Abstract
Reimer offers an accessible and fair presentation of the three classical Christian attitudes toward war: crusading or holy war, just war, and pacifism. His survey of Christian teachings and practices on issues of war, violence, and the state takes readers from classical Greco-Roman times to the present. Arguing that the church’s responses to war can only be understood through the church’s changing relationship to culture, Reimer concludes with an analysis of the contemporary debate and proposes criteria for legitimate and illegitimate use of force by nation-states.