Just War and Pacifism
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Brock on Curran, 'Soldiers of Peace: Civil War Pacifism and the Postwar Radical Peace Movement'
H-Peace Brock on Curran, 'Soldiers of Peace: Civil War Pacifism and the Postwar Radical Peace Movement' Review published on Monday, March 1, 2004 Thomas F. Curran. Soldiers of Peace: Civil War Pacifism and the Postwar Radical Peace Movement. New York: Fordham University Press, 2003. xv + 228 pp. $45.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8232-2210-0. Reviewed by Peter Brock (Professor Emeritus of History, University of Toronto)Published on H- Peace (March, 2004) Dilemmas of a Perfectionist Dilemmas of a Perfectionist Thomas Curran's monograph originated in a Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Notre Dame but it has been much revised since. The book's clearly written and well-constructed narrative revolves around the person of an obscure package woolen commission merchant from Philadelphia named Alfred Henry Love (1830-1913), a radical pacifist activist who was also a Quaker in all but formal membership. Love is the key figure in the book, binding Curran's chapters together into a cohesive whole. And Love's papers, and particularly his unpublished "Journal," which are located at the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, form the author's most important primary source: in fact, he uses no other manuscript collections, although, as the endnotes and bibliography show, he is well read in the published primary and secondary materials, including work on the general background of both the Civil War era and nineteenth-century pacifism. Curran has indeed rescued Love himself from near oblivion; there is little else on him apart from an unpublished Ph.D. dissertation by Robert W. Doherty (University of Pennsylvania, 1962). -
Historic Peace Churches People
The Consistent Life Ethic the vulnerable to only some groups of Mennonite: From Article 22 of the and the Historic Peace Churches people. Some care for the children in the Mennonite Confession of Faith - womb, children recently born with Mennonites, the Church of the Brethren, and disabilities, and the vulnerable among the ill. “Led by the Spirit, and beginning in the the Religious Society of Friends, which Yet they are not as clear about the problems church, we witness to all people that cooperated together in the "New Call to of war or the death penalty or policies that violence is not the will of God. We witness Peacemaking" project, have centuries of could help solve the problems of poverty against all forms of violence, including war experience in the insights of pacifism. This that threaten the very groups they assert among nations, hostility among races and is the understanding that violence is not protection for. They weaken their case by classes, abuse of children and women, ethical, nor is the apathy or cowardice that their inconsistency. Others are very sensitive violence between men and women, abortion, supports violence by others. Furthermore, to the problems of war and the death penalty and capital punishment.” the appearance of violence as a quick fix to and poverty while using euphemisms to problems is deceptive. Through hardened Brethren: From Pastor Wesley Brubaker, avoid the realities of feticide and infanticide, http://www.brfwitness.org/?p=390 hearts, lost opportunities, and over- and allowing the "right to die" become the simplified thinking, violence generally leads "duty to die" in a society still infested with “We seem to realize instinctively that to more problems and often exacerbates far too many prejudices against the abortion is gruesome. -
Radical Pacifism, Civil Rights, and the Journey of Reconciliation
09-Mollin 12/2/03 3:26 PM Page 113 The Limits of Egalitarianism: Radical Pacifism, Civil Rights, and the Journey of Reconciliation Marian Mollin In April 1947, a group of young men posed for a photograph outside of civil rights attorney Spottswood Robinson’s office in Richmond, Virginia. Dressed in suits and ties, their arms held overcoats and overnight bags while their faces carried an air of eager anticipation. They seemed, from the camera’s perspective, ready to embark on an exciting adventure. Certainly, in a nation still divided by race, this visibly interracial group of black and white men would have caused people to stop and take notice. But it was the less visible motivations behind this trip that most notably set these men apart. All of the group’s key organizers and most of its members came from the emerging radical pacifist movement. Opposed to violence in all forms, many had spent much of World War II behind prison walls as conscientious objectors and resisters to war. Committed to social justice, they saw the struggle for peace and the fight for racial equality as inextricably linked. Ardent egalitarians, they tried to live according to what they called the brotherhood principle of equality and mutual respect. As pacifists and as militant activists, they believed that nonviolent action offered the best hope for achieving fundamental social change. Now, in the wake of the Second World War, these men were prepared to embark on a new political jour- ney and to become, as they inscribed in the scrapbook that chronicled their traveling adventures, “courageous” makers of history.1 Radical History Review Issue 88 (winter 2004): 113–38 Copyright 2004 by MARHO: The Radical Historians’ Organization, Inc. -
Just the Police Function, Then a Response to “The Gospel Or a Glock?”
Just the Police Function, Then A Response to “The Gospel or a Glock?” Gerald W. Schlabach Introduction Consider this thought experiment: Adam and Eve have not yet sinned. In fact, they will not sin for a few decades and have begun their family. It is time for supper, but little Cain and his brother Abel are distracted. They bear no ill will, but their favorite pets, the lion and lamb, are particularly cute as they frolic together this afternoon. So Adam goes to find and hurry them home. With nary an unkind word and certainly no violence, he polices their behavior and orders their community life. For like every social arrangement, even this still-altogether-faithful community requires the police function too. A pacifist who does not recognize this point is likely to misconstrue everything I have written about “just policing.”1 Having lived a vocation for mediating between polarized Christian communities since my years in war- torn Central America, I expected a measure of misunderstanding when I proposed the agenda of just policing as a way to move ecumenical dialogue forward between pacifist and just war Christians, especially Mennonites and Catholics. Whoever seeks to engage the estranged in conversation simultaneously on multiple fronts will take such a risk.2 Deeply held identities are often at stake, and as much as the mediator may do to respect community boundaries, he or she can hardly help but threaten them simply by crossing back and forth. The risk of misunderstanding comes with the liminal territory, and nothing but a doggedly hopeful patience for continued conversation will minimize it. -
Peace and War
Peace and War Christian Reflection A SERIES IN FAITH AND ETHICS BAYLOR UNIVERSITY GENERAL EDITOR Robert B. Kruschwitz ART EDITOR Heidi J. Hornik REVIEW EDITOR Norman Wirzba PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Julie Bolin DESIGNER Eric Yarbrough PUBLISHER The Center for Christian Ethics Baylor University One Bear Place #97361 Waco, TX 76798-7361 PHONE (254) 710-3774 TOLL-FREE (USA) (866) 298-2325 W E B S I T E www.ChristianEthics.ws E-MAIL [email protected] All Scripture is used by permission, all rights reserved, and unless otherwise indicated is from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. ISSN 1535-8585 Christian Reflection is the ideal resource for discipleship training in the church. Multiple copies are obtainable for group study at $2.50 per copy. Worship aids and lesson materials that enrich personal or group study are available free on the website. Christian Reflection is published quarterly by The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University. Contributors express their considered opinions in a responsible manner. The views expressed are not official views of The Center for Christian Ethics or of Baylor University. The Center expresses its thanks to individuals, churches, and organizations, including the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, who provided financial support for this publication. © 2004 The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University All rights reserved Contents Introduction 8 Robert B. Kruschwitz War in the Old Testament 11 John A. Wood The War of the Lamb 18 Harry O. Maier Terrorist Enemies and Just War 27 William T. -
A Brief Glossary of Nonviolent Struggle
government, and subvert their troops. Embargo: An economic boycott initiated This policy, alone or in combination with and enforced by a government. A military means, has received governmen- tal or military attention in several Fast: Deliberate abstention from certain European countries. or all food. When applied in a social or Brief political conflict, it may be combined Civilian insurrection: A nonviolent with a moral appeal seeking to change Glossary uprising against a dictatorship, or other attitudes. It may also be intended simply unpopular regime, usually involving to force the opponent to grant certain widespread repudiation of the regime as objectives, in which case it is called a of illegitimate, mass strikes, massive hunger strike. demonstrations, an economic shut-down, and widespread political noncooperation. Force: Either: (1) An application of Nonviolent Political noncooperation may include power (including threatened or imposed action by government employees and sanctions, which may be violent or non- Struggle mutiny by police and troops. In the final violent). As, "the force generated by the stages, a parallel government often civil disobedience movement." Or: (2) emerges. The body or group applying force as The Albert Einstein Institution has pre- If successful, a civilian insurrection defined in (1), usually used in the plural. pared this brief glossary to encourage the may disintegrate the established regime in As, "the forces at the government's use of more precise terminology in the days or weeks, as opposed to a long-term disposal." field of nonviolent sanctions. struggle of many months or years. Civilian insurrections often end with the General strike: A work stoppage by a Bloodless coup: A successful coup departure of the deposed rulers from the majority of workers in the more impor- d'etat in which there is no killing. -
Prophet of Pacifism by Nilesh Nathwani
Prophet of Pacifism. By Nilesh Nathwani Revolutionary thinkers believe in incessant revolution. They see constant change as a way of life. Initially, Mahatma Gandhi was concerned about creating an environment hospitable to change within a relatively stable political system of colonialism. He wanted a political system in which healthy unrest would work for continuous renewal. Freedom would be continually enlarged and extended, resulting in the upward evolution of a society towards a higher and different power as he described it. This process would start when a political system is created, where people respect minorities. The sense of freedom would then become a national and individual pride. Freedom is gained by vigilance and struggle; it can, however, be lost if society remains indifferent and supine. One has to fight for freedom with the right weapons, though not with guns. The sense of freedom should be from within and not brought about by an outer force. However controversial it sounds, Gandhiji demonstrated this principle in his lifetime. He went behind bars to gain that freedom. He preferred to be behind walls than to suppress his struggle for freedom. When jailed for refusing to pay the salt tax at the end of the Dandi March, he observed that even behind walls of stone and mortar he was freer than those who had jailed him. Gandhiji practised the struggle with his soul spirit and gave the world the principle of Satyagraha. The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes Satyagraha as truth force. I would call it soul force. It is a principle that encourages you not to submit to wrong or to co-operate with it in any way. -
Self-Actualization: Transcendentalist Discourse in the Work of Stuart Saunders Smith
SELF-ACTUALIZATION: TRANSCENDENTALIST DISCOURSE IN THE WORK OF STUART SAUNDERS SMITH José Augusto Duarte Lacerda A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS December 2015 Committee: Roger Schupp, Advisor Timothy Messer-Kruse Graduate Faculty Representative Marilyn Shrude Robert Wallace Thomas Rosenkranz © 2015 José Augusto Duarte Lacerda All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Roger Schupp, Advisor Born and raised in Maine, composer Stuart Saunders Smith (1948) grew up immersed in a milieu that still echoed the influence of the nineteenth-century literary movement known as Transcendentalism. The work of key Transcendentalist figures, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, show the movement’s emphasis on autonomy, intuition, pacifism, and social justice. But Transcendentalism also maintains a spiritual focus: a claim that each person is part of a single universal spirit—“Oneness.” However, this “Oneness” does not equate to homogeneity of ideas and individual voices. Rather, each person’s divine worth grants them autonomy of thought and agency. Both the social and spiritual ideas of Transcendentalism have informed Smith’s music, his writings on music compositional process, and his personal life. Amongst the Transcendentalist notions displayed in Smith’s music, pacifism and anti- technologism appear in his use of intricate rhythms. A Thoreauvian anti-materialism can be found in Smith’s limited use of instrumentation and in his concept of “percussion ecology.” Moreover, the Transcendentalist non-teleological stance is reflected in Smith’s tendency to write evening-length pieces that disregard form, his recurring references to New England imagery, and his use of non-sequiturs. -
The Futility of Violence I. Gandhi's Critique of Violence for Gandhi, Political
CHAPTER ONE The Futility of Violence I. Gandhi’s Critique of Violence For Gandhi, political life was, in a profound and fundamental sense, closely bound to the problem of violence. At the same time, his understanding and critique of violence was multiform and layered; violence’s sources and consequences were at once ontological, moral and ethical, as well as distinctly political. Gandhi held a metaphysical account of the world – one broadly drawn from Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist philosophy – that accepted himsa or violence to be an ever-present and unavoidable fact of human existence. The world, he noted, was “bound in a chain of destruction;” the basic mechanisms for the reproduction of biological and social life necessarily involved continuous injury to living matter. But modern civilization – its economic and political institutions as well as the habits it promoted and legitimated – posed the problem of violence in new and insistent terms. Gandhi famously declared the modern state to represent “violence in a concentrated and organized form;” it was a “soulless machine” that – like industrial capitalism – was premised upon and generated coercive forms of centralization and hierarchy.1 These institutions enforced obedience through the threat of violence, they forced people to labor unequally, they oriented desires towards competitive material pursuits. In his view, civilization was rendering persons increasingly weak, passive, and servile; in impinging upon moral personality, modern life degraded and deformed it. This was the structural violence of modernity, a violence that threatened bodily integrity but also human dignity, individuality, and autonomy. In this respect, Gandhi’s deepest ethical objection to violence was closely tied to a worldview that took violence to inhere in modern modes of politics and modern ways of living. -
The Cult of Liberation: the Berkeley Free Church and the Radical Church Movement 1967-1972 Volume 1
Dominican Scholar Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship Faculty and Staff Scholarship 1977 The Cult of Liberation: The Berkeley Free Church and The Radical Church Movement 1967-1972 volume 1 Harlan Stelmach Department of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Dominican University of California, [email protected] Survey: Let us know how this paper benefits you. Recommended Citation Stelmach, Harlan, "The Cult of Liberation: The Berkeley Free Church and The Radical Church Movement 1967-1972 volume 1" (1977). Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship. 52. https://scholar.dominican.edu/all-faculty/52 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty and Staff Scholarship at Dominican Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Dominican Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1977 HARLAN DOUGLAS ANTHONY STELMACH ALL RIGHTS RESERVED : TlIE CULT OF LIIiER.'i.TION THE SEPKELEY FREE CHURCH and THE RADICAL CHURCH MOVEMENT 1967-1972 A dissertiatlon by Harlan Douglas Anthony _S_tein)ach presented to Tae Faculty of the Graduate Theological Union in partial fulfillment of the requirenents for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Berkeley, California May 15, 1977 Committee Signatures: Co-Coordjnator ^ y^oV^K- t\M^ Co-Coordinator f 'il -7^ ^- With special thanks to all those who have been part of the process which helped to shape me and this dissertation: MADELYN Joy Aiiy Anne Megan Linda P. ***** Tony Fred G. John M. Edie Bill Jon Joe H. Nancy Gordon Suzanne J. Bob D. Marilena Hugh Sergio Bob C. -
7. Extension: Find out About Some People Who Have Practised Pacifism
1. What are your thoughts on pacifism? Examples of religious beliefs for () and against () Pacifists believe it is 2. Explain what pacifism is and what pacifists believe. pacifism better to be passive and not be violent, Pacifism is a belief that… ! Some Christians, such as A _______________, are whatever the consequences, than to pacifists. They believe Jesus taught peace and actively be violent and forgiveness, and opposed violence even in self- cause harm. defence. Non-religious Some Muslims believe Allah prefers peace to B people have _______________. different views Pacifists may also believe… on pacifism. 3. Fill in the quote. Many Hindus are pacifists because of the Hindu belief in ahimsa (C _______________) Some Christians, Muslims and Hindus are not pacifists, as they believe violence is D _______________ in some circumstances, e.g. the Qur’an permits violence in E _______________. 7. Extension: Find out about some people who have practised pacifism. Note down some examples. (Matthew 5:44 NRSV) ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be 4. Write the correct multiple-choice answer in the gaps above. called children of God.’ (Matthew 5:9 NRSV) A – fundamentalists Catholics Quakers B – forgiveness violence death 5. Give some potential problems with pacifism. C – non-violence violence peace D – justified wrong useless E – anger self-defence all circumstances 6. Extension: ‘People should not be pacifists.’ Evaluate this statement. (12 marks) Argue for and against this statement. You must give religious arguments and you may give non-religious arguments. Reach a conclusion which follows from your argument. Make some notes here, and then complete the answer in your book or on the back. -
Copyrighted Material
Index Abhidharma, 143 atonement theory/soteriology (how Jesus’ Abraham, 13, 85 death saved humanity), 54 Abu Talib, 10 Augustine, 57–8, 69, 81 Acts of the Apostles, 47 aum (om) shanti (silence, tranquility of Afghanistan, 21, 35, 219 mind, listening to inner voice, etc.), 180 ‘afw (forgiveness), 41 Ayoub, Mahmoud M., 11, 18–19 ahimsa (nonviolence), 180–2 Aztecs, 110 Ali, Abdullah Yusuf, 17 Alvarado, Pedro, 59 ba (hegemony), 126 American Indian veterans of the US war Babylonian Talmud, 83–4, 89, 93–4 against Vietnam, 212 baoli (violence), 123 American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 100 Bar Kosiba, Simon, 93, 105 American Jewish Committee, 101 Beatitudes, 51, 69 Anabaptists, 61 Bell, Daniel, 124 Analects, 112–14, 124 Bhagavad Gita (Gita), 14, 178, 181–2, 203 Anandavan, 190–91 bhakti (personal devotion), 180 anthropocentrism, 215–17 Bhave, Vinoba, 174, 194 Anti-Defamation League, 99 Bible, 2, 14–15, 84, 87, 90–1, 143, 149, 188, anti-semitism, 63 194, 217 Arab nationalism, 45 Bodhisattva, 143, 147–50, 153 Arab Spring, 21 Bonney, Richard, 15, 23 Arab-Israeli Wars, 96–7 Brahman (ultimate reality), 4, 154, 179, 198 Ariaratne, A. T., 158, 174 Brahmins, 173, 179, 184 Arjuna, 179, 181–3, 200 Buber, Martin, 89 Art of Living Foundation, 191 Buddha, 78, 80, 135–6, 143, 145, 147–8, Ashrams: communities practicing yoga 154–5, 157, 173–4, 185, 188, and serviceCOPYRIGHTED to others, 190 Buddhism MATERIAL forms: Asita, 135 Theravada, 142–4, 148, 152, 156 Athavale, Pandurang Shastri, 194 Mahayana, 76, 142, 136, 143–4, 147–8, atman (soul), 179, 198, 203–4 150, 152, 157, 160–3, 168 Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions, First Edition.