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ABSTRACT Ontology, Ecclesiology, Nonviolence: the Witness Against

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ABSTRACT Ontology, Ecclesiology, Nonviolence: the Witness Against ABSTRACT Ontology, Ecclesiology, Nonviolence: the Witness Against War in the Theologies of John Howard Yoder, Dorothy Day, and William Stringfellow Myles Werntz, Ph.D. Mentor: Barry A. Harvey, Ph.D. This dissertation argues that nonviolence bears witness to a particular form of social existence visible in the church. War, I argue, describes a form of social existence which is a counter social ontology to the existence given by Christ to the church. By examining the interrelationship of social ontology, ecclesiology, and nonviolence in the work of John Howard Yoder, Dorothy Day, and William Stringfellow, I argue that a nonviolence which is thoroughly Christian must account for how nonviolence is related to the structures and practices of the church, but also how nonviolence bears witness to a new form of social existence in the church. Discussion of these three figures occurs broadly within the context of the Vietnam War, exploring how nonviolence for each was not an abstracted ethic, but an act which witnessed to a new social reality present in the church. Discussing how nonviolence bears witness to a new social existence made known through the church occurs in uniquely configured ways for each figure, which I describe in chapters devoted to each one. The result is an ecumenical dialogue among Yoder (a Mennonite), Day, (a Roman Catholic), and Stringfellow (an Episcopalian) about how to describe this social existence, how the church structures and practices contribute to the articulation of nonviolence, and how to speak theologically about the normativity of nonviolence for Christian faith and practice. In the conclusion, I bring the insights from these three together, arguing for a more fulsome way to describe Christian nonviolence. I describe the church’s social ontology as “given” in Christ by the Spirit, its ecclesiological practices as under the judgment of Christ, and its nonviolence as dependent upon the humanity of Christ which is the basis for all human existence. In this way, I bring the triune context of Christian nonviolence to the forefront, in that nonviolence is not simply about making an ethical stance, but bearing witness to a way of social existence given by Christ and displayed through the practices and institutions of the church. Ontology, Ecclesiology, Nonviolence: The Witness Against War in the Theologies of John Howard Yoder, Dorothy Day, and William Stringfellow by Myles Werntz, B.A., M.Div. A Dissertation Approved by the Department of Religion ___________________________________ William H. Bellinger, Jr., Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved by the Dissertation Committee ___________________________________ Barry A. Harvey, Ph.D., Chairperson ___________________________________ Paul Martens, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Scott H. Moore, Ph.D. Accepted by the Graduate School August 2011 ___________________________________ J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright © 2011 by Myles Werntz All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments v Chapter One: Methodology and Justification Introduction 1 Rationale and Terms 4 War, Social Ontology and the Church: Augustine’s City of God 15 Chapter Two: John Howard Yoder: Peoplehood, Ecclesiology, and Nonviolent Witness to the World Introduction 26 Social Ontology: New Humanity, Powers, and the Reign of Christ 32 Ecclesiology: Practices, Peoplehood and the Dialogical Church 58 Nonviolence: The Grain of the Universe and the Eschatological 76 Truth of Creation Conclusion 96 Chapter Three: Dorothy Day: The Mystical Body, Nonviolence, and Reasoning Within the Church Introduction 100 Ecclesiology: The Culmination of Natural Life 102 Social Ontology: The Mystical Body of Christ, Present and Potential 125 Nonviolence: The Witness to the Mystical Body and to the World 148 Conclusion 169 Chapter Four: William Stringfellow: Resistance to Death, Provisional Nonviolence, Church of the World Introduction 175 Social Ontology: Death, The Powers, and Resistance to Death in Christ 177 Nonviolence: Living Humanly in the World 204 Ecclesiology: Existing by the Word for the Sake of the World 223 Conclusion 245 Chapter Five: Conclusion: Toward a Theandric Nonviolence 248 Bibliography 282 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writing of a dissertation is ultimately a solitary and at times mystical undertaking, in which the author struggles to put intuitions into words and suspicions into cogent arguments. But the thinking of and formation of these words and arguments cannot occur apart from living alongside what Hebrews describes as a great cloud of witnesses. First, I wish to thank my director, Dr. Barry Harvey, for his patience with endless drafts of chapters in search of theses, and for pushing me to continually refine my arguments and to make clear the meaning of a work which answers some questions while opening wide others. It was he, in the fall of 2008, who suggested that I read William Stringfellow as a conversation partner for Yoder and Day, a suggestion for which I will always be grateful. I wish to also thank the other readers of this dissertation for their formation and friendship along the path of this writing. It was in the company of Dr. Paul Martens, on a trip to the archives of the Mennonite Church of America in Goshen, Indiana that the first intuitions of this dissertation came into view. Since that time, through hours of conversation on Yoder, nonviolence, and rock and roll, I have come to call him a mentor and a friend. Dr. Scott Moore, as my teacher and then supervisor in the Department of Great Texts, has always been supportive and encouraging. Dr. Ralph Wood wrote one of my letters of recommendation into Graduate Department of the Baylor Department of Religion, and has been a great encourager since our meeting in the Fall of 2004. Dr. Jonathan Tran has always challenged me to read with charity and commitment; I pray that this call is exhibited in this work, and in future writings as well. v This dissertation was written while teaching across Baylor University from 2008- 2011. For the last two years, my teaching home has been George W. Truett Theological Seminary, under the leadership of Dr. W. Dennis Tucker. I am grateful for the opportunity to teach seminarians for whom the issues of this dissertation are issues of Christian discipleship. I am also grateful to David Wilmington, Will Williams, Matt Moser, Matt Porter, Brandon Frick, Jenny Howell and the rest of the Drinklings for their friendship and conversation over the last six years. Conversations and email exchanges with William T. Cavanaugh, Anthony Dancer, and Mark T. Nation greatly strengthened this work. The 2010 Seminar in Christian Scholarship at Calvin College under the leadership of Harry Stout provided time to think more deeply alongside historians about these claims. Time spent with Layne, Bruce, Bill, and Andrew has been as refreshing as it was enlivening, and I look forward to years to come. Our lives are hopefully more than the sum of our writing, however. Calvary Baptist Church of Waco, Texas has been my home for ten years, and the body of people among whom I have learned what it means to commit oneself to the body of Christ in the world, in times of joy, fidelity, and struggle. The love and support of my parents, David and Kathy Werntz, and of my in-laws, Dan and Barb Martin, is a source of constant joy and delight; their support has been constant. Without the friendship of Kevin Still for these last fifteen years, life would be far less rich, and less full of laughter, literature, and the undead. But most of all, I want to thank my wife, Sarah Martin-Werntz, who I met at the beginning of this work and married in 2009. She is the reason I kept writing on discouraging days and the reason I want to stop writing and come home on good ones. It is to her that I dedicate this dissertation. vi CHAPTER ONE Methodology and Justification Introduction This dissertation develops an account of nonviolent resistance to war as a witness to a form of social life made visible through the church, as seen in the theologies of John Howard Yoder, Dorothy Day, and William Stringfellow. All three were active during the Vietnam War era, a time containing many well-documented resistance movements to both the war and the draft.1 What makes the work of these three unique, I argue, is that nonviolent opposition to war for them bears witness to a new social existence which is inextricable from the church. As such, the social existence (or as I will be calling it, social ontology) which contrasts the social existence presupposed by war is visible through the institutions and practices of the church. This dissertation will take place in two parts. In the first part of the dissertation, I will offer an account of war as presenting an account of human sociality which is counter to the form of social existence made present through the church. This will take place in two parts. First, I will briefly survey the literature surrounding the topic of Christian 1 For histories of the popular resistance of Vietnam, and analysis of the manifold forms which protest took during this era, see in particular, Joel P. Rhodes, The Voice of Violence: Performative Violence as Protest in the Vietnam Era (Westport, CN: Praeger, 2001); Stephen A. Kent, From Slogans to Mantras: Social Protest and Religious Conversion in the Late Vietnam War Era (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2001); Michael S. Foley, Confronting the War Machine: Draft Resistance During the Vietnam War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003);., The Vietnam Antiwar Movement, ed. Walter L. Hixson (New York: Garland Publishers, 2000); Robert Buzzanco, Masters of War: Military Dissent and Politics in the Vietnam Era (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996); George Q.
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