The " Ecumenical " and " Cosmopolitan " Yoder: A Critical Engagement with Nonviolence – A Brief History and Its Editors (original) (raw)
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Pacifism and Knowing. Truth in the Theological Ethics of John Howard Yoder
Mennonite Quarterly Review, 2003
John Howard Yoder's epistemologa offers a creative alternative to foundationalism and to relativism. Yoder provides an understanding of truth that affirms that truth is a meaningful category, but that does not operate in the realm of intellectually coercive absolutes. The key to Yoder's approach to knowledge and truth is to be found in his pacifism. Yoder based his pacifism on an affirmation of truth that is utterly non-coercive. Yoder's approach provides a basis not only for the continuation of pacifism as a core Christian value, but also for a viable postmodern epistemology that is nonrelativist and nonfoundationalist.
Losurdo, Domenico. Non-Violence: A History beyond the Myth
2017
Domenico Losurdo, in his book Non-Violence: A History Beyond the Myth, aims to demonstrate the historical contradictions of non-violent action. This book embraces two centuries of the history of non-violence, reconstructing the great historical crises that this movement has faced from its inception. In his analysis, Losurdo does not limit himself to a history of the ideas, but instead investigates theories, political opinions, contradictions, moral dilemmas, and concrete behaviors in the context of central historical crises and transformations. Losurdo affirms that the popularity of non-violence movements is in part based on frustration with wars and revolutions that promised to achieve a state of perpetual peace by implementing their different methods. In other words, violence was used to guarantee the eradication of the scourge of violence once and for all. The First World War was greeted by mass enthusiasm to enlist in "the war to end all wars." Similarly, the revolution in Russia was expected to overcome the brutality of capitalist exploitation and war. Therefore, we are familiar with the blood and tears that have dirtied projects to change the world through war or revolution, but what do we know of the dilemmas, "betrayals," disappointments, and veritable tragedies that have befallen the movement inspired by the ideal of non-violence (5)? The author recognises that the first group committed to build a socio-political order characterized by non-violence was the Christian abolitionists in the United States in the nineteenth century. Moreover, the American Peace Society and the Non-Resistance Society considered it possible to solve the problem of violence by rediscovering the "original" Christian message and its progressive penetration of popular consciousness. First, it was asserted that the Gospel's message could only be restored in its purity by clearly distancing oneself from the Old Testament and the theme, well-attested in it, of holy wars or wars of the Lord. Second, God had not restricted the precepts of the gospel to individuals; they also applied to states. Condemnation of war and violence in any shape or form must be concretely realized at a social level. In 1812, David L. Dodge, a fervent Christian, published the book War Inconsistent with the Religion of Jesus Christ that might be regarded as the first manifesto of the nascent non-violent movement. He argues that we should abstain from violence, even indirect participation in it, in all circumstances. Indeed, the spirit of
A postcolonial theology of nonviolence
European Academy of Religion, St. Andrews (Scotland), 2023
Violence and nonviolence have been under dispute in Christian churches since the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine. This is the context in which I have been seeking to further elaborate on theological arguments in favour of nonviolence and to deepen my understanding of a postcolonial conversion in theology. In this contribution, I intend to describe nonviolence as a genuine postcolonial response to violence. My use of postcolonial theory and theology needs one more preliminary remark: As a White, European, Christian theologian, I am aware of the dangers of representation and appropriation described in many postcolonial discussions. At the same time, European theology needs to answer to the criticism of postcolonial studies. Europe is a postcolonial continent, and therefore it is our obligation to listen to postcolonial criticism, learn from it, and answer to it. This is precisely what I pretend to do in this contribution.
Christian Theory: Postanarchism, Theology, and John Howard Yoder
was a Mennonite scholar who studied under Karl Barth and then taught at Goshen College, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and Notre Dame. The Politics of Jesus is his bestknown work, but he continued to write prolifically on a wide variety of issues in Christian theology and ethics until his death in 1997. Yoder is sometimes characterized as a monotonous trumpeter whose one note was pacifism, and while this is not the case, it is true that Yoder is one of the most articulate and sophisticated defenders of comprehensive nonviolence, a position that informs much of his work. It is not that Yoder begins with pacifism as an ideal and builds a theology or ethics around that-Yoder rejected the idea of an epistemological starting point at all-but that for him, following Christ and remaining true to the Christian heritage necessarily entail surrender to a nonviolent way of being in the world. Yoder wrestled with the political ramifications of pacifism in ways that bring him very close to anarchism, and there are Christian anarchists who make use of his work. Moreover, Yoder seems to have anticipated some of the moves being made in the shift in anarchist discourse toward what is being called postanarchism.
Nonviolence and Religion.-reprint
Nonviolence and Religion, 2023
this is the printed edition of the Special Issue "Nonviolence and Religion," published in the open access journal "Religions." Editors: Wolfgang Palaver, Ed Noort, Louise du Toit and Ephraim Meir. ISSN 2077-1444 available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special issues/NaR.
International Critical Thought, 2017
Until now, the history of the non-violence movement has been written by commentators who have no intention of hiding their sympathies for the movement. However, Domenico Losurdo’s Non-violence: A History beyond the Myth is one of the first texts to confront this topic with seriousness, using scientific methods and a comparative historiographic approach. Losurdo does not limit himself to a history of the ideas of the movement’s leading figures—from the American Christian abolitionists to Gandhi and Luther King—but instead analyses their theories, political opinions, contradictions, moral dilemmas and concrete behaviours in the context of great historical crises and transformations. Losurdo’s book also dedicates plenty of space to current events, analysing how the West today uses non-violence as a way to discredit its enemies. The delegitimation of the People’s Republic of China and the so-called “colour revolutions” demonstrate that even a noble ideal like non-violence can be easily exploited with a malicious intention. It is preferable, then, according to Losurdo, to fight for a “democratisation of international relations” that will inevitably lead to the strengthening of the front of less developed countries and to battling against the oxymoronic “humanitarian wars” or “wars for peace.”
Evangelical Hermeneutics, Anabaptist Ethics: John Howard Yoder, the Solas, and the Question of War
The Activist Impulse: Essays on the Intersection of Evangelicalism and Anabaptism, 2012
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