Deliberating Just War

This essay responds to J ames T urner J ohnson's critiques of my argument in “‘Never Again War’: Recent Shifts in the Roman Catholic Just War Tradition and the Question of ‘Functional Pacifism.’” (2014). It attends specifically to three of J ohnson's objections and offers accounts of the meaning and use of the term “functional pacifism,” an understanding of classic just war thought as a tradition, and the concepts of peace and authority within just war and pacifist thought. It argues that my analysis of the C atholic C hurch's movement toward pacifism but ultimate theological inability to embrace a functional pacifism still stands in spite of J ohnson's critiques. In addition, it suggests that J ohnson offers a thin pacifistic conception of peace and promotes a restricted notion of ecclesial authority and democratic government.