The contrast in experience between the two men disagreeing over war and theology was striking.<\/p>\n
On the one side was Pope Leo XIV<\/a>, the first North American to head the Catholic church and the first cleric from the Augustinian order, who this week visited the modern Algerian city where Saint Augustine once lived. For Leo, who wrote his doctoral thesis on Augustine\u2019s ideas, it was the culmination of a lifelong intellectual interest.<\/p>\n On the other, the US vice-president, JD Vance, a very recent adult convert to Catholicism<\/a> with no academic background in the history of the church\u2019s thinking.<\/p>\n At the heart of their disagreement: how Augustine, the fourth-century thinker, framed the idea of a \u201cjust war\u201d after centuries in which the early Christian tradition had rejected war and violence, even in self-defence. It is one of the most persistently important ideas in western thinking. Every major philosopher, jurist and theologian on the subject has weighed in on it over the centuries.<\/p>\n The dispute is one strand of the intense controversy caused by the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to imbue the US war against Iran with an incoherent Christian militancy.<\/p>\n At its most bizarre, the US president posted an image of himself<\/a> on social media as a Christ-like figure healing the sick under flying jets and armed supernatural beings.<\/p>\n An AI-generated image of Trump as a Christ-like figure posted on 12 April on Truth Social. It was later deleted. Photograph: @realDonaldTrump\/Reuters<\/p>\n The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has meanwhile conducted himself like a modern crusader, claiming the mantle of a righteous violence<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a series of interventions last month, Leo said Christ\u2019s teaching rejected war<\/a> and that moreover, he \u201cdoes not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them\u201d.<\/p>\n In recent weeks his discourse has became more pointed. Trump\u2019s threat on 7 April that \u201ca whole civilisation will die tonight\u201d unless Iran made a deal with the US was \u201ctruly unacceptable\u201d<\/a>, he said, adding that such attacks would violate international law.<\/p>\n Vance delivered his reply at an event for the conservative group Turning Point USA at the University of Georgia on 14 April. \u201cWhen the pope says that God is never on the side of people who wield the sword, there is more than a 1,000-year tradition of just-war theory,\u201d Vance said. \u201cHow do you say that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword?\u201d he asked, citing the example of US troops that had liberated France from the Nazis and freed prisoners from the Holocaust camps.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,\u201d Vance said. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to opine on matters of theology, you\u2019ve got to be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n