War wounds the soul. It is not only the violence that warfighters suffer against them that harms, but also the violence that they do. These soul wounds have come to be known as moral injuries: psychic traumas that occur from having done or condoned that which goes against deeply held moral principles. It is not surprising that the committing of atrocities or the accidental killing of the innocent would hurt the soul of warfighters. The problem is that many warfighters at least tacitly follow the commonplace belief that killing another human being is always wrong--it's just that sometimes, as in war, it is necessary. This paradoxical commitment makes the very business of warfighting morally injurious. This problem is also a crisis. Clinical research among combat veterans has established a link between killing in combat and moral injury and between moral injury and suicide. Our warfighters, even those who have served honorably and with the right intentions, are dying by their own hands at devastating rates--casualties not of the physical threats of war, but of the moral ones. It does not have to be this way. The just war tradition, a moral framework for thinking about war that flows out of our Greco-Roman and Hebraic intellectual traditions, is grounded in the basic truth that killing comes in different kinds. While some kinds of killing, like murder, are always wrong, there are other kinds of killing that are morally neutral, such as unavoidable accidents, and still other kinds that are morally permitted--even, sometimes, obligatory. The Good Kill embraces this tradition to argue for the morality of killing in justified wars. Marc LiVecche does not deny the morally bruising realities of combat, but offers potential remedies to help our warfighters manage the bruising without becoming irreparably morally injured.
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The Good Kill addresses the crisis of moral injury among warfighters from the perspective of the just war tradition. By providing a moral framework for enduring the heavy business of killing in combat, Marc LiVecche offers potential remedies to help warfighters manage the effects of killing without becoming irreparably morally injured.
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Acknowledgments Forward by Rev. Timothy S. Mallard, Ph.D. Introduction War & the Soul The Problem of Paradox Neither Sin nor Paradox Just War in the Midst of Combat (?) The Mournful Warrior Conclusion Works Cited Index
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LiVecche artfully links contemporary psychology with ancient philosophical and theological wisdom, mixed with the testimony of veterans and insights of military ethicists ... Highly recommended reading for soldiers and military instructors, as well as chaplains, veteran welfare workers and military ethicists.
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"LiVecche artfully links contemporary psychology with ancient philosophical and theological wisdom, mixed with the testimony of veterans and insights of military ethicists ... Highly recommended reading for soldiers and military instructors, as well as chaplains, veteran welfare workers and military ethicists." -- Darren Cronshaw, Journal of Moral Theology "LiVecche provides an invaluable contribution... In addition to a rich accounting of leading psychological literature on moral injury, LiVecche provides graphic and moving first-hand battlefield accounts, testimonies of the lingering guilt that some soldiers feel about the violence that they saw or participated in." -- Eric Patterson, Journal of Military Ethics "A well-written book." -- Theodora Hawksley, Studies in Christian Ethics
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Selling point: Brings the Western moral tradition to bear in arguing for the morality of killing in justified wars Selling point: Links critical issues in contemporary psychology with ancient theological wisdom in order to address current crises in the military Selling point: Contributes to ethical conversations around just and unjust warfare
Les mer
Marc LiVecche is the editor-at-large for Providence: A Journal of Christianity & American Foreign Policy. He was the McDonald Visiting Scholar at the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life at Oxford University.
Les mer
Selling point: Brings the Western moral tradition to bear in arguing for the morality of killing in justified wars Selling point: Links critical issues in contemporary psychology with ancient theological wisdom in order to address current crises in the military Selling point: Contributes to ethical conversations around just and unjust warfare
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780197515808
Publisert
2021
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press Inc
Vekt
522 gr
Høyde
246 mm
Bredde
165 mm
Dybde
28 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
254

Forfatter
Foreword by

Biographical note

Marc LiVecche is the editor-at-large for Providence: A Journal of Christianity & American Foreign Policy. He was the McDonald Visiting Scholar at the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life at Oxford University.