On Christian Pacifism

Authors

  • Constantine PROKHOROV He is presently working on his doctoral dissertation., Russian Federation

Keywords:

Christian pacifism, Slavic Baptists, Evangelical Christians-Baptists

Abstract

The author analyzes the classical Christian viewpoints on the military, presenting the wide spectrum of ethical problems related to the national requirement of performing military service, participation in war, the death penalty, etc. The paper also draws attention to the historical background of the penetration of both the concepts of "just war theory" and extreme pacifism into the Russian-Ukrainian brotherhood of the Evangelical Christians-Baptists. The author notes both the Russian "sectarian" and the "Orthodox-monastic" influence on the traditional pacifism of a considerable portion of the Slavic Baptists and discusses the ambiguity of the definitions of military involvement even in the creeds of the EC0B, as well as the sharp contradiction between some official publications and the actual life of local congregations. The research contains a brief survey of the key biblical texts on the problem, which are mainly interpreted from
the position of Christian pacifism. At the same time, the author points out the known shortcomings or moral limitations of the admissibility of pacifism, specifically in its extreme legalistic form.

Author Biography

Constantine PROKHOROV, He is presently working on his doctoral dissertation.

Constantine Prokhorov was born in 1966. He is a graduate in history from North Kazakhstan University and Odessa Theological Seminary and holds a Master’s degree with distinction in Baptist and Anabaptist History (IBTS, Prague, Czech Republic/University of Wales). He is presently working on his doctoral dissertation. Constantine Prokhorov is the author of four books on history and theology. He is a “silver” laureate of the National Literary Prize “The Gold Pen of Russia 2008.” He is married and has three children.
THEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS #9 (2008)

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How to Cite

PROKHOROV, Constantine. 2008. “On Christian Pacifism”. Theological Reflections: Eastern European Journal of Theology, no. 9 (December):124-41. http://reflections.eeit-edu.info/article/view/78818.

Issue

No. 9 (2008): Theological Reflections: Euro-Asian Journal of Theology

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2020 Constantine PROKHOROV

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