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Love and the Winter: C.S. Lewis, Nigel Biggar, and Marc LiVecche on Enemy Love

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2022

Jason Lepojärvi Open the ORCID record for Jason Lepojärvi [Opens in a new window]
Jason Lepojärvi*
Affiliation:
Senior Research Fellow at IFES Finland, and Lecturer in Theology and Literature at The Davenant Institute, 1301 Lakewood Dr, Sudbury, Ontario, P3E 6H9 Canada
*
Corresponding author: Jason Lepojärvi, email: jlepojarvi@thorneloe.ca
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Abstract

In this paper, I tackle a difficult question about “enemy love,” with C.S. Lewis as a primary guide. In the Christian political tradition, can the command to “love thy enemy” be reconciled with the military task of killing one's opponent in war? After defining love, enemy, and enemy love, I move on to violence, particularly lethal violence. I disagree with perceptive contemporary Christian political ethicists Nigel Biggar and Marc LiVecche insofar as they argue that the killing of one's enemy can be “an expression of love” towards them. Such language obscures its moral ambiguity and is strictly speaking false. One may perhaps love one's enemy despite killing them, not by killing them. Lewis's conceptual distinction between “absolute” and “relative” love helps to untangle the knotty nature and limits of enemy love.

Keywords

pacifismjust warC.S. LewisNigel Biggarlovewar
Type
Article
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 2023 , pp. 180 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association

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Footnotes

The author would like to thank the following gracious colleagues, friends, and critics who contributed to this essay in meaningful ways: Simo Frestadius, Simon Howard, Michael Ward, Ashley Moyse, David Ratz, and three anonymous reviewers.

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