Is war a necessary evil Is war a necessary evil

n his book A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War, Joseph Loconte writes: In this sense, they offer a challenge to those who view war as a ready solution to our problems as well as those who condemn any war as an unqualified evil. Neither [J. R. R.] Tolkien nor [C. S.] Lewis fell prey to the extreme reactions to the war so typical of their era. “We know from the experience of the last twenty years,” wrote Lewis in 1944, “that a terrified and angry pacifism is one of the roads that lead to war.” Tolkien decried “the utter stupid waste of war,” yet admitted “it will be necessary to face it in an evil world.” Their recourse was to draw us back to the heroic tradition: a mode of thought tempered by the realities of combat and fortified by belief in a God of justice and mercy.1 Is war a necessary evil, as Tolkien suggests? Is war biblically justifiable? How does this fit in with Jesus’ teaching on peacemaking? Defend your position with Scripture. 1Joseph Loconte, A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2015) xviii