The Doctrine of Creation

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Is a self-conscious doctrine of creation compatible with a belief that pacifism is a central Christian conviction?  Is it possible to construct an Anabaptist doctrine of creation, given how dominated that arena of thought has been by Reformed views?  In my essay on “The Doctrine of Creation,” I argue that indeed love and creation go together–along with an understanding of justice that sees the concerns of justice being the work to bring healing to brokenness in our world (“restorative justice”).

This essay is the fifth in a series that examines core Christian doctrines, consistently asking what shape they should take if they are articulated in light of Jesus.

The Lamb’s Way of Victory #5

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In Revelation six, we get the first of several extended visions in the book that portray a series of plagues that wreak death and destruction on earth.  Then, in Revelation seven we get another vision of the people of God (from all tribes and nations) worshiping God and the Lamb–these are the ones who trust in God instead of the Beast.  I believe that these two visions portray important elements in life in the past and present, not only life in the future.  John the Seer means for us to recognize that we must choose which vision more accurately presents the deepest reality.  Should we worship (that is, live our lives in trust in the Lamb’s way of peace) or should we join with the forces of violence since they determine reality?  In my sermon, “Trusting God in the Real World,” I juxtapose the two visions and argue that the vision of celebration should determine how we understand the world–and inspire us to practice justice- and peace-making in service to the victorious Lamb.

Against Empire: A Yoderian Reading of Romans

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I believe that we should understand the Apostle Paul to be presenting a radical message that combines pacifism with resistance to the Roman Empire. What follows is a paper presented August 13, 2008, at a conference, “On Being a Peace Church in a Constantinian World” at Messiah College. This paper utilizes the thought of John Howard Yoder to make a case for this kind of reading of Paul.

Against Empire: A Yoderian Reading of Romans—8/13/08—Ted Grimsrud

John Howard Yoder, the Mennonite theologian and advocate for Christian pacifism, as much as anybody in the last half of the 20th century, popularized the critique of Constantinianism, which he understood as a Christian problem. For Yoder, “Constantinianism” refers to a way of looking at social life. Constantinians believe that the exercise of power is necessarily violent, that God’s will is funneled through the actions of the heads of state, that Christians should work within the structures of their legitimately violent nation-states and take up arms when called upon to do so, and that history is best read through the eyes of people in power.

Most people who have read the Gospels agree that Jesus stands in tension with Constantinianism. I remember in grad school, my teacher Robert Bellah stating that John Yoder had convinced him that Jesus indeed was a pacifist. However, once Christians began to take responsibility for society in the fourth century (and it was a good thing that they did, according to Bellah), they simply had to look elsewhere than to Jesus for their ethical guidance.

For most Christians in the past 2,000 years, the Apostle Paul has been a key bridge who prepared the way for the Constantinian shift in the 4th century. Thus, it is no accident that after Constantine, Paul’s writings become central for Christian theology (much more so than the Gospels). For Yoder, though, it is misreading Paul to see him presenting something other than a reinforcing of Jesus’ message.

My interest today is to look at Yoder’s non-Constantinian reading of Paul. I will suggest that indeed Paul’s theology provides us powerful resources that might help us walk faithfully with Jesus today as peace churches in a world still all too Constantinian. Yoder devotes his book The Politics of Jesus to explaining what Jesus’ life and teaching have to say to Empire. He outlines a way of reading the entire Bible in light of Jesus, including paying close attention to the writings of Paul, seeing Paul’s thought as resting in full continuity with Jesus.
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The ethical importance of Jesus’ death

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The story of the death of Jesus continues to be central for Christian theology and spirituality–for better and for worse. One aspect of the story that is not often discussed, though, is how Jesus approach to his death serves as a model for the lives of those who would walk with him.  That is, even in his death, Jesus affirmed and modeled life. 

My article, “The way Jesus died is an example of the way Jesus lived,” published in Gospel Herald, April 4, 1995, reflects on this theme.

A theology of the world’s end

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Biblical eschatology, I propose, is best understood if the think of “end” (eschatos) more in terms of purpose in the here and now and less in terms of the future outcome of history.  If we do think of eschatology in this way, we will be more likely to find present-day peaceable ethical significance of biblical teaching than if we think this world is inevitably heading for destruction.

I argue for this view of eschatology in my article, “The end of the world: why we are here,” first published in The Mennonite, August 6, 2002.

The Anabaptists: what we can learn from their troubles

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The traumas the 16th-century Anabaptists faced due to their core convictions (church free from state control, refusal to support war, rejection of social hierarchies, and non-possessive economics) remain highly instructive, both for helping us understand problematic elements in Mennonite communities and for reminding us of the continuing relevance of those ideals.

This article, “The Anabaptist faith: a living tradition” that was published in The Mennonite (May 2, 2006), reflects on these themes.

The Old Testament message of mercy

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Many people, we could call them the “cultured despisers,” reject the Old Testament as a “bloody book.”  Many others, probably more, affirm the Old Testament as a “bloody book” and all too often use that “bloodiness” as a justification for their own.

This article, “Mercy not retribution,” argues for a reading of the Old Testament that recognizes the centrality of God’s mercy in the story–and sees that mercy as the biblical basis for Jesus’ own peaceable message.

It was originally published in The Mennonite, September 6, 2005.

Is the book of Revelation a resource for peacemaking?

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The book of Revelation, though having the reputation of being a book of violence, actually is more accurately read as a book supporting nonviolent resistance to empires and their servants.

This article, “How should 20th-century Christians read the book of Revelation?”, was originally published in Gospel Herald, January 21, 1992, shortly after the 1991 U.S. war on Iraq.