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An Inquiry Into the Accordancy of War with the Principles of Christianity

First published: 1892
Pages: 117

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About this book

Jonathan Dymond, a young English Quaker, set out in this 1823 essay to test a plain question: can waging war ever be squared with the teachings of Christ? His answer is an uncompromising no. Marshaling scripture, moral reasoning, and a cool examination of the arguments used to justify armed conflict, Dymond contends that Christianity's principles forbid war outright, and that the custom of nations has simply dressed up a great evil in respectable clothing. He also weighs the practical objections, asking what a people committed to peace should do when threatened. The work became a foundational text of the modern peace movement and shaped later pacifist thought on both sides of the Atlantic. A free PDF and EPUB edition is available.

About the author

Jonathan Dymond

Jonathan Dymond (1796-1828) was an English Quaker and moral philosopher from Exeter who earned his living as a draper while writing on ethics. Though he died of consumption at thirty-two, his essays on morality and the wrongness of war influenced pacifist thinking for generations.

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