The Ukraine War as a Challenge for the Development of Christian Peace Ethics

The paradigm of just peace constitutes one of the main currents of Christian peace ethics. Its point is not to reject military security policy and the responsibility to protect, but rather to expand horizons with regard to the complex challenges of peace and reconciliation. Just peace relies on a professionalization both of cooperation with civil society forces, and of intercultural and interreligious dialog. It regards a culture of genuine interpersonal encounter as the “art of peace”. But in light of the conflicts of identity and recognition in the struggle for a new world order – which are exploding with massive violence in the Ukraine – it also needs a European and global interlinking of different security policy institutions to form an architecture of peacekeeping. Rationalization of the ethical discourse surrounding modernity – with its assertions of human rights, pluralism and separation of powers – is also an important peace service that Christian theology can and ought to perform. This includes processes of understanding and learning on the Western side, too.