Monday, February 28, 2022

War and the Orthodox Church (George Mantzarides)


By George Mantzarides,
Professor Emeritus of the Theological School of the 
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

War, as an armed and bloody conflict of organized groups, is one of the most serious and distressing problems of man, especially in our time. The experience of the two world wars, the endless series of military engagements that followed them, but also the existence of terrifying means of destruction, which can wipe out hundreds of times not only the human race, but also every trace of civilization from the face of the earth, is enough to reveal the magnitude of the problem.

Heraclitus argued that war was the "father of all." This view remains with small variations strong to this day. Many even observe that peace is a form of war, waged with politics or economics. On the contrary, for the Church the "Father of all" is not war, but the God of peace (2 Cor. 13:11). And the coming of God into the world is a gospel of peace (Luke 2:14).