Daily Archives: May 27, 2008

Pacifism With Justice (7)

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If we understand Jesus to have proclaimed a socially relevant message–including a call to peacemaking and nonviolence, we need to be attentive to his social context and how he responded to it. This essay, “Jesus’ Confrontation With Empire.”, is a chapter in my book-in-progress, Pacifism With Justice: The Biblical and Theological Case. One argument I make here is that Jesus is in full continuity with much in the Old Testament that expressed strong antipathy toward the world’s great empires and understood the community of the promise to be called to offer the world a social alternative to empire as a way of life.

Pacifism With Justice (6)

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For Christian pacifism, as I understand it, Jesus provides our basis with his life, teaching, and identity as God’s Son. A core chapter, then, in my book-in-process, Pacifism With Justice: The Biblical and Theological Case, focuses on Jesus. This chapter, “Pacifism and the Story of Jesus,” essentially summarizes the argument of the great Mennonite theologian, John Howard Yoder, in his classic book The Politics of Jesus.

Pacifism With Justice (5)

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I believe that Christian pacifism ultimately rests on our understanding of God. As Jesus taught, when we love our enemies we are “children of our Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:45). An important aspect of our understanding of God is how we view that salvation that God offers. In this chapter, “Salvation in the Prophets, Salvation in Jesus: Mercy Not Retribution,” which is from my book-in-progress, Pacifism With Justice: The Biblical and Theological Case, I look at biblical understandings of salvation. I argue for a strong continuity among the teachings of the Old Testament prophets and Jesus–all agreeing that God’s mercy lies at the heart of salvation, not retribution.