‘Just War’ and ‘Holy War’ in the Middle Ages: Rethinking Theory through the Byzantine Case-Study
By Ioannis Stouraitis
Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, Vol. 62 (2012)
Abstract: The current paper examines the issue of medieval war ethics from the perspective of the Byzantine case-study. The starting-point is a critical approach to the theoretical understanding and the methodological employment of modern analytical concepts, such as ‘war ideology’ and ‘holy war’, in the study of war ethics in the late antique, early and high medieval period. The main goal is to circumscribe the modern theoretical distinction between ‘just war’ and ‘holy war’ and to demonstrate the applicability and the limits of its heuristic employment in the analysis of medieval source material. The first part contains a discussion of theoretical approaches to the terms ‘war ideology’, ‘just war’ and ‘holy war’. The second part is subdivided in two chapters: The first chapter attempts a historical re-evaluation of the religious discourse of the Byzantine sources through the prism of the proposed theoretical model. The second chapter contains an analysis of the socio-political role of peace discourse in the justification of imperial war policies.
Byzantine war ideology was the subject of a conference held in Vienna in May 2011 . Among many interesting issues raised during the sessions was the issue of terminology and, in particular, the question as to whether Byzantinists should be sceptical towards the employment of certain terms, such as ‘ideology’ or ‘holy war’, in the analysis of Byzantine attitudes towards war and peace in order to avoid the danger of methodological anachronism. To my view, this debate stresses the issue of conceptual obscurity regarding our understanding of modern analytical terms and the consequent need for a content related analysis and definition of such terms by the formulation of a sound methodological approach to the socio-political phenomena war and peace in the Byzantine era. The aim of this paper is to propose a concrete theoretical framework by re-approaching the definition of key-terms and then to demonstrate its applicability to the research of medieval sources based on a comparative approach to the case-study of Byzantium.
Click here to read this article from the Austrian Academy of Sciences
‘Just War’ and ‘Holy War’ in the Middle Ages: Rethinking Theory through the Byzantine Case-Study
By Ioannis Stouraitis
Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik, Vol. 62 (2012)
Abstract: The current paper examines the issue of medieval war ethics from the perspective of the Byzantine case-study. The starting-point is a critical approach to the theoretical understanding and the methodological employment of modern analytical concepts, such as ‘war ideology’ and ‘holy war’, in the study of war ethics in the late antique, early and high medieval period. The main goal is to circumscribe the modern theoretical distinction between ‘just war’ and ‘holy war’ and to demonstrate the applicability and the limits of its heuristic employment in the analysis of medieval source material. The first part contains a discussion of theoretical approaches to the terms ‘war ideology’, ‘just war’ and ‘holy war’. The second part is subdivided in two chapters: The first chapter attempts a historical re-evaluation of the religious discourse of the Byzantine sources through the prism of the proposed theoretical model. The second chapter contains an analysis of the socio-political role of peace discourse in the justification of imperial war policies.
Byzantine war ideology was the subject of a conference held in Vienna in May 2011 . Among many interesting issues raised during the sessions was the issue of terminology and, in particular, the question as to whether Byzantinists should be sceptical towards the employment of certain terms, such as ‘ideology’ or ‘holy war’, in the analysis of Byzantine attitudes towards war and peace in order to avoid the danger of methodological anachronism. To my view, this debate stresses the issue of conceptual obscurity regarding our understanding of modern analytical terms and the consequent need for a content related analysis and definition of such terms by the formulation of a sound methodological approach to the socio-political phenomena war and peace in the Byzantine era. The aim of this paper is to propose a concrete theoretical framework by re-approaching the definition of key-terms and then to demonstrate its applicability to the research of medieval sources based on a comparative approach to the case-study of Byzantium.
Click here to read this article from the Austrian Academy of Sciences
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