Christian Peace and Nonviolence: A Documentary History

o A comprehensive survey of two thousand years of Christian voices for peace.

These extraordinary documents, which bear witness to the Christian commitment to peace across time, clarify that nonviolence is not a mere exception it is at the very heart of what it means to be a follower of Christ. . . I cannot imagine that Christian Peace and Nonviolence will not become an essential teaching resource not only for thinking through nonviolence but also for understanding the very character of Christianity. Stanley Hauerwas

From the Sermon on the Mount to the twenty-first century, this comprehensive reader recounts the Christian message of peace and nonviolence. Through testimony by the confessors and martyrs of the early church, the voices of medieval figures like St. Benedict and St. Francis, as well as Erasmus, Lollards, Anabaptists, and Quakers abolitionists, Christian Peace and Nonviolence presents a coherent story in which the peace message of Jesus is restored to central place. Later sections highlight many of the great prophets of modern times, including Tolstoy, Dorothy Day, A.J. Muste, Thomas Merton, Daniel Berrigan, and Oscar Romero. Their challenge remains timely and urgent. As John Haynes Holmes observed, If war is right then Christianity is false, a lie.

Christian Peace and Nonviolence is not only intellectually compelling but also inspirational. It is more than a reference work. It is a witness.