The Archpastors of Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia on War

We will soon arrive at Holy Week where we will be invited by the Church to enter the events of the Lord’s saving passion, that will in turn lead us to the joy of His resurrection. We will come to the Garden of Gethsemane where He is betrayed by one of His closest disciples. In his commentary on the Four Gospels Archbishop Averky writes concerning this^{^[1]}:

St John explains that the words of His high priestly prayer had to come to pass, when He prayed that no harm would come to any of his disciples. And truly, the soldiers let the apostles go and approached Jesus to take Him. But here the apostles decided finally to intervene and, without waiting for an answer to the question one of them raised — “Lord shall we strike with the sword” — irascible Peter himself attacked with a sword and cut off the ear of a certain Malchus, a servant of the high priest. But the Lord healed the man with a touch (Luke 22:51), saying to Peter, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” Of course this is strictly speaking not a prophecy, but only an expression of certain undeniable spiritual laws — whoever attacks another with the intention of killing or maiming him is worthy of the same treatment from another. This same thought is included in the commandment given by God after the Flood: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By Man his blood shall be shed.”( Gen 9:6)

Reading these passages of scripture cited here by Archbishop Averky, together with his commentary on them, we might rush to conclude that any form of self-defense is impermissible to the Christian believer, but such a view would not accord with the Orthodox tradition formed in the crucible of two thousand years of lived experience. To better contextualize the circumstances in which “the power of the sword” might be legitimately used we can turn to the treatise on The Christian Faith and War^{^[2]} written by the first First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky). He draws our attention to Romans 13:4 where the apostle Paul tells that rulers, or governing authorities, bear the sword as God’s ministers and reminds us that:

wars are conducted by governments, but the teachings of Christ and the Holy Apostles do not establish any sort of rules for governmental life and nowhere in the New Testament is it envisioned that a Christian state will exist at any time; we are commanded only to fulfill those passive demands which are claimed by, governments from their subjects…

Having made it clear that waging war is a prerogative of governments and not of the Church, Metropolitan Anthony tells his readers:

… that the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament do not establish laws or rules for governmental life, but only for personal life and life in the society of the Church. Thus, it is senseless to pose the question: “Is not war forbidden for a Christian government in the Holy Gospel?” The question can only be posed in this form, “Does a Christian sin when he agrees to become a soldier? Does a king or a member of a high government body sin when he declares war or accepts a challenge to war? Finally does a Christian sin if he works for the success of a war by contributions, manufacturing arms and the like?” Nowhere in the Holy Bible, neither in the Old nor the New Testament, will you find an affirmative answer to these three questions.

He reiterates this conclusion later in his treatise writing, “Is it not clear that neither war nor the death penalty is forbidden by the commandment, but the personal homicide inspired by hatred or arbitrariness.”

In the Old Testament era Metropolitan Anthony explains how God waged war together with His chosen people Israel, but that this paradigm cannot be applied to the New Testament Church whose boundaries do not coincide with those of any earthly kingdom:

… in the Old Testament the Lord Himself commanded his people to conduct wars of extermination and to punish people with death for certain crimes; … Christ the Saviour recognizes these Old Testament decrees as the commandments of God. Do these commandments have any meaning for the New Testament Church? — No, we shall answer, they have no obligatory meaning. The Old Testament Church was simultaneously a state which was tied to a specific territory and a specific people; the New Testament Church is a spiritual kingdom, not a state; but war and the death penalty, and in general any sort of compulsory judgment, is a matter for the state, to which, as we said, not a single instruction of the New Testament is addressed.

Metropolitan Anthony wrote this treatise as what we now call World War I was raging around him. He refers to this and several other conflicts in which the Russian state engaged in the preceding century, recognizing that from the perspective of the Church the necessity of these could be debated and that ultimately even in the much clearer cut instances it can be said that:

If the Russian nation had had such moral strength that it could have persuaded the Austrians not to crush the Serbian kingdom^{^[3]}, not to force the Bosnians into Catholicism, not to hinder with torture and punishment the Galicians’ return to Orthodoxy, then there would have been no reason to resort to military threats.

So, war is a reflection of our spiritual weakness, but we are weak and sinful people, and, in some cases, he sees that war was necessary to prevent even greater spiritual harm. Although our hierarchs might refer to defending our neighbor as our sacred duty war itself, they would not describe as “holy”. Metropolitan Anthony concludes:

Murder is reprehensible as an act of self-will and hatred, i.e. personal murder, but killing an enemy in battle “is tolerated and permitted.”

Another First Hierarch of The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Metropolitan Philaret supports this conclusion writing that:

One of the clearest and most self-denying struggles of service to one’s homeland is to die for the nation. A Christian soldier is a defender of the homeland and clearly fulfills Christ’s precept, “Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).

War is evil and an extremely sad phenomenon and deeply contrary to the very essence of Christianity. Words cannot express how joyous it would be if people ceased to war with one another and peace reigned on earth. Sad reality speaks quite otherwise, however. Only some dreamers far removed from reality and some narrowly one-sided sectarians can pretend that war can be omitted from real life.^{^[4]}

There seems no doubt in Metropolitan Philaret’s mind that war is evil, but he also gives us examples from the lives of the saints as to why it may sometimes be a necessary evil and yet capable of redemption for the soldier who participates in this evil. He concludes at length:

…war is a negative phenomenon. Yet it will exist, sometimes as the sole defense of truth and human rights, or against seizure, brutal invasion, and violence. Only such wars of defense are recognized in Christian teaching. In fact, we hear of the following event in the life of St Athanasius of the Holy Mountain. Prince Tornikian of Georgia, an eminent commander of the Byzantine armies, was received into monasticism at St Athanasius’ monastery. During the time of the Persian invasion, Empress Zoe recalled Tornikian to command the armies. Tornikian flatly refused on the grounds that he was a monk. But St Athanasius said to him,

“We are all children of our homeland, and we are obligated to defend it. Our obligation is to guard the homeland from enemies by prayers. Nevertheless, if God deems it expedient to use both our hands and our heart for the common weal, we must submit completely … If you do not obey the ruler, you will have to answer for the blood of your compatriots whom you did not wish to save, and for the destruction of the churches of God.”

Tornikian submitted, defeated the enemy, and rescued the homeland from danger.

In a conversation with Mohammedans, about war, St Cyril, the Enlightener of the Slavs, said, “We meekly endure personal offenses; but as a society, we defend each other, laying down our lives for our neighbors, so that you have taken them captive, do not force them to deny their faith or perform acts against God.” Finally, what Russian does not know the example of St Sergius of Radonezh, who blessed Prince Dimitry Donskoy to go to war, prayed for the success of the Russian army, and commemorated those soldiers who died on the field of battle? Two later were glorified as saints.

One can, of course, sin and sin greatly while participating in war. This happens when one participates in war with a feeling of personal hatred, vengeance, or vainglory and with proud personal aims. On the contrary, the less he thinks about himself, and the more he is ready to lay down his life for others, the closer the Christian soldier approaches the martyr’s crown.

Archbishop Averky, with whom we began this essay, also knew firsthand the horror of war and experienced it directly during World War II. He writes^{^[5]}:

We have seen a transition from human to beastly behavior during this war. I have in mind the cruel bombardment of the peaceful civilian neighborhoods of Belgrade on the very day of the Great Feast of Pascha immediately after Holy Liturgy had been served in the churches. This is in direct contrast with the previous world war, when during the great feasts both warring parties stopped their military activities, exchanged greetings and even presented gifts to one another^{^[6]}. A mere twenty years or so, and we see such “progress” in the level of human cruelty! This regression points to a complete loss of conscience.

Since the Archbishop wrote these words many decades ago human ingenuity has only gone further in its creation of weapons of mass destruction, whilst loss of conscience progresses faster still. But, as scripture reminds us “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Archbishop Averky offers some hope that this may not always be so, but nevertheless his words are laden with sobriety as we consider the wars raging in our world today:

Under the guise of service to others, we find the pursuit of one’s own narrow egotistical goals: deceit, blackmail, hypocrisy, and insincerity. We can characterize the internal and external politics of many contemporary nations and their rulers in the same way. Even wars in the past, despite their brutality, were fought for some noble aim and were conducted with at least a semblance of principles and restrictions of merciless cruelty. In the past, not only were written treatises adhered to with respect, but even verbal agreements on the part of government heads were honored. Now we see such pacts as mere scraps of paper, devoid of any significance. This is understandable, for the rulers do not take God and His law into account, for they generally achieve their political power through bribery and fraud, with no intent to serve the needs of their people. Those who are honest and respectable shy away from the government’s helm, not wanting to engage in dishonest activity. On the other hand, the immoral ones stop at nothing to achieve their goal of power, personal comfort and monetary gain, pushing all aside and even killing those who get in their way.

“This was always the case!” someone may quip. Yes, there were similar situations in the past, when, so to speak, “someone’s eyes were gouged out,” but these were exceptions to the rule. Now honest and noble rulers are the exception, and rarely do they survive, for they stand in the way and are frequently eliminated by those who want to continue in their own dark dealings.^{^[7]}

War is at best the lesser of two evils, justifiable only in the most extreme of circumstances, participation in it by Orthodox Christians can be redeemed through sacrifice. To leave the final words of this essay to the Archbishop:

The sword should be drawn only for the defense of God’s truth and for the punishment of “those who do evil.” From this point of view, the Church also justifies war as an extreme, unavoidable measure for the suppression of even greater evil. That war is not simply murder as forbidden in the sixth commandment is evident at least from the fact that, when soldiers came to John the Baptist to repent and receive baptism, he did not condemn them for bearing arms and serving in the military but exhorted them to not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely and be content with your wages (Luke 3:14).

Many soldiers, even those who served under a pagan king, for example, St George the Trophy-bearer, St Dimitry of Thessalonica, etc., were glorified by the holiness of their lives and were counted among the saints and those pleasing to God. What do we do when there is no other means for the suppression of great evil other than the taking up of arms? We will have to allow that which is a lesser evil to avert a greater evil. But to sit indifferently, passively and watch as masses of people perish is contrary to the spirit of Christian love for one’s neighbor. In this case, strength of arms may save the innocent from perishing at the hands of evildoers.^{^[8]}

© Averkey (Taushev), The Four Gospels (Jordanville, New York: Holy Trinity Publications, 2015) ISBN 978-194269-900-2 p216 ↑
© Anthony (Khrapovitsky), Christian Faith and War (Jordanville, New York: Holy Trinity Monastery, 1998) ISBN 978-0-88465-087-4 ↑
Seen as the event that triggered Russia’s entrance into WWI ↑
© Philaret (Voznesensky), Living According to God’s Will (Jordanville, New York: Holy Trinity Publications, 2021) ISBN 978-0-88465-443-8 p114 ↑
© Averkey (Taushev), The Struggle for Virtue (Jordanville, New York: Holy Trinity Publications, 2014) ISBN 978-0-88465-373-8 p63 ↑
Perhaps a reference to the Christmas Truce between British and German forces on the western front on Christmas Eve 1914. See https://www.history.com/news/christmas-truce-1914-world-war-i-soldier-accounts ↑
© Averkey (Taushev), The Struggle for Virtue (Jordanville, New York: Holy Trinity Publications, 2014) ISBN 978-0-88465-373-8 p64 ↑
Ibid p106 ↑