atma that dwells in the body of all (beings) is eternally indestructible. Therefore, you should not mourn for any body.

Considering also your duty as a warrior you should not waver. Because there is nothing more auspicious for a warrior than a righteous war.

Only fortunate warriors, O Arjuna, get such an opportunity for an unsought war that is like an open door to heaven.

If you will not fight this righteous war, then you will fail in your duty, lose your reputation, and incur sin.

People will talk about your disgrace forever. To the honored, disgrace is worse than death.

The great warriors will think that you have retreated from the battle out of fear. Those who have greatly esteemed you will lose respect for you.

Your enemies will speak many unmentionable words and scorn your ability. What could then be more painful for you than this?

You will go to heaven if killed, or you will enjoy the kingdom of earth if victorious. Therefore, get up with a determination to fight, O Arjuna.

Treating pleasure and pain, gain and loss, and victory and defeat alike, engage yourself in your duty.

By doing your duty this way you will not incur sin.

Source: The Book of Joshua from the Old Testament

20 When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city.

21 They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men, women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.

22 Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.”

23 So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.

24 Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD’s house.

Source: The Art of War by Sun Tzu, a warrior and philosopher of China in the 300s B.C.E.

Sun Tzu said:

The military is a great matter of the state.
It is the ground of death and life,
The Dao of survival or extinction
One cannot but examine it.
And so base it in the five. Compare by means of the appraisals.
Thus seek out its nature.
The first is Dao, the second is heaven, the third is earth, the fourth is the general, the fifth is the method.

And so compare by means of the appraisals
Thus seek out its nature.

Ask–

Which ruler has Dao?
Which general has ability?
Which attains heaven and earth?
Which implements method and order?
Whose military and multitudes are strong?
Whose officers and soldiers are trained?
Whose rewards and punishments are clear?

By these I know victory and defeat!

The general heeds my appraisals. Employ him and he is certainly victorious.
Retain him.

The general does not heed my appraisals. Employ him and he is certainly defeated.
Remove him.

Having appraised the advantages, heed them.
Then make them into shih to aid with the external.
Shih is governing the balance according to the advantages.

The military is a Dao of deception. . . .

Source: Haji according to the Quran, 4:74–74

Those who readily fight in the cause of GOD are those who forsake this world in favour of the Hereafter. Whoever fights in the cause of GOD, then gets killed, or attains victory, we will surely grant him a great recompense. Why should you not fight in the cause of GOD when weak men, women, and children are imploring: “Our Lord, deliver us from this community whose people are oppressive, and be You our Lord and Master

Source: Pope Innocent III in Fourth Lateran Council, 1215

71. Crusade to recover the Holy Land

We therefore declare, with the approval of this sacred council and on the advice of prudent men who are fully aware of the circumstances of time and place, that crusaders are to make themselves ready so that all who have arranged to go by sea shall assemble in the kingdom of Sicily on 1 June after next: some as necessary and fitting at Brindisi and others at Messina and places neighbouring it on either side, where we too have arranged to be in person at that time, God willing, so that with our advice and help the Christian army may be in good order to set out with divine and apostolic blessing. . . .

Let them beseech kings, dukes, princes, margraves, counts, barons and other magnates, as well as the communities of cities, vills[villages] and towns—in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the one, only, true and eternal God—that those who do not go in person to the aid of the Holy Land should contribute, according to their means, an appropriate number of fighting men together with their necessary expenses for three years, for the remission of their sins in accordance with what has already been explained in general letters and will be explained below for still greater assurance. We wish to share in this remission not only those who contribute ships of their own but also those who are zealous enough to build them for this purpose. To those who refuse, if there happen to be any who are so ungrateful to our lord God, we firmly declare in the name of the apostle that they should know that they will have to answer to us for this on the last day of final judgment before the fearful judge.