Peaceable Community: With Special Reference to Niebuhr, Ramsey, and Hauerwas

precis:

This essay focuses primarily on the observations and insights of Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Ramsey, and Stanley Hauerwas regarding violence, just war, peace, and justice. Niebuhr emphasized the proximity of justice to agape; however, due to the hindrance of sin, it is impossible for humanity to realize this moral ideal in history, and it thus requires the power to seek justice and peace. Ramsey expanded on Niebuhr’s political realism and considered a “statecraft” that seeks to maintain a rightful order of justice. Hauerwas has expressed his criticism of political realism and the concept of just war, expounding on his pacifist thoughts.