As an amateur linguist, etymologist, and philologist, I care about the origins and meanings of words. Some say, “every word was once a poem,” and that’s a piece of how I feel, but mostly I care about words because I believe them to be living things, organisms tethered to the very life of humanity. No other biological creature communicates with language, because language is the communication of relational creatures—creatures who know how to love.
For the last decade, one of the primary debates in academia has revolved around the terms of war. I mean “terms” in the first and fourth senses—terms as in “the words or phrases used to describe the concepts surrounding war” and terms as in “the conditions under which war-like action may be taken.” The word “terms” comes from that Latin word terminus meaning “end, boundary, limit” from which we get our word “terminate.” We find terms wrapped up in a phrase from the book of Job:
Who shut up the sea behind doors, when it burst forth from the womb… when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt?’
“Halt.”
That’s what terms do. The problem is when we don’t keep our terms straight, when we don’t put limits to our conversations, when we don’t discipline our words like the unruly children they are, then our words overwhelm us like a sea without a shore. A friend of mine (he’s one of those fellow students I’ve mentioned before who loves Karl Barth) recently pointed out such a slippage on the terms of war. I’ll elaborate on what he said, but the gist was: if pacifists are termed as passive, Just War adherents may term themselves pacifists or “sapiential pacifists.” That leaves “just war” terms open for crusaders and jihadists. And that leaves the “holy war” terms open for colonial expansion and exploitation.
I’m not here to convince you of anything. I’m here to clear up the terms. I believe that ignorance is no excuse for rudeness, and most of the rudeness in such debates stems from ignorance. In addition, I have good friends who have, at one point or another, experienced the ideological framework of each of the following positions:
- Victims of Colonization
- Victims of Holy War
- Neutral Party / Passive Observer
- Pacifist
- Just War
- Crusader/Jihadist
- Colonist
These terms will frame up the next seven posts. My goal will be to clarify all seven terms so that the terms of war, war-like conflict, and war-influenced personal conflict will be clear regardless of the position one holds. I plan to represent all seven frames of mind as well as I am able, as unbiased as possible, asking a single question at the end of each post to push back against every frame of mind. In this way, I hope to represent all terms of war and, at least, the best counter-argument to each term in a single question.
Three points of housekeeping:
- You DO have my blessing to ask me questions over a cup of coffee or via email if you’d like to have a legitimate, healthy discussion. I would love to talk and laugh and share with you about anything we cover in the next seven posts.
- Comments will be disabled. “But Lance, I thought you liked discussion here?” I do. In fact, my love for healthy discussion disallows me from permitting comments for these particular posts. Most people don’t discuss these terms in today’s climate. Instead, they slander and verbally abuse one another over the conversation, at least in some of the social circles I frequent. Because of this, I will disable comments.
- You do not have my blessing to start a violent debate elsewhere. You may share these posts as usual, but if a debate breaks out on Facebook or something, I’m asking you to shut it down. Immediately. Delete the share and the comments. In addition, you do not have my permission to start a debate on other posts around this site concerning these topics. Other topics are fair game, but this one’s off limits until further notice. My job here is to define the terms of war, not start a violent debate that alienates people to one another.
Here is my scheduled framework of each post:
- Anecdote or quote from someone in history who experienced the term
- Etymology of term
- List of three famous people who adhered to this term
- List of terms: Who? Where? When? Why? How?
- Three positive tendencies of this term
- Three negative tendencies of this term
- A fantastic creature or superhuman who practices this term
- A single “further reading” book
I’m looking forward to a healthy, joyful, sane approach to the terms of war.
Hugs, Kisses, & Battle Scars,
Comment early, comment often, keep it civil: