In short, nonviolence is based on the love that Jesus showed while on this earth, and it is based on His life and His teachings. It is the belief that love is always the answer, even when the results may be death such as what happened to Christ. Since love is always the answer, killing another human being cannot ever be justified. Nonviolent resistance such as that portrayed through Gandhi, and Martin Luther King resists evil just as much as those who choose violence. In fact, it may resist evil more, because it refuses to return violence with violence, thus avoiding demonizing the enemy whom Christ has called us to love and die for. Those who choose to live a life in pursuit of loving their enemies do not claim to have an answer for every conflict (at least I don’t), we live by faith and trust that the Holy Spirit will guide us to love. The nonviolent Christ who died on the cross can change our hearts so that we are more prone to die for love just as Jesus did, than to kill for likable results. (This paragraph is not meant to be a thorough explanation of Christ’s call to love our enemies. If you are curious, please read about it.)
This is a good book for those who are not too sure what the whole nonviolence thing is all about, why its important, and why its not often talked about. Wink even says that the enemy is a gift to us.
Craig Hovey’s book is a little bit more of a thicker read. I would describe it as the Theology of the cross, or the Theology behind nonviolence. Hovey connects Jesus death on the cross to nonviolent love for humanity.
A book exploring how Gandhi can help us better understand Jesus’ life and teachings, and Christian salvation. The first half is about the life of Gandhi, his experience and study of Jesus, and his teachings on nonviolence. The second half is about several Christian theologians who teach nonviolence, and discussing how Jesus’ call to love our enemies may have more to do with the salvation of the world than we may think.
A book written by Martin Luther King Jr. about his thoughts on Jesus’ call to love our enemies.
Douglass is a beast. In this book he covers economics, politics, and the Bible. He goes into interpreting the sayings of Jesus that talk about judgement and sheds light on them that maybe Jesus was talking about right then, not after we die. Love this book.
First book I read by John Dear, a Jesuit peace activist. Wow. It brought me into infinite depths of living a life in the pursuit of the God of peace. Inner peace leads to bringing peace to a world that desperately needs it. This is what God is all about!
I know that this book contains the nuts and bolts of the Christian life…the essentials. I hope that we can all learn and be transformed by the God who loves all people unconditionally, and do it together. Prayer, Resistance, and Community: may we all come to experience God more through these beautiful acts of worship.
