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A.J. Muste’s Theology: Tracing the Ideas that Shaped the Man

Jeffrey D. Meyers M.A. Thesis Earlham School of Religion April 16, 2012 !

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1: A Short Biography 4

Chapter 2: The Theological Task 14

Chapter 3: Mysticism and the Inner Life 22

Chapter 4: The Social Gospel 34

Chapter 5: The Way of Love, the Way of the Cross 43

Chapter 6: Theological Anthropology 61

Chapter 7: Ecclesiology 81

Chapter 8: Eschatology: The Kingdom of God 101

Conclusions 115

Annotated Bibliography 121

Appendix 1a: Books Owned By Muste 150

Appendix 1b: Books Owned By Muste 158

Appendix 2: Authors Cited By Muste 176

Appendix 3: Books Assigned By Muste 191 Introduction

Historians study the Reverend Abraham Johannes Muste primarily for his shaping of the labor movement of the 1920s and 1930s, his work for peace from the mid 1930s through the

1960s, and his involvement in laying the foundations of the Civil Rights Movement.1 His leadership in these movements often gained him national attention––Time Magazine once labeled him “the No. 1 U.S. Pacifist.”2 Although most attempts at understanding this complex man have noted the influence of his Christian faith, few scholars have explored its true depth. The religious foundations of his life, thought, and work were often an embarrassment to those he worked with and those who admired him. In avoiding Muste’s faith, his contemporaries and scholars alike have missed the ways his theology undergirded and motivated his life and work.

At heart, Muste was a theologian. He developed his theology by selectively drawing upon a diverse range of writers and theological traditions. He crafted a largely coherent worldview out of ideas drawn from branches of the church usually more interested in refuting each others’ ideas than in learning from each others’ strengths. Muste built his theology on the foundation laid by his West Michigan Dutch Reformed upbringing, yet he did so largely with ideas taken from the

East Coast theological liberalism of New York City’s Union Theological Seminary. His engagement with the historic peace churches was often more as a critic than a student, yet he drew from these as well, adding the best of what he found to his extensive theological edifice.

Even though Muste’s ideas reflect the traditions around him, he moved beyond each tradition, challenging them to more radical ways of living. These new ways of living are defined by the

1 Some of the best work has been done by Jo Ann Robinson, Leilah Danielson, and Joseph Kip Kosek. 2 Time Magazine 24, no. 2 (July 10, 1939): 37.

1 pursuit of peace, equality, and justice. Muste’s theology and pacifism worked in a symbiotic relationship. His theology engendered and informed his pacifism, but his pacifism was often the motivation for his theological work.

Muste’s engagement with a wide variety of traditions and thinkers helped keep him from getting swept along with the intellectual trends of his time. Instead, he often forged his own path, one that avoided the extremes found around him. He rarely fit into established categories. In some circumstances, this meant that he took up marginalized positions against the dominant trends. In others, it resulted in him becoming the trendsetter. In all circumstances, he functioned as a prophet, able to critique even the most widely accepted ideas.

A remarkable speaker and writer, A.J. Muste left behind a massive quantity of writings.

The author of only two full length books, Muste authored or co-authored hundreds of articles, pamphlets, and essays. Additionally, much unpublished material has survived, including lecture notes, transcripts of speeches, and letters.3 A survey of most of Muste’s theology can be pieced together from these sources. While he never set out to write theology as such, his writings contain a substantial amount of theological reflection. Although the theological basis of his thought is most evident in pieces he wrote for Christian audiences, it can also be found under the surface of works aimed at secular and mixed audiences.

No previous work has set out to examine Muste’s theology. By drawing on the full range of available sources, we will identify and describe the most prominent theological themes in

Muste’s works. This effort is admittedly incomplete. For example, the extant material does not allow for a full description of how Muste’s theology changed over time. More often, we must

3 The Swarthmore College Peace Collection alone has over 24 linear feet of material, much of it unpublished.

2 take the result and work backward to hypothesize about its development. In some cases, we must take as our starting point Muste’s theology as expressed in the late 1930s and 1940s, since this was the period when his theology is most explicitly present in the available sources. This may overlook changes in his theology between that time and his death in 1967. Even so, the available sources allow for a fairly detailed description of much of Muste’s theology.

The origins of Muste’s unique theological vision can occasionally be traced through the citations provides in his writings; however, many of his articles, speeches, and sermons do not provide any mention of his sources. The task of discerning the origins of his ideas is most often a work of hypothesis and conjecture. In the absence of direct citations, we can make assumptions based on the content of texts we know Muste read. In some cases, we have his copies of books and can reference his notes in them (see appendix 1). For the most part, this paper limits itself to texts that Muste either owned, cited (appendix 2), or assigned for classes he taught (appendix 3).

Occasionally, other reasons are offered for why it can be assumed that Muste read a specific text.

Certainly other, unknown, sources influenced him in similar ways. While this study primarily focuses on written sources, Muste’s personal interactions with other people also clearly shaped his thought. These influences are usually difficult or impossible to trace. Despite the necessary incompleteness of such an investigation, much useful material can be found to show how Muste drew upon a huge range of sources in constructing his theology.

The first chapter provides an outline of Muste’s life with an emphasis on his encounters with different Christian traditions. Subsequent sections will refer to the biographical information contained in this first chapter. Chapter two explores Muste’s understanding of the theological task and the importance he placed on Christians using the mind to seriously engage with

3 questions of faith. The third chapter examines the influence of Christian mysticism on Muste’s thought and practice. The fourth chapter analyzes Muste as a representative of the social gospel tradition, especially as it emerged at Union Theological Seminary in New York around Walter

Rauschenbusch’s work.

In the fifth chapter, “The Way of Love, the Way of the Cross,” we begin to encounter more of Muste’s original theology. It presents Muste’s theology of the Christian “way,” one defined by suffering love. Chapter six focuses on Muste’s theologically based understanding of human identity and the human condition. The seventh chapter investigates Muste’s view of the

Christian church, its potential, and its calling. The final chapter tries to make sense of Muste’s beliefs about the kingdom of God.

After the first, each chapter explores Muste’s theology in the context of the authors and writings that influenced him and examines the probable origins of his thought. They show how

Muste incorporated ideas from a diverse array of traditions to form and shape his theology. His interactions with many traditions and his unwillingness to align himself fully with any particular group granted him an unusual level of independence and allowed him to stand above the intellectual trends of his time, critiquing even the most widely held assumptions. While we will not seek to systematically prove it here, his deep theological reflection motivated and shaped his remarkable life and work.

Chapter 1: A Short Biography

The Reformed Church in America. Abraham Johannes Muste was born on January 8,

1885 in Zierikzee, an obscure port town in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands. In 1891 his family immigrated to the United States, settling in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He grew up

4 saturated in the Reformed tradition prevalent among the Dutch immigrants of that part of

Michigan. His family belonged to the slightly less conservative and more assimilationist of the two U.S. Dutch Reformed denominations, the Reformed Church in America (RCA).4 Of the political leanings of the Dutch Calvinists, Muste writes, “one no more thought that a church member could vote the Democratic ticket than that he could beat his wife, or steal, or have extramarital sexual relations.” The sober and hardworking Dutch immigrants were also strongly against union organizing, a tendency Muste would later overcome.5

At age thirteen, Muste stated that he wanted to go into the ministry and was able on that basis to obtain the scholarships necessary for him to attend the RCA’s preparatory school at Hope

College in Holland, Michigan and then Hope College itself. A number of anecdotes exist from this time about his occasional disregard for the school’s strict rules. Early in preparatory school, for instance, he was caught abusing the privileges of his job at the college library by tasting of the “forbidden fruit” of the books on evolution, which were restricted to supervised use by college upperclassmen.6 His intellectual curiosity and skill began to earn him recognition during this time. In his first year of college, he advanced to second place nationally in an oratory contest. Hope’s newspaper, The Anchor, reveals that he was considered somewhat of a hero by

4 Jo Ann Robinson, Abraham Went Out: A Biography of A.J. Muste (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981), 3-5. Robinson reports that the Mustes had initially sought to join the other denomination, the Christian Reformed Church, but it would not transfer their membership from the state church of the Netherlands, asking instead that they make a renewed confession of faith. Out of principle, they refused to do so, choosing instead to join the RCA. 5 A.J. Muste, “Sketches for an Autobiography,” in The Essays of A.J. Muste, ed. Nat Hentoff (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967), 27-28. 6 Muste, “Sketches for an Autobiography,” 41-42.

5 the student body for this feat.7 After completing a four year degree in only three years, he graduated as the valedictorian of the class of 1905.8

After graduation, Muste spent a year teaching at an RCA junior college in Orange City,

Iowa so that he could be near his future wife, Anna Huizenga, taking a train to her family’s house each weekend. He then moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he attended the RCA’s seminary there. While at New Brunswick, he also took classes at New York University and

Columbia University. This was apparently an attempt to meet his need for intellectual stimulus, which the seminary, in a “low period” at the time, did not provide. As the graduation speaker for the class of 1909, Muste railed against the low intellectual standards of his school. He and Anna married soon after his graduation.9

Break with the RCA. Following seminary, Muste immediately obtained a pastorate at the prestigious Fort Washington Reformed Collegiate Church in New York City. While there, he took classes at Union Theological Seminary, earning a Bachelor of Divinity degree magna cum laude in 1913, though he later claimed to have enrolled out of interest in the classes and did not realize he had earned a degree until “they sent me a note.”10 At the time, Union had recently begun to privilege the scholarly dimensions of theological education over preparation for

7 The Anchor 16, nos. 6, 7, 9 (March, April, June 1903). Available at the Joint Archives of Holland, Michigan. 8 A.J. Muste, “Alumni Questionnaire,” survey returned to Hope College with handwritten autobiographical answers filled in by Muste, [1918], Joint Archives of Holland; Nat Hentoff, Peace Agitator: The Story of A.J. Muste (New York: Macmillan, 1963), 36. 9 Muste, “Sketches for an Autobiography,” 42-43; Muste, “Alumni Questionnaire;” Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 12-14. 10 Robinson claims that Muste received the degree in 1912, but all other sources give the year as 1913. See: Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 15, 232; Muste, “Alumni Questionnaire;” Hentoff, Peace Agitator, 39; Robert T. Handy, A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987), 130.

6 pastoral duties.11 Muste thrived in the vigorous intellectual environment and was greatly influenced by his professors.12 During this time, he also began to gain a new perspective on the plight of labor, voting for socialist Eugene Debs in 1912.

The influence of Union on his theology began to show when, in November 1914, he resigned from his first pastorate and left the Reformed Church in America amid proceedings against him.13 This event had less to do with his newfound political leftism than his inability to accept “the literalist interpretation of scripture” and refusal to claim to believe “the whole corpus of Calvinist dogma.”14 He quickly found another position outside of the RCA as the pastor of

Central Congregational Church in Newtonville, Massachusetts, near Boston.15

An Ordained Quaker. Throughout his education, even at Union, Muste was never exposed to any kind of Christian pacifism. As World War One raged in Europe, he struggled to determine whether or not the gospel was compatible with war. While the conflict began within himself, it was the writings of the Christian mystics, his encounters with pacifists, and the works of Tolstoy and the Quaker scholar Rufus Jones that influenced him to declare himself a pacifist.

Despite many church members who defended their newly pacifist minister, eventually Muste had no other choice but to resign from Central early in 1918.16 After his resignation he was taken in by an unprogrammed meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), which supported

11 Handy, A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York, 121-124. 12 Muste, “Sketches for an Autobiography,” 43. 13 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 17. 14 Muste, “Sketches for an Autobiography,” 44. 15 Muste, “Alumni Questionnaire.” 16 Muste, “Sketches for an Autobiography,” 45, 47, 52; Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 20.

7 him financially in return for some pastoral duties.17 From that time onward, Muste continued to call himself a Quaker, though there is no evidence that he ever regularly attended a Quaker meeting after 1931.18 Even so, due to the centrality of liberal Quakerism within pacifist circles,

Muste continued to be in regular contact with Quakers and Quaker ideas.19

The Labor Movement. In the fall of 1918, Muste and a few of his pacifist friends heard reports of an impending strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. They traveled there hoping to persuade the strikers to implement nonviolent methods. The strike lacked leadership and Muste was asked to head the strike committee. Despite beatings by police, the threat of police machine guns aimed at their marches, labor spies inciting violence, and the arrest of many, including

Muste, the strike adhered to nonviolence and was eventually successful. During the strike Muste was appointed the secretary of the Amalgamated Textile Workers of America.20 He would continue to work in the labor movement until 1936.

Muste’s activities in the labor movement include leadership of Brookwood Labor College from 1921 to 1933, work for third party presidential campaigns, helping to found the Conference for Progressive Labor Action and American Workers Party, and work on many strikes.21 His unique method of union organizing became known as “Musteism.” Jo Ann Robinson, one of

Muste’s biographers, emphasizes that Muste’s concern for racial equality stands out in this period

17 Muste, “Sketches for an Autobiography,” 54; Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 23. An unprogrammed meeting is also known as a “silent meeting,” because members sit in silence until moved to speak. There is no pastor or planned service. 18 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 16. 19 For an examination of liberal Quaker influence on pacifism, see: Patricia Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune: Protestant Pacifist Culture Between World War I and the Vietnam War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 39-41. 20 Hentoff, Peace Agitator, 47-53. 21 Hentoff, Peace Agitator, 58, 68, 72, 81, 89.

8 and was a central part of Musteism.”22 During this time, Muste, like many liberal Christians of that era, was drawn to Marxist-Leninist ideas. He began to see little difference between the teachings of Jesus and Marx, between the new social order of the Left and the new social order of the kingdom of God.23

In late 1934, Muste’s American Workers Party merged with the Communist League of

America, a Trotskyite group exiled from the Communist Party. Together they formed the

Workers Party of the United States, which Muste was chosen to head, although the real power resided with some of the Trotskyite leaders. This signaled the extreme of his movement toward

Marxist-Leninism. It also required his outward renunciation of pacifism.24 Muste moved away from the church during this period, although he never believed or stated that God was not real.25

His move away from the church and pacifism sent him into an intellectual and spiritual crisis.

Knowing he needed a break, friends raised the money for a vacation in Europe.26

Return to the Church. Muste divided the vacation between work and pleasure. After visiting Leon Trotsky, who was in exile in Norway at the time, Muste and his wife Anna headed to Paris to meet other Trotskyite leaders. They followed this up with leisure time in Switzerland and Paris. In Paris, one of the biggest turning points of his life occurred. Wandering into the church of St. Sulpice, a “deep and what seemed a singing peace” came over him. He heard an inner voice saying, “this is where you belong, in the church, not outside it.”27 This mystical

22 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 109. 23 A.J. Muste, Fellowship and Class Struggle (New York: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1930), 15-17. 24 Hentoff, Peace Agitator, 89-90; Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 56. 25 A.J. Muste, “Fragment of Autobiography,” Christendom 4, no. 3 (Summer 1939): 336. 26 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 61. 27 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 63; Muste, “Fragment of Autobiography,” 332.

9 experience led Muste to leave the labor movement, renounce Marxist-Leninism, re-embrace pacifism, and return to the church. In numerous articles and speeches, he detailed the reasons for this dramatic shift. Central to his arguments was the wisdom of pacifism. In one article, Muste counters the Marxist-Leninist argument that the workers must overthrow their governments violently in order to establish a better society. He writes that “one must be a romanticist capable of flying in the face of all the evidence to believe that such a war… will be the portal to socialism or higher civilization.”28

In 1937, Muste became director of the Presbyterian Labor Temple in New York City, where he paid special attention to combating Marxism and proclaiming Christianity as revolutionary doctrine.29 He was often invited to speak to Christian groups and on Christian radio programs. Many of his public addresses and writings from this period focus on either his rejection of Marxism or his belief that Christians needed to work to prevent another world war, which his trip to Europe had convinced him was coming.30 During this time he also accepted a temporary lectureship at Union Theological Seminary.31

Fellowship of Reconciliation. In 1940, Muste reluctantly left the Labor Temple to takeover as executive secretary of the U.S. branch of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), an

28 A.J. Muste, “Return to Pacifism,” in The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967), 196. 29 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 67, 69. 30 See, for example, A.J. Muste, “Another War to Save Democracy?: Analysis of the Formulas Being Used in the Current Mobilization for Chaos,” Fellowship 3, no. 1 (January 1937): 3; A.J. Muste, “The Church’s Responsibility for Peace: A Matter of Life and Death,” an address delivered to the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America, June 7, 1937, 8-9; A.J. Muste, “My Spiritual Pilgrimage,” summary of address to a women’s association, The Brick Church Record (May 1938): 8-9; A.J. Muste, “Address Over Y.M.C.A. New York: In the Week of Prayer Series Auspices Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America,” January 5, 1938. 31 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 69. Although people sometimes give Muste the title of “Dr.,” he never earned a doctorate.

10 organization he admired and had been a member of since 1916.32 The FOR was unique in combining religion, absolute pacifism, and social action. It was the clear center of Protestant pacifism during this period.33 Historian Joseph Kip Kosek describes its expansive vision when he writes, “these radicals opposed the two world wars, but they also denounced the brutality of imperialism in India, Nicaragua, and the Philippines. At the same time, they worked to stop the industrial and racial conflict that, in many cases, threatened the citizens of the United States even more directly than did international warfare.”34 Muste emphasized the inseparability of work for peace from efforts for racial equality and economic reform.35 It was Muste’s influence that led the FOR to play a huge role in laying the foundations for the Civil Rights Movement.36 He served as the FOR’s executive secretary until 1953, although he continued to be heavily involved after that date.37 From 1953 until his death in 1967, Muste’s meager income was derived mainly from a small pension from the FOR.38

Ecumenical Work. The Reformed Church in America, Quakers, and Presbyterians all claim Muste as one of their own. In truth, Muste was entirely ecumenical and after his break with the RCA never really embraced a particular denomination, once referring to himself as a

32 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 76; Muste, “Sketches for an Autobiography,” 47. 33 Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 27, cf. 70-71. 34 Joseph Kipp Kosek, Acts of Conscience: Christian Nonviolence and Modern American Democracy (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 2. 35 A.J. Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940), 45, 57-58. 36 Kosek, Acts of Conscience, 178. 37 Hentoff, Peace Agitator, 106. 38 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 96.

11 “Quaker-Presbyterian.”39 He showed an impressive ability to speak as an insider to multiple, diverse groups. Muste regularly represented the U.S. FOR and the International Fellowship of

Reconciliation at meetings of the World Council of Churches and other ecumenical conferences, often working closely with representatives of the historic peace churches. He helped organize a number of ecumenical conferences, including the first Puidoux Theological Conference in 1955.

Some of this work, particularly after Muste left leadership of the FOR in 1953, was done under the auspices of the Church Peace Mission and the numerous other peace related organizations

Muste helped lead.40 The vast majority of Muste’s ecumenical work was done among other

Protestants. His view of the pre-Vatican II Catholic Church was quite negative, although he did occasionally work with Catholics, including activist and Catholic Worker cofounder Dorothy

Day.41

Activist Retirement. Muste spent his later years working for peace and justice in a number of different capacities. He was regularly involved in organizing protests like those against the civil defense drills in New York City and the attempt to sail The Golden Rule into the

U.S. nuclear test zones in the Marshall Islands.42 Muste also did much of the behind the scenes planning for the San Francisco to Moscow walk, work which included many tense moments negotiating with government officials of both Western and Eastern nations.43 A few years later,

39 Jo Ann Robinson, A.J. Muste, Pacifist & Prophet: His Relation to the Society of Friends (Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill Publications, 1981), 16. 40 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 149-152; Albert Meyer, Report on the Puidoux Theological Conference. Aug. 15-19, 1955. Available: . 41 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 92, 187-188, 201. 42 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 163; John W. Finney, “A.E.C. Shuts Zone in the Pacific To Bar A-Bomb Protests,” New York Times (April 12, 1958): 1, 3; A.J. Muste, “Follow the Golden Rule,” Liberation 3, no. 4 (June 1958): 8. 43 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 168-169.

12 Muste was involved with the Quebec-Washington-Guantánamo walk, which aimed to march from Canada, down the east coast of the United States, sail to Cuba, and walk the length of the island to the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay. As with the San Francisco to Moscow walk, they held meetings, protested, and distributed literature in all the cities they passed through. The walkers gained international attention when they were repeatedly beaten and jailed in Georgia because they were a racially integrated group.44 When the walkers sailed toward Cuba illegally, the U.S. Coast Guard seized their boat. The resulting court case, named after the intentionally- christened craft, was ironically titled “The United States of America v. The Spirit of Freedom.”45

Muste frequently published articles during this period, many of them in the magazine

Liberation, which he helped edit. He frequently provided commentary on world political events, the Civil Rights Movement, and the peace movement. As the Vietnam conflict escalated toward the end of his life, Muste increasingly focused his writings and activism on working for an end to that conflict. He tirelessly worked with many organizations and was well known for his mentoring relationships with younger activists. His last major act was a trip to North Vietnam (he had previously visited South Vietnam), where he met with North Vietnamese president Ho Chi

Min and many other officials. Muste died less than a month after his return from Vietnam, on

February 11, 1967, after falling ill that morning.

44 Marjorie Swann Edwin, “AJ, Kennedy and King: The Quebec to Guantanamo Walk in Georgia November 1963,” Muste Notes 14, no. 3 (Spring 2007); Brad Lyttle, “The Meaning of Albany: A Victory for Truth,” Liberation 9, no. 2 (April 1964): 21; Marion S. Page, “Report from Albany Georgia,” Liberation 10, no. 11 (February 1966): 46; A.J. Muste, “The Meaning of Albany: A Modest Breakthrough,” Liberation 9, no. 2 (April 1964): 18-20. 45 “Government Stops Five Pacifists En Route To Cuba In Small Boat,” Liberation 9, no. 9 (December 1964): 30. The Florida Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union unsuccessfully used the case to challenge the constitutionality of the ban on travel to Cuba.

13 Chapter 2: The Theological Task

A.J. Muste is known as a labor leader and celebrated as a pacifist and activist but rarely is it even mentioned that he engaged in theological reflection. Many of his friends and coworkers found his religious side embarrassing and downplayed it when they spoke of him. This tendency has remained in writings about him since his death. Although it is seldom recognized, Muste was a talented theologian. His training at Hope College, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, and

Union Theological Seminary in New York laid the foundation for his lifelong practice of theological reflection.

Muste’s understanding of the task of theology is focused on the work theologians can do to help people understand and implement the Christian message. He encouraged all Christians to do theology––to love God with their minds. He emphasized the need for all people to use their minds to critically engage with the questions of faith, always seeking knowledge. In his own life, it was this deep theological reflection that provided the motivation for his work for peace and justice and helped him determine how best to do it.

Defining Theology. The only definition of theology Muste ever gives appears in 1938, although he used it repeatedly in that year. He defines the “great perennial task” of theology as

“the statement of the Eternal Gospel in the language and thought-forms of our day.”46 There is no way to determine where Muste got this definition from. It was around at the time, but seems to have been fairly rare. The phrasing matches a idea employed by the Back to Christ Movement of the second half of the seventeenth century, which, while trying to base religion on the Christ of history, conceded that the religion of Christ cannot be reproduced in every detail today, but “the

46 A.J. Muste, “The Church as a Force in the World,” The Christian-Evangelist (Nov. 10, 1938): 1239. See also: Muste, “My Spiritual Pilgrimage,” 9; A.J. Muste, “Church’s Witness to Her Faith,” The Intelligencer-Leader (Sept. 2, 1938): 20.

14 gospel must be translated into the language of to-day and its spirit applied to the relations of our modern life.”47 After Muste, Paul Tillich, a well-known German-American theologian, popularized the definition Muste used, arguing for two goals of theology, “the statement of the truth of the Christian message and the interpretation of this truth for every new generation.”48 It now appears as a standard definition in theology textbooks.49

This way of thinking about theology has two major motivations. First, it reflects an emphasis on evangelism. Due to his regular work alongside such people, Muste’s understanding of evangelism centered on reaching those who had rejected Christianity for intellectual reasons.

He often tries to show how Christian theology leads to the same conclusions as historical and logical thinking. He argues that theology is meant to show “the relevance of the Christian faith today to people who have been under the influence of modern currents of thought.”50 Just as central for Muste as evangelism is another reason for engaging in theological reflection: its affect on Christian practice. Theological reflection is the primary way the church discerns what it should do and believe in each specific time and place.

Influences on Muste’s Understanding. Tracing the development of Muste’s understanding of theology is a difficult task. Given that his view developed early, most likely during his time in seminary, precise influences are difficult to determine. Very few writings of his exist from this time; most notably, only a handful of his sermons are still extant. Moreover, he

47 John Chisholm Lambert, A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1906), 165. 48 Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, vol. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), 3. 49 See, for example: Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 1. 50 Muste, “My Spiritual Pilgrimage,” 9.

15 never attempted to write a systematic theology and thus never addressed his understanding of the discipline in a detailed manner. The best we can do is hypothesize from what we know of his education and his reading habits.

Muste’s upbringing was saturated in the theological dogmatism of the Dutch Calvinist tradition. His experience of this tradition was that theology consisted primarily of doctrines to be memorized and accepted uncritically. His rebellion against this mentality was a primary part of his strong and vocal criticism of the institutions that trained him, particularly New Brunswick

Theological Seminary.51 He found Union Theological Seminary much more intellectually stimulating. Instead of memorizing doctrine, Union encouraged a critical engagement that placed it on the forefront of the advances in liberal theology. Muste’s understanding of theology likely came primarily from his time at Union, with some residual ideas from his immersion in the

Dutch Reformed tradition.

As the appendices show, many of the books Muste read are religious in nature. While most of the books listed in the appendices are titles Muste read after his formative period, they still show the wide variety of authors and perspectives he encountered. After his break with the

Reformed Church in America, Muste never limited himself to a particular tradition or to writers deemed acceptable by his contemporaries. His notes in the margins of books he owned reveal that he read a number of authors he strongly disagreed with. In any case, it is likely that he encountered many understandings of the theological task.

Muste as Theologian. For Muste, theological reflection was an indispensable part of being a faithful Christian. His theology went beyond stating the gospel in contemporary

51 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 12, 14.

16 language. He spent his life exploring the implications of the Christian faith and calling others to live up to their calling as followers of the Prince of Peace. He longed for the church to be more faithful in its living out of the gospel. He mourned the collusion of the church with the world, particularly its acquiescence to the state––whether that state be Nazi Germany or the United

States of America.

Muste looked at contemporary events through a distinctly theological lens. Central to his theological framework was the belief that God calls Christians to a form of active pacifism–– refusing to meet evil with evil, and instead combating it with love, a force more powerful than violence.52 As a result, his work often centered on seeking nonviolent ways to bring reconciliation to areas of conflicts of every scale––from personal conflict to war.

His thought, including his pacifism, was grounded in Christian theology. Yet he also recognized that religious language can be used to dress up unfaithful speech. Muste regularly argued against theologians whose work he disagreed with, especially those whose work directly or indirectly sanctioned war. In a book by the famous Swiss theologian Karl Barth, he underlined and put exclamation points in the margin next to a passage where Barth argues that “it is possible to talk very importantly, very solemnly, very ecclesiastically and no doubt very impressively about and movingly and yet all the time quite emptily about the Church” without seeing the real thing, which can only be seen by faith.53

Loving God With the Mind. When Jesus was asked to identify the greatest commandment, he responded, “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul

52 A.J. Muste, Not By Might: Christianity: The Way to Human Decency (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1947), 87. 53 Karl Barth, Against the Stream; Shorter Post-War Writings, 1946-52 (New York: Philosophical Library, 1954), 65.

17 and with all your strength and with all your mind.” Muste once paraphrased this verse as “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind,” leaving out heart, soul, and strength.54 The

Reformed tradition has long stressed loving God with the mind. As product of this tradition,

Muste emphasized the need for Christians to engage intellectually with their faith. Muste’s critiques of his seminary experience in the Reformed Church in America likely arose because of the way that tradition had shaped him, not in spite of it.

Seek the Truth and Act Intelligently. Muste left the RCA because he could no longer affirm all of its doctrine as truth. He constantly sought the truth and was open to changing his mind, even in his old age. He believed in “the pursuit of knowledge, of truth, wherever it may lead.”55 He hoped that other Christians would be similarly open to examining new ideas. His message that the gospel requires pacifism could only spread if Christians were ready to hear it.

An openness to truth is a prerequisite to being able to share it. He writes, “in the degree that we have divested ourselves of inner resistance to the truth and have developed a readiness to receive it from whatever source, we are also enabled to ‘speak the truth––in love’.” This means renouncing prejudices and becoming humble. By contrast, “when we think of our own insights as having finality… we set up a wall against God who is the Source of Light.”56 For Muste, being open to new ideas and seeking the truth is a key part of the Christian walk and flows from the recognition that human knowledge is limited and fallible.

54 Luke 10:27, ESV; A.J. Muste, “War is the Enemy,” in The Essays of A.J. Muste, ed. Nat Hentoff (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967), 264. 55 A.J. Muste, “I Believe,” Hope College Alumni Magazine (April 1950): 8. 56 Muste, “War is the Enemy,” 264-265.

18 In a 1940 radio sermon titled “Admonitions for War Time,” Muste urges that these same principles be held to even once the United States enters the war. He urges that “the channels of discussion, therefore, be kept open in our land, whether in war or peace. Let us jealously guard the liberties of speech, press, assemblage and worship. In debate, let us try to understand the other man’s position and why he holds it. Let us seek the victory of truth, not of our own clever minds or glib tongues.” Embracing the truth means being willing to listen, and willing to change ones’ mind. In the same radio sermon, Muste admonishes, “God commands you to worship him with all your mind. That means that you must seek out the truth and you must act intelligently. If you will do that and trust God’s guidance, you will know from moment to moment what to do.”57

For Muste, the daily life of the Christian is guided by the intellectual undertaking that is theology. Christians use their minds to help them discern how to live in each particular time and place.

Limits to Knowledge. Muste recognized that there are limits to human knowledge and to divine revelation. He advises that “there will be many things in this complex and troubled world you will not be able to understand. You must not demand to know all the answers.”58 Seeking the truth does not mean assuming that it is possible to know everything. Muste criticizes people who believe that they possess a superior intellect and forget that they are always still learning.

Without this as a check on human arrogance, people’s actions can have terrible consequences.59

Just as there are limits to our ability to understand, there are limits on our ability to act.

Muste writes, “the issue of the moral life is not whether man can overcome his limitations and

57 A.J. Muste, “Admonitions for War Time,” on the Church of the Air Program, March 3, 1940, 1. 58 Muste, “Admonitions for War Time,” 1. 59 Muste, “Fragment of Autobiography,” 339-340.

19 escape suffering: it is how he meets suffering (and pleasure as well), and whether he can and does fulfill the will of God for man, equipped and situated as he is.”60 Muste emphasizes the reality of suffering and that humans are not always in control and often have to deal with unexpected and unanticipated events.

Revelation. Muste changes his tone when speaking about knowledge of God. He argues that it does not come from intellectual pursuit, but through revelation. Knowledge of God “is not something that you have to reason your way into.” It is a gift. Moreover, it is a different kind of knowledge. It is not knowledge about God or knowledge concerning doctrines of God. It is primarily found through experience, through practicing the presence of God.61 This shows the clear influence of mysticism on Muste, which we will return to later. It is congruent with

Reformed doctrine, but also a clear reaction against the dogmatism of Muste’s experience of the

Reformed tradition.

Influences on Muste’s Concern for Loving God With the Mind. As we have already seen, Muste’s Reformed background emphasized loving God with the mind but failed to put this into practice to Muste’s satisfaction. He found much more intellectual stimulation when he began taking classes at Columbia University, New York University, and Union Theological Seminary.

This does not negate the fact that it was a thoroughly Dutch Reformed community and schools that fostered the young man who excelled in academics and vigorously pursued knowledge.

Muste’s balancing of intellectual and experiential pursuit of God resembles a similar move by Rufus Jones, a major early influence on Muste. Jones argues that “true religion is

60 A.J. Muste, “Pacifism and Perfectionism,” in The Essays of A.J. Muste, ed. Nat Hentoff (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967), 315. 61 A.J. Muste, “The Knowledge of God,” November 11, [1936], handwritten sermon notes, 9.

20 neither coldly intellectual or purely emotional. It consists of correct belief, an apprehension of

God’s truth, and an intense love and devotion, a profound appreciation of His forgiveness and unbounded love. Leave out either element and the religion is warped and one-sided.” Jones simultaneously emphasizes the need for a solid intellectual understanding of the faith and that

Christianity is “not a theory, not a plan, not a scheme, but a dynamic force.”62

Muste also read Anglo-Catholic writer Maurice B. Reckitt, who cites intellectual laxity as one of the main sources of the failure of the church to fulfill its calling. Reckitt writes that “the limitations now imposed upon the scope and effectiveness of Church social action arise largely from the evil heritage of an intellectually comatose and uninstructed laity.”63 Muste’s emphasis on intellectual engagement with the faith derives directly from this concern.

Although not a Christian, the humanist and pacifist intellectual Aldous Huxley was a major influence on Muste’s thought. Writing in the late 1930s, clearly with the rise of Nazi

Germany in mind, Huxley emphasizes the need for average people to use their intelligence to evaluate the acts of government. More than that, he writes, “dictatorial governments regard free intelligence as their worst enemy. In this they are probably perfectly right. Tyranny cannot exist unless there is passive obedience on the part of the tyrannized.”64 This logic is clearly present in

Muste’s writings as well.

62 Rufus Jones, Practical Christianity, reprint of 2nd ed. (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 2006), 100, 147, 194. 63 Maurice B. Reckitt, Religion in Social Action (London: John Heritage, 1937), 149. Muste marked up this passage in his copy of the book. Of course, Reckitt is not the only author to have made such criticisms, but he is one of the few that we can prove Muste read. 64 Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means: An Inquiry into the Nature of Ideals and into the Methods Employed for Their Realization (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1937), 243. See appendix 2 for evidence that Muste read this book.

21 Theological reflection was an integral part of Muste’s life. His theology determined the work he chose to do and how he did it. It led him to the strong positions he advocated, even though he also used secular arguments to appeal to his audiences. In many ways he saw theology as primarily an intellectual pursuit, but he also believed that God’s revelation works better through experience than reason. He believed that mystical experience is an important part of the

Christian walk.

Chapter 3: Mysticism and the Inner Life

Early in his pastoral career Muste became an avid reader of the Christian mystics. In

1918 he listed St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi, Johannes Tauler, Jan van Ruysbroeck, and

Meister Eckhart as examples.65 These authors were influential in shaping Muste’s thought and personal spiritual practice. They remind us that Muste was influenced by famous Christians of the past as well as by more contemporary authors. Muste himself became somewhat of a mystic and mystical experiences mark some of the turning points in his life. He called others to a mystical faith marked by the practice of the spiritual disciplines.

Muste’s interest in the mystics arose from his reading of the Quaker scholar Rufus Jones, who is best known for his studies of Christian mysticism and was Muste’s first exposure to

Quakerism.66 It seems fitting to explore Muste’s early list of mystics through the works of Jones, who interpreted them to Muste. Muste himself wrote little to nothing about them that is still extant today.

65 Muste, “Alumni Questionnaire.” Beginning in the 1920s, pacifist culture venerated such “heroes of peace” as examples in such a way that Patricia Appelbaum calls it a “new hagiography.” See: Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 98. 66 Muste, “Sketches for an Autobiography,” 47, 115; Muste, Not By Might, 199; Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 20.

22 Rufus Jones calls St. Augustine (354-430 CE) the “father of Catholic mysticism.” He argues that Augustine had two sides, the mystical and the theological, and that he was unable to recognize glaring inconsistencies between the two. Most prominent, according to Jones, is his focus on sin and depravity contrasted with the fact that “his own human experience told him that man and God are kindred… that man has within himself a direct pathway to the living God.”

Jones took issue with much of Augustine’s theology and tried to separate the man from the theologian, arguing that his spiritual life was on a “higher plane” than his intellectual work.

Despite his dislike of Augustine’s theology, Jones was clearly moved by his mystical language, quoting dozens of passages.67 Muste certainly had studied Augustine from the Reformed perspective early in his life, but Jones’ writings doubtless exposed him to a very different interpretation.

Jones describes St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226 CE), an itinerant preacher and the founder of the Franciscan order, as a spiritual reformer who sought to rejuvenate Christianity by returning to the ways of the first disciples. He praises Francis, writing that “nobody has come so near [to] gaining the feeling, the attitude, the abandon to the divine Father, the spirit of human love and fellowship which characterized the Galilean circle as has Francis of Assisi.” Among

Jones’ comments about Francis is a focus on how his love for others functioned. He writes,

“when Francis ate with the leper and kissed him out of pure love for a suffering human fellow, he had discovered the true way to rejuvenate Christianity.” In another story Jones recounts, some men tried to rob a Franciscan retreat and were beaten back by force. In response, Francis sent the men bread and wine from his own table. The would-be robbers then came, fell at Francis’ feat,

67 Rufus Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion (London: MacMillan, 1909), 87, 89, 90-97.

23 and asked to be taken into the order.68 These two stories illustrate points important to Muste.

First, the centrality of love in the Christian life. Second, a concern for the poor and outcast.

Third, the efficacy of nonviolent expressions of love for the enemy.

Johannes Tauler (1300-1361 CE) gained fame as a key figure in the mystical religious movement of fourteenth century Germany known as the “Friends of God.” In an early work, which Muste almost certainly read, Jones positively glows in praise of Tauler, yet in a later work,

Jones admits that historians had since rejected many of the stories about him as inventions or stories really about other people.69 Tauler lived during a time of plague and civil war between two competing emperors. One of the parties was supported by Pope John XXII, who suspended operation of the church in areas occupied by the other party, leading to the flowering of self directed religion. Tauler was a priest in the area under interdict.70 In the earlier work, Jones calls

Tauler a “great mystic preacher” who preached that “while the Holy Church is able to take from us the external sacrament, no one can take from us the spiritual joy which comes from union with

God.”71 In this union “the heavenly life has begun” in a person but the evil nature of human life is never completely put aside. Such a person has an “inward, divine knowledge, a Divine

Light.”72 Tauler reportedly tried to turn the common people toward spiritual religion that they

68 Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion, 150, 152. 69 The early work is Studies in Mystical Religion (London: MacMillan, 1909) and the later The Flowering of Mysticism: The Friends of God in the Fourteenth Century (New York: Macmillian, 1939). Jones prefers the anglicized “John Tauler.” 70 Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion, 243-244, 255; Jones, The Flowering of Mysticism, 94. Muste marked up this passage in his copy of the book. Tauler lived during the time when the papacy was based in France at Avignon. The Great Schism, where multiple popes competed for power, began in 1378. 71 Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion, 209, 255, 275. Jones notes that is is much debated whether or not Tauler obeyed the papal interdict. 72 Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion, 272, 276. Jones connects Tauler’s “Divine Light” to the Quaker understanding of the “inner light.”

24 could practice even if the church refused them the benefit of services and the sacraments.73 The stories about Tauler fit well with Muste’s concern for the common person and for individual spirituality.

Another fourteenth century priest in the Friends of God movement, Jan van Ruysbroeck

(1293-1381 CE) taught that “the soul finds God in its own depths.” Stories depict him experiencing deep meditation. He taught that there are two stages of spiritual development. The first is the “active life,” which consists of legalistically trying to live a morally good life. In this first stage, the motivation is self-love or self-concern. The second stage is the “inward life,” which does not throw out the efforts to do good deeds, but is characterized by a new motivation: love. Jones summarizes this process by writing that “the heart, by love, has come into a oneness of purpose with God, so that its deeds are no longer from calculation and outward constraint; they are the natural fruit of a transformed soul.” There is also a rarely achieved third stage, “the contemplative life,” where the soul in rare moments stands in God’s presence.74 Ruysbroeck was careful to note that union with God does not mean that the human becomes God or vice versa.

The union is one of love, not physical nature.75 It is hard to know how Muste would have reacted to the idea of distinct spiritual stages, but he certainly would have appreciated the emphasis on love as a motivation for good deeds and right living.

Muste also read a book on Ruysbroeck by English Anglo-Catholic pacifist writer Evelyn

Underhill. She argues that Ruysbroeck condemned “the laziness and egoism of the quietistic

73 Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion, 276. 74 Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion, 310-312. 75 Jones, The Flowering of Mysticism, 207. Muste underlined this passage and put two lines next to it in the margin of his copy of the book.

25 doctrine of contemplation.”76 Likewise, she emphasizes that for Ruysbroeck, love “is hardly an emotional word at all, and never a sentimental one; rather the title of a mighty force, a holy energy that fills the universe––the essential activity of God,” an emphasis Muste shows in his own works.77

“Meister” Johannes Eckhart (1260-1327 CE), a German mystic and major influence on

Tauler and Ruysbroeck, is one of Jones’ favorite subjects. In Jones’ mind “no other mystic has ever dropped his plummet deeper into the mysteries of the Godhead nor has there ever been a bolder interpreter of those mysteries in the language of the common people.”78 Jones writes that

Eckhart “exhibited religious intuitions of an extremely high order. He broke a fresh way of life through the jungle of his time, and by the depth and power of his own personal experience he brought conviction of the reality of God to multitudes of persons.”79 Jones focuses on Eckhart’s understanding of the Godhead as indescribable and above all things, the revealer of the personal

God, who is a self realization of the Godhead. Eckhart believed that there is something in the soul, which is above the soul and can be found by withdrawing “from all sense experience, from everything in time and space” to a higher consciousness. God and this deeper soul are one––they belong together. The search for this union does not mean withdrawal from the world. Jones notes that Eckhart had “a human interest in the people about him; he feels their sorrows and needs, and is active in his sympathies.”80 Muste certainly would have appreciated that Eckhart spent his life

76 Evelyn Underhill, Ruysbroeck (London: G. Bell, 1915), 19. Muste underlined this passage in his copy of the book. 77 Underhill, Ruysbroeck, 72-73. Muste marked up this passage in his copy of the book. 78 Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion, 217. 79 Jones, The Flowering of Mysticism, 61-62. 80 Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion, 224-232, 237. Emphasis original.

26 both in quiet contemplation and in administrative and practical work in the church, politics, and teaching.81

Muste continued to read many of Jones’ new works until Jones’ death in 1948.82 As we have noted, after World War One led him to leave his pastorate in Massachusetts, he entered for a short time the world of the Society of Friends. It is clear that he was greatly influenced by the spiritual practices of this unique religious tradition, particularly its tendency toward mysticism.

Jones defines mysticism as “the type of religion which puts the emphasis on immediate awareness of relation to God, on direct and intimate consciousness of the Divine Presence. It is religion in its most acute, intense, and living stage.” He argues that “mysticism is not a special, exceptional experience, but, rather, a life consummated in the practice of the Presence of God.”83

While Muste seldom used this type of language in describing the Christian life, he consistently called others to such a living religion and away from the dead religion he so often saw around him.

Muste’s Mystical Experiences. Muste’s spirituality can only vaguely be reconstructed.

He seldom wrote about his own spiritual life. Jo Ann Robinson describes Muste as being in the tradition of ethical mysticism.84 This began early in his life. He recalls a vivid feeling of entering another world when going to church at the age of six or seven.85 During an Easter service when he was thirteen years old he had what he described as a mystical experience where “suddenly the

81 Rufus Jones, Some Exponents of Mystical Religion (New York: Abingdon, 1930), 85. 82 Appendices 1a and 1b list two of Jones’ books that Muste still had in his possession at the time of his death in 1967. One was published in 1939 and the other in 1948. 83 Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion, xv, xvii. 84 Robinson, “Pacifist & Prophet,” 15. 85 Muste, “Sketches for an Autobiography,” 6.

27 world took on a new brightness and beauty; the words, ‘Christ is risen indeed’ spoke themselves in me; and from that day God was real to me.” His early pastoral career was marked by mystical experiences, which he tends to describe in terms of a “great light flooding in.” These occurred both as he was breaking with the RCA and during the First World War, when ties with his new congregation were deteriorating. This second event was preceded by “prayer as I never, I think, have prayed before or since.” From these experiences he concluded that “God seems above all a seeking God. It is we who run away.”86

We have already mentioned the mystical experience at the church of St. Sulpice in Paris which led Muste to leave the labor movement and return to the church at the age of 51, which was perhaps the most significant of his mystical experiences. More than any other, it changed the course of his life and work. Almost immediately afterward, Muste came to see his previous life as something to apologize for, admitting that “although during those years I acted conscientiously according to the best insight I had, it is nevertheless true that in a real sense I was an ‘enemy of the cross of Christ’ and in so far as they were influenced by me I led people at important points astray.”87

Apart from his accounts of dramatic mystical experiences, Muste did not share much about his own spiritual life. His spirituality can be discerned mainly from his admonitions to others. These are marked by an attention to the Holy Spirit and the spiritual disciplines. He combines a Quaker-inspired mysticism with a more typical Reformed/Presbyterian emphasis on individual spiritual practices.

86 Muste, “Fragment of Autobiography,” 334-335. 87 Muste, “The Church’s Responsibility for Peace,” 2.

28 Preaching on Mysticism and the Spiritual Disciplines. In a sermon where Muste urged his listeners to experience God, he writes that “it is impossible not to count mysticism among fundamental human activities.” Embracing the social gospel, for example, is not sufficient.

Neither is a liberal ethic good enough. Muste criticizes churches that are “full of activity, of good works… of concern for a better economic and social order perhaps. But not often full of a clear, vital, joyous knowledge and experience of God.” The antidote is mystical experience. He writes,

“if you will take the time… to gaze steadfastly… upon the picture of life, of reality itself; time to listen… to the voices of the Spirit… you will see reality… as never before. And what you will see in that hour will be a Cross and a man upon it who walked the way of Love to the end.”88

This statement displays a fascinating mix of liberal and Reformed influences. From liberals and

Quakers he gets the practice of mysticism and the emphasis on economic and social change.

From the Reformed tradition he gets the prominence of the cross. From both he gets the stress on the way of love.

Muste states that even if the light of God seems hidden, “if God is love, then He cannot be far from any of us.” As a result, “if you desire the presence of God, its light, its help, its comfort, then even in moments when the light is dim and the angel voices are stilled, you can act as if God were [near]…. You can try living as if Jesus were right.” He does not try to prove that this will work, but argues that it is certainly worth trying.89

For Muste, the inner life is integral to the use of nonviolence in the pursuit of justice. He argues that “the hours a man spends in prayer, cleansing his soul from self-will and fear and drawing into his weak and parched soul the infinite Power and Love which is at the heart of this

88 Muste, “The Knowledge of God,” 5, 3, 13. 89 Muste, “The Knowledge of God,” 10, 13-14. Emphasis original.

29 universe, will do infinitely more to prepare him to guard the innocent from attack than training for physical combat whether with fists or with guns.”90 He also contends that “one hour a day spent in such [restful and reflective] ‘silence’ would mean daily, joyous, cataclysmic transformation for any of us. This is, alas, why we do not practice it. The demands God makes on us are so much more exacting than our own, or our friends’, or the potentates’ of this earth.”91

This inner examination, particularly the defeat of self-will, is vital. The inner life motivates and supports the outer work. It transforms people and prepares them for the hard work of this world.

The replacement of the self with a focus on God is a frequent topic of Rufus Jones’ writings. He writes, “no man begins to be spiritual until he loses himself, until he finds something better than himself to worship and serve” and “the only obstacle to effective praying, in this world of spiritual fellowship, would be individual selfishness.”92 Muste commented often on this theme, including in his admonitions to Quakers, who he often saw as failing to live up to their own ideals. He believed that if the Society of Friends was to truly become the beloved community, it would need to engage much more in self-examination and repentance.93

Muste’s connection of spiritual practice to the efficacy of social action is another theme found in Jones’ writings.94 But it is also found in the Reformed tradition. Abraham Kuyper, a ardently Calvinist theologian Muste occasionally quoted, argues, “in prayer lies not only our unity with God, but also the unity of our personal life. Movements in history, therefore, which do

90 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 127. 91 Muste, “Fragment of Autobiography,” 338. 92 Jones, Practical Christianity, 113; Rufus Jones, The World Within (New York: MacMillan, 1921), 101. 93 A.J. Muste, “Saints for This Age,” in The Essays of A.J. Muste, ed. Nat Hentoff (Indianapolis: Bobbs- Merrill, 1967), 419. 94 See, for example: Jones, The World Within, 102.

30 not spring from this deepest source are always partial and transient.”95 Not only does he have a focus on the spiritual discipline of prayer, Kuyper, like Muste, links individual spiritual practice with the efficacy of social movements.

It is worth quoting Muste at length to show the depth of his conviction that prayer is both central to the Christian life and a dynamic, powerful force. In a radio sermon, Muste argued that

nothing has ever been more conclusively proved than that men and women who take time to be alone and in the silence, to meditate, to pray, find light and grace and power from a divine and inexhaustible source flowing into them and flowing out in healing and blessing upon their fellows. How else shall the great open sores of the world be healed? How else shall these hungry, stricken multitudes of refugees that wander like lost sheep across the face of the earth be brought into the fold of peace and a decent life again? How else shall war be stopped? But if this is true, is it not time that any one who will not spend at least an hour every day in prayer and silence so that the power of God may flow into and through him should stop pretending to be a Christian?96

It is this vision of Christianity that Rufus Jones advocated and Jan van Ruysbroeck’s work points toward, a type of Christianity, according to Jones, “which affects and vitalizes the whole man, which animates and vivifies every strata of society and which expands to meet the growing need of the world.”97 Muste clearly did not learn this lesson in the stale environment of the Dutch

Reformed tradition of the early twentieth century. Instead, it was a lesson he learned only once he began to draw upon a much wider range of sources.

The Holy Spirit. Writing to Quakers, he laments, “we are ‘called to be saints’. Yet we have not, let me put it, experienced Pentecost. The Spirit has not invaded the house where we meet. We are not on fire.” When the Spirit is lacking in Christian fellowships, it also is likely

95 Abraham Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism: Six Lectures Delivered at Princeton University in 1898 Under Auspices of the L.P. Stone Foundation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1931), 20. See appendix 2 for evidence that Muste read this text. 96 Muste, “Admonitions for War Time,” 1. 97 Jones, Practical Christianity, 200.

31 lacking in the individual life. Muste writes that “the way to the Kingdom is to nourish an inner life of the Spirit, which, by grace, daily increases our love.”98 Rufus Jones’ writings on the Holy

Spirit are usually phrased not in the communal language Muste uses, but more individualistically.99 Despite this, for Jones, the Spirit is central to the Christian life and power.

He writes, “the thing which makes any Christian, in any walk of life, a man of power is his union with Christ, and his life in the Spirit.” Like Muste, Jones regularly focused on the mystical experience with God as the conduit through which people learn to love.100

A Man Ahead of His Time. Patricia Appelbaum, in her study on pacifist culture, has shown that the belief that mysticism was necessary to support the pacifist life was widespread among pacifists, particularly once the trajectory toward the Second World War became obvious.

In the opening paragraph of her chapter on pacifist spirituality, Appelbaum uses Muste as her prime example. She focuses on Muste’s argument that experiential contact with the divine will motivate and sustain the pacifist life and quotes his admonition for people to engage in the

“continual practice of the presence of God.” She sees Muste as representative of a broader emphasis on mysticism within pacifist circles, but she also argues that mysticism was widely discussed among mainline Protestants in general during this period.101

Appelbaum claims that pacifist culture drew both upon liberal Quaker resources, including Rufus Jones, and earlier Christian mystics better known in the mainline traditions. She

98 Muste, “Saints for This Age,” 419, 424. 99 This is despite Jones’ conviction that the Christian life cannot be “exclusive” but must be lived with all Christians in “a oneness of organism like that of the branches of the vine.” See: Jones, Practical Christianity, 177. 100 Jones, Practical Christianity, 85, 101. 101 Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 110, 112.

32 demonstrates that “there was considerable cross-fertilization between Friends and other liberals.”102 Muste’s own life fits this pattern well. His mysticism was based on both Quaker and mainline Protestant sources and was heavily influenced by popular studies of Christian mystics from throughout history. Since, at the time, an emphasis on mysticism even extended to some atheists, Muste may even have been influenced by some of their writings as well. Aldous Huxley, for example, uses a section of his book Ends and Means to discuss the mystics and advocates meditation and intentional spiritual exercises as tools for seeing the world more accurately.103

Muste’s appropriation of ideas from mystics of diverse nationalities and centuries, liberal

Quakers, mainline Protestants, and even atheist pacifists is to some extent representative of his overall process of intellectual development. The ideas that shaped his life, work, and teachings came from a wide variety of sources. But while Appelbaum has shown that this particular mix of sources was a common one among pacifists, much of Muste’s development in this area appears to have happened before a focus on mysticism became prevalent among pacifists. In fact, when

Muste started reading the mystics, he was not yet a pacifist. His reading of the mystics began in

1915, while Appelbaum dates their appearance in the wider conversation to the 1930s. Notably,

Muste cites his reading of the mystics as the primary influence in his conversion to pacifism during the First World War.104 He was ahead of his time, and likely played a role in fostering the emphasis on mysticism within pacifist circles. That Muste was ahead of his time is not at all unusual. A Quaker woman summed it up well in a letter to Muste: “time and time again, when

102 Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 112. 103 Huxley, Ends and Means, 332-333, 338, 342. 104 Muste, “Sketches for an Autobiography,” 47, 133; Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 124-125.

33 we Friends have weighed and considered the course our witness was to take we have seen far off down the road ahead of us the tall spare frame of A.J., already in the Way.”105

Chapter 4: The Social Gospel

When Walter Rauschenbusch, considered the father of the social gospel movement, published his seminal work Christianity and the Social Crisis in 1907, Muste was still in seminary at New Brunswick.106 By the time Muste began taking classes at Union Theological

Seminary in New York in 1909, the social gospel had become the main topic of conversation on

Union’s campus.107 Muste could not have avoided participation in this conversation and his later work with the labor movement and general concern for the welfare of people in poverty show that he was extensively influenced by it. In the years after his time at Union, Muste continued to engage with social gospel thinking as well as with socialist ideas. It appears that Muste considered himself to some extent a follower of Rauschenbusch.108

One scholar calls Muste “the most perfect exemplar of the pure, unmixed, unadulterated social-gospel soul.”109 This is despite the fact that, as Jo Ann Robinson notes, Muste “did none of the things that bring the better-known social gospel figures to the attention of historians–– maintaining long tenure in a famous pulpit, or engaging in systematic religious scholarship, or publishing a social gospel newspaper, or climbing the ladder within a denominational

105 Irene Koch, “Letter for the Society of Friends and AFSC to A.J. Muste,” Jan. 23 1960; quoted in Robinson, Pacifist & Prophet, 24. 106 If Muste ever owned a copy of this work (it is my contention that he probably did), it has, like the vast majority of his early collection, been lost. However, Muste’s copy of Rauschenbusch’s 1910 Prayers of the Social Awakening is still extant. See appendix 1b. 107 Handy, A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York, 130. 108 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 16. 109 Donald Meyer, The Protestant Search for Political Realism, 1919-1941 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960), 369.

34 hierarchy.”110 Muste, despite his fame, never sought position or prestige. He chose a path that led through poverty, occasional imprisonment, and physical suffering. He often was without a decent salary and his activism meant he was beaten and imprisoned alongside those he was fighting for.

This was sometimes difficult, particularly on his family, but it was the only way for him to be faithful to his convictions.

Works of Mercy. Muste urged others to practice “works of mercy.” For him this means working to “feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, visit the forlorn ones and the prisoners. We must all do it directly for those who are near by. We must share to the limit of our means and ability in supporting the organizations that minister to the victims of war and persecution throughout the world.”111 Acts of mercy are not the exclusive purview of individuals.

They can be done on any scale. Muste regularly argued for governments to engage in the work of relieving human suffering and establishing justice and well-being. He argues that a nation that pursued peace would “spend the billions it would save by scrapping its war establishment… on rehabilitating the sick and broken down economies of the world” and going forth on “missions of mercy to starving, sick and homeless peoples everywhere.”112

Muste’s words clearly show their provenance in the Bible. The closest comparison to

Muste’s list comes from Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:35-36, “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me” (ESV).

110 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, xiv. 111 Muste, “Admonitions for War Time,” 2. 112 Muste, Not By Might, 112.

35 The Hebrew Scriptures also contain numerous passages on caring for those in need.113 It may be that authors like Rauschenbusch opened Muste’s eyes to these themes, but it is equally likely that he discovered them himself. He certainly would have studied the Bible extensively before any exposure to liberal theological ideas like the social gospel.

Identification with the Poor and Oppressed. Muste urged Christians to address the social causes of hunger, homelessness, and poverty. Helping those in need is not sufficient if one does not also try to address the reasons for their being in need. He writes,

we live in a social and industrial order which… arouses the spirit of competition rather than cooperation; which offers its highest rewards to the speculator rather than the laborer; which… constantly encourages the piling-up of material goods… an order of industry and society which was established by violence… and which to this day is maintained and extended by violence. It is an order of society which brings with it inevitably such evils as unemployment, child labor, the sweat shop, imperialism and war.114

He argues that people who benefit from such a situation must “abandon your privileged position, must get out of the exploiting group, must identify yourself with those who hunger and thirst, and ‘weep now.’”115 Identification with the poor and oppressed requires concrete, local action to ease their burdens. He writes that it is “in daily serving those whom we thus love, and only in this way, that we become truly sensitive to human need at a more than superficial level and learn to deal with wider circles of contact and social problems on another basis than the impersonal and mechanical which characterizes so much social work.”116 As much as it is an admonition to

113 See, for example: Deuteronomy 15:7-11, Isaiah 58:6-7, Micah 6:8. 114 Muste, Fellowship and Class Struggle, 6. 115 Muste, Fellowship and Class Struggle, 6. 116 Muste, Not By Might, 67.

36 others, this is also a description of how Muste lived. It helps us understand him, his passion for justice, and his dedication to working to make the world a better place.

Muste’s exhortations are based in his understanding of God. He writes that God always identifies with people who are suffering. He uses the story of the exodus and the incarnation of

Jesus as his prime examples. As a result, people “are never in living relationships with the true

God unless they also are consumed with compassion for the oppressed and enlist in their cause.”117 Like Moses, “religious leaders are those who identify themselves with the oppressed.”

Identification with the poor and oppressed is, to Muste, central to living as a Christian. It is

Christians’ “true mission in the world.”118

In addition to social gospel writers, Rufus Jones was probably a central influence on

Muste’s thought in this area. He writes that

something is wrong when a company of worshippers meet week after week to enjoy communion with the Lord, and sit unconcerned about the multitudes who in the same city live in misery, in hunger, in squalor, in vice and in sin…. If Christ is ever to become a reality to these people, and be a power in their lives, His spirit must first reach them through a human face and in the loving service of human hands. The church has a twofold service toward such souls. It must take up the task of reforming the evils of a social system which makes such lives possible in the midst of our boasted civilization, and its members must take upon themselves the responsibility of interpreting Christ and the Christ-spirit to these sin-environed lives.119

Jones’ writings have the same emphasis as Muste on acts of mercy (“the loving service of human hands”), work to address the social causes of injustice, and on building relationships with people

117 Muste, “Address Over Y.M.C.A. New York,” 2-3. 118 A.J. Muste, “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” in The Essays of A.J. Muste, ed. Nat Hentoff (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967), 281. 119 Jones, Practical Christianity, 44.

37 affected by such injustice. Like Muste, he emphasizes that something is wrong when Christian do not have these concerns.

The Social Ills of Capitalism. Walter Rauschenbusch strongly critiques the harmful aspects of capitalism. He even advocates for a more communistic system.120 During his years in the labor movement, Muste echoed many of these critiques, arguing that the modern industrialist and imperialist civilization is a direct challenge to the Christian view of life.121 In the late 1920s and early 30s, Muste increasingly accepted Rauschenbusch’s equation of Christianity with communism, noting the similarities between Marx’s thinking and that of Jesus.122 Like

Rauschenbusch and others, Muste emphasizes the social implications of the kingdom of God.123

Rauschenbusch was certainly not the only influence on Muste in this area, but it is hard to find evidence of Muste’s other influences because his thought in this area developed so early in his life. During the interwar period, many Christian theologians began to see some form of socialism or communism as closer to the biblical norm than capitalism. Determining which of these Muste read is mostly impossible. One author he read after this time, when he had already moved away from seeing socialism or communism as close to the kingdom of God, was

Canadian theologian Douglas Clyde Macintosh, who argues that “not only did Jesus advocate voluntary communism as the social and economic order that was to be characteristic of the

Kingdom of God on earth… but the communism of the early church was the direct outcome of

120 Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century (New York: Harper One, 2007), 321. 121 A.J. Muste, “Questions from the Left,” in Labor Speaks for Itself on Religion; A Symposium of Labor Leaders Throughout the World, ed. Jerome Davis (New York: Macmillan, 1929), 103. 122 Muste, Fellowship and Class Struggle, 16. 123 Muste, Fellowship and Class Struggle, 5; Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century, xxi, 53.

38 Jesus’ teaching and example.”124 Another author Muste read after his initial exposure to the social gospel is the Dutch theologian Gerrit Jan Heering, who critiques “the unchristian structure” of a society where people become rich at the expense of others and where great wealth exists alongside dire poverty.125 These statements are characteristic of many theologian’s views during the interwar years, including Muste’s.

Muste consistently called Christians to engagement with social issues. He strongly critiqued the church’s tendency be “a bulwark for an unjust and imperfect status quo in economics and politics” because, by doing so, it “failed to demand that the standards of its Lord should be applied and His will done in every sphere of life.”126 This critique first developed when Muste was working with the labor movement. It is strongly reminiscent of

Rauschenbusch’s call for the engagement of the church with social issues.127 When in the labor movement, Muste argued that Christians should join with the Left, who “are doing in some fashion what they, the Christian pacifists, ought to be doing, and are not doing at all.”128 During this time, he argued that establishing true fellowship––a classless society––is a key foundation for the good life and the kingdom of God.129 His work for peace, justice, and racial equality was always partially based on this ideal. After his return to the church in 1936, Muste developed

124 Douglas Clyde Macintosh, Social Religion (New York: Scribner, 1939), 55-56. Muste marked up this passage in his copy of the book. Macintosh, a professor at Yale Divinity School for most of his life, is known for being the center of a 1931 U.S. Supreme Court case which denied him citizenship on the grounds that he would refuse to bear arms in the country’s defense. The ruling was overturned in 1946. 125 Gerrit Jan Heering, The Fall of Christianity: A Study of Christianity, the State, and War, trans. J.W. Thompson (New York: Fellowship Publications, 1943), 180. 126 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 189. 127 See: Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century, 235. 128 Muste, “Questions from the Left,” 106. 129 Muste, Fellowship and Class Struggle, 23.

39 strong critiques of communism, but did not lose his emphasis on the need for the church to involve itself in social and economic issues.130

Economics, War, and Social Justice. According to Muste, the only way to establish peace and justice in the world is to create a just and fair economic system. Peace can only come, he argues, with equal access to raw materials and economic adjustments aimed at moving the world toward a federal world government. He believed that “we have abundant evidence that when a political federation is built upon economic arrangements genuinely beneficial to the parties involved, it is held together by the mutual benefits derived. Armies are not needed. Only those arrangements which benefit one group at the expense of another require force for their maintenance.”131 Such a world federation, held together by mutually beneficial economic policies, would require a drastic reworking of the interactions between nations. It would require repentance and humility from nations like the United States.

Drastic changes are necessary, according to Muste, because of the connection of economic exploitation and inequality with war and violence. “The world and human beings,” he writes, “are so made that you can’t organize life securely on injustice and oppression.”132 Muste believed that war exists because some nations seek to maintain a dramatically unequal status quo while others are determined to challenge it by violence.133 He writes, “it is unquestionably… the possession of a military machine, its maintenance, [and] the possibility of resorting to war, which keep an exploiting capitalism and a predatory imperialism alive, which constantly interfere with

130 See: Muste, “Return to Pacifism.” 131 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 121, 141-142. 132 Muste, “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” 281. 133 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 45; A.J. Muste, “Korea: Spark to Set a World Afire?” in The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967), 344-345, 347.

40 the movement for social justice, and make it possible for ruling groups to evade facing and dealing with the economic evils which bring suffering on the masses.”134 As a result of this logic,

Muste saw efforts to end war as central to the cause of social justice and vice versa.

These efforts should be made while avoiding the tendency of formerly oppressed peoples to turn around and treat their former oppressors in the same way. The cycle must be broken.

Muste paraphrases Jesus as saying “you cannot overcome evil with evil. Evil can be overcome only by its opposite, good.” The best way to do this is to remember that those “who injure and degrade us are human beings.” Thus, the best strategy is to “build up a family relationship, a brotherhood and a democratic society with them; to put an end to separateness.”135

Work for a more equitable distribution of wealth has a strong basis in Christian scripture and theology. Repeatedly, the scriptures speak of wealth and concern for those who do not have enough. Wealth is associated with sin and wrongdoing. Jesus himself says “blessed are you who are poor” and couples that with “woe to you who are rich.”136 The letter of James proclaims,

“come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you…. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”137 This concern for justice for the oppressed and powerless is present throughout the Bible in various forms.

134 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 57-58. 135 Muste, “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” 281-285. Jesus never says these exact words, but Paul says something similar in Romans 12:21, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (ESV). The argument can be made, however, that this accurately represents Jesus’ lived ethic. 136 Luke 6:20, 24, ESV. 137 James 5:1, 4, ESV.

41 In addition to the scriptures, Muste read a number of theologians who believed that the

Christian faith has economic implications. Muste heavily marked up his copy of an essay by Karl

Barth on poverty and what later theologians called the biblical preference for the poor where

Barth argues that since the kingdom of God will eliminate poverty, people should start trying to do it now.138 Barth also writes that “in order that they themselves may be blessed, the rich must become poor, or at least in all ernest be ashamed of their wealth.”139 A number of other theological writers Muste read have similar themes in their writings. Two whose books Muste still owned at his death are Walter Marshall Horton, a popular Protestant theologian prominent in the ecumenical movement, who argues that as wide a distribution of wealth as possible is both desirable and in line with Christianity, and Douglas Clyde Macintosh, who writes that Jesus rejected reform in favor of a radical revolution, a new order, a classless society.140

It does not take a Christian to realize that war and social progress are mutually exclusive.

This was a clear lesson of the First World War. Aldous Huxley was one of the secular writers

Muste read on this question. He begins a chapter on war with the line: “every road towards a better state of society is blocked, sooner or later, by war, by threats of war, by preparations for war.”141 As a result of thinking like this, Muste’s pacifism and his concern for progress in social conditions became inextricably linked.

138 Barth, Against the Stream, 243-246. 139 Barth, Against the Stream, 246. In his copy, Muste underlined this passage and added three lines next to it in the margin. 140 Walter Marshall Horton, Can Christianity Save Civilization? (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940), 162. Muste marked up this passage in his copy of the book; Macintosh, Social Religion, 37. Muste underlined this passage and put two lines next to it in his copy of the book. 141 Huxley, Ends and Means, 100, cf. 145.

42 Making the Ideas His Own. While Muste was profoundly influenced by the social gospel tradition, it did not define him. While he appropriated much that came out of the social gospel movement, he also incorporated ideas from a number of other sources. The theology he developed around social and economic issues added to the diversity of thought that allowed him to remain largely independent of trends in theology later in his life. By contrast, it could be argued that this was one trend he actually was swept up in. Even so, his theology of the social gospel shows a depth that only comes from the deep reflection needed to make ideas one’s own.

Chapter 5: The Way of Love, the Way of the Cross

The Way of Love. A synonym in the Acts of the Apostles for Christianity, many

Christian writers throughout history have used the concept of “the way” to refer to the Christian life. It emphasizes that Christianity is a journey that requires ongoing faithfulness. This terminology was popular in pacifist circles in the twentieth century, as Patricia Appelbaum has shown.142 Muste regularly used the term in his writings, including in “The Way of the Cross,”

“The Pacifist Way of Life,” Jesus and the Way to Peace, and “Peace is the Way.”143 It was central to his understanding of the nature and task of Christianity and intricately tied to his belief that

Christianity requires pacifism.

Although the terminology of the way was prevalent in pacifist and Christian circles, as well as in the New Testament, we should note that Rufus Jones repeatedly touches on the

142 Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 67-68. 143 A.J. Muste, “The Way of the Cross,” Christian Century (December 14, 1938): 1541-1543; A.J. Muste, “The Pacifist Way of Life,” in Peace is the Way: Writings on Non-Violence from the Fellowship of Reconciliation, edited by Walter Wink (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2000); A.J. Muste, Jesus and the Way to Peace (New York: Fellowship of Reconciliation, [1954]); A.J. Muste, “Peace is the Way,” Liberation 10, no. 3 (May 1965): 3-5.

43 theme.144 Jones may have been a factor in the phrase becoming popular among pacifists. As a major influence on Muste during his early intellectual development, he may also have led Muste to use the term. Jones believes that Christianity is fundamentally a way of life, not a philosophy.145 He writes, “religion is not found… in an isolated and separable aspect of life. It is a way of living which affects the whole of life, inner and outer in all its attitudes and relationships.”146 Muste exemplified what it means to live by this understanding. His faith led him to an alternative way of living, one centered around trying to bring God’s way of love to the world. He called others to do the same.

In the second of Muste’s two full-length books, Not By Might: Christianity: The Way to

Human Decency, he focuses one chapter, “Love Against the Atomic Bomb,” on the centrality of love to the Christian way of living. For Muste, it is love more than anything else that summarizes the Christian way. This fits well with Jesus’ teaching that the greatest commandments are to love

God and neighbor.147 It is an understanding derived from Scripture, but is also fairly congruent with a liberal Protestant understanding of the Bible articulated in terms of overarching themes like love.

144 Those interested in exploring the full range of Muste’s pacifist influences should note that Muste once provided a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” that included “[Mohandas] Ghandi, C.F. Andrews, [Toyohiko] Kagawa, Aldous Huxley, Gerald Heard, Kirby Page, John Haynes Holmes, Richard Gregg, Vera Brittain, Laurence Housman, Rufus Jones, Charles E. Raven, Allan Hunter, Allan Knight Chalmers, Muriel Lester, [and] Stanley Jones” (Muste, Not By Might, 199). In another list he included “Lao-Tse, Ikhnaton [an Egyptian Pharaoh also known as Akhenaten], Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jesus, St. Francis, George Fox, John Woolman, Ghandi, [and] Kagawa” (Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 9). Appendix 2 has more information on many of these writers. They come from throughout history, multiple religious traditions, and all over the world. 145 Jones, Practical Christianity, 179. 146 Jones, The World Within, 30. 147 Matthew 22:37-40.

44 Love is Our Destiny. In Not By Might, Muste writes poetically that “love is our destiny, our task, and our joy.”148 By describing love as the destiny of humanity, Muste is not referring to an eschatological reality. Instead, he is primarily referring to love and fellowship as essential elements of human nature.149 For Muste, to love is to become more completely the people we were created to be.150 Humanity is intended by God to be in loving fellowship––it is our destiny inasmuch as it is the end, the telos, toward which humanity is aimed. To reject this destiny ignores the very core of how the world works. It points civilization away from life and toward destruction.151

On the same pages in Not By Might cited above, Muste quotes extensively from The

Death of Virgil, a novel by Austrian author Hermann Broch. Broch writes of “only one reality, the reality of love.”152 Muste does not mention this, but Broch started writing the novel in a Nazi concentration camp, making his writings on love even more powerful. While Muste frequently uses the words of novelists and poets to support his arguments, it is unlikely that the arguments themselves were heavily influenced by such works.

Love is Our Task. Love is, according to Muste, “primarily a demand on us, an absolute and to sinful and weak and self-indulgent man a terrible demand.” Each time we sin, “the same standard confronts us still, the same demand that we do justice and love mercy, that we be

148 Muste, Not by Might, 64. 149 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 104. We will explore Muste’s understanding of eschatology in a later chapter. If Muste were to have an eschatological interpretation of this idea, it would still position love as a destiny to be pursued here and now. 150 Muste, Not by Might, 64. 151 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 9; Muste, Not by Might, xiii. 152 Muste, Not by Might, 64-65.

45 perfect as God is perfect.”153 Love is, for Muste, not simply a nice concept, but part of a way of life that takes work to implement. It is especially hard work because sin has interrupted human destiny, making the command to love difficult to follow.

The difficulty, even impossibility, of walking the way of love should not keep us from trying. Rarely did Muste use stronger words than when arguing against ideas he saw as fatalist.

He regularly attacked prominent neo-orthodox theologian Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian realism as a “theology of despair,” that emphasizes human depravity to the point of defining the human condition primarily as hopeless and futile.154 For Muste, such views create a self-fulfilling prophecy that leads people to accept war and violence. Decades earlier, Muste had read a book by Gerrit Jan Heering, who argues that the idea that war results from sin “has brought many to a fatalism which is disastrous.” Instead, writes Heering, “a Christian also must not rest, but cooperate with God without ceasing, in his own sanctification and in the conversion of the world.”155

The alternative to fatalism is, according to Muste, a deep commitment to “‘the life that taketh away the occasion of all war’…. Our task is always the positive one of witnessing to that life and of practicing it.”156 The quotation from the writings of George Fox, the most prominent of the founders of Quakerism, simultaneously describes and summarizes the way of love. A life that takes away the occasion for war is one where the method of love has become a part of every

153 Muste, Not by Might, 65. Here Muste is quoting Micah 6:8 and Matthew 5:48. 154 A.J. Muste, “Theology of Despair: An Open Letter to Rienhold Niebuhr,” in The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967), 302, 304. 155 Heering, The Fall of Christianity, 175. 156 A.J. Muste, “The World Task of Pacifism,” in The Essays of A.J. Muste, ed. Nat Hentoff (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967), 228.

46 area of life. Muste writes that “we must carry this dynamic and method into every relationship–– into family life, into race relations, into work in the labor movement, political activity, [and] international relations.”157 This holistic approach, if implemented well, would prevent conflict and lead to a more equitable and just world. It may have to begin with the individual, but the individual can, under the right conditions, impact an entire society.158

Muste believed that love inherently requires an embrace of nonviolence. Biblical and historical Jesus scholar Leroy Waterman, in a passage Muste marked up in his copy of

Waterman’s book, argues that “since one should thus love all men, one must out of necessity love all enemies. One should do them no violence, even in retaliation for violence, because violence is born of hatred, not of love. The principle of nonviolence as a basis for personal relations is inescapable if a man claims to love everyone else as he loves himself.”159 As we will see, Muste certainly agreed.

Love is Our Joy. In this broken and fallen world love often leads to pain, but it also leads to joy. Muste writes that “it is because the oneness of the human family and the worth of each member of it is so absolutely basic that every experience of love in its various forms brings its ecstasy, for in it the one who loves consummates life’s purpose.”160 The world is structured in such a way that it is “simply inconceivable that the experience of fellowship with one another and with Christ should not produce effervescence.” He cites Paul’s exhortation to “rejoice, and

157 Muste, “Return to Pacifism,” 201. 158 A.J. Muste, “Unity in Crisis: Sermon to First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, NY” July 27, 1941; Muste, Not by Might, 55. 159 Leroy Waterman, The Religion of Jesus: Christianity’s Unclaimed Heritage of Prophetic Religion (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1952), 104. 160 Muste, Not by Might, 64.

47 again I say rejoice.”161 Muste argues that in loving, we come closer to how God intended us to live. When our lives more closely approximate God’s will, we naturally find joy. This emphasis may have arisen from Muste’s reading of the mystics, who sometimes saw joy as a natural consequence of mystical experience.162

Love is More Powerful. Muste believed that love has more power than violence. This is because love “is the most real thing in the universe,” it is “the final truth, the ultimate reality, the kingdom, the power, and the glory in this universe.”163 For him, love is the most powerful force.

He argues that “there is no power to overcome evil, to break the heart of sin, like the power of suffering love, the Cross.”164 Consequently, “the trouble with the world today is precisely that men have come to believe that ‘the only means which work are material ones.’”165 People place their trust in violence because physical force is the only type of power allowable in the modern worldview. Muste proposes that there are spiritual forces at work in the world alongside the physical forces. Spiritual weapons––the armor of God as described in Ephesians 6––have power.166 He argues that “all the great peaks in Jewish-Christian revelation––Moses, the great prophets such as Jeremiah, Jesus himself––came at periods of dictatorship when brute force is

161 Muste, “Saints for this Age,” 416; Philippians 4:4. 162 Underhill, Ruysbroeck, 27. 163 Muste, “The Knowledge of God,” 12-13. 164 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 19. 165 Muste, “War is the Enemy,” 277. 166 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 128.

48 being deified and proclaim that Spirit––[illegible] Spirit of love is mightier than the weapons of the flesh.”167

In his belief in love as a powerful force, Muste echoes the writings of Rufus Jones, who writes that “Christians are told to love even as Christ loved! If they once fulfilled this command they would become an irresistible spiritual power, and the realm of the King would widen beyond all conception. This is ‘the more excellent way’, and yet we try every other way instead!”168 According to Jones, love is “the most dynamic moral force in the universe.”169

Referring to the armor of God, Gerrit Jan Heering argues that “Paul deliberately borrows a figure from military strife in order to show that the warfare of Christians is wholly different.”170 In his copy of the famous German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship, Muste underlined a passage where Bonhoeffer writes that “the cross is the only power in the world which proves that suffering love can avenge and vanquish evil.”171 These are the same sentiments that Muste repeatedly expresses when he calls Christians to pacifism.

Not only is love the more powerful force, but violence is inherently ineffective. Muste agrees with many others when he argues that “violence can only produce violence.” Instead, he asserts that “love is forever the only power than can conquer evil and establish good on earth.”172

167 Muste, “Address Over Y.M.C.A. New York,” 1. This line was added by Muste to the typed draft of the speech, along with a number of other corrections and additions. 168 Jones, Practical Christianity, 38. 169 Jones, The World Within, 32. 170 Heering, The Fall of Christianity, 10-11. 171 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: MacMillan, 1949), 125. 172 Muste, “War is the Enemy,” 270.

49 People and governments must stop trying to overcome Caesar by Caesar’s methods (or Hitler by his).173

That violence only leads to more violence was of course a common thesis in Muste’s day, as it is now.174 A number of authors Muste read expressed this sentiment. One is Aldous Huxley, who in Ends and Means makes it his central thesis that the ends do not justify the means. Rather, the means determine the ends: “war and violence are the prime causes of war and violence.”175

Gerrit Jan Heering states that “war can never be overcome by war, the Devil be driven out by

Beelzebub.”176 Jacques Maritain, a French Catholic philosopher, also argues that violence begets violence and that the way of the cross is the way of wisdom in both spiritual and temporal life.177

C. Paul Gliddon, who was secretary of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship, also criticizes those who think that good ends can be established by evil means. He writes that when “the Church countenances the employment against evil of any force other than an overcoming goodness, it is because she has underestimated the power that confronts her, has adopted a frivolous estimate of evil.”178 Both Maritain and Gliddon believe that another power, be it “the way of the cross” or

“goodness” is more powerful than violence. Muste saw both of these forces as synonyms for love.

173 Muste, Jesus and the Way to Peace, 5; A.J. Muste, Total War or Total Pacifism? (New York: The Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1940), 8. 174 Patricia Appelbaum finds the same emphasis in the writings of Harold Gray, which were influential in pacifist circles. See: Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 18. 175 Huxley, Ends and Means, 20. 176 Heering, The Fall of Christianity, 189. 177 Jacques Maritain, Freedom in the Modern World, trans. Richard O’Sullivan (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936), 175, 177. Muste marked up this passage in his copy of the book. 178 C. Paul Gliddon, “The Gospel Basis of Pacifism,” in Into the Way of Peace, ed. Hartill, Percy (London: James Clarke, 1940), 27, cf. 30. Muste underlined this passage and wrote “good point” next to it in the margin of his copy of the book.

50 Muste’s belief in the power of love undergirded his pacifism. He describes pacifists as those who “profess that love is the ultimate reality and that non-violence, constructive good-will is the one means for achieving justice, freedom, and brotherhood.”179 As a result, “the pacifist who believes the world is God’s world and that only God’s methods will work in it, also seems to me to be a realist, indeed the supreme realist.”180 Peace cannot come through violence; it can only come through the method of suffering love. The ends can never justify the means because the means determine the ends. Muste expressed this in a slogan still popular today: “there is no way to peace; peace is the way.”181

Without Love, Everything Falls to Pieces. The command to love is not simply about how we feel about one another, it is a way of life that leads to valuing other people so highly that we cannot do them harm. Its absence in a society allows for all sorts of evils and injustices.

Muste summarizes this point when he writes, “in the degree that [love] is lacking anywhere, things fall to pieces.” Interestingly, the example Muste gives is factory production. He cites a study that found that production increased when workers were drawn into real participation in the company, that is, that they had been treated as human beings, not as cogs in a machine.182

All People are Equally Worthy of Love. According to Muste, “every human being is to be loved equally––and is equally worthy of love.” This does not mean every person deserves or has earned the right to be loved: “love does not ask merit in advance from the object of its

179 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 187. 180 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 44. This is, of course, a biting critique of Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Christian Realism.” The exchange between Muste and Niebuhr has been well documented in Leilah Danielson, “Christianity, Dissent, and the Cold War: A.J. Muste’s Challenge to Realism and U.S. Empire,” Diplomatic History 30, no. 4 (September 2006): 645-669. 181 Muste, “Peace is the Way,” 5. 182 Muste, Not by Might, 69.

51 love.”183 People should love one another, not out of any earned merit, but because “to one whom we do not in a real sense love we are not yet according human dignity; and that is the great, original sin and the most potent source of evil in the world.”184 None of this means that loving others is easy. In the midst of the Second World War, Muste revealed his wrestlings with this question when he stood in a Quaker meeting and stated simply, “if I can’t love Hitler, I can’t love at all.”185 Love must be unconditional. It appears that Muste was helped in his quest to love even

Hitler by a compassion born of recognizing the severe brokenness of people. The reasons for not loving people like Hitler become sources of compassion. Muste hints this when he writes, “the reasons for refusing to love another, treating him as a thing and not a person, are never sufficient.

Rightly understood, they are indeed reasons why he should be more truly and wisely loved.”186

God is Love. The First Letter of John in the New Testament declares that “God is love.”187 Muste cited this often as part of the foundation for his understanding of the Christian way. He writes, “pacifism––life––is built upon a central truth and the experience of that truth, its apprehension not by the mind alone but by the entire being in an act of faith and surrender. That truth is: God is love, love is God.”188 The way the universe operates, for Muste, is based on this one assertion. Thus, “at its central core, the universe is love.”189 Love works as a method because

God is love.

183 Muste, “I Believe,” 8. 184 Muste, Not By Might, 68. 185 Hentoff, Peace Agitator, 12. 186 Muste, Not by Might, 70. 187 1 John 4:16. 188 Muste, “Return to Pacifism,” 201. 189 Muste, Not By Might, 86.

52 Once again, we must turn to Rufus Jones to find a writer who expressed this thought in the same way as Muste. Jones writes, “the essence of His nature is Love, and He reveals Himself and His Love that we may learn Love and so become like Him.”190 Jones does not seem to have written on how the nature of God as love reveals that the universe works by love. Where Muste got this second idea, if not from within himself, is unknown.

God’s Method is Love. Muste does biblical exegesis of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament to show that God’s method is love. He writes, “it is impossible to build up a scriptural-prophetic theology which does not demand the practice of love in all relationships of life and promise the reign of God on earth.” Over and over again the scriptures show that God’s response to opposition and sin is to keep loving the sinner. God suffers with people, takes steps to redeem them, and sets up “a kingdom built not on power but on ethical foundations, on a love

(covenant) relationship.”191

God does not resemble Caesar. This may challenge a popular understanding of God.

Muste writes, “the very worst thing is to think of God as a dictator reigning over his subjects.”

God’s methods are in line with the goals they are meant to achieve. Muste writes, “God does not resort to this thing men call power. Power can produce subjects for a monarchy, but not sons and daughters who freely love each other and the common Father. When sin and evil arise, God keeps on loving.”192

Jesus’ Method: The Way of the Cross. God’s method of love is easily seen in the life of

Jesus Christ. Muste often focused on the cross as the main exemplar of this method. Like any

190 Jones, Practical Christianity, 101. 191 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 16, 21. 192 Muste, Jesus and the Way to Peace, 2-3.

53 good Reformed theologian, he asserted that “the Cross is the crucial event in history.”193 By revealing it as an example of nonviolence, of suffering love, he sought to motivate Christians to adopt the same method. This is a truly Reformed route to pacifism, an argument usually ignored by liberal Protestants.

The cross represents Jesus’ refusal to use violence under any circumstances. Muste writes that Jesus “clung resolutely to the conviction that love is the only force that can overcome evil and redeem evil men, though he knew that in the end it would mean the defeat and ignominy of the Cross.” The cross reiterates Jesus’ rejection of the temptations offered by the devil during the forty days in the desert: a kingdom ruled by force––the overthrow of Caesar using Caesar’s methods. According to Muste, this stems both from the identity of God as love and from the principle that the means determine the ends. Muste argues that “since [Jesus’] mission was to knit together again the sundered family of mankind, and to kindle love in the hearts of his brothers in place of indifference and hate, his methods could not be those of rulers and warriors.

His ultimate weapon would have to be a Cross, not a sword.”194

Muste was not alone in this interpretation. Walter Rauschenbusch comments on Jesus’ methods when he writes that “the fundamental virtue in the ethics of Jesus was love.”

Furthermore, he writes that

alliance with the Messianic force-revolution was one of the temptations which he [Jesus] confronted at the outset and repudiated (Matthew 4:8-10); he would not set up God’s kingdom by using the devil’s means of hatred and blood. With the glorious idealism of faith and love Jesus threw away the sword and advanced on the entrenchments of wrong

193 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 21. 194 Muste, Jesus and the Way to Peace, 3-4.

54 with hand outstretched and heart exposed. He repudiated not only human violence, he even put aside the force which the common hope expected from heaven.195

Muste clearly agreed with Rauschenbusch’s words as well of those of Gerrit Jan Heering and

G.H.C. MacGregor, author of The New Testament Basis of Pacifism, a favorite of Muste’s, who both independently argue that the most important feature of Jesus’ messiahship was his refusal to wage the messianic war. MacGregor also emphasizes that the cross was a direct consequence of

Jesus’ pacifist ethic.196 Likewise, Joseph H. Oldham, known for his missions and ecumenical work, writes, “the cross of Christ is a condemnation of the values of the world.”197

The Cross Against Empire. Muste emphasizes that Jesus was confronting a physical enemy as well a spiritual one. He begins one essay with the line: “Jesus was born under a dictatorship.”198 Muste shows his knowledge of biblical scholarship when he regularly explains that messianic expectations included the messiah militarily overthrowing the Roman occupation of Palestine.199 He goes further than some biblical scholars by emphasizing not just the political oppression, but its consequent economic oppression and the fact that the messiah was supposed to address that as well.200 Muste argues that Jesus rejected the expectation that the messiah would conquer Caesar by Caesar’s methods and instead embraced the apparent folly of the cross. This

195 Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century, 55, 49. 196 Heering, The Fall of Christianity, 5; G.H.C. MacGregor, The New Testament Basis of Pacifism, new and revised ed. (Nyack, NY: Fellowship Press, 1954), 44, 48. Muste repeatedly recommended this work (see appendices 2 and 3). 197 Willem Adolph Visser ’T Hooft and Joseph Houldsworth Oldham, The Church and Its Function in Society (Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1937), 112. Muste underlined this passage and put one line next to it in the margin of his copy of the book. 198 Muste, Jesus and the Way to Peace, 1. 199 Muste, “The Church’s Responsibility for Peace,” 8. 200 Muste, “The Way of the Cross,” 1541.

55 idea has been quite prevalent in Christian writings for quite some time and, as Patricia

Appelbaum has shown, is present in the writings of other pacifists during the inter-war period.201

The Cross as Perceived Failure. In the battle of the Roman Empire versus the dead man on the cross, the victor seems clear. The Empire won. Jesus was discredited by his failure to avoid the cross. Muste emphasizes that this is why the crucifixion is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks.”202 The cross represents perceived failure. It demonstrates the power of empire over the method of nonviolence. But this is not the whole story.

Foolishness Proves Wise. Ultimately, according to Muste, the cross represents victory, the victory of suffering love over violence. Even when speaking to a Reformed audience, Muste does not, like one might expect, appeal to the resurrection as evidence that the method of the cross ultimately works. Instead, he appeals to the “verdict of history.”203 The Roman Empire crumbled but the movement started by this executed man remains. Ultimately, Jesus’ method proved superior. It is because of this that Muste can write, in 1939, that “there is no way to meet the situation which we have analyzed [World War Two] except the renunciation of war. This seemingly idealistic, by which men usually mean unrealistic, solution has become practical politics. ‘The way of the Cross’ which seemed foolishness to men proves once more to be divine wisdom.”204 In some strange twist of divine logic, “the Lamb, symbol of meekness, of gentleness, of seeming utter helplessness in the face of evil, of suffering love… is at the heart of

201 Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 14. 202 Muste, “The Church’s Responsibility for Peace,” 9. This is from 1 Corinthians 1:23. 203 Muste, “The Church’s Responsibility for Peace,” 9. 204 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 140.

56 all real power and the secret of every final victory.”205 The cross is, as Eugen Rosenstock-

Huessy, a German convert from Judaism to Christianity, put it, a paradox of success in failure.206

Because he intended most of his writings to reach broad audiences, irrespective of religious conviction, Muste’s writings display a dual attention to the theological basis of nonviolence and to its effectiveness as compared to violence. Yet in his mind, its effectiveness is rooted in the basic way the world works, which stems from the truth that God is love.

Suffering and Sacrifice. Muste criticized Christians who idealized the method of love.207

The cross is the method of suffering love. In this sinful world, “if you continue to love in the face of evil and rejection,” he writes, “then you will suffer.”208 Evil can only be overcome by those willing to die for the cause.209 This should not prevent people from loving because “love that accepts suffering on behalf of evil doers is Godlike. It is the ultimate expression of the divine nature. The idea that good can be accomplished and God’s will be done by inflicting suffering on others is Satanic.”210 Muste advocated choosing suffering oneself over inflicting suffering on others. He writes, “no matter what the suffering imposed upon it by evildoers, [love] will not resort to violence and hate in turn. It must be willing to accept death on behalf of evildoers and in the hour of death love them and pray for their forgiveness.”211 This is far from a cheap or

205 Muste, Not By Might, 90. 206 Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, The Christian Future; Or The Modern Mind Outrun (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1946), 115. Muste heavily marked up this passage in his copy of the book. 207 Muste, “Saints for This Age,” 422; Muste, Not By Might, 85. 208 Muste, “The Church’s Responsibility for Peace,” 7. 209 Muste, “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” 293. 210 Muste, Jesus and the Way to Peace, 4. 211 Muste, Not By Might, 84.

57 painless solution, but it is better than adding to the evil in the world by responding to violence and oppression by resorting to violence and oppression. It is “the Christian way… to refuse to cooperate with evil and to accept the consequence. The consequence is the Cross.”212

The way of the cross is deeply rooted in scripture, although because Muste was usually writing to non-Christians as well as Christians, he tended to keep direct scripture references to a minimum. Yet it is easy to see the scriptural basis of his thought. Where else could the exhortation to pray for the forgiveness of ones’ killers come from except the example of Jesus on the cross?213 Muste’s writings are quite similar to the admonitions found in 1 Peter to “turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” and that “it is better… to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”214 He regularly echoed Jesus’ warnings that persecution is inevitable.215 He writes that Matthew 16:25, “for whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” is a fundamental law that reminds us that there is no easy way out.216 Muste’s understanding of the way of love––the way of the cross––is rooted in the teachings of Jesus and the epistles just as much as it is rooted in Jesus’ example.

Muste is not the only Christian writer who touches on this theme. Rufus Jones writes that

“the finished Christian is known by the love which suffereth long.”217 Another possible influence on Muste, pacifist theologian Percy Hartill, argues that “if God himself is revealed by the Cross, then the Love that suffers is stronger than the force which inflicts suffering, because it has within

212 Muste, “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” 293. 213 Luke 23:34. 214 1 Peter 3:11, 17, TNIV. 215 See, for example, Matthew 24:9, Luke 21:12, John 15:20. 216 Muste, “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” 293. I have quoted the ESV. 217 Jones, Practical Christianity, 37.

58 it the power that can transform the evil-doer.”218 Gerrit Jan Heering connects this to international relations when he quotes the Dominican Father Franziscus Stratmann, who states that “it is better… even for nations, to suffer wrong rather than inflict it.”219 More than just a part of the

Christian life, these writers and Muste see suffering love as effective.

Suffering love is a method for overcoming evil without resorting to it. It is an alternative way, one that rejects violence. When confronted with such horrors as war, no solution is painless.

Nonviolence requires willingness to suffer just as much as war does. The idea of suffering love has been abused to justify passive acceptance of oppression, but clearly Muste is not advocating passivity, but a more effective form of resistance to oppression. His point is primarily that “until men are willing to pay for the way of peace something like what they pay for war, they do not truly want peace and they certainly will not get it.”220 Moreover, “whenever love that will suffer unto death is manifested, whenever a true Crucifixion takes place, unconquerable power is released into the stream of history.”221

Pacifist culture lost much of its optimism with the rise of Hitler. Its literature began to contain more material about continuing to work for peace even when there is no guarantee of success.222 Unlike much of what was present in the general conversation, Muste’s understanding was rooted in theology, not experience. As a result, his thought did not shift significantly with the tide of opinion. When pacifists were generally optimistic, he cautioned that the way of love may

218 Percy Hartill, “The Philosophy of Christian Pacifism,” in Into the Way of Peace, ed. Percy Hartill (London: James Clarke, 1940), 76. Muste heavily marked up this passage in his copy of the book. 219 Heering, The Fall of Christianity, 199. 220 Muste, Not By Might, 84. 221 Muste, “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” 294. 222 Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 132.

59 require suffering. When all they saw was endless suffering, he reminded them that even that suffering is often effective.

A Method for All of Us. Muste’s purpose in explaining the way of the cross was always to change the behavior of his audience. For him, “all this poses the question: ‘If God’s answer to evil is forgiveness of the evil-doer, is love which stops at no sacrifice for the sinner, then what must my answer be?’” Muste makes clear what he thinks the answer to this question must be.

The Christian has “given his allegiance to God” and “must give himself to a life of love such as that manifested in Jesus.” The way of love, which is the way of the cross, is the way for all of us.

Moreover, it is the only hope the world has to avoid war and its destructiveness. Humanity’s only hope is to “pray that the Cross may become to us what it is indeed, the wisdom of God and the power of God for the salvation alike of the individual and of society.”223

Paul Ramsey, a Methodist ethicist, makes this same point when he writes, quoting

Romans 5:8, that “‘God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us’…. With this prototypal divine love, then as a consequence love for the helpless, the quite ungodly, the wholly unrighteous, those who are still sinners, and love for the enemy, become essential determinants in the nature of Christian love.”224 Patricia Appelbaum summarizes the pacifist view when she writes that “they affirmed a God whose primary attribute was love and a

Christianity that was a whole way of life.”225

223 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 18, 39, 203. 224 Paul Ramsey, Basic Christian Ethics (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1954), 20. In his copy, Muste added a line in the margin next to the second part of this passage. 225 Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 60.

60 The Way of the Cross: The Core of Muste’s Theology. Muste’s theology of the way was very well developed. It is the core of his theology. More than any other aspect of his theology, it informed his work and prophetic witness. It was the basis for his embrace and advocacy of pacifism. It helped determine how he sought to treat people. It motivated him to continue his work for peace, justice, and equality throughout his life.

Chapter 6: Theological Anthropology

Valuing Personality. Muste developed his understanding of the human being as part of his efforts to combat ideologies that devalue people and make it easier to do violence against them. He argues against violence and war because each individual human being is of infinite worth and harming a person violates that worth. Moreover, the connectedness of all people means that any act of violence is an act against oneself. Because these beliefs are often not reflected in government policy, Muste emphasizes the need for individual freedom so that people are able to adhere to their beliefs and make choices of conscience for themselves when their governments are doing wrong.

Muste developed his anthropology to support his goals as a pacifist. It addresses the world’s failure to uphold the dignity of each person and the unity of all people. These views were fairly common among liberals in Muste’s day, but unlike most liberals who hold these views,

Muste has a strong emphasis on sin and the need for repentance. The worst sin, for Muste, is the violation of the unity of humanity by separating yourself from others. He links this with a concern for when people believe themselves superior, which is the basis for many acts that ignore the worth of each person. A prominent example is racism, which Muste worked tirelessly against. Emphasizing sin is only helpful when it leads to self-examination. Throughout Muste’s

61 writings, he urges people to focus primarily on their own sin, to take the plank out of their own eye before they try to help another person with the speck in theirs.

Infinite Worth. The belief that every individual is of infinite worth is at the core of

Muste’s understanding of what it means to be human. Muste often uses this idea because of its practical consequences. If we “see a human being, every human being, as a spirit of infinite worth [then they] must be dealt with as such.”226 A high view of the individual person requires that every individual be treated with reverence. This precludes the use of violence.

Muste’s belief that people are of infinite worth is rooted in his theology. In a speech given in 1937 to the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America Muste states, “the human individual ‘for whom Christ died’ is of infinite worth. Violate personality in yourself or your fellow, and you strike at the heart of God himself. No lines of nationality or race or class wipe out this basic fact.”227 The first part of this quotation emphasizes the work of Christ––that God sees humans as valuable enough to die for. This alone could provide theological foundations for his anthropology, but he goes further. The second part of the quotation is not far removed from efforts to emphasize human worth through the idea that people are created in the image of God.

A year later, in another address to a gathering of the RCA, he explicitly invokes the idea of imago dei to explain why humans should not “lord over” one another.228 Elsewhere, Muste addresses this question when writes that “each human being is a child of God, and therefore in himself of infinite worth.”229 Similarly, he says that “human beings derive their nature from the

226 Muste, Not By Might, 66. 227 Muste, “The Church’s Responsibility for Peace,” 8. 228 Muste, “Church’s Witness to Her Faith,” 5. 229 A.J. Muste, Conscription and Conscience (Philadelphia: American Friends Service Committee, [1944?]), 3.

62 fact that they are children of a common father,” which gives them equality with one another.230

He also argues that democracy will collapse if religion disappears because “human beings are creatures of moral dignity and worth, not in themselves, but only if they stand in relation to God, a reality beyond themselves.”231 Human worth for Muste is rooted in God and God’s actions, not in any inherent quality of the person or in their position, status, or accomplishments.

The idea that each human being is of infinite worth is fairly common in theological writings in the late 1800s and early 1900s.232 Muste likely borrowed the concept from another writer, probably G.H.C. McGregor, who writes that Jesus had a theology “of a Father God to whom every individual human soul is infinitely precious.”233 From the Reformed tradition,

Abraham Kuyper uses the imago dei justification when he writes that Calvinism starts with “the recognition in each person of human worth, which is by virtue of his creation after Divine likeness, and therefore the equality of all.”234 Similarly, Aldous Huxley writes that people must

“respect the personality of others.”235 The Quaker understanding of the light of God within may also have contributed to Muste’s thinking.

Muste’s understanding intentionally challenged the dehumanizing processes required as part of the justification of war and violence. He argues that

to do violence to others is to treat them as objects, things, to be manipulated from without, perhaps even to be chopped in pieces or shot to bits, instead of as persons who can only be moved from within, i.e., in the last analysis by love. Furthermore, the one

230 A.J. Muste, “New Brunswick Lectures,” (March 22, 1944), 4. 231 A.J. Muste, “Summary of Address Before Men’s Club, Kingston, NY” (February 21, 1939), 3. 232 A search for the phrase in theological journals from the period shows this to be true. 233 MacGregor, The New Testament Basis of Pacifism, 39. 234 Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism, 31. 235 Huxley, Ends and Means, 349.

63 who uses violence also becomes a thing and ceases to behave as a sensitive, responsible person dealing with his bother, his equal.236

Muste argues that to wage war requires dehumanizing the enemy, but also results in a dehumanizing of the self. Neither is desirable. Instead, people should treat others as beings of infinite worth and cease to do violence of any kind against them. This requires that nations refuse to go to war.

A number of Muste’s influences used similar arguments to discredit war. Christian social ethicist John Coleman Bennett writes that war is “in contradiction to all that Christianity means because of what it makes persons do to persons.”237 Percy Hartill argues that “evil systems treat human beings not in their primary status as children of God, but in light of some secondary relationship.” He uses war his primary example.238 Gregory Vlastos, a philosopher and Christian writer, uses the same language as Muste without relating it to war when he writes that “when

Christianity declared that ‘in Christ there is neither bond nor free’, it abolished once for all the conception of human thinghood.”239 Howard Brinton, a prominent Quaker writer, argues that “to use force on a man is to treat him as a thing, as sub-human and as unworthy of respect or confidence.”240 Clearly Muste was not alone in his high understanding of the value of each person and in his relation of this to war and violence.

236 Muste, Not by Might, 71. 237 John Coleman Bennett, Christianity––and Our World (New York: Association Press, 1936), 57. 238 Hartill, “The Philosophy of Christian Pacifism,” 74. Muste heavily marked up this passage in his copy of the book. 239 Gregory Vlastos, “The Ethical Foundations,” Towards the Christian Revolution, ed. R.B.Y. Scott and Gregory Vlastos (Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1936), 64. Muste underlined this passage in his copy of the book. 240 Howard H. Brinton, Divine-Human Society (Philadelphia: Book Committee of the Religious Society of Friends of Philadelphia and Vicinity, 1938), 78. Muste underlined this passage and put three lines next to it in the margin of his copy of the book.

64 One Big, Global Family. Along with the worth of each individual, Muste emphasized the unity of all humanity. Fellowship and love are at the core of reality. As a result, the human family is, “in the profoundest sense,” one.241 Drawing upon the imagery of the Body of Christ found in the New Testament writings of Paul, Muste concludes that “we are all part of a spiritual unity, bound together so that what happens to any, happens to me.”242 Each person is a child of God and therefore we are all siblings, “bound together in a profound and ultimately indissoluble unity in the family of God, the divine-human society.”243 This unity is of profound importance. War is a crime against this unity and thus a crime against all humanity and God. Therefore, “the supreme need is a love that insists the community must not be broken.”244 For Muste, this is not a unity limited to Christians, the Body of Christ, but one in which the whole of humanity participates.

Once again, we find a similar emphasis in the writings of Abraham Kuyper, who sees fellowship of God with humanity and people with each other as a central doctrine of Calvinism.

He writes, “our supreme calling must impress the stamp of one-ness upon all human life, because one God upholds and preserves it, just as He created it all.” Kuyper even goes as far as to argue that the division of the world into nations violates this principle.245 While Muste did draw political implications from this idea, he did not go as far as Kuyper. Muste’s position on the political implications of human unity was closer to that of Walter Rauschenbusch, who writes

241 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 177. 242 Muste, Not by Might, 73. 243 Muste, Conscription and Conscience, 8. 244 Muste, Not By Might, 82. 245 Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism, 24, 54, 79. Emphasis Kuyper’s.

65 that “approximate equality is the only enduring foundation of political democracy. The sense of equality is the only basis for Christian morality.”246

Like Muste, Nels Ferré, a Swedish-American theologian influenced both by his evangelical upbringing in Sweden and American liberal Protestantism, sees love as essential to the maintenance of unity. In a book by Ferré, Muste underlined a passage where he argues that

“the Christian fellowship is on the basis neither of man’s holiness nor of his sinfulness. It is squarely on the basis of God’s love.”247 Muste noted that the strong and basic human desire for fellowship and love should make the establishment of such a community easier. Quite a few authors he read have a similar understanding.248

Individual Freedom. The oneness of humanity does not, for Muste, infringe on the sanctity of human freedom, which is at the heart of his critique of military conscription. In the

World War Two era pamphlet Conscription and Conscience, Muste writes,

this does not mean that each human being is a law unto himself. It means rather that he is subject to a higher law, i.e., to the command of God. He cannot function as a responsible human being, he cannot therefore discharge his obligations to his fellow-men, unless he remains substantially free to order his own life, to make crucial decisions, to obey the voice of God as it comes to him.249

Muste gives a number of reasons why freedom is so important. In the quotation above we see two: the need to be responsible as part of the human community and the classic Christian idea

246 Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century, 203. 247 Nels F. S. Ferré, The Christian Faith: An Inquiry into Its Adequacy as Man’s Ultimate Religion (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1942), 206. 248 Muste, Not By Might, 68; Vlastos, “The Ethical Foundations,” 73. Muste underlined this passage and put three lines next to it in the margin of his copy of the book; Rufus Jones, Social Law in the Spiritual World (Philadelphia: John C. Winston, 1904), 16-17; Ferré, The Christian Faith, 24. In his copy of this book, Muste underlined the second part of this passage and added a line next to it in the margin; Rosenstock-Huessy, The Christian Future, 41. Muste underlined this passage and put three lines next to it in the margin of his copy of the book. 249 Muste, Conscription and Conscience, 3.

66 that freedom is necessary so that human beings can obey God. Elsewhere, Muste includes the infinite worth of each person as another reason for the necessity of freedom. He argues that because the individual, unlike the state, has a conscience, each person has “infinite worth and dignity and is indeed qualified to govern himself and therefore live in a free society.”250

Drawing from the writings of Abraham Kuyper, Muste argues that the sovereignty of God also justifies the necessity of freedom from control by others.251 Kuyper argues that the state must allow “every citizen liberty of conscience, as the primordial and inalienable right of all men” because “conscience is never subject to man but always and ever to God Almighty.”252

Because people answer to a higher power than the state, the state cannot demand absolute obedience.

Sin and Repentance. Muste’s understanding of sin comes mainly from his experience in the Reformed Church in America. He writes that he “received too solid a dose of Calvinism not to have a strong conviction about human frailty and corruption” and that this made him aware at an early age “that when a man is sure he is honest, he deceives himself; when he imagines himself to be pure, he is impure; and when we bask in the glow of the feeling that we love, the fact is that in subtle ways we hate.”253 He believed that a recognition of one’s sin is essential, which explains why he once marked up a passage by English Presbyterian theologian Herbert

Henry Farmer on the modern tendency to lose any sense of sin.254 Muste saw that tendency as a

250 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 103. 251 Muste, “Church’s Witness to Her Faith,” 5. Muste specifically cites Kuyper’s Stone Lectures, published as Lectures on Calvinism. 252 Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism, 108, 107. 253 Muste, “Saints for This Age,” 420. 254 Herbert Henry Farmer, The World and God; A Study of Prayer, Providence and Miracle in Christian Experience (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1935), 4.

67 dangerous development. Muste also marked up a passage where Joseph H. Oldham writes that the fact that humanity crucified God’s son reveals that the fundamental character of the world “is contrary to God and to his anointed.”255 It is not clear that Muste’s understanding of sin was as deeply theologically based as Oldham’s––World War One proved the same point for many––but it certainly did stem from his Reformed upbringing.

Certainly Muste’s emphasis on sin did not arise from his involvement in pacifist or liberal

Protestant culture. Patricia Appelbaum has shown that such a view was rare in the pacifist movement, which tended, like its Protestant and Quaker sources, to have an optimistic view of the human condition.256 His emphasis on sin and repentance is uncharacteristic of his pacifist peers, even though he uses it for ends they would agree with. Muste was also generally opposed to neo-orthodoxy and other theological reactions to the optimism of liberal Protestantism. He found a middle path that did not abandon either the doctrine of sin or the belief in the possibility of improvement.

His deep understanding of sin led Muste to call people to repentance. Notably, these appeals were always issued primarily to people and groups he identified with. He criticizes the tendency to ignore the faults within ourselves. The person who truly seeks to do good must first recognize his or her own sinfulness; pretending to be good is destructive “not because goodness is meaningless or illusory, but precisely because men were meant to be––not pretend to be–– good.”257 The process of self-examination and repentance is central. Muste writes, “for the individual, salvation, reconciliation with God, begins with the bitter experience of facing the

255 Visser ’T Hooft and Oldham, The Church and Its Function in Society, 121. 256 Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 114. 257 Muste, Not By Might, 58-59, 117.

68 truth about himself, shedding all pretense and evasion, and crying out, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’”258 Repentance is aimed at change. Acknowledgement that one is a sinner is held together with the knowledge that one is forgiven. Accepting both one’s sinfulness and one’s status as forgiven negates the need to compare oneself to others in order to boost one’s self- image.259 Acceptance of one’s own sinfulness is the first step toward trying to truly be good.

For Muste, repentance is both an individual and a corporate process. Just as repentance is necessary for the formation of the human being, it is necessary for the health of nations. It is the antidote to the self-righteousness which creates the conditions for war by dehumanizing the people of other nations. The recognition, according to Muste, that “we too are a war-like and imperialist nation” prevents attempts to demonize the other.260 Muste repeatedly called for corporate repentance of the sins of the United States and hoped pacifists and Christians in other nations would call their own countries to repentance. The only appropriate response to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for instance, is to “smite our breasts and cry, ‘God, be merciful unto us sinners’.”261

Muste longed for the transformation of individuals, societies, and nations. Repentance is a necessary step on the path of change, especially the kind of drastic change that would lead a country like the United States to renounce war and go to the nations “armed with food, clothing, medicine, machines, skills, instead of with atomic bombs.”262 A similar application of the idea of

258 Muste, “War is the Enemy,” 262. 259 Muste, Not By Might, 58-59. 260 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 155. 261 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 149; Muste, Not By Might, 117-119. 262 Muste, Not By Might, 119.

69 corporate repentance as the path to a new society is found in the writings of Gregory Vlastos, who argues for a socialist system by writing that “the way out is perfectly clear…. You must repent, change your mind, change your ways. You must have faith in a kingdom that is founded not on superiority, but on equality.”263

Separation and Superiority. For Muste, the worst sin was that of seeing oneself as separate and different from others. He writes that “above all, we are children of one divine

Father. Setting oneself apart from anyone is the key mistake, the most hideous sin…. The moment, therefore, we add to our other sins the sin of thinking that we are better we have fallen as low as it is possible to fall.”264 This is the sin of self-righteous people, the sin of the Pharisee.

Muste explains, “Jesus’ symbol of sinfulness was the Pharisee. The Pharisee was a good and respectable man; a devoted churchman and an ardent patriot. But the Pharisee set himself apart from other men; he prided himself on his separateness from them.”265 Quisling tax collectors and prostitutes were closer to the kingdom of God than the Pharisees because they knew their need for mercy. Out of this understanding of scripture, Muste strongly warned against seeing others as

“in a lower category.”266 He notes that “there can be no adequate expression of the spirit of reconciliation and brotherhood where one individual or group keeps another in a status of inferiority.”267 The sin of separation is a major theme throughout Muste’s works. It plays a large role in his critiques of U.S. foreign policy, undergirds his work to combat racism and

263 Gregory Vlastos, Christian Faith and Democracy (New York: Hazen, 1939), 39. Muste underlined this passage and put three lines next to it in the margin of his copy of the book. 264 Muste, Not By Might, 59-60. 265 Muste, “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” 284. Muste also uses the example of the Pharisee in Not By Might, page 60. 266 Muste, Not By Might, 60. 267 Muste, “Address Over Y.M.C.A. New York,” 3.

70 segregation, and is present in lesser ways in many other discussions, including his critique of

Christian realism.

Muste frequently used his theological arguments against superiority and ethnocentrism to dispute U.S. foreign policy. He believed that confidence in one’s own superiority is necessary if one is to be able to seek the destruction of another nation in war. He writes, “it is doubtful whether human beings can fight for any length of time unless they make themselves believe in the essential inferiority of the enemy.”268 One of the most eloquent examples of this argument comes from the opening pages of Not By Might (1947), where he writes,

If a vast establishment and an arsenal of atomic weapons constitute such a force for security and peace, why not equip all nations with them? If this does not sound reasonable, should we not try to achieve a modicum of objectivity and humility and stop thinking that we and our preponderant might constitute an exception among all nations and all history? That, in other words, we are the master race, the Herrenvolk, whose supremacy all men will, and must, hail with delight?269

Muste repeatedly asks shocking questions whose seemingly obvious answers destroy strongly held assumptions. A few years later (1950), he asks, “if the United States has any business in

South Korea, why not Russia in North Korea?” And, “if the United States has interests in Japan and its security requires troops there, why has not Russia interests in Mexico and Canada and why might not her security require the presence of some dependable Russian or at least Mexican or Canadian Communist troops there?”270 The examples of this argument in his writings are extremely numerous. He mercilessly attacked any ideologies and policies that were based on an assumption of superiority, believing that “one of the crucial obstacles to peace in the world is

268 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 105. 269 Muste, Not By Might, 4. 270 Muste, “Korea: Spark to Set a World Afire?,” 341.

71 American self-righteousness… and that it is always the ‘others’ who are the disturbers, aggressors and troublemakers, no matter how many miles away from home we may be.”271

Leilah Danielson, a historian who has looked extensively at Muste, argues that Muste’s arguments against Christian Realism include a focus on the United State’s ethnocentrism. She writes, “Muste believed that realism, despite its claims to the contrary, was an ideology based upon the assumption that the United States and Western Europe were exemplars of democracy and freedom.”272 She notes that in a draft for Not by Might Muste writes, “white imperialism is not democratic. Our American racist practices are not democratic.”273 Danielson writes of an exchange Muste had with George Kennan, whose writings as deputy chief of the U.S. mission in

Moscow helped lay the foundations of U.S. Cold War doctrine. Kennan was afraid, like many others at the time, that the communist Chinese could establish control over other Asian nations.

Muste critiques Kennan’s descriptions of the Chinese as fanatical and inhuman.274 Though it would be logical that Kennan’s beliefs stem from fear of a spread of Chinese communism, Muste argues that they are really based on a false belief in the superiority of North Americans.

The origins of Muste’s belief in separation as the worst sin cannot be determined with complete certainty. As Muste developed the argument, he was likely influenced by both the Bible and modern writers, both religious and secular. A broad range of biblical passages influenced his pacifism and his stand against racism, which both tie into his critiques of foreign policy. We have

271 A.J. Muste, “The Civil Rights Movement and the American Establishment,” in The Essays of A.J. Muste, ed. Nat Hentoff (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967), 460-461. 272 Danielson, “Christianity, Dissent, and the Cold War,” 645, 657. 273 A.J. Muste, “Contemporary Role of Russia and Stalinist Communism,” 54; Danielson, “Christianity, Dissent, and the Cold War,” 657-658. This line did not make it into Not By Might in such a stark form. It is also not clear that this essay is even a draft of Not By Might. Danielson makes this claim, but it may be that the essay was written for another purpose and later served to inform the book. 274 Danielson, “Christianity, Dissent, and the Cold War,” 666.

72 examined some of these passages and will continue to do so. Within the realm of foreign policy, in once essay, Muste uses the biblical emphasis on love in a way that combats the dehumanizing of the enemy that takes place in war. He writes that recognizing the humanity of the enemy “is, in the practical, social sense, to obey the great command: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor–– including the Samaritan, the publican, the enemy––as thyself.’”275

Like Muste, Abraham Kuyper critiques belief in superiority. He writes, “if Calvinism places our entire human life immediately before God, then it follows that all men or women, rich or poor, weak or strong, dull or talented, as creatures of God, and as lost sinners, have no claim whatsoever to lord over one another, and that we stand as equals before God.”276 Interestingly,

Kuyper himself displays a striking superiority complex when it comes to his advocacy of

Calvinism, which he sees as the most evolved form of all religion.277 This superiority complex has been the historical curse of the Reformed traditions and may even have been the starting point for Muste’s development of his arguments against it, although this is just speculation. It is not unheard of for people in the Dutch Reformed tradition to criticize its tendency toward superiority. For example, a book by Gerrit Jan Heering that Muste recommended contains an explanation of how racists applied the Calvinist concept of election to the different races, but

Muste’s critique developed before Heering’s book was published.278

275 Muste, “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” Essays, 287, cf. 288. 276 Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism, 27. Kuyper vacillates quite a bit in this passage, drawing out implications of this idea and then negating them or finding exceptions. 277 Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism, 41, 72-73. The whole text is saturated with his theory that “Calvinism means the completed evolution of Protestantism,” which itself is the most evolved form of religion. 278 Heering, The Fall of Christianity, 64-65.

73 Muste’s strong language about setting oneself apart echoes Aldous Huxley’s statement that “evil is that which makes for separateness.” This follows the reminder that “it is a fact of experience that we can either emphasize our separateness from other beings and the ultimate reality of the world or emphasize our oneness with them and it.” Likewise, Muste’s examples from foreign policy are reminiscent of Huxley’s. As a Briton, Huxley uses the example of the

British colonization of India, writing that “things which would be absolutely unthinkable at home are not only thinkable, but do-able and actually done in India.”279 Muste also mentions India as an example of hypocrisy, but he uses it to reveal the inconsistency of the U.S. opposing imperialism when practiced by World War Two Germany and Japan, but not when practiced by its allies.280

Discussion of self-righteousness was present within Protestant theology long before

Muste. Like in Muste’s thought, it was sometimes linked to the concepts of fellowship and love, both of which are incompatible with a sense of superiority. One passage Muste was fond of comes from theologian Daniel Day Williams, who writes, “God does transform rebellious and self-sufficient men into persons who can begin to love their fellows. The power which works this transformation is released in the depth of personal life just at the point at which man finds his own self-righteousness shattered, and discovers that the mercy of God comes to him in his need.”281 This also parallels Muste’s assumption that the aim of discussion of self-righteousness is not to criticize so much as it is to call people, societies, and nations to repentance and change.

279 Huxley, Ends and Means, 19, 348-349. 280 Muste, “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” 292. Muste’s attention to India was probably influenced more by Richard Gregg’s The Power of Nonviolence than by Huxley. 281 Daniel Day Williams, God’s Grace and Man’s Hope (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1949), 58. In his copy, Muste underlined this passage and added three lines in the margin. He also quotes this passage in Muste, “Pacifism and Perfectionism,” 313.

74 Racism. While belief in superiority can be based on nationalist or economic grounds, racism is one of the most common causes of westerners’ arrogance. As we have already mentioned, Muste consistently fought against racism throughout his life. He believed that the creation of racial equality and the end of racist attitudes is central to any effort for peace and any work against war.282 Similarly, he argues that combating racism and religious prejudice is necessary if democracy is to survive in the U.S.283 He is critical of those who sought to downplay the severity of racism in the United States, writing, “frankly, that highly informed, intelligent and socially sensitive intellectuals should be able to write about the race situation in this country as if it did not in some decisive sense show a pattern, as if indeed there were not something about it which had to be called the pattern, leaves me appalled.”284 As further evidence, he notes the continued existence of racist laws, attitudes, and violence. To those who believe that the U.S. has dealt with racism, he writes, “if we in America do not believe in racism, for example, we can tackle the huge job of removing from our own eyes such beams as Jim Crowism, lynching, anti-

Semitism which is not unknown in our ‘best circles’, [and] the Oriental Exclusion Act.”285

The exact origins of Muste’s desire to combat racism are not known. It was clearly present as early as his involvement with the labor movement, when his unions were among the few than accepted nonwhites. Later, he supported efforts by conscientious objectors to end prison segregation during the Second World War and made the Fellowship of Reconciliation into a

282 Muste, “War is the Enemy,” 273-274. 283 Muste, “Summary of Address Before Men’s Club, Kingston, NY,” 1. 284 A.J. Muste, “Who has the Spiritual Atomic Bomb?” in The Essays of A.J. Muste, ed. Nat Hentoff (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967), 492. Emphasis original. 285 Muste, “Admonitions for War Time,” 2.

75 major force in the Civil Rights Movement.286 The Congress of Racial Equality was founded in his office there by his staffers.287

His influence on the Civil Rights Movement cannot be overestimated. It is little known, but a lecture by Muste was Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s first exposure to the idea of nonviolence, although King did not become convinced of the practicality of the position until years later.288 Muste mentored a number of prominent Civil Rights leaders, including Bayard

Rustin, who later claimed that while an advisor to King, he never made a difficult decision without talking about it with Muste first.289 But where did this concern of Muste’s come from? It is doubtful that it came out of his Reformed background, although Abraham Kuyper did have an unusual pseudoscientific theory about the mingling of races leading to advances in civilization.290 More likely Muste developed the concern on his own or learned it from Quakers or his liberal Protestant influences.

Muste grounded his abhorrence of racism in human worth and in the fellowship of all people in one family as the children of God. He believed that “discrimination denies men their standing as human beings, shuts them out of the family, [and] deprives them of the moral dignity with which God clothed them.” His work against racism was rooted in his theological arguments surrounding separation and superiority. He argues forcefully that “in Christian teaching and in

286 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 109. 287 Hentoff, Peace Agitator, 16-17; Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 110-114. 288 Martin Luther King, Jr., Stride toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (New York: Harper & Row, 1958), 95. 289 Hentoff, Peace Agitator, 17; Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 118. In the endnote (p. 278), Robinson notes that she confirmed Hentoff’s quotation in an interview with Rustin. 290 Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism, 35-37. This contrasts with the much more widespread theory that racial mixing would result in an inferior breed of human.

76 democratic concepts there is no moral basis for Jim Crow, for segregation of any kind, no basis for anything except compete brotherhood.”291 This is because “‘in Christ Jesus there is neither

Jew nor Greek’––white, black, yellow, brown.”292

For most of Muste’s life, arguments against racism as forceful as his were rare among white Christians; however, a few examples can be found in books Muste read. Unfortunately, the only examples come from after Muste developed his concern for combating racism. Even so, they may have helped him further hone his arguments. John Coleman Bennett argues that racism and nationalism exaggerate difference, ignore human kinship, and lead to war. He believes that

“racialism and nationalism exaggerate human differences and fly in the face of a real human kinship deeper than all differences.”293 Gregory Vlastos laments that anti-semitism, segregation of African-Americans, and the disfranchisement of Asians on the West Coast are ills reflected equally in churches as the rest of society, even though the churches should be better.294

“First, Take the Plank Out of Your Own Eye.” In the sermon on the mount in

Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is recorded as saying, “why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the

291 Muste, “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” 284, 292. Emphasis original. 292 Muste, “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” 292. This is, of course, a paraphrase of Paul’s famous exhortation in Galatians 3:28, which states, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (ESV). In another essay, Muste, when commenting on Galatians 3:28, remarks that “it is as much as if, in a Baptist Church in the Deep South, whites and Negroes worshipped together––as of course they should.” See: Muste, “Saints for This Age,” 417. 293 Bennett, Christianity––and Our World, 21. Muste marked up this passage in his copy of the book. 294 Vlastos, Christian Faith and Democracy, 49. Muste underlined this passage in his copy of the book.

77 speck from the other person’s eye.”295 Muste used this imagery often, arguing that people, institutions, and nations, “must adopt that basic attitude inculcated by the prophets and Jesus of taking out first the beam from its own eye.”296 Self-examination may often reveal that “we constantly condone or justify in ourselves and those who are on our side what we subject to the severest condemnation when practiced by others.”297 This is evident in interpersonal, international, class, and race relations.

Muste argues that taking the beam out of one’s own eye is actually significantly easier than removing the speck from another’s eye. It is easier to address one’s own sin than to constructively help others address theirs. He notes that an individual’s responsibility is primarily for herself of himself. Muste writes, “the amount of suffering in the world is also in only a limited degree subject to our determination. But there is one thing that is absolutely within the control of each of us, namely, his own moral decisions and acts.”298 We are not able to fix everything or control everything. Our hope comes in remembering that “God is the ruler of the universe… He has indeed given man a limited and sufficiently awful responsibility, but beyond that limit men do well to remember that ‘the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary’.”299 Humans are limited. We have to trust that God is working in the world––that God has the power to do what we cannot.

295 Matthew 7:3-5, TNIV. 296 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 70. 297 Muste, Not By Might, 77. 298 Muste, Not By Might, 81. 299 Muste, Not By Might, 75-76; Isaiah 40:58.

78 During the period when he moved closest to accepting the use of violence, Muste employed the “first, remove the beam from your own eye” argument against people who criticized the use of violence by oppressed peoples. He points out that the main problem in labor relations is not that labor occasionally uses violence, but that the oppressive system is created and maintained by violence.300 He later reverted to the view that all violence, toward whatever end, is both immoral and ineffective.

Muste primarily spoke in this way in connection to national sin. The argument often went something like this:

Especially oppose evil in yourself. Much of the time men generate no real power in combating evil because they are not really against evil at all. In the United States today, for example, we are against racism when practiced by Hitler and the Japanese militarists, but we practice it ourselves against Negroes…. We are against concentration camps, but we put our own citizens of Japanese descent into them. Such things show that we are not really against these evils at all; we are simply against those results that happen to inconvenience ourselves.301

Muste criticized the hypocrisy so often present in U.S. policy––present in large part as the result of efforts to build support for the nation’s wars. He called the nation to live up to the moral ideals that its propaganda appealed to, even if its actions revealed other motivations.

Muste’s writings sound very similar to those of Gerrit Jan Heering, who writes that “if war is a crime against mankind and a sin against God, we must play no part in it…. there is one land in the world where we can immediately make this Christian principle to avail: our own land, for there we have a voice.”302 While Heering was speaking of his own nation, the Netherlands,

300 Muste, Fellowship and Class Struggle, 20. 301 Muste, “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” 292. 302 Heering, The Fall of Christianity, 194.

79 Muste applied these ideas to his adopted home, the United States. He called it to fix itself before focusing on the problems of others.

Theology in the Service of Peace. Muste’s theology of the human being is not a systematic, academic work. It is theology done in support of his prophetic work of calling people to live in peace with one another. The cruelty of human beings pained him deeply. He had no choice but to call people to a better way, one that valued the infinite worth and unity of all people. He called his nation to repentance, particularly for its sense of separateness and superiority, which allowed it to wage war abroad and oppress minorities at home. Like any prophet, he spoke first to his own people and only after that to the rest of the world.

Despite its unsystematic nature, Muste’s anthropology is well-developed and consistent.

When all of its parts are pieced together, they reveal a sophisticated theology. Unlike some parts of his theology, Muste’s anthropology is visible in a large number of his works. Because it is more easily made palatable to secular audiences, his belief in the worth and unity of all people is a central part of many of his arguments. Likewise, his critiques of wrongdoing, superiority, and racism are present in many of his works precisely because their original theological context is optional, allowing him to use them with a broad audience.

Muste used his anthropology as a litmus test. It formed a basis for his critiques of policies and ideologies. He used it both against his natural enemies and against trends in the movements he supported. It helped keep him from endorsing flawed tactics. His anthropology was part of the theological edifice that helped him maintain his distance from some of the trends of his time. He did not always succeed––he would cite his movement toward Trotskyism as an example––but he did achieve a rare level of independence from the tendencies of his time.

80 Muste was well aware that all over the world the infinite worth and unity of human beings was being violated, just as it still is today. He protested every war from World War One to

Vietnam. He fought economic oppression and racism throughout his life. His arguments against these things show an underlying theological basis, one he hoped could become more universal and lead many more people to oppose violence and injustice in the world.

Chapter 7: Ecclesiology

Muste and the Church. Muste was formed in the church, left it to a large extent during his work in the labor movement, and then returned to it with renewed convictions in 1936. He was deeply concerned for the health of the church, the community of followers of Jesus Christ.

He had high hopes for the church and he expressed these primarily in his calls for it to live up to its calling. He believed that the church was largely failing at its essential tasks. Instead of leading him to abandon the church or despair, this recognition led him to work for its improvement. He worked with many Christian traditions and denominations, calling them all to a different way, one that embraced the church’s responsibility for peace.

Like much of his theology, Muste developed his ecclesiology largely to serve his arguments for peace, even if its major influences lie elsewhere. He believed that the church could be a major force in the world. Although this conviction seems to have dissipated by the end of his life, he for a long time believed that the church is the world’s only only hope for saving itself by ending war. He shows his emphasis on evangelism when he speaks of the need to spread a pacifist interpretation of the gospel. The need for Christians to witness prophetically against war, including by becoming conscientious objectors, is a common theme in his writings. His experience in creative activism spawned advice that the church be more willing to experiment and try new things. His concern for Christian education has its origins in criticisms of the peace

81 churches’ failure to educate their youth about pacifism. His writings on building the beloved community tie into his vision of a new, peaceful, and just social order. The emphasis on the unity of the church in his works arises from horror at the facts of what Christians do to one another in war. His ecclesiology pushes the church toward a different way, the way of peace.

The Church: The World’s Only Hope. The First World War demonstrated the incredible level of destruction that war can bring. The massive loss of life and property was fueled in part by advances in technology––barely a decade after the Wright brothers managed to keep their plane in the air for an incredible twelve seconds. The airplane, torpedo-laden submarines, trench warfare, poison gas, machine guns, and the tank all changed the nature of war. As technology continued to advance after World War One, Muste joined with many others in predicting that another war would mean utter catastrophe.

Muste concluded that the only hope left to the world is for Christian pacifists to lead it into a new age of peace. In Non-Violence in an Aggressive World (1940) he writes, “we have now arrived at the stage when… the traditional attitude of, for example, the Society of Friends

(Quakers) toward war must be universally adopted or mankind, and in particular European-

American civilization, must suffer a colossal reverse.”303 With the invention of atomic weapons, the destruction of the world through war became an even more real possibility. In Not By Might

(1947), Muste foresees the possibility “that atomic war will put an end to civilization and perhaps to the human race as well.”304 This fear continued to be present in his writings until the end of his life.305

303 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 9. 304 Muste, Not By Might, 186. 305 See, for example: Muste, “Saints for This Age,” 424.

82 Muste combines late nineteenth century optimism with a deep comprehension of how war drives civilization backward.306 The two world wars convinced many that, as the Roman Catholic pacifist W.E. Orchard writes, “the way of war, if persisted in, is going to destroy civilization.”307

Yet Muste, along with many other Christian theologians, believed that the church could be the world’s salvation.308 It will save civilization through advancing it because, as Walter Marshall

Horton argues, “Western civilization does not deserve to be preserved as it is…. There is no way to restore the old order. There is no way to stand still. The only way is to go forward to a new order, in faith and penitence.”309 For Muste, this way forward meant an embrace of pacifism. He agrees with Gerrit Jan Heering, who believes that “Christianity must oppose [war] with all its strength… Christianity may no longer apply itself to war, under any consideration, or in any circumstance whatsoever.” As a result, according to Heering, “the task of Christianity is thus to protest against war and war preparation, to declare its criminal and sinful character.”310

Pacifism, in Muste’s understanding, is rooted in the power of religion. The only hope the world has for real and effective change is found in the Christian church. Therefore,

the core of any effective movement against war must be composed of those who by the grace of God and a genuine religious experience have put the spirit of domination and

306 For an example of the former, see: Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism, 187. 307 W.E. Orchard, introduction to The Early Christian Attitude to War: A Contribution to the History of Christian Ethics by Cecil John Cadoux (London: George Allen. & Unwin, 1940), ix. Muste marked up this passage in his copy of the book. Patricia Appelbaum argues that this was a common attitude. See: Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 61. Another writer Muste read who comes to the same conclusion is Gerrit Jan Heering. See: Heering, The Fall of Christianity, 176. 308 Muste underlined passages to this effect in: Sholem Asch, One Destiny: An Epistle to the Christians, trans. Milton Hindus (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1945), 86-87; Reckitt, Religion in Social Action, 76-77; J. Middleton Murry, “The Church’s Duty and Opportunity,” in Into the Way of Peace, ed. Percy Hartill (London: James Clarke, 1940), 124. 309 Horton, Can Christianity Save Civilization?, 5, 7. Muste marked up this passage in his copy of the book. 310 Heering, The Fall of Christianity, 134, 213.

83 strife out of their own hearts, and therefore are able to help banish them from the various relationships of life; it must be composed of those who really believe in the overcoming power of prayer and humility and sacrifice.311

Pacifism is an internal reality, not a mere method. It is deeply rooted in Christianity because it is the church, the community of believers, that “must seek to redeem the world and must assert that it is the channel of the grace of God without which there is no salvation, and that to it are entrusted ‘the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven’.”312 Muste urges the church to pursue the kingdom, which means striving to bring an end to war.313

Muste’s belief that the church could be the source of the world’s salvation is congruent with his Reformed heritage. Abraham Kuyper writes that “rejuvenation can come only through the old and yet ever new Gospel which, at the beginning of our era, and again at the time of the

Reformation, has saved the threatened life of our race.”314 Muste combined this belief in the efficacy of the gospel with his emphasis on pacifism as a key part of that gospel, an idea largely foreign to the Reformed tradition. In his copy of a book by Nels Ferré, Muste underlined a passage that emphasized the unique position of Christianity to address not only the “quest of the individual life” but also the world’s social problems.315 Kuyper and Ferré were not alone in their high view of the possibilities of Christianity and, by extension, their low view of other religions, which Muste shared in the early part of his life. The mainstream of Protestantism was convinced

311 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 178. This line may have been based on another from one of Muste’s sermons, where he says that “the core of any effective movement for peace must be composed of those who by the grace of God and out of a deep religious experience have renounced the very spirit and method of war and accepted the way of love.” See: Muste, “The Knowledge of God,” 15. 312 A.J. Muste, “The True International,” in The Essays of A.J. Muste, ed. Nat Hentoff (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967), 213. 313 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 33, 194. 314 Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism, 174-175. 315 Ferré, The Christian Faith, xi. Muste underlined this passage in his copy of the book.

84 of its own superiority. To argue that the church is the only hope of the world was not uncommon or unusual.

This is in contrast to pacifist positions, many of them rooted in the theology of the historic peace churches. At this time the Mennonites and Church of the Brethren were still largely sectarian, believing that their faith can be practiced best by withdrawing from the world.

Active work for peace was largely confined to liberal Protestants and Quakers. After World War

Two, pacifism moved from a mainstream position within Protestantism to a marginalized and sectarian one, as Patrician Appelbaum has shown.316 Muste worked against this move, which some pacifists advocated, even if it was primarily the result of outside forces. He uses the biblical metaphor of Christians as yeast in a lump of dough (the world), reminding his fellow

Christian pacifists that “the leaven and the lump are different, to be sure, but that the two are not separated and that the leaven does something to the lump.”317

Evangelism. Despite the influence of liberal theology on his thought, Muste maintained a strong emphasis on evangelism, which he saw as a necessary part of the leavening process. He ends his 1942 pamphlet, “War is the Enemy,” with encouragement to “go into all the world and preach the good news and make disciples of all nations. Fear not.”318 For Muste, and many other theologians, this is less a command than a natural necessity of the Christian walk. This natural need of the Christian to share what one has found possesses the pacifist. Thus, he writes that “the religious or Christian pacifist cannot keep from proclaiming his conviction, his ‘gospel’” and urges people who want to end war to “bring the challenge of pacifism to as many individuals as

316 Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 204. 317 Meyer, Report on the Puidoux Theological Conference, II/16. 318 Muste, “War is the Enemy,” 278.

85 possible” and “become missionaries, preachers of the gospel of nonviolence and truth.”319 Muste devoted himself to spreading the pacifist gospel. Fittingly, Patricia Appelbaum calls him “one of the most eloquent and elegant apologists for Christian nonviolence.”320

Muste’s evangelical spirit was driven in part by a belief that the abandonment of

Christianity was a chief cause of the drive for war and science’s lack of morality when it came to developing weapons. This is especially evident in one of his sermons, where he writes that “war between nations is but the last, inevitable expression of the self-destruction which man [illegible] upon himself when he turns his back upon the God of love revealed in Christ.” The solution, according to Muste, is for people to turn to God and come to a real, experiential knowledge of

God, which would lead them to embrace the way of love.321

Muste’s early life in the Reformed tradition was certainly saturated with the belief that evangelism is a central task of the church. It is, however difficult to prove specific authors who might have influenced Muste and the men who Muste mentions as his favorite professors left few writings behind. Although it is likely that Muste’s deepest exposure to an evangelistic spirit came during his early life in the Reformed tradition, he continued to be exposed to such views throughout his life. Among Muste’s known influences is Walter Marshall Horton, who argues that “any Church that is content to be a remnant (ceasing to be missionary in its determination to spread the gospel to every creature) ceases thereby to be a Church.”322 Another example is Emil

Brunner, a Swiss Reformed theologian, who writes, “the Church exists by mission…. Where

319 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 177; Muste, “Korea: Spark to Set a World Afire?,” 352. 320 Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 209. 321 Muste, “The Knowledge of God,” 15. 322 Horton, Can Christianity Save Civilization?, 228. Muste marked up this passage in his copy of the book.

86 there is no mission, there is no Church.”323 Among the more liberal of Muste’s influences, Walter

Rauschenbusch emphasizes the need to spread the social gospel through a process of evangelization and Rufus Jones combines, in much the same manner as Muste, an emphasis on evangelism with a passion for practical work addressing social problems.324

The way in which the gospel is presented was important to Muste, who was well aware of the difficulties of sharing the Christian message. He writes, “although it ill becomes us to try to beat our version of the truth into our neighbor’s brain with arguments, we own it to him to bear faithful witness to the truth as we see it.”325 Christians have a prophetic calling to speak the truth, no matter how unpopular; however, this does not give them a license to do so from a place of superiority.

Prophetic Witness and Opposition to War. Muste believed that the church has a prophetic calling to witness in word and deed that a new and different way is possible. The prophet tells the truth, no matter the opposition. The prophet must speak out, otherwise the witness of the alternative life is lost in the passive acquiescence to wrong. It was not uncommon for Christians to understand prophetic witness as a central task of the church.326 This emphasis is deeply rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures. Muste once marked up a passage in an essay by

Abraham Joshua Heschel, a leading Jewish theologian, where Heschel emphasizes that to the

323 Emil Brunner, The Word and the World (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1931), 108. In his copy of this book, Muste marked this passage with a line in the margin. 324 Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century, 290-291; Jones, Practical Christianity, 43-47, 152. 325 Muste, “War is the Enemy,” 262. 326 See, for example, Visser ’T Hooft and Oldham, The Church and Its Function in Society, 198. Muste marked up this passage his copy of the book; Paul Tillich, “The Kingdom of God and History,” in The Kingdom of God and History, by Wood, H.G., et. al. (Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1938), 134-135. Muste heavily marked up this passage in his copy of the book; Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century, 229.

87 Hebrew prophets, “God was a challenge, an incessant demand.”327 Muste urged the church to listen to God’s call for it to lead the world to change.

For Muste, this call largely centers on the church’s task of condemning and working against war. He argues that the prophet must call others to a life that takes away the occasion for war. Christian pacifists cannot remain silent, especially in wartime, otherwise they lose their integrity and have no standing to call for a move toward pacifism after the war. According to

Muste, prophets, “though in their life they may have been rejected and crucified, have always been the great reconcilers, the centers around which human societies were built.”328 This idea is reflected in Muste’s assertion that “the only leadership which will inspire any confidence after the war will be that which has stood out against the war.”329

A number of Christian writers argued in the period leading up to the Second World War that the church must take a stand against armed conflict. They believed that Christianity and war are irreconcilable.330 One of these writers, John Coleman Bennett, argues, like Muste, that while the two are incompatible, war would not completely destroy the church, and that an international fellowship of Christians could play a key role in postwar healing and reconstruction.331 With the advent of atomic weaponry, an increasing number of Christians, including Muste, agreed with

Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk famous for his devotional and autobiographical writings, who

327 Abraham Joshua Heschel, “The Religions Message,” in Religion in America: Original Essays on Religion in a Free Society, ed. John Cogley (New York: Meridian Books, 1958), 255. In his copy of this book, Muste marked this passage with a line in the margin. 328 Muste, “War is the Enemy,” 263. 329 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 89. 330 Heering, The Fall of Christianity, 9. 331 Bennett, Christianity––and Our World, 57, 59. Muste underlined these passages in his copy of the book.

88 believed that nuclear war is “a moral evil so great that it cannot be justified even for the best of ends, even to defend the highest and most sacrosanct of values.”332

The prophetic calling is rarely popular or safe. In a speech given in 1937, Muste emphasizes the likelihood of persecution directed at the Christian pacifist, but argues that this will be less damaging than the cost of war and may even lead to the growth of Christianity as

“the masses desperately seeking a way out of war” flock to the church.333 This view was not unheard of in the lead-up to the U.S. entry into World War Two. J. Middleton Murry, a controversial pacifist and Christian intellectual, writing three years later than Muste, expresses essentially the same thought.334 This optimism contrasts with the typical pessimistic understanding of prophets, expressed here by Walter Rauschenbusch, as people “of the opposition and of the radical minority” who will inevitably suffer for their stand.335 Muste acknowledges that the biblical prophets were often hated and persecuted, but he holds out hope that their message will be heard and be effective.

Muste believed that withdrawing all support from war is the only practical way left to the church and is necessary for its very survival, except for the survival of a remnant.336 He writes,

332 Thomas Merton, “Peace: A Religious Responsibility,” in Breakthrough to Peace (Norfolk, CT: J. Laughlin, 1962), 89, cf. 91. Muste underlined this passage in his copy of this book. Muste once visited Merton at his monastery in Kentucky. He was impressed with Merton’s “really very brilliant mind,” but was mystified by the Catholic culture and the practices of the monastery. See: Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 187-188. 333 Muste, “The Church’s Responsibility for Peace,” 11. 334 Murry, “The Church’s Duty and Opportunity,” 124. Murry writes, “for every single pacifist professed there are a thousand who long in their hearts for peace; only they do not see the way. If the Church utters the unspoken aspiration of their hearts, she will regain much of her old authority.” Muste underlined this passage and put three lines next to it in the margin of his copy of the book. 335 Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century, 29, 335. 336 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 193, 197-198.

89 “the organized church, as we know it, must, I am convinced, renounce war and thus become qualified to lead the world in its abolition, or that church itself is doomed.”337 Failing to do so,

Muste writes, would mean betraying Christ.338 He particularly criticized those who accepted nonviolence in personal matters but not in war. To them he writes,

to accept war…. is to admit that in this world the real power is not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who meets sin with suffering love, but Satan…. It is to fall into the absurd and blasphemous notion that when it comes to the petty tyrants and the mild sinners whom we encounter in our daily intercourse in our homes and neighborhoods and churches, we can afford to trust God and practice gentleness and love, but when it comes to the really big powers like Nebuchadnezzar and Tiberius Cӕsar and Hitler and Stalin, then we must have something more substantial than ‘mere spirit’ to defend us.339

Without the conviction that God is real and active in the world, the temptation to resort to the methods of this world becomes overpowering.

Not only does pacifism require faith in God, faith in God requires pacifism. Muste repeatedly argues that “Christianity is pacifism… is the way of love, of non-violence, of the

Cross, or else it becomes a mockery, with no vital connection with the Jewish-Christian prophetic tradition, with Biblical revelation. The churches must become pacifist or in the present historical situation they will no longer be able to call themselves Christian.”340

This is because, as Walter Rauschenbusch writes, “the Church must either condemn the world and seek to change it, or tolerate the world and conform to it.”341 It must, Maurice B.

337 Muste, “The Church’s Responsibility for Peace,” 11. 338 Muste, Not By Might, 154. 339 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 36. 340 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 174. 341 Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century, 274.

90 Reckitt argues, diagnose the “situation of evil and falsehood” or be doomed to irrelevance.342

Otherwise, it might be, as J. Middleton Murry states, that war would eventually lead to the subordination of the church to the state. By failing to condemn war it would abandon its authority and its identity.343 All of these authors, like Muste, saw the prophetic calling of the church as central to its very existence.

Muste’s belief that the church’s failure to condemn war is to its detriment may have also been influenced by atheist writers like Aldous Huxley. In one of his books, Huxley brings up the fact that floatplanes were banned from landing on the Sea of Galilee because church leaders objected due to its religious significance. He contrasts this with evidence that the same church leaders seemed to have no problem at all with the same planes being used to drop bombs and chemical weapons. He concludes, “if this is religion, then God deliver us from such criminal imbecility.”344 One can easily imagine Muste both agreeing that such behavior is wrong and hypocritical and mourning the fact that such behavior keeps people like Huxley from the church.

Muste argued that any theology that accepts the use of force, even under limited circumstances, cannot help but fall into the trap of serving two masters. In an essay against theologians who argue both that total war is irreconcilable with the Christian faith and that the

United States should build up a stockpile of atomic weapons as a threat against aggression,

Muste writes that “if the Christian church does not make a total break with war as it is conducted in our time, its whole message and mission will be corrupted with impossible ethical

342 Reckitt, Religion in Social Action, 121. Muste marked up this passage in his copy of the book. 343 Murry, “The Church’s Duty and Opportunity,” 119, 121, 122. In his copy of the book, Muste underlined the passages referred to. 344 Huxley, Ends and Means, 266.

91 contradictions.” He points out the irony of rejecting the idea of an eye for an eye yet preparing to retaliate “according to the modern war law of fifty lives for an eye.”345 Condemning war while allowing for preparations for war is not only ineffective, but hypocritical.

Conscientious Objection. Throughout his life, Muste was a vocal advocate for conscientious objection. For him,

refusal of individual after individual to support any war or war preparation is the most positive, the most constructive, the most patriotic, the sanest, the most Christian social act men can preform today. Until people thus make it impossible for the nations, especially their own, to use war as a method for approaching any problem, men will not put their minds seriously to finding other ways to deal with situations.346

Muste’s appeal to the individual conscience stemmed from a belief in the power of prophetic witness and the “obligation to act as an individual, regardless of what anyone else does.”347

While he supported alternative service programs during World War Two until their problems became evident, he eventually rejected alternative service in favor of supporting only absolutist objection.

Muste’s essays on conscientious objection are among the most anthologized of his works.

Most famous is “Of Holy Disobedience,” first published as a Pendle Hill pamphlet in 1952. In that essay Muste finally came out strongly against alternative service programs for conscientious objectors, using a number of separate arguments, most of them connected to the idea that it meant participating in a totalitarian system. He argues for complete resistance to the state.

Notably, he severely criticizes the acquiescence of the historic peace churches with the broken

345 A.J. Muste, “Who is Now the Absolutist?” The Christian Century [64, no. 50] (December 10, 1947): 1516-1517. 346 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 170. 347 Muste, Not By Might, 55. This is from a chapter titled, “Conscience Against the Atomic Bomb.”

92 system, especially since their actions disadvantaged non-religious objectors, who could not legally claim conscientious objector status.348 The essay is a powerful critique of both the peace churches and the draft system. It also represents the peak of Muste’s fear that the United States was becoming a totalitarian state, a position based on his firmly held conviction that “war, certainly in its modern form, can only poison and destroy democracy.”349

World War Two and dissatisfaction with the alternative service camps for conscientious objectors during the war led to a storm of discussion within the historic peace churches and the wider pacifist community. Many felt that they their witness was being silenced by removal to the camps. Many others felt that the alternative service they rendered was unimportant and menial, although the situation improved as the war progressed. Muste was an avid participant in this discussion. Within the wider Christian community, he also functioned as an apologist for those

Christians who choose to object. Muste’s ideas surrounding objection, as well as his fear that the

U.S. was heading toward totalitarianism, arose out of these conversations.

Experimentation. Muste believed that the church must take bold and unproven steps if it is to recover its vitality and become a redemptive force in the world. He describes the early church as a fellowship that experimented with new ways of living. Experimentation flowed naturally from their new understanding of the nature of history. He argues that renewal in the church will come with a refreshment and nourishing of the inner life of the Spirit resulting from an embrace of Christian freedom. He urges Christians to “cut loose” and “experiment” in the freedom of the Spirit, citing a vigil at the Pentagon as an example of such previously frowned

348 A.J. Muste, “Of Holy Disobedience,” in The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967), 355-377. 349 Muste, “Korea: Spark to Set a World Afire?,” 346.

93 upon behavior. Similarly, he argues that “all the great periods of religious history” display this emphasis on experimentation and creative action. He holds up early Quakerism as an example.350

Muste’s emphasis on experimentation reflects both the influence of Quakerism, especially the writings of Rufus Jones, and the influence of the younger activists he worked with during the 1950s and 60s. Jones emphasizes that “no religion can live and be a power in this evolving world unless it changes and adjusts itself to its environment.” He continues, “the creative periods in religious progress have come when the crust of custom, the mechanism of habit, has been broken up by the impact of persons who were capable of fresh and original experiences… [who] have gained new visions and new insights.”351

The 1950s and 60s saw a revolution in the development of nonviolent protest, especially civil disobedience. Muste was often one of the first to embrace new tactics as they arose during this period, although he was not shy about criticizing tactics he disagreed with, most notably violent ones. He himself was arrested many times while engaging in civil disobedience, often under the auspices of the Committee on Non-Violent Action. He saw protests as a way to exercise the prophetic calling.352

Education. Given his background as a pastor and professor, it is unsurprising that Muste focused on education as one of the main tasks of the church. This was almost always in relation to his pacifist convictions. While he occasionally wrote on secular peace education, most of his energy in this area was put toward urging the church to educate itself.353 He argues that if the

350 Muste, “Saints for This Age,” 416, 424. 351 Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion, xiii-xiv. 352 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 162-164. 353 For an example of the former, see: A.J. Muste, “What Shall Education Do About Pacifism?” Religious Education 19 (Oct. 1924): 326-330.

94 church is to confront war its first concern must be the education of the consciences of its members.354 He urges churches to assure their young people that “the only decent, human,

Christian and thus also in the only valid sense patriotic thing to do is to refuse to go to war.”355

Some of Muste’s harshest criticism of the historic peace churches focuses on their failure to educate their youth about Christian pacifism. Jo Ann Robinson attributes some of this anger to the fact that Muste’s seventeen-year-old son John enlisted in the Navy in World War Two in part because all of his friends from his Quaker school were enlisting.356 Muste mourned that fact that many in the peace churches held pacifism loosely or not at all. He believed that if anyone should be educating their youth to resist war, it should be the peace churches, but even they were failing to an impressive degree. Among members eligible for military service in the Second World War, about 40% of Mennonites, 80% of Brethren, and 90% of Quakers chose combatant service rather than any form of conscientious objection.357

Among Muste’s influences, Aldous Huxley probably writes the most about education. He emphasizes the role of religion as education, writing that “religion is, among other things, a system of education, by means of which human beings may train themselves.” Failure in this

354 Muste, “The Church’s Responsibility for Peace,” 4. 355 Muste, Not By Might, 176. 356 Robinson, A.J. Muste, Pacifist & Prophet, 22; Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 85, 263. John Muste wrote a letter to Robinson responding to this statement where he argues that it is not entirely fair. He notes that although “it is true that the Quaker peace message was (to A.J., at any rate) lacking” at his preparatory school, he was surrounded by many pacifist influences. He admits that “I cannot repudiate A.J.’s perception that I lacked the strength to resist the pressures of the time, since all my friends were headed for the service and it would have taken more courage that I probably possessed to be a war resister” but the real reason was that he “lacked A.J.’s religious faith” and “lacked both the religious conviction that all wars are wrong and the political conviction that that particular war was wrong.” See: John Muste, letter to Jo Ann Robinson, August 10, 1977. 357 Steven J. Taylor, Acts of Conscience: World War II, Mental Institutions, and Religious Objectors (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2009), 37-38.

95 area was another source of Huxley’s disdain for Christianity. He claims that there is little to be said for traditional Christianity because it has proved “incapable of standing up to the competition of the new rites and ceremonies of nationalistic idolatry.”358

Building the Beloved Community. In an essay against the black power movement,

Muste argues that the task is not the “seizure of power by a new social element and the setting up of a new power structure… [but] building the beloved community.”359 The emphasis on building a new society based in community and fellowship did not emerge in his thought during the Civil

Rights Movement, but had long been present in his writings. In a 1939 essay, he writes, “the true church is the ‘ecclesia’ of those redeemed by infinite love…. it is in itself a true community of love.”360 In 1940, when examining the thought of the British philosopher John Macmurray,

Muste writes, “any society, any human order, goes to pieces precisely in the degree that it is not based on community.”361

In a book by Emil Brunner, Muste marked up a passage with similar themes. Brunner writes:

The message of the cross and of reconciliation, the message which is the basis of the Church, is the one in which true freedom and community are founded…. it is the message of God’s love which creates communion…. The Church has nothing to do but proclaim this message. That the Church does not and cannot do it, because she does not know this message anymore––this is the guilt and sin of the Church in relation to modern society. If

358 Huxley, Ends and Means, 260, 265. 359 A.J. Muste, “Rifle Squads or the Beloved Community” in The Essays of A.J. Muste, ed. Nat Hentoff (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967), 435. 360 Muste, “The True International,” 213. 361 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 35. Macmurray was born a Presbyterian, spent much of his life refusing to identify with a specific denomination because he saw a lack of true Christianity in the institutional churches, and converted to Quakerism late in his life (in the late 1950s, after Muste’s examination of his thought).

96 the Church had this message, it would mean more for the solution of social problems than any social activities.362

Brunner’s connection of love to the idea of community is clearly visible in Muste’s writings, although Brunner was certainly only one of multiple influences in this area. The primary difference between Muste and Brunner is that Muste is more careful to appeal to secular as well as religious audiences, mainly by avoiding obviously Christian language. According to Muste, building the beloved community is of utmost importance, because “the salvation of our age is in our keeping; that is, that it lies in the divine-human society which is ‘rooted and grounded in love’.”363 Muste’s narrative shows the relationship between loving community and social regeneration without being as explicit about its connection to the sharing of the gospel, although he clearly sees evangelism as a major task of the church.

Muste’s vision of the beloved community is derived first and foremost from Jesus’ teachings and the repeated exhortations to “love one another” in the Gospel of John and letters of

Paul, Peter and John.364 He was also influenced by modern writers and theologians who explore the implications of this theme. One of these is George F. Thomas, who writes that “love which flows from faith is the deepest source of unity within the community, qualifying the liberty of the individual by his responsibility to others.”365

362 Brunner, The Word and the World, 124. In his copy of this book, Muste underlined this passage starting at “the Church has nothing.” 363 Muste, “Saints for This Age,” 419. 364 See, for example, Matthew 22:39; John 13:34-35; Romans 12:10, 13:8; 1 Peter 3:8; and 1 John 3:23. 365 George F. Thomas, “Central Christian Affirmations,” in The Christian Answer, ed. Henry P. Van Dusen (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1945), 133. Emphasis original. Muste underlined this passage and put three lines next to it in the margin of his copy of the book.

97 Muste argues that the church should lead the world to build a loving community by first becoming such a community itself. He writes, “the Church will be able to heal and to overcome the world only if in its own fellowship there is unity of the Spirit, if there is neither white nor black nor yellow; neither American nor French nor Japanese––but Christ is all and in all.”366 This is more than simply a repudiation of racism, it calls Christians to put aside all of their differences and truly be the one, universal church.

The role of the church in healing divisions and bringing world community is a common theme in books that Muste is known to have read. Daniel Day Williams argues that “the Church as a universal community of freedom and fellowship makes possible the reconciliation of man with God and his fellows in a way which no other historical community can accomplish.”367

Maurice B. Reckitt sees the function of the church, especially after wars, as “the supreme custodian and exemplar of human solidarity.”368 Dutch theologian Willem Adolph Visser ‘T

Hooft believes the task of the church is to come to better understand Christian community so it can “re-affirm its own universality and dare to act upon it in the face of the divisive forces of race, class, and nation. It must awake the dormant community-building forces in its own midst.”369

366 Muste, “The Church’s Witness to Her Faith,” 20. 367 Williams, God’s Grace and Man’s Hope, 105. In his copy, Muste underlined this passage and added three lines in the margin. 368 Reckitt, Religion in Social Action, 125. Muste underlined this passage and put two lines next to it in the margin of his copy of the book. 369 Willem Adolph Visser ‘T Hooft, None Other Gods (New York: Harper & Bros, 1937), 77. Muste marked up this passage in his copy of the book. Visser ‘T Hooft later became the first secretary general of the World Council of Churches, a position he held from 1948 to 1966.

98 Muste sees the results of salvation largely in communal terms. It is through the

“experience of the abasement of the self before God … [that a person] becomes one with his fellows.”370 Many of Muste’s influences hold similar views. Visser ‘T Hooft contends that “our modern notion of individual Christianity simply does not exist in the Bible.”371 Walter Marshall

Horton makes a similar point when he argues that “individualism of the American type represents as great a variation in one direction from the Christian norm as totalitarianism is in the opposite direction.”372

Unity of the Church. Muste writes that community––communion––is “the essence of life.”373 To violate Christian communion is a grave sin. By contrast, to build up the unity of the church is a great and vital task. The call to a greater ecumenism is one of the more common refrains in Muste’s writings. He argues, “we must toil and pray for the extension and intensification of that ecumenical movement… The church itself must be a fellowship which does not recognize bounds of nation, race or class, united not by man’s inspiration but by the love of God.”374 Love tears down division, replacing it with fellowship.

This type of emphasis on the unity of the church is common in Christian writings, including the ones Muste was reading. Like Muste, Gregory Vlastos comments on the implications of divine love for human fellowship. He writes, “what is disturbing and revolutionary about the command to love is its challenge to a new way of living which begins

370 Muste, “Fragment of Autobiography,” 340. 371 Visser ‘T Hooft, None Other Gods, 65. Muste marked up this passage in his copy of the book. 372 Horton, Can Christianity Save Civilization?, 197. Muste heavily marked up this passage in his copy of the book. 373 Muste, “The True International,” 214. 374 A.J. Muste, “The Church and the Politico-Economic Situation,” Religious Digest (December 1938): 67.

99 immediately, destroys all class divisions, creates a new fellowship, and is ready for the Kingdom of God.”375 The church is by definition united. As Karl Barth writes, “the real church lives in the absolute solidarity of its members one with another.”376

Muste’s emphasis on and participation in the ecumenical movement was aimed at building the unity of the church, both as a good in itself, but also as a way to build a unity that would obstruct the rush to war between nations. In war, the church puts national allegiance above the spiritual bond between all Christians, and in so doing fails to be the church.377 Work for unity within the church is thus work against war.

This is a common assertion in Protestant writings during the interwar period and immediately after World War Two. For example, Maurice B. Reckitt argues that all war is civil war because God created “of one blood” all the nations.378 Douglas Clyde Macintosh argues that not only does a greater unity work against war, it also greatly affects economic and social conditions.379 The argument is that if Christians really love one another, they will maintain their unity over and against any obstacles––they will fulfill Jesus’ hope that his followers be one.380

Along these lines, Muste writes, perhaps hyperbolically, that there is “no more heinous sin than schism. There is One God and One Lord Jesus Christ. There is despite all its devisions and

375 Vlastos, “The Ethical Foundations,” 57. Muste underlined this passage in his copy of the book. 376 Barth, Against the Stream, 69, cf. 155. In his copy, Muste underlined these passages and added two lines next to them in the margin. 377 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 189. 378 Reckitt, Religion in Social Action, 105. Muste underlined this passage and put two lines next to it in the margin of his copy of the book. 379 Macintosh, Social Religion, 39. Muste underlined this passage in his copy of the book. 380 John 17:22.

100 disfigurations and sins but one Church, one Christian Movement.”381 Christians should never violate this reality and should work toward a greater unity in fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer and in anticipation of the completion of God’s kingdom.

Calling the Church to a Better Way. Muste’s writings on the church reveal his diverse array of influences, everything from the Dutch Reformed tradition of his early years, to a broad array of mainline Protestant sources, to Quakerism. Some of his ideas were commonly expressed at the same time as he wrote them, others were more obscure. Some of his thought was influenced by other writers and theologians and some arose from his own thought and observations. He pieced together his theology from many different sources, creating not a systematic theology, but one that focused on specific themes relevant to his arguments for peace.

He often spoke as a prophet, calling the church to a better way.

A prophet must gain perspective. Prophets have to know what to speak against in the midst of a society that largely accepts that status quo. It was Muste’s way of piecing together his theology from many different sources that allowed him the perspective of a prophet. When people only saw one way, Muste pointed out another. He did not accept conventional wisdom because he was able to demonstrate its folly. What to others seemed inevitable, Muste saw as preventable. He could call the church away from war and to another way because he could see that another way was possible.

Chapter 8: Eschatology: The Kingdom of God

Eschatology––the study of the end times––is not a prominent theme in Muste’s writings.

Decades go by for which we have no evidence of his views, which were clearly changing

381 Muste, “The True International,” 214.

101 throughout his life. Some periods, notably the 1930s, display a lack of internal coherence that seems to have dissipated by the end of his life. He expresses multiple, contradictory views about what the kingdom of God will look like and how and when it will come, although he always seems to see it as this-earthly phenomenon to happen in time, not as the result of a major end- time disruption. His chief concern was that eschatology should motivate work for a better world in the present.

Although Muste writes about the kingdom of God less than most topics, it is not an insignificant part of his theology. While he used the language of the kingdom of God fairly infrequently in published works, it plays a major role in some of his writings and may be central to understanding his motivation to work for a better world––for the end of war, racism, and economic inequality––even though these seem like impossible goals.

An Earthly Kingdom? In a sermon likely given in 1936, Muste explores the kingdom of

God in terms of Isaiah’s vision from the Hebrew Scriptures. He states that Isaiah “paints a picture of a certain kind of world. In that world, says the great prophetic voice, ‘the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the yearling together, and the little child shall lead them. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord’.” This will come to pass, argues Muste, “because the earth shall be full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.” He uses this to explain the necessity of deep personal religious experience, which will create people who can renounce war and follow the method of love.382 Muste seems to imply that large numbers of individuals coming to a true knowledge of God will bring the kingdom, yet this does not explain the change

382 Muste, “The Knowledge of God,” 14-15. Muste focuses on Isaiah 11.

102 in animal behavior Isaiah describes, unless it is taken as hyperbole or solely as a metaphor for human behavior. What can be gleaned from this sermon is that Muste saw the absence of violence and the presence of love as the key characteristics of the kingdom of God. He agrees with Gerrit Jan Heering, who writes that “war lets loose all the demons that Christ came to fight, that there can be no greater hindrance to the coming of God’s Kingdom than war.”383

Muste believed that the only way for the world to escape the destruction of war is for the church to lead the world into the kingdom of God. His views as to how this might take place changed over time and were not always consistent even in the same time period. They reflect the influence of multiple, conflicting positions. In 1939 he writes that “the Church must redeem and rule the world in Christ’s name.”384 This is a theocratic vision. It contradicts his 1937 statement that “the Church is not a political party. It is not itself a government, a state.”385 In 1939 he also writes that the church must “give to men the faith and inspiration to renounce war and to commit themselves to non-violence as the method of social change.”386 This does not imply that the church itself will take political leadership. But in 1941 he again develops a theocratic vision when he writes to Quakers, “I see only two choices: to retire from the field… or humbly to undertake leadership of the new world, and seek to build our vision into economic and political

383 Heering, The Fall of Christianity, 178. 384 Muste, “The True International,” 214. 385 Muste, “The Church’s Responsibility for Peace,” 3. 386 Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 191-192. While published in 1940, this book was written in 1939.

103 reality, as, for example, did William Penn.”387 Heering assumes a similar vision when he writes that every religion must and does strive toward theocracy.388

When Muste gave up on Marxist-Leninism and returned to Christian pacifism in 1935, he substituted the church for the Left in some of his thinking. Not some form of socialism or communism, but the church would create a new and just world order. His optimism for how much the church can accomplish likely derives from his earlier optimism about the movements for social progress. Later, Muste shifted from believing that the church could bring the kingdom to acknowledging that only the work of God can bring the kingdom and that it is utopian to believe that the church can do it by itself.389 This view, expressed as early as 1938, did not fully affect Muste’s thought until later.

The Kingdom is Ever at Hand. In minutes from the Puidoux Theological Conference

(1955), it is reported that Muste “wonders whether the task of moving toward the New Jerusalem is not the constant task of the people of God.” He raised this question in relation to his fear that many theologies end up justifying anything the state might do, in part by separating the internal and external spheres when it comes to talking about God’s overcoming of evil.390 He resists what is referred to as a “chronological concept of the Reign of Christ,” preferring instead an

“operational” understanding, one that focuses on working toward the kingdom here and now.391

387 Muste, “The World Task of Pacifism,” 221. Penn is known for founding the colony of Pennsylvania as an experiment in governing by Quaker principles. 388 Heering, The Fall of Christianity, 64. 389 Muste, “The Church and the Politico-Economic Situation,” 65. 390 Meyer, Report on the Puidoux Theological Conference, II/10. The “New Jerusalem” can be taken as a cognate for the kingdom of God. It is a term that comes from Revelation 21. 391 Meyer, Report on the Puidoux Theological Conference, II/17. This comment was in response to Oscar Cullmann’s paper, “The Kingship of Christ and the Church in the N.T.”

104 As we have seen with much of Muste’s theology, his use of the idea of the kingdom of God was aimed at persuading Christians to work for peace and justice. He objects to ideas that relegate the kingdom to a future time or far off heaven, thus depriving Christians of motivation to work for the goals of the kingdom here and now.392

Writing in 1962, Muste argues that the early Christians had broken free from captivity by the world and consequently “their faces were turned toward the future, a future already present in some profound sense; to the new kingdom, of which Christ was king, the new society in which all were his brothers and hence each other’s.” He writes that God’s “Kingdom is ever at hand.”393

This reflects Muste’s abandonment of a theocratic vision of the church ruling the world like a secular power, an understanding that was rare among his influences and presumably in contradiction with his pacifist theology of the way of Christ. It also reflects the loss of any hope for a complete transformation of the world, a hope usually associated with the “end times” or the return of Jesus. No evidence exists to suggest that Muste’s understanding was still contradictory.

For Muste, the kingdom is a goal to work toward in history, one aimed at a new kind of society. This is very similar to the liberal Christian vision that neo-orthodoxy scorned as naïve.

Muste writes that liberal Christians had the right vision, but their “crime” was to fail to see that it was revolutionary in character and demanded revolutionary living and actions––something the movements of the Left understood.394 Despite his Reformed background, Muste was not swayed in the least by neo-orthodoxy. Nor, as we have seen, did his liberal optimism manage to erase his

392 A.J. Muste, Christianity, the Only Hope of the World (Philadelphia: Book Association of Friends, 1918), 17. 393 Muste, “Saints for This Age,” 413-414, 425. Emphasis original. 394 Muste, “Saints for This Age,” 423.

105 Reformed emphasis on sin. He walked a middle road, independent of the consensus of those around him.

The Democratizing Power of the Kingdom. One of the most informative sources about

Muste’s understanding of the kingdom of God is a transcript from a course he taught at New

Brunswick Theological Seminary in 1944. In one of these lectures, Muste emphasizes that although Christianity “sets so high a goal for mankind and history as the achievement of the

Kingdom of God,” it does not set apart an elite group from the masses; it claims that all people are fit to pursue the kingdom.395 The pursuit of the kingdom is a task for all people, not just the clergy or some other group of spiritual elites. The average Christian cannot sit in contentment, but must work for the kingdom, even when it runs counter to societal pressures.

What to Do When Society Moves Backward. The 1944 lectures come at a time when the liberal doctrine of continual progress was again under attack by world events. Muste, like many others, saw no reason to believe the idea that societies are always evolving for the better.

World War Two crushed whatever belief in inevitable progress had survived the First World War.

In these lectures Muste argues that a society falls apart when it ceases to be characterized by liberty, equality, and fraternity––the ideals of the French Revolution. He was afraid that this is where the United States was heading. So what happens then?

Rebirth occurs. Foundations are laid anew by a remnant nucleus, the little flock to whom it is the Father’s good pleasure to give the Kingdom. What is the characteristic of such groups? It is that they go back to the absolute standard, they insist in living according to the ideal, organizing their own life, whatever may be happening in the world outside… around love of God, love of man, around liberty, equality, and fraternity. In the midst of unbelief they worship. In a world where things and people are flying apart, they draw together. In the midst of destruction they build, quietly confident that captains and kings will depart and the tumult and shouting will die, and in the midst of hate they love.

395 Muste, “New Brunswick Lectures,” (March 22, 1944), 4.

106 Later in the lecture he continues, “over and over again he [Jesus] described the functions of his followers in terms of salt, light, and leaven or yeast. If you put that into terms of social action you have… that a group has to live its life in the world,” probably as a minority, while maintaining its distinctiveness.396 Many small Christian fellowships who have seen themselves in opposition to the world in this same way have chosen to withdraw from the world to keep themselves pure. But Muste rejects this path, reminding his listeners that yeast must be in the dough to do its work.

Influences. Muste’s shifting eschatology reflects the diverse range of ideas he encountered. Protestantism during his time was even more divided on the issue than it is today.

Given the progression and lack of clarity in Muste’s own eschatology, it seems prudent to examine the full range of positions represented by authors who influenced him. The primary areas of difference concern two questions: when is the kingdom and what role does humanity play in bringing it.

A Solely Future Kingdom. Some authors envision a kingdom that is wholly in the future. It will come as the result of major event, such as the second coming of Christ. Abraham

Kuyper combined this with a pessimism about the current state of history (in 1898) to argue that

“either this second coming, therefore, is near at hand, and what we are witnessing are the death- throes of humanity; or a rejuvenation is still in store for us.”397 As Kuyper demonstrates, authors with this view tend to place a great emphasis on sin and the fallenness of the world. In some cases this looks like the thought of Methodist/Episcopal theologian John Knox, who believed

396 Muste, “New Brunswick Lectures,” (March 22, 1944), 6, 11. 397 Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism, 174.

107 that righteousness is only possible in the kingdom of God, “which is either beyond history or is a radically transformed history.”398

Others, while arguing that the kingdom is solely future, emphasized that this should not inhibit work for righteousness in the present. Paul Ramsey argues that “Jesus devoted himself entirely to the task of being what man was soon to become and teaching men in radical fashion to renounce their connections with this present age, and in endless love prepare for the coming great day.”399 Likewise, Eugene W. Lyman, a Congregationalist theologian, writes that the kingdom

cannot be completely realized in history, since God and the meaning of his love transcend history, and hence it implies an eternal life which is beyond the bounds of this earthly existence. But no other limits can be placed on its realization in history. There are no concrete evils or forms of sin from which the love of God cannot redeem men through the realizing in history of a community of love.400

Oscar Cullmann, a Lutheran colleague of Karl Barth’s, argues that while the kingdom of God is a purely future thing, the Regnum Christi and the church of Christ are present realities. Christ is

Lord over creation now but that is not the same reign as will be established after the second coming.401

Kingdom Never Coming. A minority of theologians rejected the entire idea of eschatology, arguing in effect that the kingdom is never coming. Of the authors that Muste read,

398 John Knox, “Christianity and the Christian,” in The Christian Answer, ed. Henry P. Van Dusen (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1945), 182. Muste marked up this passage in his copy of the book. 399 Ramsey, Basic Christian Ethics, 40. 400 Eugene W. Lyman, “The Kingdom of God and History,” in The Kingdom of God and History, by Wood, H.G., et. al. (Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1938), 96. Muste heavily marked up this passage in his copy of the book. 401 Oscar Cullmann, “The Kingship of Christ and the Church in the New Testament,” in The Early Church, ed. A.J.B. Higgins (London, SCM, 1956), 107, 109. Muste read a version of this essay in preparation for the 1955 Puidoux Theological Conference.

108 Paul Tillich is the one who takes this view. He writes that “to expect not only that the power of concrete demonic forces will be broken at definite periods in history, but that in some future age the demonic as a whole will be utterly destroyed, is a religious ‘utopianism’ which should be regarded as quite untenable.”402 This is one of the most pessimistic understandings, particularly if combined with a low view of God’s ability to act in history. It is clear from Muste’s notes next to this passage that he questioned Tillich’s position.

The Kingdom Has Come. Other writers rejected both future eschatology and the pessimism of Tillich. These writers believe that the kingdom of God can be realized now, in history, without any drastic intervention by God. They see establishing the kingdom as solely a human task and most of them think it is entirely possible to bring it to completion more or less immediately. Muste’s position approaches this one at times during the 1930s. Characteristic of these writers is Rufus Jones, who writes that “the Quaker message is a call for a perfected man and a perfected society” and that “the kingdom of heaven has come wherever the King holds sway.” He was very critical of a future eschatology that led to a failure to work for the kingdom in the present, writing that “it is our personal opinion that this ‘easy creed’, this low standard, this postponement of heavenly joys, is just the reason why the church has no more spiritual power in this present world. He who expects little, gets little.”403 Similarly, Leroy Waterman argues that the historical Jesus’ representation of the kingdom “makes no provision for cataclysm. It calls for no waiting…. It is directly in line with the whole trend of prophetic religion.” Waterman also argues that if Christians actually obeyed the command to love, the

402 Tillich, “The Kingdom of God and History,” 127. Muste heavily marked up this passage in his copy of the book and asks “why?” in the margin. 403 Jones, Practical Christianity, 55, 56, 197.

109 kingdom would already be here.404 Gerrit Jan Heering seems to hold this view when he emphasizes that the Kingdom of God can only come when a nucleus of people start practicing it here and now.405 For these authors, the kingdom is a present reality to be pursued within history.

The optimism of this position, which is often criticized as ignoring the reality of sin, is its major detraction. Most other theologians do not see how the grand vision of the kingdom could come solely by human effort.

The Kingdom is Forever Coming. A similar position took the idea that the kingdom is present and tempered it with the assertion that the kingdom will never be complete.

Characteristic of this point of view is Walter Rauschenbusch, who writes, “we shall never have a perfect social life, yet we must seek it with faith…. The Kingdom of God is always but coming.

But every approximation to it is worthwhile.”406 This position never ceases to believe, with

Daniel Day Williams, that “a better [way] is possible under God who is forever making ‘a new heaven and a new earth.’”407 Muste’s later position is close to this view. It rejects any vision of a second coming of Jesus or a great cataclysmic end to the earth preceding the coming of the kingdom.

The Kingdom is Now and Gradually Coming. Another, similar position argues that the kingdom is coming in the present historical reality, but unlike the view that sees it as forever coming, this position assumes its eventual completion. Typical of this understanding is the biblical language of leavening a loaf. In the words of Walter Marshall Horton, “Christianity is

404 Waterman, The Religion of Jesus, 76, 239. Muste marked up these passages in his copy of the book. 405 Heering, The Fall of Christianity, 66-67, 68. 406 Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century, 337-338. 407 Williams, God’s Grace and Man’s Hope, 162. In his copy, Muste bracketed this passage and underlined it.

110 not first of all a teaching… it is first of all a Gospel, the good news of the coming of this creative

Spirit into our world of created spirits, nevermore to depart until the whole worldly lump shall be leavened with this divine ferment, de-secularized, consecrated to holy uses, built up into a world- embracing City of God.”408 This view focuses more on a natural process or the work of God rather than the work of humanity.

The Kingdom is Now, But Will Come Fully at a Definite, Later Time. The most prevalent understanding found among Muste’s influences combines present and future eschatology. It holds that the kingdom of God can be approximated in the present due to Christ’s work, but will be fully realized at some future time. Thus, according to George F. Thomas, “the hope of eternal life does not prevent Christians from seeking to approximate the Kingdom in history as far as their weakness and that of their fellows will permit.” To support this position

Thomas writes that “modern Christians…. can point to evidence that for Jesus the Kingdom of

God was not only a future hope but a present reality.” As to the results of such a theology,

Thomas writes that “what is essential is not that perfection shall be fully attainable in this life, but that no goal below it should ever be accepted as adequate by the Christian and that no limits should ever be placed upon the power of the Spirit of God to transform his life.”409

Also characteristic is Congregationalist New Testament scholar Charles H. Dodd, who combines the belief that “the age to come is not simply another period of history, lying as yet in the future, but an order of being essentially superior to the present order” with the understanding that “when we pray ‘Thy Kingdom come’, we are not praying that at long last history may end

408 Horton, Can Christianity Save Civilization?, 174. Muste heavily marked up this passage in his copy of the book. 409 Thomas, “Central Christian Affirmations,” 127, 132-133. Emphasis original. Muste underlined these passage and put three lines next to each of them in the margin of his copy of the book.

111 with utopia or the millennium, but that in this situation in which we stand the reign of God may be made manifest after the pattern of its revelation in Christ.”410

Likewise, Daniel Day Williams consciously seeks a path between liberalism, with its belief in the kingdom’s perfection in history, and the neo-orthodox refutation of that possibility through the assertion that there is a fundamental contradiction between the way the world works and the way the kingdom will function. He writes, “to live in the reign of Christ means to share in an actual and continual victory of good over evil. It is one thing to recognize that evil is never eradicated from the self or from society. But it does not follow that good never triumphs over evil.” Furthermore, “there can be no good news of Christ apart from the possibility that in some small measure the life of love can actually be lived on this dark and bloody battlefield of human history.”411

An Outlier: Kingdom Was But is No More. Muste was also exposed to other, less popular eschatological understandings. One of these is from Douglas Clyde Macintosh, who argues that the kingdom was present in Jesus, but is no longer at hand. Strangely, in the same text he also seems to assume that the kingdom will be more fully realized again in the future, but does not include this understanding when he explicitly addresses the question.412

It is All Up to Us. The second major eschatological question is the role of humanity in the bringing of the kingdom. One extreme focuses entirely on human action to the exclusion of

God’s action, although it is not always true that people who hold this position would agree that

410 C.H. Dodd, “The Kingdom of God and History,” in The Kingdom of God and History, by Wood, H.G., et. al. (Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1938), 25, 37-38. Emphasis original. Muste underlined these passages in his copy of the book. 411 Williams, God’s Grace and Man’s Hope, 58, 86, 133. Muste marked up these passages in his copy of the book. 412 Macintosh, Social Religion, 75, 83. Muste marked up these passages in his copy of the book.

112 they have left no place for God’s work in the world. Canadian Old Testament scholar R.B.Y.

Scott argues that the kingdom will come through people “hallowing of the name and the doing of the will of God.”413 Rufus Jones also emphasizes the role of humanity, writing that “much of the power of singularly spiritual men and women comes from their realization that the destiny of other lives is in some measure upon them.”414 Muste’s earlier, more theocratic view seems to fall in this category.

We Have No Impact. At the other extreme are people who argue that humanity has no role whatsoever in bringing the kingdom. It is entirely God’s work. This position fits best with a belief in the kingdom as fully future. While bringing the kingdom is God’s work, at least one proponent of this position, Joseph H. Oldham, believed that it is humanity’s role to proclaim it.415

The Kingdom is God’s Work and Ours. In the middle of the two extremes is the most popular position, the one that holds that bringing the kingdom is both God’s and humanity’s work. Douglas Clyde Macintosh seems to have this understanding, although only by virtue of arguing both sides separately. He argues first that the kingdom of God begins in the lives of individuals and that “as a result of God’s will being done in a multitude of individual lives, the reign of God would be manifested outwardly in social relations and in the order of society.”

Second, he argues that “the Kingdom of heaven and earth which he [Jesus] preached, a reign of justice and brotherly love… of the will of God in all human affairs, was more reasonable as an ideal than modern Utopias in that it was not proposed to realize it without religious faith and

413 R.B.Y. Scott, “The Biblical Basis,” Towards the Christian Revolution, ed. R.B.Y. Scott and Gregory Vlastos (Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1936), 94. Muste underlined this passage and put two lines and two plus signs next to it in the margin of his copy of the book. 414 Jones, Practical Christianity, 160. Emphasis original. 415 Visser ’T Hooft and Oldham, The Church and Its Function in Society, 132. Muste underlined this passage and put two lines next to it in the margin of his copy of the book.

113 dedication, or without the initiative of God.”416 More developed is the thought of literary critic

Amos Niven Wilder, who argues that our action is motivated by God’s action. He writes that

“what is above all imperative is that we should continually recapture a dynamic vision of God in his historical activity of such a compelling kind that we are thereby continually redirected and animated along the line of his purpose.”417 This was Muste’s understanding as it continued to develop in and after the 1930s.

Summary of Influences. As we have seen, Muste was exposed to many conflicting understandings of the kingdom of God. Theologians of his day did not agree on when or how the kingdom will come, much less what it will look like. Add this to the fact that Muste seems not to have made eschatology a particularly important part of his theology and it is not surprising that his views were at times contradictory and changing. Yet there were times when Muste spoke eloquently of the kingdom as the goal toward which humanity must work.

The positions represented in this chapter are drawn mostly from books that Muste had in his possession when he died. This represents only a small sample of Muste’s influences and is heavily weighed toward the end of his life. The huge range of positions to be found in just these works demonstrates how widely Muste read (for an even fuller picture, the appendices can be examined). His position shifted during his life from the theocratic vision, which was barely on the map of contemporary discourse, to the belief that the kingdom is forever at hand, a position

416 Macintosh, Social Religion, 26, 35, 121. Muste marked up all or part of each quotation in his copy of the book. 417 Amos Niven Wilder, Eschatology and Ethics in the Teaching of Jesus (New York: Harper, 1950), 193. Muste underlined this passage in his copy and added three lines next to it in the margin. Much of Wilder’s work was in secular literary criticism, but he also pioneered literary criticism of the New Testament. He was a Congregationalist.

114 widely held in mainline Protestant circles. The common link between these positions is the emphasis on eschatology as motivation for work to make the world a better place.

The Importance of Eschatology. Muste taught that “life and history are most deeply characterized by the fact that they have a goal. The task of men and the task of civilization which is set by Jewish-Christian faith is the achievement of that goal…. the task and the goal are in scriptural language the realization of the Kingdom of God on earth.”418 This is one of the few times Muste speaks about the importance of the theological idea of the kingdom of God. It is not coincidental that he speaks of its importance in terms of the task that it places in front of both individuals and society. Its importance lies in the motivation it provides for work to make the world a better place. As Daniel Day Williams writes, “religion which has not lost its utopianism is the opposite of the opiate of the people.”419

Conclusions

A Pacifist Hero. Muste is best known as a hero of the pacifist movement. Perhaps its most influential leader, he tirelessly worked for justice and urged that the way of peace be implemented by both individuals and nations. He traveled the world spreading the message that peace is possible. He tirelessly protested war and the economic and racial inequality that help fuel it. At his death, he was hailed as “pivotal in building the present peace movement,” “a brilliant peacefighter,” and “an inspiration without parallel in twentieth century America.”420

418 Muste, “New Brunswick Lectures,” [March 22, 1944], 2. This page is labeled 3/15/44 but is filed with 3/22/44 and seems to be from that later lecture. The lecture from 3/15/44 already has a page 2. 419 Williams, God’s Grace and Man’s Hope, 155. Muste underlined this passage in his copy. 420 Sidney Lens, “Humanistic Revolutionary,” Liberation XII, nos. 6 and 7 (September and October 1967): 7; Le Dinh Tham, “A Loss for Peace-Loving People,” Liberation XII, nos. 6 and 7 (September and October 1967): 69; Noam Chomsky, “The Revolutionary Pacifism of A.J. Muste,” Liberation XII, nos. 6 and 7 (September and October 1967): 25.

115 Muste’s strange combination of influences was, in some ways, typical of many pacifists during his time. Mysticism, the social gospel, the terminology of the “way,” and the emphasis on love are common themes arising from the mixing of mainline Protestantism with liberal

Quakerism that characterized pacifism in the early to mid twentieth century. He involved himself in whatever discussions and controversies were current. He was influenced by the trends and changes in the pacifist movement. His opinion on methods and means often shifted, while his underlying motivation and values did not. Although Muste’s development may often have mirrored the movement of pacifist culture generally, he was often ahead of the trend. He was not so much shaped by the pacifist movement as he shaped it.

Muste was much more grounded in Christianity that the average pacifist, particularly as pacifism became less centered in Protestantism. With the onset of the Second World War, serious

Christian theologians became less and less commonplace within the peace movement, which was in the process of adopting an openness to any or no kind of spirituality. To have focused as much as Muste did on the church was becoming abnormal. He repeatedly appealed to the faith of

Christians to call them to pacifism and work for peace and justice. That when he spoke to secular audiences he often abstained from directly mentioning God or faith does not decrease the centrality of his faith to what he was saying.

A Theologian At Heart. I may be the first person call Muste a theologian.421 While a few people recognize the centrality of his faith, most of those he influenced and worked with preferred to ignore what one Trotskyist leader called his “terrible background of the church.”422

421 The closest anyone has come that I know of is Patricia Appelbaum’s reference to his “careful theological reasoning” in Appelbaum, Kingdom to Commune, 183. 422 Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 55. The leader was the Communist League chief James Cannon.

116 That most of his contemporaries and later historians have largely ignored this central part of his identity has severely limited their accounts of him.

Reverend Muste was not a typical theologian. His theology was done on the ground, with common people struggling for equality, peace, and a better world. Consequently, the topics he addresses most thoroughly tend to be topics that serve the task of spreading pacifism among

Christians. This should not be taken to imply that his pacifism was the basis of his theology, for it was his theology that led him to pacifism in the first place. His witness was driven by the need to put his theology into practice. If he had not been a theologian, he probably would have remained in a comfortable pastorate or professorship for the rest of his life. Instead, he embraced a transient life of service.

Muste was not simply a theologian. He was an activist, but more than that he was a strategist and planner. Much of his writing pertains to the strategy of the movements he was involved with. It is thus fitting that the term “Musteite” describes not a particular brand of theology, but a particular ideology of union organizing. We also must remember the period in the

1920s and 30s when he largely left the church. In this and other periods when his daily work had little to do with the church, he produced little in the way of theological writings. These mostly originate when he was employed, literally or figuratively, to speak to Christian audiences.

While he was not always writing theology, it always undergirded his thought and work.

As is hopefully clear from this work, his theology was fairly well developed. Some areas beg for elaboration––he was not a systematic theologian––but many others are complete, at least as much as theology ever can be. More than simply being detailed, his theology is generally well- done. Many of his essays remain relevant and interesting today.

117 Transcending Denominational and Theological Lines. Muste was a Reformed-

Presbyterian-Congregationalist-Quaker. He was a social gospel theologian, a mystic and an academic. He was a Marxist-Leninist and a Trotskyist. Except that he wasn’t. He was each of these things for a time and to some extent, but never fully. Some of them he renounced, others he simply merged into his ever-growing portfolio of influences. He was truly ecumenical, a theological and denominational mutt, even joking that “the situation is unusual… I suppose it would do something to church statistics if it were common.”423

His diverse array of associations allowed him a rare level of intellectual independence.

He was rarely swayed by the popular theologies of a given era. He had a healthy suspicion of all those who sought positions of leadership and power. He stood back, able to critique even the most widely accepted theses and the most charismatic speakers. He stood in front, ready to show people the way forward. He never wavered in calling people to a better way.

One eulogist was especially insightful when he said that “A.J. belonged to many people.

He made friends across impossible ideological boundries [sic].”424 In a real sense, Muste, like the apostle Paul, was all things to all people. When speaking to a Reformed audience, he did so as one raised in that heritage. When speaking to Quakers, he did so as a Quaker. When speaking to the Left, he did so as a former labor leader who still cared deeply about the cause of social progress. When speaking to non-socialist Americans, he did so as someone deeply concerned about the health and preservation of democracy. As a result, he was able to critique each group as an insider. To this day, he is claimed by a dizzying array of groups as “one of our own.”

423 A.J. Muste, “Letter to Kenneth R. Mitchell,” March 26, 1965. 424 David McReynolds, “I Learned of A.J. Muste’s Death,” WIN Special Supplement: A.J. Muste, 1885-1967 ([February 1967]): 2.

118 A Tireless Worker. From his diverse influences Muste developed his theological understanding of the world. His religious faith, more than anything else, created him. His theology underpinned all the work that he did, as a pastor, as a labor leader, as a professor, and as a tireless worker for peace and a better world. His brilliant mind and skill working with people propelled him to high and influential positions, both official and unofficial.

An Influential Leader. Muste could often be found leading. He headed churches, labor unions, a college, and multiple organizations, not least of which was the Fellowship of

Reconciliation. Even when he had no formal leadership role, his advice was valued and sought by those who knew him. He worked with countless organizations and individuals, helping them pursue peace and justice. Nat Hentoff, an early biographer of Muste, once remarked that “a list of those influenced on a direct person-to-person basis by A.J. would be startlingly long,” noting that

“he’s influenced thousands.”425

Upon news of his death hundreds of letters poured into the mailboxes of his family, the

Fellowship of Reconciliation, Liberation, the Committee for Nonviolent Action, and other organizations he worked with. They came in from all over the world––from India and Israel,

Chile and Canada, France and Vietnam, Japan and England, Switzerland and Pennsylvania. He was described as “one of the greatest human beings I have ever known,” and “an immense inspiration.”426 The national council of the FOR described him as a “peacemaker, reconciler, fighter for justice, leader of unpopular causes, interpreter of man to man, gadfly to the acquiescent, pastor to needy souls, brother of all… these terms are each true but together they are

425 Nat Hentoff, “A.J. Continuing,” Liberation XII, nos. 6 and 7 (September and October 1967): 67. 426 Liberation XII, nos. 6 and 7 (September and October 1967): 68-69; Committee on Non-Violent Action, WIN Special Supplement: A.J. Muste, 1885-1967 ([February 1967]): 2.

119 inadequate to sum up the hight, depth, and breadth of this consecrated but peppery saint.”427

Robert F. Kennedy eulogized that

courage, determination, youth…. we pay tribute to a man who embodied those qualities––all his life––in the cause of peace. A.J. Muste spoke to all generations but was limited by none. His courage was both moral and physical not only in his willingness to face immediate dangers but also that far more rare willingness to oppose his single conscience to the opinions of his fellows in the pursuit of his ideals and in the service of us all…. He was one of those rare men of whom it can be said that our inability to follow his example speaks more to his excellence than to the limitations in ourselves.428

The New York Post, which admits it often disagreed with him, editorialized that “few men so closely approached saintliness on earth––without self-righteousness.”429

Historians are only beginning to understand the impact Muste had upon the trajectory of the United States. It was not the impact he had hoped for––an end to war and the creation of a just, peaceful society––but it was significant nonetheless. He had a tremendous impact through his work in the labor movement, the peace movement, and the Civil Rights Movement. His

Christian faith shaped him and motivated the work that, in a real sense, changed the world.

427 National Council of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, “Resolution upon Muste’s death.” [April 1967]. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.1. 428 Robert F. Kennedy, quoted in Committee on Non-Violent Action, WIN Special Supplement: A.J. Muste, 1885-1967 ([February 1967]): 2. 429 “A Man of Conscience,” New York Post (February 13, 1967): 24.

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Annotated Bibliography

“A Man of Conscience.” New York Post (February 13, 1967): 24.

The Post praises Muste in this obituary, although it notes it often disagreed with him.

Appelbaum, Patricia. Kingdom to Commune: Protestant Pacifist Culture Between World War I and the Vietnam Era. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.

Appelbaum traces pacifist culture from its roots as the norm of mainline Protestantism in the interwar period to its more sectarian, less religiously-exclusive form in the early Cold War years. She examines pacifist social networks, theology, terminology, drama, stories, and other forms of artistic expression, spirituality, and practical living while developing the thesis that the years 1939 to 1942 mark a shift to a new paradigm of pacifist culture.

Asch, Sholem. One Destiny: An Epistle to the Christians. Trans. Milton Hindus. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1945.

Muste’s copy of this book, now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI, contains a light amount of markings (see appendix 1b). The author is a Jew trying to make sense of the holocaust.

Barth, Karl. Against the Stream: Shorter Post-War Writings, 1946-52. New York: Philosophical Library, 1954.

Muste’s copy of this book, now at the Joint Archives of Holland, is heavily marked up (see appendix 1a).

Bennett, John Coleman. Christianity––and Our World. New York: Association Press, 1936.

Muste’s copy of this book, now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI, is heavily marked up (see appendix 1b).

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. New York: MacMillan, 1949.

Muste’s copy of this book, now at the Joint Archives of Holland, is heavily marked up (see appendix 1a).

Brinton, Howard Haines. Divine-Human Society. Philadelphia: Book Committee of the Religious Society of Friends of Philadelphia and Vicinity, 1938.

Muste’s copy of this book, now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI, contains a medium to heavy amount of markings (see appendix 1b).

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Brunner, Emil. The Word and the World. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1931.

Muste’s copy of this book, now at the Joint Archives of Holland, is heavily marked up (see appendix 1a).

Chomsky, Noam. “The Revolutionary Pacifism of A.J. Muste.” Liberation XII, nos. 6 and 7 (September and October 1967): 25-38.

Chomsky’s contribution to Liberation’s special memorial issue on Muste.

Committee for Nonviolent Action. WIN Special Supplement: A.J. Muste, 1885-1967 ([February 1967]). Joint Archives of Holland.

A memorial issue of the Committee for Nonviolent Action’s newsletter WIN. Muste was an integral part of its leadership.

Cullmann, Oscar. “The Kingship of Christ and the Church in the New Testament.” In The Early Church, edited by A.J.B. Higgins. London, SCM, 1956.

Muste likely read this paper in preparation for the Puidoux Theological Conference in 1955. The version distributed before the conference is not extant, but this version from a year later is likely identical or very similar.

Danielson, Leilah. “Christianity, Dissent, and the Cold War: A.J. Muste’s Challenge to Realism and U.S. Empire.” Diplomatic History 30, no. 4 (September 2006): 645-669.

Historian Leilah Danielson masterfully depicts Muste’s pacifist challenge to the Christian realism of the mid-twentieth century, which was developed and used to support United States involvement in World War Two and Cold War foreign policy. She does so as a historian, but also as someone who believes that Muste’s arguments are still relevant and sorely needed today. Danielson shows the development of Muste’s arguments in the context of the historical situation and the arguments of his opponents. Her depiction of his thought is thorough and fair and her research detailed. Danielson’s analysis and conclusions greatly advance the understanding of this complex and important man.

Dodd, C.H. “The Kingdom of God and History.” In The Kingdom of God and History, by Wood, H.G., et. al. Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1938.

Muste’s copy of this book is now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI (see appendix 1b).

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Edwin, Marjorie Swann. “AJ, Kennedy and King: The Quebec to Guantanamo Walk in Georgia November 1963.” Muste Notes 14, no. 3 (Spring 2007). Available: .

Recollections of the Quebec-Washington-Guantánamo walk, which Muste supported.

Farmer, Herbert Henry. The World and God: A Study of Prayer, Providence and Miracle in Christian Experience. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1935.

In his copy of this book, now at the Joint Archives of Holland, Muste marked up the first 100 pages (see appendix 1a).

Fellowship of Reconciliation, National Council. “Resolution upon Muste’s death.” [April 1967]. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.1.

A short typed resolution in memory of Muste. The date April 1967 was added by a later hand. Since Muste died in February, an earlier date would make sense as well.

Ferré, Nels F.S. The Christian Faith: An Inquiry into Its Adequacy as Man’s Ultimate Religion. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1942.

Muste’s copy of this book, now at the Joint Archives of Holland, is heavily marked up (see appendix 1a).

Finney, John W. “A.E.C. Shuts Zone in the Pacific To Bar A-Bomb Protests.” New York Times (April 12, 1958): 1, 3.

Reporting in the sailing of the Golden Rule, a project Muste supported.

Gliddon, C. Paul. “The Gospel Basis of Pacifism,” in Into the Way of Peace, edited by Percy Hartill, 23-44. London: James Clarke, 1940.

“Government Stops Five Pacifists En route To Cuba In Small Boat.” Liberation 9, no. 9 (December 1964), 30.

Reporting on the Quebec-Washington-Guantánamo walk, which Muste supported.

Handy, Robert T. A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987.

This is a useful source for understanding Union while Muste was there.

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Hartill, Percy. “The Philosophy of Christian Pacifism.” In Into the Way of Peace, edited by Percy Hartill, 65-84. London: James Clarke, 1940.

Muste’s copy of this book, now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI, is fairly heavily marked up (see appendix 1b).

Heering, Gerrit Jan. The Fall of Christianity: A Study of Christianity, the State and War. Translated by J.W. Heering. New York: Fellowship Publications, 1943.

This book is a scholarly look at early Christianity and war, Christianity and the state, the state and war, morality and war, and the task of Christianity. Heering presents the case for why the Church must wholeheartedly oppose war. It was originally published in Dutch in the Netherlands in 1928 and subsequently translated and published in Britain in 1930 and the U.S. in 1943. For evidence that Muste read it, see appendix 2. He read the 1930 edition (or perhaps the original Dutch).

Hentoff, Nat. “A.J. Continuing.” Liberation XII, nos. 6 and 7 (September and October 1967): 66-67.

One of Hentoff’s memorial essays on Muste.

––––––. Peace Agitator: the Story of A.J. Muste. New York: Macmillan, 1963.

The first biography of Muste, Hentoff’s work is barely adequate. Published four years before Muste’s death it covers all of the periods of his life up to that point but does so in an often incomplete way. While Hentoff fails to cite his sources or include a bibliography, it is clear that he relied on too few sources. His depiction often seems incomplete and lacking. Still, it does include much useful information.

Heschel, Abraham Joshua. “The Religions Message.” In Religion in America: Original Essays on Religion in a Free Society, edited by John Cogley. New York: Meridian Books, 1958.

Muste’s copy of this book is now at the Joint Archives of Holland (see appendix 1a).

Horton, Walter Marshall. Can Christianity Save Civilization? New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940.

Muste’s copy of this book, now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI, contains a medium amount of markings (see appendix 1b).

Huxley, Aldous. Ends and Means: An Inquiry into the Nature of Ideals and into the Methods Employed for Their Realization. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1937.

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Muste quotes this book in some of his works and includes Huxley on a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” (see appendix 2).

Jones, Rufus. The Flowering of Mysticism: The Friends of God in the Fourteenth Century. New York: MacMillan, 1939.

Muste’s copy of this book is now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI (see appendix 1b).

––––––. Practical Christianity. Reprint of the 2nd Edition. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 2006.

The writings of Rufus Jones were a major influence in Muste’s intellectual development during his time at Union Theological Seminary in New York. A number of Muste’s ideas may have been drawn from this book. The first edition was published in 1899 in Philadelphia by John C. Winston & Co. The second edition was put out in 1905 by the same publisher and added a new preface and 13 new chapters at the end without any changes to the original 53 chapters.

––––––. Social Law in the Spiritual World. Philadelphia: John C. Winston, 1904.

Although there is no evidence that Muste read this particular text, he is known to have been an avid reader of Jones’ works.

––––––. Some Exponents of Mystical Religion. New York: Abingdon, 1930.

Although there is no evidence that Muste read this particular text, he is known to have been an avid reader of Jones’ works.

––––––. Studies in Mystical Religion. London: MacMillian, 1909.

It is almost certain that Muste read this book sometime during the early 1910s. It was in all likelihood a key work in his discovery of the Christian mystics.

––––––. The World Within. New York: MacMillan, 1921.

Although there is no evidence that Muste read this particular text, he is known to have been an avid reader of Jones’ works.

King, Martin Luther, Jr. Stride toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. New York: Harper & Row, 1958.

In this book, King notes that a lecture by Muste was his first exposure to pacifism.

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Knox, John. “Christianity and the Christian.” In The Christian Answer, edited by Henry P. Van Dusen. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1945.

Muste’s copy of this book is now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI (see appendix 1b).

Kosek, Joseph Kipp. Acts of Conscience: Christian Nonviolence and Modern American Democracy. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.

In this brilliant scholarly analysis, Joseph Kipp Kosek looks at the impact of A.J. Muste and other radical Christian Pacifists on U.S. democracy. Beginning with WWI and ending with the Civil Rights movement, this book is perhaps the best history of the American pacifist movement.

Kuyper, Abraham. Lectures on Calvinism: Six Lectures Delivered at Princeton University in 1898 Under Auspices of the L.P. Stone Foundation. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1931.

Muste praises these lectures in his 1938 article, “Church’s Witness to Her Faith.” Kuyper’s lectures are saturated in a belief in the superiority of Calvinism, which certainly Muste did not agree with, but also contain a number of ideas that became central to Muste’s thought. While originally given in 1898, it appears that these lectures were not published until 1931.

Lambert, John Chisholm. A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1906.

It is unlikely that Muste read this work. I quote it only to illustrate that ideas similar to Muste’s were present in other literature.

Le Dinh Tham. “A Loss for Peace-Loving People.” Liberation XII, nos. 6 and 7 (September and October 1967): 69.

A brief letter to the editor on the occasion of Muste’s death.

Lens, Sidney. “Humanistic Revolutionary.” Liberation XII, nos. 6 and 7 (September and October 1967): 5-8.

Reflections upon Muste’s death.

Lyman, Eugene W. “The Kingdom of God and History.” In The Kingdom of God and History, by Wood, H.G., et. al. Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1938.

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Muste’s copy of this book is now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI (see appendix 1b).

Lyttle, Brad. “The Meaning of Albany: A Victory for Truth.” Liberation 9, no. 2 (April 1964): 20-21.

Reporting on the Quebec-Washington-Guantánamo walk, which Muste supported.

Macintosh, Douglas Clyde. Social Religion. New York: Scribner, 1939.

Muste’s copy of this book is now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI (see appendix 1b). He included it in the bibliography at the end of Non- Violence in an Aggressive World (see appendix 2) and on a book list for a course he taught on the church and social action (see appendix 3).

Maritain, Jacques. Freedom in the Modern World. Trans. Richard O’Sullivan. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936.

Muste’s copy of this book is now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI (see appendix 1b). Muste marked up this book very heavily, especially the chapter of the “purification of the means,” and appears to have read it more than once.

McGregor, G.H.C. The New Testament Basis of Pacifism. New and revised ed. Nyack, NY: Fellowship Press, 1954.

Muste repeatedly recommended this book and included it on a reading list for a class he taught (see appendices 2 and 3). Muste read the 1936 first edition.

McReynolds, David. “I Learned of A.J. Muste’s Death.” WIN Special Supplement: A.J. Muste, 1885-1967 ([February 1967]): 2.

Reflections upon Muste’s death.

Merton, Thomas. “Peace: A Religious Responsibility.” In Breakthrough to Peace. Norfolk, CT: J. Laughlin, 1962.

Muste’s marked up this essay in his copy of this book, which is now at the Joint Archives of Holland (see appendix 1a).

Meyer, Albert. Report on the Puidoux Theological Conference. Aug. 15-19, 1955. Available: .

Muste was a participant. Contains summaries of remarks by him.

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Meyer, Donald. The Protestant Search for Political Realism, 1919-1941. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960.

Meyer Calls Muste the “the most perfect exemplar of the pure, unmixed, unadulterated social-gospel soul” (369).

Migliore, Daniel L. Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004.

Migliore cites the definition of theology that Muste used as a standard option.

Murry, J. Middleton. “The Church’s Duty and Opportunity.” In Into the Way of Peace, edited by Percy Hartill, 113-[?]. London: James Clarke, 1940.

Muste’s copy of this book, now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI, is fairly heavily marked up (see appendix 1b).

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Address Over Y.M.C.A. New York: In the Week of Prayer Series Auspices Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America.” January 5, 1938. Typed script with notes and additions. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.3.

Muste begins this speech with a look at Moses that uses the terminology of the labor movement to link slavery in Egypt to the plight of workers in the present: it is the “story of one of the great walk-outs of history” (2). He notes that Moses learned the lesson of many would-be deliverers, that the oppressed often fight each other as much as their oppressors and seldom welcome their delivers. He also argues that “God always identifies himself with suffering men” (2). As a result, people “are never in living relationships with the true God unless they also are consumed with compassion for the oppressed and enlist in their cause” (3). The extent material is the copy Muste spoke from with his additions and corrections. Handwritten in the margins is this addition: “All the great peaks in Jewish-Christian revelation––Moses, the great prophets such as Jeremiah, Jesus himself––came at periods of dictatorship when brute force is being deified and proclaim that Spirit––[illegible] Spirit of love is mightier than the weapons of the flesh” (1). He has three suggestions: first, “there can be no adequate expression of the spirit of reconciliation and brotherhood where one individual or group keeps another in a status of inferiority,” second, “all elements in industry and the nation must dedicate themselves anew to the achievement of economic justice, and equitable distribution of the income of the nation, operation of our huge industrial plant for the common good, the provision of basic economic security for the mass of our people,” and third, “all elements concerned must resolutely rule out resort to violence for the solution of difficulties” (3-5). He ends by quoting Jesus’ statement that all who take up the sword will perish by it.

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Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Admonitions for War Time.” On the Church of the Air Program. March 3, 1940. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.3.

In this radio sermon, Muste covers a lot of ground in his admonitions to his listeners. His ten admonitions are as follows: 1) Make up your mind whether you believe in God. 2) Do not try to put yourself in God’s place. 3) Practice the presence of God. 4) Practice works of mercy. 5) Keep the conscience sensitive and alert. 6) “Take out first the beam out of your own eye.” 7) Love your enemies and pray for them. 8) Keep the mind’s eye clear and your judgement cool. 9) Remember that God is both the source of all comfort and light and the sole lord of conscience. 10) Finally, remember God’s purpose for mankind and the certainty of ultimate triumph. Muste also touches on worshiping God with the mind, not trying to carry the whole world on your shoulders (letting God carry the burden), prayer, racism, truth, debate, the decision as to whether a Christian can participate in war, how to treat those who disagree with your decision, and eschatology.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Alumni Questionnaire.” Survey returned to Hope College with handwritten autobiographical answers filled in by Muste. [1918]. Joint Archives of Holland.

Muste filled out this form, sent to him in 1918, for the Hope College Alumni Office. It contains his answers to biographical and other questions, including the books and people he considered most influential in his life. In a section for additional comments, he mentions the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Another War to Save Democracy?: Analysis of the Formulas Being Used in the Current Mobilization for Chaos.” Fellowship 3, no. 1 (January 1937): 3-6.

In this article, Muste argues against the position that another war is necessary. He criticizes the resurgence of a “one more war” argument and contends that fascism can be defeated only through nonviolent means. He advocates disarmament and economic justice as ways to erode fascist governments’ ability to take their nations to war and argues that they would not have been able to come to power if it were not for economic imperialism.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. Christianity, the Only Hope of the World. Philadelphia: Book Association of Friends, 1918. Swarthmore College Friends Historical Library.

This pamphlet originated in a speech given to the Westtown Young Friends’ Conference in Westtown, Pennsylvania on June 23, 1918. Muste starts out with the thesis that much is the same between Jesus’ day and our own: there was great need but also great hope. People expressed their hope in three different ways, then as now: by seeking a major

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change in the economic system, by waiting for Jesus’ Second Coming to change things because we cannot, and by deciding to use of military force to set up a new order. In contrast to these views, Jesus pointed to a different way, the way of love, which he expected his followers to begin to live immediately. Notable is Muste’s dualism of soul and body, which he uses to argue for the primacy of individual spiritual conversion over efforts at economic revolution. While this is a major departure from his later thought, much of the speech is remarkably similar to views he would hold many decades later. It is an indispensable source for his early theological views that shows a remarkable degree of continuity.

Note: I was able to obtain a copy of this pamphlet only as this thesis was “going to press,” and thus it does not have the place in the thesis that it deserves.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “The Church and the Politico-Economic Situation.” Religious Digest (December 1938): 63-67. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.4.

In this article Muste analyses current (1938) trends and seeks to articulate a path forward for the church. He downplays the ability of other traditional religions to compete with Christianity, and points instead to “faiths” such as communism and fascism as Christianity’s chief rivals. He argues that the Church must translate its message so it is understandable to those attracted by these other “faiths.” He anticipates that these political movements will result in the return of Christianity to minority and persecuted status. He argues that the theological reaction (Barth etc.) to these changes makes many positive corrections but goes to far, allowing its pessimism to destroy the hope of the kingdom of God, which is the very thing the church needs most to speak to the current time. While it was utopian to think that humans could bring the kingdom themselves, the correction is not to ignore it, but to emphasize that it is brought by God’s work. He argues for a sixfold strategy of the Church: it must 1) be the Church and not anything else, 2) perform the great theological labor of translating the gospel for today, 3) recognize that the world is not Christian and avoid condoning what is evil in it, 4) prepare to be a persecuted minority, 5) bear witness to the way of the cross as against the way of the sword in all relationships of life, and 6) become more ecumenical and free of divisions.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “The Church as a Force in the World.” The Christian-Evangelist (Nov. 10, 1938): 1238-1239. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.4.

In this article, Muste briefly describes factors within and outside of the church that he claims will influence the role of the church. He notes, 1) that the idea that religion and science are at odds has fallen out of favor, 2) that it is recognized that the quality of the human being determines the success of any social, political, or economic system, 3) that it is no longer fashionable to attack the church, 4) that individualism has brought the

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world to the brink of collapse, 5) that while the various political systems are relying heavily on violence and brute force, this is an opportunity for the church to become a new force, and 6) that it is generally accepted that if religion is to survive, it will be Christianity. Muste also notes that while the church is still often a force for conservatism, it has increasingly been addressing social issues like war. The church is also in good position due to its renewed emphasis on theology and spiritual disciplines, a development which combats secularism and the view that humans establish the kingdom of God without God’s help. Also noteworthy is Muste’s definition of the task of theology: “the statement of the Eternal Gospel in the language and thought-forms of our day” (1239).

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “The Church’s Responsibility for Peace: A Matter of Life and Death.” An Address Delivered to the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America. June 7, 1937. Committee on International Justice and Goodwill, Reformed Church in America, [1937].

In this powerful 1937 address to the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America, Muste’s denomination until 1914, he calls upon the Church to oppose war. He starts by discussing the Synod’s own 1932 “Pronouncement Concerning World Peace,” with which he agrees. He states that if the pronouncement is true, the Church must oppose war and focus on the education of the conscience of the Church. He addresses biblical passages often used to support war by putting them in textual context and noting the pacifism of the early Church. He then appeals to the gospel, exploring its implications for the nature of the world, for the nature of humans, and for human relationships. Muste then explores the method of the cross of Christ: the overcoming of evil through love manifested in suffering. This is the source of real power. Finally, Muste argues that the organizational church must bear witness to this truth or perish, even though such action will come with persecution.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Church’s Witness to Her Faith.” The Intelligencer-Leader (Sept. 2, 1938): 4-5, 20. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.4.

Muste gave this speech to the Pre-Evangelism Conference of the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America in 1938. In it, he argues that Christians need a faith that overcomes the world. It must be a faith in God and a faith in Christ, each aspect with its own implications. He argues that to put its faith into practice, the Church must do five things: 1) be the Church and not anything else, 2) be able to meet the world intelligently, 3) not defend or condone what is evil in economic or political life but instead raise its prophetic voice, 4) lead the world to the renunciation of war, and 5) be ecumenical, a place where there are no national, racial, or class divisions.

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Muste, Abraham Johannes. “The Civil Rights Movement and the American Establishment.” 1965. In The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff, 451-461. Indianapolis: Bobbs- Merrill, 1967.

In this article, Muste chastises portions of the Civil Rights Movement for allying itself with the Johnson Administration. Although the administration has helped the movement, it must be remembered that the advances were won because people determined not to tolerate how politics worked against African-Americans and were willing to disregard laws designed to keep them down. But the real problem with close relations with the administration is the U.S. policy of suppressing liberation movements abroad. The Civil Rights Movement must oppose the U.S. government because it “has to be for liberation of subjugated and humiliated people everywhere, or carry a cancer in its own body” (460, emphasis Muste’s).

Muste, Abraham Johannes. Conscription and Conscience. Philadelphia: American Friends Service Committee, [1944?]. Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

In this WWII-era pamphlet, Muste rehearses the familiar argument that people must be free to obey the voice of God as it comes to them as individuals because they are subject to a higher law. Conscription is a basic evil because it takes away the freedom to obey God. Muste acknowledges that this argument lifted from the No-Conscription Fellowship, a British organization active during the First World War. Muste then goes on to address seven pro-conscription arguments. First, he argues that while conscription reduces hysteria, it does so by suppressing ethical tension and discussion, which will inevitably break open with more destructive results because it was suppressed. Second, forced conscription is not discipline, but tyranny. Third, conscription and militarism indoctrinate youth into unquestioning obedience, which renders them unfit for participation in democracy. Fourth, the military enforces rather than levels social, economic, and racial barriers. Fifth, a permanent conscription program would be a mask preventing serious effort to solve unemployment and would move the country toward a state-controlled economy. Sixth, responsible citizens and love of democracy cannot be arrived at through force and unquestioning obedience. Seventh, while “the individual was made by and for community,” fellowship must be freely chosen (7-8). Muste concludes by arguing that only religion––specifically, the Christian way of life––can prevent war and conscription.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Contemporary Role of Russia and Stalinist Communism.” Typed draft. [1945]. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.4.

This typewritten essay appears to have been written sometime between July and September, 1945. It examines Russia’s actions after the defeat of Hitler, noting that war between the Soviet Union and the United States is likely to happen but arguing that it can

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be prevented. Muste devotes many pages to the history of Russian expansion, both historically and with the fall of Nazi Germany. He notes that only the U.S. is powerful enough to stop the expansion. Yet he also turns the tables and argues that the U.S. has been behaving exactly the same way in its own sphere of influence (13). He describes Russia as a totalitarian dictatorship, one that has fully abandoned the ideals of socialism and communism (27). He argues that people need to take the threat of Russia seriously and not downplay the level of oppression it uses against its own people. He states that it must be judged by its fruits, not its stated goals (41). He criticizes appeasement, the policy of the U.S. against Russia, because it does not work and is at heart a method of gaining time to become better prepared for war (42-43). He also writes of how the Soviet Union has taken to an extreme some of the negative tendencies of modern life: the making of individuals into cogs in a machine, for example. He writes that for Christianity, the human person as an individual is the primary reality. Each “human person is of infinite worth, externally precious in the sight of God” (48). This does not, he explains, mean individualism, for the individual does not exist without society. This is in part why democracy and the freedoms of association, thought, religion, press, speech, and assembly are so important (49). A mechanistic system ignores the kingdom of God; it is entirely of this world and gives no thought to bigger questions. It has no place for God at all, except to abuse religion to keep people submissive. It is relativistic––truth disappears when the Party is not subject to truth or morality. Yet neither is Western democracy perfect; its ideals are not being realized (52-53). Against Russia, he argues that “those who believe in the Christian and democratic way of life must intransigently oppose this materialistic totalitarianism. But not by the method of war. That can only result in the final triumph of the same philosophy and order of life throughout the world, including among ourselves” (53). Instead, it must be opposed with spiritual weapons, with the example of a superior way of life––but few Christians or democrats are ready for this fight (53). Even the democratic nations are tending toward totalitarianism. The solution is for the U.S. to change its way of life, to truly “live again by the Christian and democratic faith,” which requires, among other things, pacifism and refusal to engage in war (57).

Muste, Abraham John. Fellowship and Class Struggle. New York: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1930.

Originally given as an address in September 1929 to the Annual Conference of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, this piece addresses the importance of the labor movement to the establishment of the kingdom of God on this earth. Muste tries to address how people are to live into the kingdom of God in a world that is still full of strife. He argues for giving up privileged position and for full identification with the poor and oppressed–– labor. Muste notes the similarity of Marx’s thinking to that of Jesus. He points out that Jesus set aside national and racial consciousness (Israel v. Rome, Jew v. Gentile) for class consciousness (poor v. rich). The kingdom of God comes by the power of love and goodness, though Muste does not rule out the use of violence, stating that Jesus advocated nonviolence against a particular oppressor (Rome) and that this may not have

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been a universal rule. Muste also argues that the establishment of fellowship––a classless society––is a key foundation for the good life and the kingdom of God.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Follow the Golden Rule.” Liberation 3, no. 4 (June 1958): 6-8, 13.

Muste recounts the plans, arrest, and trial of the men who attempted to sail the Golden Rule into a U.S. nuclear testing area.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Fragment of Autobiography.” Christendom 4, no. 3 (Summer 1939): 329-340.

In this article Muste chronicles his return to the church in 1936, with a focus on the “inner, psychological process which led to the changes” (331). In the process, he frankly discusses his faith and history of mystical experiences.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “I Believe.” Hope College Alumni Magazine (April 1950), 8, 15. Joint Archives of Holland.

Originally given as a speech at his 65th birthday party, in this short piece Muste summarizes a few of his core beliefs. First, he believes in God, although this does not mean that he behaves consistently as a result, though it should. Second, Muste quotes a A.E. Housman poem to try to express how much the beauty of nature affects him. Third, he believes in the pursuit of knowledge and truth. Fourth, he believes that every human being is to be loved equally and is equally worthy of love––not that all are equally good. This is because “love does not ask merit in advance from the object of its love” (8). Furthermore, “when one sees himself truly he knows there is no one below him” (8). Fifth, life does not guarantee results––“you cannot eliminate the Cross from life and history.” We work for causes we believe in “not because we shall then be successful but because it is right” (8). It may also be noteworthy that he quotes Lincoln’s Gettysburg address and Jesus’ statement about needing to hate father, mother, wife, and child to be his disciple.

Muste, Abraham John. Jesus and the Way to Peace. New York: Fellowship of Reconciliation, [1954?]. Pamphlet. Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

Using the life of Jesus, particularly the temptation and his death on the cross, Muste argues that Christians should embrace a pacifist position. He places Jesus in the context of the Roman empire and explains how Jesus chose God’s method, the way of the cross, instead of the method of Caesar, as his means of overcoming Caesar. This is because God is love, and thus “does not resort to the sort of thing men call power.” Muste predicts doom for those who try to achieve liberation by the world’s old methods. Muste applies this to the United States’ increasing trust in military might and calls the church to lead the nation in ceasing to “depend upon these Satanic weapons.” He urges Christians to join

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those who already refuse to participate in war and seek to demonstrate the effectiveness of sacrificial love, for “what the churches do depends on the decision that individual Christians make.”

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “The Knowledge of God.” November 11, [1936]. Handwritten sermon notes. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.3.

One of Muste’s few extant sermons, this piece reminds us of Muste’s skill as an orator. The sermon starts out slowly, examining at length the fact that the world is full of knowledge, but not the knowledge of God. He critiques those who are led by a scientific worldview to reject religion, noting that science should lead them to explore, examine, and try it rather than dismiss it easily. Moreover, scientists themselves admit that science is limited and that a religious explanation may be what is needed. In addition, the scientific worldview has brought the world to “the brink of the abyss” (5). It has become an idol. It makes everything into objects to be observed from the outside. People have been made into machines and cogs in machines. It created modern weapons and the conditions that may lead to the collective suicide of modern war. The world has the means to produce material goods in abundance, yet it expends its efforts on weaponry, not social improvement. Muste criticizes churches that are “full of activity, of good works… of concern for a better economic and social order perhaps. But not often full of a clear, vital, joyous knowledge and experience of God” (3). They need mysticism, which is a fundamental human activity. The knowledge of God is found in experience, not knowledge about God or doctrines of God. It is a knowledge given by revelation from the God who is always near us. Those who do not see God are in some way refusing to do so. Those who have seen the light, but for whom it has grown dim, should “practice the art of contemplation, of prayer” (12). They should act as if God is near and live as it Jesus were right. Muste also speaks of the kingdom, which he describes using imagery from Isaiah. He argues that it will come only when people have the knowledge of God and have accepted the way of love. He concludes by noting that anyone who has experienced the power of this love knows that it is powerful enough to bring the kingdom, to end war and create a new world without it. This sermon was given as an Armistice Day sermon (Nov. 11); it is stamped with a library-style stamp with the date Nov. 21, 1936, making 1936 the most likely year.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Korea: Spark to Set a World Afire?” 1950. In The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff, 331-354. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967.

In this FOR pamphlet, Muste addresses the beginning of conflict in Korea, starting with a detailed background of events that led to the start of the war. He emphasizes the brutality of the regime of Syngman Rhee in the South. He fears that it may be the spark that sets off World War Three, if only because the justifications given for entering the conflict would be sufficient for justifying a broader war. He notes that the U.S. has a history of

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arming nations it later ends up fighting. He also wonders why the U.S. thinks it has business in South Korea while denying that Russia has interests in North Korea, especially when the U.S. is so much father away. He emphasizes the need to address the fundamental causes of conflict, especially economic inequality. He argues that war would, as it has in the past, poison democracy and bolster communism and that the use of the atomic bomb in Korea would prove the Stalinist argument that “it is the Americans who are the ruthless warmongers” (344). He admits the U.S. is in a tough spot: it should not allow the spread of communism but war would ultimately do just that. He also argues that the U.S. would militarily be at the disadvantage and has a very real chance of losing a war. The Christian and pacifist answer to all this is that the problem is spiritual in nature: whether Communist totalitarianism will drag the Christian and democratic nations to its own level. He concludes by outlining the task of pacifists in the event the nation does not take his advice.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Letter to Kenneth R. Mitchell.” March 26, 1965. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.34.

In this letter, Muste describes his religious participation, noting that in 1937 when he took over leadership of the Presbyterian Labor Temple that he did so on the condition that this not mean severing his connection with Quakers. He describes this as a “dual membership.” He also notes that his busy schedule meant that since that time he has not been able to really participate in the life of any particular Friends meeting or church congregation.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “The Meaning of Albany: A Modest Breakthrough.” Liberation 9, no. 2 (April 1964): 18-20.

Muste writes of an incident that occurred on the Quebec-Washington-Guantánamo walk.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “My Spiritual Pilgrimage.” Summary of an address to a women’s association. The Brick Church Record (May 1938): 8-9. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.3.

This summary of a speech by Muste begins with him noting that the stated aim of Communism––“to establish a world free from injustice, inequality, and war”––is much like the much-neglected social aims of Christianity. On a related note, he attributes his return to the Christian faith primarily as an act of God’s grace. He concludes by calling for a church that engages in the theological labor of translating the gospel into the language and thought forms of the current day, is not concerned with maintaining the status quo, and frees itself from alliances with the state.

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Muste, Abraham Johannes. “New Brunswick Lectures.” February-May 1944. Course notes for a course on the church and social action. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.3.

These appear to be an attempt at a word-for-word transcription of Muste’s lectures typed by one of his students rather than texts he prepared ahead of time. Much of the material is about the history of Christianity, but Muste’s own opinions come out in some of the material.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. Non-Violence in an Aggressive World. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940.

In Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, the first of Muste’s two books, he reverses conventional wisdom to argue that war itself is hopelessly idealistic. The way of the cross, Christ’s way, “the foolishness of forgiveness, love, and truth,” are the “only wisdom left for mankind” (152). The renunciation of war, while not an easy path, is, in fact, the only realistic course of action in a world of total war. His plan for this transition is not fully developed, but includes repentance, disarmament, mutually beneficial economic agreements, and a federal world government. Muste argues that if democracy is to survive and if social progress is to be made, people and movements must embrace both Christianity and pacifism. The book is written to three primary audiences: “members and followers of the churches, Christian and Jewish;” workers and intellectuals identified with the workers movement, including “Socialists, Communists, and revolutionists;” and those “who are genuinely concerned with the adaptation of democratic concepts to modern needs and conditions” (1-2). He argues that democracy needs religion to function properly and is by its very nature incompatible with violence. He believes that the Left’s failures are the result of a lack of moral grounding stemming from its renunciation of religion and that an end to war would do much more for its aim of social progress than any violent revolution. He argues that Christianity is in its very nature nonviolent, and must be pacifist if it is to truly be the Church.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. Not By Might: Christianity: The Way to Human Decency. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1947.

The second of Muste’s two full-length books, this text is the main source of his thought immediately following the conclusion of WWII. It is largely a reaction to that war and the invention of the atomic bomb. A number of the chapters are deeply theological in nature.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Now is the Appointed Time: Nuclear War and the Christian Faith.” Reprint from Fellowship. No Date. Joint Archives of Holland.

In this pamphlet, Muste takes on Christian clergy who argue that the nation must not use nuclear weapons but should not make that decision known ahead of time so that the

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weapons can be a deterrent. He argues that this is in effect placing trust in the weapons rather than God. He asks that if we are to give them up when we are on the brink of war (or more likely, protest their use), why not give them up now?

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Of Holy Disobedience.” 1952. In The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff, 355-377. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967.

In this seminal essay on conscientious objection, Muste argues for resistance against all forms of conscription, including alternative service. He dissects common arguments used to support accepting alternative service, finding them all unsatisfactory. He sees opposition to conscription as key to opposing the “trend toward totalitarianism” before the situation gets worse. He also sees conscription as inseparable from opposition to war. Thus, he advocates “Holy Disobedience” as the core of any realistic and practical movement against war.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Pacifism and Perfectionism.” 1948. In The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff, 308-321. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967.

This essay is a well-argued invective against neo-orthodoxy and its tendency to emphasize the inescapability of sin to the point that its inevitability leads to a failure to even try to live a moral life. He admits that pacifists often underestimate how hard perfection is to pursue, but argues that nevertheless the gospel demands nothing less than its pursuit.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “The Pacifist Way of Life.” 1941. In Peace is the Way: Writings on Non-Violence from the Fellowship of Reconciliation, edited by Walter Wink. Maryknoll: Orbis, 2000.

Under the shadow of the Second World War, Muste, in this December 1941 article, identifies five elements of the pacifist way of life. He relates each to personal relations and to nations, explaining how these practices make for peace in relationships and between nations. First, pacifists are creative, they do not conform to what is expected but gain power from rising above circumstances. Second, pacifists cease trying to justify themselves. They confess their shortcomings and admit when they are in the wrong. Third, they tell the truth. Fourth, they are not afraid, allowing them to relieve tense circumstances. Fifth, they do not trust in physical power, but in the power of the spirit. That is, they trust God.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Peace is the Way.” Liberation 10, no. 3 (May 1965): 3-5.

In this response to President Lyndon Johnson’s April 1965 address at Johns Hopkins University, Muste criticizes Johnson’s ability to give lip service to peace and ending poverty while using the methods of war in Vietnam. Muste explores the conflict between

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Johnson’s stated aims and his means as typical of the American worldview that values peace but trusts only violence. Muste diagnoses it as primarily a disease of self- righteousness. He ends with his famous call to take the road of peace: “there is no way to peace; peace is the way” (5).

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Pendle Hill Lectures on Pacifism.” Summer 1941. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.3.

Handwritten lecture notes from the Pendle Hill Summer School in 1941. The series begins with lectures on Christianity and pacifism.

Muste, Abraham John. “Questions from the Left.” In Labor Speaks for Itself on Religion: A Symposium of Labor Leaders Throughout the World, edited by Jerome Davis, 97-107. New York: Macmillan, 1929. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.4.

In this essay, Muste explores what Christians should do about the labor movement. He emphasizes Christianity’s revolutionary implications and criticizes Christianity’s failure to think through the problems posed by capitalism. He asserts that the modern industrialist and imperialist civilization is a direct challenge to the Christian view of life. He also advocates careful assessment of any desire to stay away from economic radicalism where the desire is based in reluctance to endorse violence, noting that by doing so, Christians support the greater violence of the status quo. Nevertheless, Christians, according to Muste, have “a more efficient way for bringing in the rule of truth and brotherhood than the violent revolutionist” (107).

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Return to Pacifism.” 1936. In The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff, 195-202. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967.

This essay is an extremely important essay for the study of A.J. Muste. In it, he expresses his dissatisfaction with the Marxist-Leninist position which he had, for a short time, embraced as the best way to obey the teachings of Jesus. Muste’s sense of the coming war forced him to recognize that this position had few resources left with which to oppose war, and in fact often embraced it. The clear internal deterioration of the movement as evident in the Soviet Union and labor unions also disillusioned Muste. He argues that Marxists had embraced the methods of capitalism at its worst. Muste then urges a religious basis for pacifism, which is a way of life. The individual must be won to love, unity––the kingdom of God––which affects all parts of life. Muste argues that this life must be lived within the Church. He ends on a note of hope, arguing that the door is open for leadership of humankind into a new world civilization, if only the Church, or a substantial minority of it, would take seriously the gospel.

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Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Rifle Squads or the Beloved Community.” 1964. In The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff, 426-437. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967.

In this essay, Muste argues against the use of violence in the Civil Rights Movement. Fittingly, he begins with an examination of the current state of white oppression of African-Americans. While he admits that African-Americans have the right in Western society to self-defense, Muste argues that a resort to violence as part of the Civil Rights Movement could only damage the cause. The advances made so far could not have happened if the nonviolent stand was compromised, an event that would prevent further advances. He argues that “the task of our age” is not revolution but “building the beloved community” (435). An integrated society comes from healing old wounds, not creating new ones. Furthermore, those advocating violence and revolution have no plan to accomplish a real revolution and no one has any idea how it would be done in a nuclear society. While noting the capable leadership of the nonviolent wing of the Civil Rights Movement, he suggests that 1) it pay more attention to poverty-stricken African- Americans, 2) much more training in nonviolent action be done, and 3) the movement not ignore whites who could be brought to support the movement.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Saints for This Age.” 1962. In The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff, 410-425. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967.

In this lecture to a Quaker audience given in 1961, later published as a Pendle Hill pamphlet, Muste lists three main characterizations of the early church. First, they were strongly aware of their own sin and inability to make themselves righteous and found God, grace, and possibility in that understanding. Second, they were joyous. Third, they were part of a community which embraced all people. The church looked toward a new kingdom, one of love and unity, which was in a sense already present. This resulted in experimentation in trying to live into this new vision of reality. Muste then draws parallels between Rome and the present day. He calls Quakers to be a true Christian community, criticizes the lack of the Spirit in Quaker meetings, and calls for self- examination and repentance. He criticizes Quaker self-righteousness. He states that when they argue against realism, Quakers tend to downplay the difficulty of making love operative in politics. Muste explains his prior attraction to the Left on the basis of their deep vision, commitment, devotion, even at the risk of death, which he notes Christians seldom display toward Christ. He concludes with an admonition to Quakers to “cut loose” and experiment in the freedom of the Spirit, citing a vigil at the Pentagon as an example of such behavior.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Sketches for An Autobiography.” 1957-1960. In The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff, 1-174. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967.

Autobiographical material, much of it originally published in Liberation.

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Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Summary of Address Before Men’s Club, Kingston, NY” February 21, 1939. Typed transcript. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.3. [HAVE - PDF]

In this speech, Muste argues that the church needs democracy and democracy needs religion. He argues that for democracy to be maintained in the U.S. four things need to happen. First, we must combat racism and religious prejudice. Second, we must protect freedom of speech. Third, we must “summon the intelligence and courage to use the vast resources which God has placed in this continent to provide a decent standard of living and basic economic security to the mass of our people” (1-2). Fourth, we must maintain the right of association, of organization. He also notes that just as there must be traffic laws for traffic to flow smoothy, there must be laws to govern economic life (2). Democracy needs the church because, “only if human beings are capable of making moral decisions and therefore of governing themselves, is a free, democratic society possible. But human beings are creatures of moral dignity and worth, not in themselves, but only if they stand in relation to God, a reality beyond themselves.” (3). Only people who bow their knee to God will refuse to bow to another person.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Theology of Despair: An Open Letter to Rienhold Niebuhr.” 1948. In The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff, 302-307. Indianapolis: Bobbs- Merrill, 1967.

In this open letter, Muste warns against the fatalism found in Rienhold Niebuhr’s thought. He begins by revealing the sense of futility in an April 1948 editorial of Niebuhr’s, which he criticizes as a fatalism which sees no way out of the Cold War. Muste links this to an overblown sense of human depravity, unchecked by the rest of scripture. Muste then examines how this mentality is similar to the one found in communism of the inevitability of war between the classes. Muste notes that Niebuhr is in practical effect allying himself with John Foster Dulles, which “certainly should give pause” (305). Muste concludes by arguing that there is another way: that of open refusal to participate in war, whatever the cost. For Christian leaders to reject nonviolence as a strategy and pacifism as a way of life “may be in truth to condemn the Church and our age to futility and doom” (307).

Muste, Abraham John. Total War or Total Pacifism? New York, NY: The Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1940.

Written at the end of May or beginning of June 1940, when Nazi Germany had taken Denmark, Norway, Holland, and Belgium but not yet France, this pamphlet is a call to a different way. Muste argues that Nazi Germany provides an example of what happens when fear leads a nation to make itself “impregnable” in case of war. He warns that the United States, in its rush to build defenses against Nazi Germany, risks following Germany’s example. To truly be able to be “impregnable,” the aim of those pushing for a

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defense build up, the U.S. would have to become capable of world domination. He argues that the way the U.S. is preparing to fight totalitarianism will lead to totalitarianism at home. Moreover, preparation for war is admission that we “lack the initiative and intelligence to find a way out of war” (5). It means that the churches place their trust in the powers of this world rather than in God. The way out of total war is not to copy Hitler’s methods, but to embrace an entirely opposite dynamic and method. The brutality of humankind does not mean that there is no choice but to fight, but rather, it points to the way of the cross as the only source of redemption. The U.S. must take a risk and embrace truth, acknowledge that we are the worst sinners, and renounce war.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “The True International: Eighteenth Article in the Series, ‘How My Mind Has Changed in This Decade’.” The Christian Century (May 1939), 667-669. Joint Archives of Holland.

Asked by The Christian Century to explain his re-conversion to pacifist Christianity from Marxist-Leninism, Muste responded by arguing that the Church is the “true international.” After an autobiographical explanation, Muste shows how Lenin’s vision of “The Party” and the Church are in fact very similar. In contrast to Christianity, Lenin’s vision fails by assuming that the character of party members is not of huge importance and that any means can be used to achieve the party’s goals. The true God is not the god of inevitable historical or economic forces, but the God, revealed in Christ, who can and does redeem human beings. No human organization can replace it. The Church is the “ecclesia” of those redeemed by God’s infinite love. It must abhor violence, become a community of love, exercise its divine authority to act in the world, and rid itself of divisions.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Unity in Crisis: Sermon to First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, NY” July 27, 1941. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.3.

In this sermon from the eve of the United States entry into World War Two, Muste explores how pacifist and non-pacifist Christians can gain unity in the “present crisis.” He begins by noting that Jesus was less worried about his followers becoming “wicked” as he was about them becoming “insipid.” Jesus’ talk of salt, light, and yeast enforces this point and dictates that Christians are to remain in the world as a minority distinct from others, not withdraw from it. Muste the spends considerable time on how Christians who disagree should never see each other as enemies, but instead cultivate an attitude of searching for the truth together. He stresses the importance of keeping alive discussion of the validity of war. The church must maintain its prophetic role of condemning the self- righteousness within oneself and one’s nation and calling for repentance. Muste addresses practical issues surrounding the church’s role in wartime, touching on such topics as prayer for victory, efforts to relieve suffering, and the necessity that each people be encouraged to make their own decision about whether they should fight. He writes, “it is

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ever the church’s business to play a distinctive role––not to be conformed to the world but to confront the world with Christ and compel it to conform to His truth and demands, though it have [sic] no weapons save the foolishness of preaching, the patient practice of love, humility, prayer and willingness to die for its law” (6). He also urges the church not to identify the kingdom of God with any earthly government.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “War is the Enemy.” 1942. In The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff, 261-278. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967.

In this Pendle Hill pamphlet, published in the midst of the Second World War, Muste speaks alternately to pacifists, non-pacifists, and Quakers. His primary argument is that pacifists should and must continue their witness to the truth even in wartime. He argues that it is important to be open to the truth––to have an open mind. It is an illusion to think that world war will lead to anything better than it did the first time. Similarly, the idea that war can be raged without hate is a delusion as such a division between act and thought is a symptom of insanity. Moreover, evil cannot produce good. Violence produces only violence. Love is the only power that can conquer evil and establish good. Marxist-Leninism’s flaw was that it did not embrace these realities. The drastic pacifist policy Muste advocates includes federal world government, economic rehabilitation, repentance, national self-determination, equitable access to markets and resources, benevolent immigration and emigration policies, equality of opportunity in the U.S., a repudiation of racism in the U.S., and immediate and drastic disarmament by all nations. As a token that such a policy might be realistically advocated immediately, he notes that the “stigma of inferiority” has been removed from the Japanese and Germans through their military successes, which might make them more likely to discuss a just peace.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “The Way of the Cross.” Christian Century (December 14, 1938): 1541-1543. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.4.

The cross––the crucial event in history––indicates that suffering love is the supreme redemptive power. It follows that any theology must include the practice of love in all relationships of life and the promise of God’s reign on earth. Muste backs up these statements with an analysis of the Old Testament worldview with its emphasis on trust in God and not military strength. It was a unique worldview where military failure did not prove the victor’s god stronger, but indicated one’s own sin. Muste then explores Christ as the suffering servant––the lamb, symbol of perceived helplessness. Form this it is clear that the only Christian response to the peril in which the world finds itself (WWII) is to renounce war and to cripple nations’ ability to wage it through refusal to participate.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “What Shall Education Do About Pacifism?” Religious Education 19 (Oct. 1924): 326-330. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste. Microfilm reel 89.4.

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In this article about how educators should respond to pacifism, Muste begins with a definition of pacifism. After defining it, he argues that pacifist aims and the aims of the “new education” movement are the same. As a result, the new education movement has reason to support pacifism. If fact, all the social movements need each other. Muste then gives five things education should do to support pacifism. 1) That the pacifist solution be presented impartially among other options. 2) That it be presented impartially and with all the relevant sources. Muste notes that nowhere in his education was pacifism or the pacifist elements of the teachings of Jesus ever presented to him. 3) That children be taught that the heroes of the past were first despised minorities. 4) That children be taught to respect others who come to different conclusions when obeying their consciences and that they be taught about crowd psychology. 5) That educators confront the contrast between their teaching pacifism in relation to labor struggles and their attitude toward war between nations.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom.” 1943. In The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff, 279-295. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967.

In this essay, Muste creates a powerful argument against racial inequality and points the way forward, arguing that only suffering nonviolence will bring about true fellowship between races. The essay is firmly based in the narrative of scripture. It recounts the history on Judaism from Moses to the destruction of the temple in 70CE as a means of establishing God’s care for the oppressed and exploring a number of points related to method. Part of this section seems to have been partially based on Muste’s 1938 “Address Over Y.M.C.A. New York.” The second part of the essay applies these lessons to racial discrimination. Muste uses a number of his regular motifs, including the ethnocentrism argument, language of the “way,” emphasis on fellowship and unity, the obligation to break unjust laws, the need to rid ourselves of evil, and the need to be willing to sacrifice to the point of death.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Who has the Spiritual Atomic Bomb.” 1965. In The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff, 479-502. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967.

Muste creates an extensive case for withdrawal from Vietnam and unilateral disarmament. However, he does not makes these proposals until after he has worked to delegitimize U.S. involvement in Vietnam and its possession of nuclear arms. He uses examples from history to argue that the U.S. is the biggest obstacle to peace in the world, though he notes that this does not remove responsibility from other nations. Muste uses his ethnocentrism argument to make the case that American self-righteousness has blinded us to our own sins, among them the arrogance of asking other nations not to develop the bomb for themselves, when we are unwilling to get rid of ours. This essay betrays Muste’s deep outrage and sorrow at the horrors U.S. forces were committing in Vietnam. He also expresses his inability to understand arguments that downplay the

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severity of racism in the U.S. He argues that if enough people became conscientious objectors the war would have to be stopped, but seems to place more hope in a massive policy shift. He points out that unilateral abdication of big power status by the U.S., by removing the cause of much conflict, would have to have a revolutionary effect of the world––it would be a spiritual atomic bomb.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “Who is Now the Absolutist?” The Christian Century [64, no. 50] (December 10, 1947): 1515-1517. Joint Archives of Holland.

In this article, Muste criticizes theologians working on the Christian response to total war and the atomic bomb. These theologians condemn how WWII was fought, but leave the door open for the use of the same tactics in the future because certain circumstances could make their use right. Muste criticizes the practical and ethical contradictions in their thought, particularly regarding the distinction between aggressors and defenders. Muste instead argues that the church should make a total break with war, lest its message and mission be corrupted by ethical contradictions.

Muste, Abraham Johannes. “The World Task of Pacifism.” 1941. In The Essays of A.J. Muste, edited by Nat Hentoff, 215-233. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967.

In this Pendle Hill pamphlet published not long before the U.S. entered WWII, Muste proclaims that the order of life in the Western world––including the spiritual, cultural, economic, and political aspects of life––is breaking up. This is the result of a lack of belief in God. War, a symptom of this disintegration, also functions to accelerate the process. Only Christian pacifism can interrupt this process. Christians must either give up and resign from the world or work for the realization of the kingdom of God, including a new economic and political vision. Muste argues that pacifists must give positive expression to pacifism as a way of life through cooperative living and brotherly service, though this service must in no way further the war effort. Pacifism’s political message must not be silenced. It must not compromise, but force the state and other institutions to adjust themselves to the demands of Christ. Muste states his preference for absolute conscientious objection, and argues that if alternative service is to be rendered it must be given at recognizable cost to the objectors and in camps controlled and funded by religious groups, with no government control.

Muste, John M. Letter to Jo Ann Robinson. August 10, 1977. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, papers of A.J. Muste, later acquisitions, box 2.

In this letter, A.J. Muste’s son John responds to Jo Ann Robinson’s published assertion that A.J. blamed John’s enlistment in World War Two on his Quaker preparatory school.

Orchard, W.E. Introduction to The Early Christian Attitude to War: A Contribution to the History of Christian Ethics, by Cecil John Cadoux. London: George Allen. & Unwin, 1940.

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Muste’s copy of this book, now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI, contains a light to medium amount of markings (see appendix 1b).

Page, Marion S. “Report from Albany Georgia.” Liberation 10, no. 11 (February 1966): 46.

Reporting on the Quebec-Washington-Guantánamo walk, which Muste supported.

Ramsey, Paul. Basic Christian Ethics. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1954.

Muste marked up chapters 1-5 and 9-10 of his copy of this book, now at the Joint Archives of Holland (see appendix 1a).

Rauschenbusch, Walter, Anthony Campolo, and Paul B. Raushenbush. Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century: The Classic That Woke Up the Church. New York: HarperOne, 2007.

Originally published by Walter Rauschenbusch in 1907 as Christianity and the Social Crisis, this book had a huge influence on Muste and Union Theological Seminary while he was there. The new edition preserves the original text although it adds additional essays.

Reckitt, Maurice B. Religion in Social Action. London: John Heritage, 1937.

Muste’s copy of this book, now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI, is fairly heavily marked up (see appendix 1b).

Robinson, Jo Ann Ooiman. Abraham Went Out: A Biography of A.J. Muste. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981.

A methodical examination of Muste’s long life, this extensively researched biography is easily the best authority on the topic thus far. More a biography of his life than an examination of his thought, Robinson focuses on what Muste did rather than the ideas that motivated his actions. She betrays a great admiration for Muste and despite the occasional criticism, it is clear that he concern for Muste’s reputation has led her to downplay his less flattering moments. This shortcoming is outweighed by the many new and revealing sources Robinson draws on to paint a much more personal picture of this great man than has previously been accomplished.

––––––. A.J. Muste, Pacifist & Prophet: His Relation to the Society of Friends. Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill Publications, 1981.

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In this Pendle Hill pamphlet, Jo Ann Robinson explores Muste’s life with an emphasis on his relationship with the Society of Friends. The biographical treatment extends beyond connections with the Society of Friends in order to present a complete picture of the path of his life. Interestingly, Robinson compares his mystical experiences to those of early friends. As part of her biographical treatment, Robinson describes Muste’s formal relationship with the Society of Friends as a minister and member and notes that he continued to call himself a Quaker long after he stopped attending meeting in the early 1930s. She also briefly explores his influence on the society of Friends.

Rosenstock-Huessy, Eugen. The Christian Future; Or The Modern Mind Outrun. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1946.

Muste’s copy of this book, now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI, is heavily marked up (see appendix 1b).

Scott, R.B.Y. “The Biblical Basis.” In Towards the Christian Revolution, edited by R.B.Y. Scott and Gregory Vlastos. Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1936.

Muste’s copy of this book is now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI (see appendix 1b). It is very heavily marked up. He also included it on a book list for a course he taught on the church and social action (see appendix 3).

Taylor, Steven J. Acts of Conscience: World War II, Mental Institutions, and Religious Objectors. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2009.

This is an interesting text on the experience of conscientious objectors during the Second World War.

Tillich, Paul. “The Kingdom of God and History.” In The Kingdom of God and History, by Wood, H.G., et. al. Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1938.

Muste’s copy of this book is now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI (see appendix 1b).

––––––. Systematic Theology. Vol. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.

Tillich uses a similar definition of theology as Muste, although Tillich uses it later. There is n evidence that Muste read this work.

Time Magazine 24, no. 2 (July 10, 1939): 37.

The source of the oft-quoted photo caption labeling Muste as “the No. 1 U.S. Pacifist.”

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Thomas, George F. “Central Christian Affirmations.” In The Christian Answer, edited by Henry P. Van Dusen. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1945.

Muste’s copy of this book is now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI (see appendix 1b).

Underhill, Evelyn. Ruysbroeck. London: G. Bell, 1915.

Muste’s copy of this book, now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI, contains a light amount of markings (see appendix 1b).

Visser ‘T Hooft, Willem Adolph. None Other Gods. New York: Harper & Bros, 1937.

Muste’s copy of this book, now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI, contains a medium amount of markings (see appendix 1b).

Visser ’T Hooft, Willem Adolph, and Joseph Houldsworth Oldham. The Church and Its Function in Society. Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1937.

Muste’s copy of this book is now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI (see appendix 1b). The first half, written by Visser ’T Hooft, contains a light amount of markings while the second half, by Oldham, is more heavily marked up.

Vlastos, Gregory. “The Ethical Foundations.” In Towards the Christian Revolution, edited by R.B.Y. Scott and Gregory Vlastos. Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1936.

Muste’s copy of this book is now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI (see appendix 1b). It is very heavily marked up. He also included it on a book list for a course he taught on the church and social action (see appendix 3).

––––––. Christian Faith and Democracy. New York: Hazen Books and Association Press, 1939.

Muste’s copy of this book, now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI, contains a medium to heavy amount of markings (see appendix 1b).

Waterman, Leroy. The Religion of Jesus: Christianity’s Unclaimed Heritage of Prophetic Religion. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1952.

Muste’s copy of this book, now in the collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, MI, contains a medium amount of markings (see appendix 1b).

Wilder, Amos Niven. Eschatology and Ethics in the Teaching of Jesus. New York: Harper, 1950.

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Muste’s copy of this book, now at the Joint Archives of Holland, is heavily marked up (see appendix 1a). The text emphasizes understanding Jesus as a person of his context (11), criticizes premillenialism (26), argues against moralism (197), and looks at mysticism, among other topics.

Williams, Daniel Day. God’s Grace and Man’s Hope. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1949.

Muste’s copy of this book, now at the Joint Archives of Holland, is very heavily marked up (see appendix 1a). Williams criticizes both liberal idealism and the despair of Niebuhrian neo-orthodoxy.

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Appendix 1a: Books Owned By Muste In the Collection of the Joint Archives of Holland

Note: After Muste’s death in 1967, an unknown portion of his personal library was donated to Hope College in Holland, Michigan. This appendix includes books in Hope’s collection at the Joint Archives of Holland. This list also includes six books (marked with an asterisk) that have disappeared from the collection but are on an early container list. Thanks to Geoffrey Reynolds at the Joint Archives of Holland for providing the early list.

Alperovitz, Gar. Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam. 1965.

Barth, Karl. Against the Stream; Shorter Post-War Writings, 1946-52. New York: Philosophical Library, 1954.

This book is heavily marked up. Muste acquired it in January 1955.

Beach, Waldo, ed. Christian Ethics: Sources of the Living Tradition. 1955.

Bennett, John C., ed. Nuclear Weapons and the Conflict of Conscience. 1962.

Boehme, Jacob. The Way to Christ. Trans. John Joseph Stoudt. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1947.

Contains some underlining, but it is not heavily marked up except for a few places.

*Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Prisoner for God: Letters and Papers from Prison. Ed. Eberhard Bethge. New York: Macmillan, 1954.

––––––. The Cost of Discipleship. New York: MacMillan, 1949.

This book is heavily marked up. It appears to have been read more than once.

Breakthrough to Peace. Norfolk, CT: J. Laughlin, 1962.

Muste marked up pieces by Howard E. Gruber, Thomas Merton, Gordon Zahn, Walter Stein, Herbert Butterfield, Allan Forbes, and Joost Meerloo.

Brunner, Emil. The Word and the World. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1931.

This book is heavily marked up.

Bultmann, Rudolf. The Presence of Eternity: History and Eschatology. 1957.

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Butterfield, Herbert. Christianity and History. 1950.

This book is heavily marked up. Muste acquired it in March 1951, according to the date he wrote along with his name in the front.

––––––. International Conflict in the Twentieth Century: A Christian View. 1960.

Cailliet, Emile. The Clue to Pascal. 1943.

Chase, Stuart. The Proper Study of Mankind...An Inquiry into the Science of Human Relations. 1948.

Cogley, John, ed. Religion in America: Original Essays on Religion in a Free Society. New York: Meridian Books, 1958.

Muste marked up essays by John Courtney Murray, Rienhold Niebuhr, Walter Ong, Stringfellow Barr, Gustave Weigel, and A.J. Heschel.

Corrigan, Robert W. (ed.) The New Theatre of Europe: Five Contemporary Plays From the European Stage. 1962.

Dallin, David J. Russia & Postwar Europe. 1943.

––––––. The Real Soviet Russia. 1944.

Dante Alighieri. The Vision or Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise of Dante Alighieri. 1929. de Ligt, B. Vrede Als Daad. 2 vols. 1931, 1933.

Djilas, Milovan. The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System. 1957.

Dvorin, Eugene P. Racial Separation in South Africa: An Analysis of Apartheid Theory. 1952.

Contains occasional underlining and marks.

Einstein, Albert. Ideas and Opinions. 1954.

Pages 95-151, 159-167 are heavily marked up. The rest of the book is clean.

Farmer, Herbert Henry. The World and God; A Study of Prayer, Providence and Miracle in Christian Experience. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1935.

Muste marked up the first 100 pages only.

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Ferré, Nels F. S. The Christian Faith: An Inquiry into Its Adequacy as Man’s Ultimate Religion. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1942.

Muste acquired this book in February 1942, according to the date he wrote along with his name in the front. It is heavily marked up.

Fischer, Louis. Men and Politics: An Autobiography. 1941.

Florinsky, Michael T. Toward an Understanding of the U.S.S.R.: A Study in Government, Politics and Economic Planning. 1939.

Friedell, Egon. A Cultural History of the Modern Age: The Crisis of the European Soul From the Black Death to the World War. 1930.

*Fromm, Erich. The Heart of Man: Its Genius for Good and Evil. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.

Gilson, Etienne. The Spirit of Mediaeval Philosophy. 1936.

––––––. The Unity of Philosophical Experience. 1937.

Gollancz, Victor. Our Threatened Values. Hinsdale, IL: Henry Regnery, 1947.

This book is mostly clean.

Hartshorne, Charles. Beyond Humanism: Essays in the New Philosophy of Nature. 1937.

––––––. The Divine Relativity: A Social Conception of God. 1948.

Contains some underlining and marks, heavy in some places, light in others, continuing to the end of the book. It is a theological text. In an aside, the author explains why pacifism is folly (154).

––––––. Man's Vision of God and the Logic of Theism. 1941.

Heard, Gerald. Man the Master. 1941.

This book is mostly clean.

Hofstadter, Richard. The American Political Tradition And the Men Who Made It. 1948.

Horowitz, David. The Free World Colossus: A Critique of American Foreign Policy in the Cold War. 1965.

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Horsch, John. Mennonites in Europe. Vol. 1, 1942.

*Jones, Rufus, ed. The Church, the Gospel and War. New York: Harper, 1948.

Kahn, Herman. On Thermonuclear War. 1960.

Koestler, Arthur. The Yogi and the Commissar and Other Essays. 1945.

Komroff, Manuel, ed. Apocrypha. 1936.

Lynd, Robert S. and Helen Merrell. Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture. 1929.

Lyons, Eugene. Assignment in Utopia. 1937.

Mannheim, Karl. Man and Society In an Age of Reconstruction. 1941.

Maurer, Herrymon. Collision of East and West. 1951.

May, Rollo. Man’s Search for Himself. 1953.

*Mazzini, Giuseppe. The Duties of Man and Other Essays. New York, E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907.

More, Paul Elmer. Pages From an Oxford Diary. 1937.

Muller, Herbert J. The Loom of History. 1958.

Muste, Abraham. Non-Violence in an Aggressive World. 1940.

Autographed copy given to Hope’s library by Muste in December 1940.

Niebuhr, H. Richard. Christ and Culture. 1951.

This book is heavily marked up.

––––––. The Meaning of Revelation. 1941.

This book is heavily marked up. Muste purchased it in Sept. 1941.

Niebuhr, H. Richard, Wilhelm Pauck and Francis P. Miller. The Church Against the World. 1935.

This book is heavily marked up.

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Niebuhr, Reinhold. The Children of Light and The Children of Darkness: A Vindication of Democracy and a Critique of its Traditional Defence. 1944.

This book is heavily marked up. Dated Christmas 1944.

––––––. Christian Realism and Political Problems. 1953.

Contains a medium amount of markings by Muste; less than most books.

––––––. Faith and History: A Comparison of Christian and Modern Views of History. 1951.

This book is heavily marked up.

––––––. The Self and the Dramas of History. 1955.

This book is heavily marked up except for last three chapters, which contain no markings.

Northop, F. S. C. Ideological Differences and World Order: Studies in the Philosophy and Science Of the World's Cultures. 1949.

––––––. The Taming of the Nations: A Study of the Cultural Bases of International Policy. 1953.

Ramsey, Paul. Basic Christian Ethics. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1954.

Muste dated this book Dec. 1955. Chapters 1-5, 9-10 are heavily marked up. Chapters 6-8 are clean. It is clear from his markings that Muste did not always agree with Ramsey.

Rapoport, Anatol. Operational Philosophy: Integrating Knowledge and Action. 1953.

Ratner, Joseph (ed.). The Philosophy of John Dewey. 1928.

Regamey, Pius., O.P. Non-Violence and the Christian Conscience. 1966.

This book is mostly clean.

Riesman, David. The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character. 1950.

Rossi, A. The Russo-German Alliance August 1939-June 1941. 1951.

Rousset, David. The Other Kingdom. 1947.

This book contains a medium amount of markings.

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Sabine, George H. A History of Political Theory. 1954.

Salter, Andrew. What Is Hypnosis: Studies in Auto and Hetero Conditioning. 1944.

Schneider, Herbert Wallace. Making the Fascist State. 1928.

––––––. Religion in 20th Century America. 1952.

Schweitzer, Albert. Christianity and the Religions of the World. 1939.

Muste dated this Spring 1939. It is heavily underlined.

––––––. Out of My Life & Thought. 1933.

Contains minimal markings.

Selznick, Philip. The Organizational Weapon: A Study of Bolshevik Strategy and Tactics. 1952.

Sevareid, Eric. Not so Wild a Dream. 1946.

This book is mostly clean.

Sorokin, Pitrim A. The Sociology of Revolution. 1925.

––––––. Social Philosophies of an Age of Crisis. 1950.

––––––. The Reconstruction of Humanity. 1948.

Spring, Howard. And Another Thing… 1946.

This book contains a medium amount of markings. It was purchased in May 1946.

Spykman, Nicholas John. America’s Strategy in World Politics: The United States and the Balance of Power. 1942.

Stevenson, Elizabeth. Henry Adams: A Biography. 1955.

Strauss, Patricia. Bevin and Co.: The Leaders of British Labour. 1941.

*Streit, Clarence K. For Union Now. Washington, D.C.: Union Press, 1939.

*Strijd, Kr. Christendom en Communisme: Een Confrontatie. Amsterdam: Uitgevermaatschappij, 1951.

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Swanwick, H. M. Collective Insecurity. 1937.

Tawney, R. H. Religion and the Rise of Capitalism. 1926.

This book is fairly heavily marked up. It is stamped “A.J. Muste / Brookwood / Katonah, NY”

Tillich, Paul. The Protestant Era. Trans. James Luther Adams. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948.

This book is heavily marked up. It looks like with was read more than once. Muste wrote his name in the front cover and wrote that he purchased it in 1948 (the month is illegible but looks like July). [SKIMMED THROUGH P. 45, REALLY BORING]

Toynbee, Arnold J. A Study of History. Vols. V and VI. 1940.

Both volumes contain a light to medium amount of markings throughout.

Troeltsch, Ernst. The Social Teachings of the Christian Churches. Vols. 1 and 2. 1931.

Both volumes are heavily marked up throughout. They were purchased in 1937.

Underhill, Evelyn. Worship. 1937.

This book is mostly clean.

White, Morton. Social Thought in America: The Revolt Against Formalism. 1957.

Whyte, Lancelot Law. The Next Development in Man. 1948.

Wieman, Henry N. The Source of Human Good. 1946.

Wilder, Amos Niven. Eschatology and Ethics in the Teaching of Jesus. New York: Harper, 1950.

This book is heavily marked up. His is the revised 1950 ed.; the first edition was published in 1939. The text emphasizes understanding Jesus as a person of his context (11), criticizes premillenialism (26), argues against moralism (197), and looks at mysticism, among other topics.

Williams, Daniel Day. God’s Grace and Man’s Hope. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1949.

Very heavily marked up. Williams criticizes both liberal idealism and the despair of Niebuhrian neo-orthodoxy.

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Zeitlin, Solomon. Who Crucified Jesus? 1942.

This book contains a medium amount of markings. On first page in Muste’s hand: “A.J. Muste / Mar. 1942 / Review copy.”

Zweig, Stephan. Erasmus of Rotterdam. 1934.

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Appendix 1b: Books Owned By Muste In the Collection of Van Wylen Library, Hope College

Note: This appendix lists the almost three hundred of A.J. Muste’s books are currently in general circulation at Van Wylen Library at Hope College. Thanks to Todd J. Wiebe at Van Wylen Library for his help in obtaining this list. Publication information is from the library catalog and is occasionally inaccurate. A number of books are falsely labeled in the catalog as Muste’s and have been removed from this list. When important, the physical copy of each text should be examined to determine whether or not it truly belonged to Muste. Authenticity can usually be determined by the presence Muste’s characteristic style of notation or his name handwritten inside the front cover. The authentic books also have a donation notice inside the from cover whereas, with a few exceptions, later additions do not. The authenticity of books annotated below has been confirmed.

Additional Note: At some point before the donation of Muste’s books to Hope College, most likely during his lifetime, someone numbered most of his books as part of some unknown scheme of organization. The range of the numbers indicate that Muste at one time had many more books than those now extant.

Alexander, Hartley Burr. God and Man’s Destiny: Inquiries into the Metaphysical Foundations of Faith. New York: Oxford University Press, 1936. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BL51 .A47] This book is heavily marked up and has two pages of additional notes in Muste’s hand inside the back cover.

Allen, Charles R. German Hand on the Nuclear Trigger. New York: Marzani & Munsell, 1966.

Amiel, Henri Frédéric, and Humphry Ward. Amiel's Journal; The Journal Intime of Henri- Frédéric Amiel. London: Macmillan, 1915.

The Apocryphal New Testament: Being All the Gospels, Epistles, and Other Pieces Now Extant, Attributed in the First Four Centuries to Jesus Christ, His Apostles, and Their Companions, and Not Included in the New Testament by Its Compilers; Translated from the Original Tongues and Now Collected into One Volume. New York: Peter Eckler, [1849].

Asch, Sholem. One Destiny: An Epistle to the Christians. Trans. Milton Hindus. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1945.

Contains a light amount of markings. The author is a Jew trying to make sense of the holocaust. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BM535 .A8]

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Bader, Jesse M. The Message and Method of the New Evangelism: A Joint Statement of the Evangelistic Mission of the Christian Church. New York: Round Table Press, 1937.

Baker, Augustine, Dionysius Areopagita. The Cloud of Unknowing, And Other Treatises by an English Mystic of the Fourteenth Century. Ed. Justin McCann. London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne, 1941.

Barth, Karl. The Church and the Political Problem of Our Day. New York: Scribner, 1939.

This book contains a medium amount of markings. Muste wrote this note inside the front cover: “From Connie on Jan. 8, 1940.” Connie is his daughter Constance. January 8 is his birthday.[CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR856.B37 C48]

Barth, Karl, Marta K. Neufeld, and Ronald Gregor Smith. The Only Way. How Can the Germans Be Cured? New York: Philosophical Library, 1947.

Barton, William Ernest. The Moral Challenge of Communism: Some Ethical Aspects of Marxist- Leninist Society. London: Friends Home Service Committee, 1966.

Despite the fact that this book was published in the year before Muste’s death, it appears he did read it, as it contains his characteristic style of annotation. Barton presents a strongly communist view that Muste would have mostly disagreed with. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BJ1390 .B34] Belden, Jack. Still Time to Die. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1944.

Bell, Clive. Civilization; An Essay. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1928.

Bennett, John Coleman. Christianity––and Our World. New York: Association Press, 1936.

This book contains a heavy amount of markings, mostly faded pencil underlining. Muste wrote his name in the front along with the note: “purchased read Apr. 1937.”[CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR479 .B4] ––––––. Christians and the State. New York: Scribner, 1958. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BV630.2.B4 C48] This book contains no markings.

––––––. Social Salvation: A Religious Approach to the Problems of Social Change. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1935. [CALL # VW 3TH FLOOR HN31 .B56 Muste]

This book contains a medium amount of markings. Muste wrote his name inside the front cover. Muste clearly disagreed with some of it, particularly portions that argue that people cannot always overcome sin.

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Berggrav, Eivind. Man and State. Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1951.

Bernal, J. D. World Without War. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1959.

Best, Mary Agnes. Thomas Paine, Prophet and Martyr of Democracy. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1927.

Bernanos, Georges, and Harry Lorin Binsse. Plea for Liberty: Letters to the English, the Americans, the Europeans. New York: Pantheon, 1944.

Bosley, Harold Augustus. The Philosophical Heritage of the Christian Faith. Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1944.

Boulding, Kenneth E. The Economics of Peace. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1945.

Bowman, Rufus David. The Church of the Brethren and War, 1708-1941. Elgin, Ill: Brethren Pub. House, 1944.

This book contains no markings. Muste wrote his name in the front cover and dated it 1944.

Bradley, David. No Place to Hide. Boston: Little Brown, 1948.

Brinton, Howard Haines. Divine-Human Society. Philadelphia: Book Committee of the Religious Society of Friends of Philadelphia and Vicinity, 1938. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BX7731 .B76] This book contains a medium to heavy amount of markings. Muste wrote his name inside the front cover.

––––––. The Nature of Quakerism. Wallingford, Pa: Pendle Hill, 1940.

Brittain, Vera. Testament of Experience: An Autobiographical Story of the Years 1925-1950. New York: Macmillan, 1957.

––––––. Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900-1925. New York: Macmillan, 1938.

Broch, Hermann. The Death of Virgil. New York: Pantheon Books, 1945.

Brown, Brian. The Wisdom of the Hebrews. New York: Brentano’s, 1925.

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Brown, William Adams. Church and State in Contemporary America: A Study of the Problems They Present and the Principles Which Should Determine Their Relationship. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1936.

Buchanan, Scott Milross. Essay in Politics. New York, Philosophical Library, 1953.

Cadoux, Cecil John. The Early Christian Attitude to War: A Contribution to the History of Christian Ethics. London: George Allen. & Unwin, 1940.

This book contains a light to medium amount of markings. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BT736.2 .C24 1940] Caldwell, John C. Children of Calamity. New York: J. Day, 1957.

Calhoun, Arthur W., and Bruce Rogers. The Cultural Concept of Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1950.

This book is contains a medium to heavy amount of markings. [NOT LOOKED AT]

Calisher, Hortense. In the Absence of Angels, Stories. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951.

Cavert, Samuel MacCrea. The Church Faces the World: Studies in Preparation for the Madras Conference of the International Missionary Council. New York: Round Table Press, 1939.

This book contains no markings. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BV600.A1 C3]

Cayton, Horace R. Long Old Road. New York: Trident Press, 1965.

Childs, John L., and George S. Counts. America, Russia, and the Communist Party in the Postwar World. New York: John Day, 1943.

Church of Scotland. The Church Under Communism. Second Report of the Commission on Communism. New York: Philosophical Library, 1952.

Claudel, Paul, and André Gide. The Correspondence, 1899-1926, Between Paul Claudel and André Gide. New York: Pantheon, 1952.

Cole, G. D. H., and Margaret Cole. The Bolo Book. London: Labour Pub. Co, Allen & Unwin, 1921.

Conference in Defence of Peace of all Churches and Religious Associations in the U.S.S.R., Held in Troitse-Sergiyeva Monastery, Zagorsk on May 9-12, 1952: Documents and Materials. Moscow: Moscow Patriarchate, 1952.

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Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, Harold D. Lasswell, and Harlan Cleveland. The Ethic of Power: The Interplay of Religion, Philosophy, and Politics. New York: Harper, 1962.

Curti, Merle. Peace of War: The American Struggle, 1636-1936. New York: Norton, 1936.

Dawson, Christopher. The Judgment of the Nations. New York: Sheed & Ward, 1942.

This book is marked up a medium amount. Muste wrote “Oct. 1942” under his name inside the front cover. [NOT LOOKED AT]

De Forest, Izette. The Leaven of Love: A Development of the Psychoanalytic Theory and Technique of Sándor Ferenczi. New York: Harper, 1954.

Dibelius, Martin, and Frederick C. Grant. The Message of Jesus Christ; The Tradition of the Early Christian Communities. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1939.

This book contains no markings. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BS2261 .G7]

Dodd, C.H. History and the Gospel. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1938.

This book contains a medium amount of markings. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BS2555 .D6 1938a] Dulles, John Foster. War, Peace and Change. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939.

Elli, Frank. The Riot; A Novel. New York: Coward-McCann, 1966.

Ellickson, Katherine Pollak. Your Job and Your Pay: A Picture of the World in Which We Work. New York, The Vanguard Press, 1931.

Etzioni, Amitai. The Hard Way to Peace: A New Strategy. New York: Collier Books, 1962.

Farmer, Herbert Henry. The Healing Cross: Further Studies in the Christian Interpretation of Life. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1939. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BV4253 .F3]

This book contains a medium amount of markings. [C

Fénelon, François de Salignac de La Mothe, Marie Gruyn de Valgrand Montbéron, and Mildred Whitney Stillman. Letters from Cambrai, Written to the Countess De Montberon. Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY: Idlewild Press, 1949.

Ferguson, John. The Enthronement of Love: Christ the Peacemaker. London: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1951. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BT736.4 .F47 1951]

162 Table of Contents

This book contains a medium amount of markings.

Ferré, Nels Frederick Solomon. Return to Christianity. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1943.

Finkelstein, Louis. Akiba: Scholar, Saint and Martyr. New York: Covici, Friede, 1936.

Fitch, Florence Mary. One God; The Ways We Worship Him. New York: Lothrop, Lee, & Shepard, 1944.

This book contains no markings. It is a children’s book.

Franckforter. Theologia Germanica: Which Setteth Forth Many Fair Lineaments of Divine Truth, and Saith Very Lofty and Lovely Things Touching a Perfect Life. London: Macmillan, 1937.

––––––. Theologia Germanica. New York: Pantheon, 1949.

Frank, Philipp. Modern Science and Its Philosophy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1949.

Frost, Bede. The Art of Mental Prayer. London: Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 1940.

This book contains a light to medium amount of markings. [NOT LOOKED AT]

––––––. The Riches of Christ; Readings for Lent. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1934.

Gibbon, Edward, and George Birkbeck Norman Hill. The Memoirs of the Life of Edward Gibbon with Various Observations and Excursions. New York: Putnam, 1900.

Gide, André, and Dorothy Bussy. Return from the U.S.S.R. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1937.

Gilson, Etienne. Christianity and Philosophy. Trans. Ralph MacDonald. New York: Institute of Mediaeval Studies; Sheed & Ward, 1939.

Goodspeed, Edgar J. The Apostolic Fathers. New York: Harper, 1950.

Goudsmit, Samuel Abraham. Alsos: The Failure of German Science. New York: H. Schuman, 1947.

Hartill, Percy, ed. Into the Way of Peace. London: James Clarke, 1940.

This book is fairly heavily marked up. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BT736.2 .I5]

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Hauptmann, Gerhart. Die Insel der grossen Mutter; oder, Das Wunder von Ile des Dames; eine Geschichte aus dem utopischen Archipelagus. Berlin: S. Fischer, 1924.

Heard, Gerald. The Creed of Christ: An Interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940.

––––––. A Dialogue in the Desert. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1942.

––––––. The Eternal Gospel. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1946.

This book contains a medium amount of markings. It argues that all religions have the same basis. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BL51 .H38 1946]

––––––. The Lost Cavern, And Other Tales of the Fantastic. London: Cassell, 1949.

––––––. Man, the Master. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1941.

––––––. Pain, Sex and Time: A New Outlook on Evolution and the Future of Man. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1939.

Henderson, Dorothy. For the Greater Glory: Biographical Sketches of Six Humanitarians Whose Lives Have Been for the Greater Glory. New York: Exposition, 1958.

Herman, Emily. Creative Prayer. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1934. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BV210 .H47 1934] This book contains a medium amount of markings.

Herman, Stewart W. Report from Christian Europe. New York: Friendship Press, 1953.

Hillquit, Morris. From Marx to Lenin. New York: Hanford Press, 1921.

Himmelfarb, Gertrude. Lord Acton: A Study in Conscience and Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1952.

Hodgen, Margaret T. Workers’ Education in England & the United States. London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co, 1925.

Holmes, John Haynes, Harvey Dee Brown, Helen Edmunds Redding, and Theodora Goldsmith. Readings from Great Authors: Arranged for Responsive, or Other Use in Churches, Schools, Forums, Homes, Etc. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co, 1927.

Hordern, William. Christianity, Communism, and History. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1954.

164 Table of Contents

Horton, Walter Marshall. Can Christianity Save Civilization? New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940.

This book contains a medium amount of markings. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR115.C5 H58] Huberman, Leo. The Labor Spy Racket. New York: Modern Age Books, 1937.

Hügel, Friedrich, Freiherr von. Essays & Addresses on the Philosophy of Religion. Second Series. London and Toronto: J.M. Dent; New York: E. P. Dutton, 1930.

Hume, Robert Ernest. Treasure-House of the Living Religions: Selections from Their Sacred Scriptures. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933.

Hunter, Allan A. Secretly Armed. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1941.

––––––. Three Trumpets Sound: Kagawa, Gandhi, Schweitzer. New York: Association Press, 1939.

This book contains a medium to light amount of markings. Muste dated it “Fall of 1939.” It is biographical in nature. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR CT104 .H86]

Hutchinson, Paul. The New Leviathan. Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1946.

This book contains a medium amount of markings. It is a review copy. [NOT SKIMMED] Inge, William Ralph. Freedom Love and Truth: An Anthology of the Christian Life. Boston: Hale, Cushman & Flint, [1936].

International Commission against Concentration Camp Practices, and David Rousset. Coercion of the Worker in the Soviet Union. Boston: Beacon Press, 1953.

International Missionary Council. The World Mission of the Church; Findings and Recommendations of the International Missionary Council, Tambaram, Madras, India, December 12th to 29th, 1938. London: Published for the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church by the International Missionary Council, 1939.

Jones, Ernest, James Glover, J. C. Flugel, M. D. Eder, Barbara Low, and Ella Freeman Sharpe. Social Aspects of Psycho-Analysis; Lectures Delivered Under the Auspices of the Sociological Society. [London]: Williams & Norgate, 1924.

Jones, Rufus Matthew. The Flowering of Mysticism: The Friends of God in the Fourteenth Century. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1939.

165 Table of Contents

This book contains a medium amount of markings. Muste read it in November 1939. It was a review copy. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BV5070.F73 J6]

Jungk, Robert. Children of the Ashes: The Story of a Rebirth. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1961.

Kagawa, Toyohiko. Brotherhood Economics. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1936. [CALL # VW 3RD FLOOR HD2961 .K3] This book is very lightly marked up.

Kastein, Josef, and Huntley Paterson. History and Destiny of the Jews. Garden City, NY: Garden City Pub. Co, 1936.

Kautsky, Karl. Foundations of Christianity: A Study in Christian Origins. New York: International Publishers, 1925.

This book is not marked up. Muste signed this copy. It is stamped “A.J. Muste / Brookwood / Katonah, NY”[CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR165 .K2]

Kautsky, Karl, and Henry James Stenning. The Labour Revolution. London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1925.

Keller, Adolf. Church and State on the European Continent. Chicago: Willett, 1937.

Kennan, George F. Russia, the Atom and the West. New York: Harper, 1958.

Kierkegaard, Søren, and David F. Swenson. Philosophical Fragments; Or, A Fragment of Philosophy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press; New York: American- Scandinavian Foundation, 1936.

Koestler, Arthur. The Trail of the Dinosaur & Other Essays. New York: Macmillan, 1955.

Kunkel, Fritz. Creation Continues, A Psychological Interpretation of the First Gospel. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1947.

Laski, Harold Joseph. Communism. New York: H. Holt and Co, 1927.

Latourette, Kenneth Scott. The Gospel, the Church and the World. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1946.

This book contains no markings. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BV600 .L345 1946]

166 Table of Contents

Leighton, Alexander H. Human Relations in a Changing World: Observations on the Use of the Social Sciences. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1949.

Lenin, Vladimir Il’ich, and V. Mickevičius-Kapsukas. Lenin on Organization. Chicago: Daily Worker, 1926.

This book contains some markings, mostly in the first part of the book. It is stamped “A.J. Muste / Brookwood / Katonah, NY” [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR DK254.L3 L38 1926] Levi, Carlo. Of Fear and Freedom. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1950.

Lewis, Flora. A Case History of Hope: The Story of Poland's Peaceful Revolutions. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1958.

Lilienthal, David Eli. TVA: Democracy on the March. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1944.

Lohia, Rammanohar. Wheel of History. Hyderabad: Navahind, 1955.

Lothian, Philip Henry Kerr. The Universal Church and the World of Nations. Chicago: Willett, Clark & Company, 1938.

Muste marked up the first fifteen pages; the rest is clean. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR115.P7 U5] Luccock, Halford Edward. American Mirror: Social, Ethical and Religious Aspects of American Literature, 1930-1940. New York: Macmillan, 1940.

Luccock, Halford Edward, and Frances Brentano. The Questing Spirit: Religion in the Literature of Our Time. New York: Coward-McCann, 1947.

Lukacs, John. A History of the Cold War. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961.

Luo, Mengce. Declaration on Human Welfare. Hong Kong: Chu Lieu (Main Current) Society, 1951.

Lyons, Eugene. Our Secret Allies, the Peoples of Russia. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1953.

Macintosh, Douglas Clyde. Social Religion. New York: Scribner, 1939.

Muste purchased this book in May 1939. The first half is fairly heavily marked up; the second half is lightly marked up. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR115.S6 M32]

Maclachlan, Lewis. The Faith of Friendship. London: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1942.

167 Table of Contents

This book contains no markings. [ [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BJ1533.F8 M32 1942]

Macmurray, John. The Clue to History. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939.

Magee, William Kirkpatrick. A Memoir of AE, George William Russell. London: Macmillan, 1937.

Magnes, Judah Leon. In the Perplexity of the Times. Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1946.

Marcu, Valeriu, and E. W. Dickes. Lenin. New York: Macmillan, 1928.

Maritain, Jacques. A Christian Looks at the Jewish Question. New York: Longmans, Green, 1939.

––––––. Freedom in the Modern World. Trans. Richard O’Sullivan. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936.

Muste marked up this book very heavily, especially the chapter of the “purification of the means.” It appears to have read it more than once. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR B2430.M33 D83 1936] Maritain, Raïssa, and Julie Kernan. Adventures in Grace, Sequel to We Have Been Friends Together. New York: Longmans, Green and Co, 1945.

Mauriac, François. The Stumbling Block. New York: Philosophical Library, 1952.

Maury, Philippe. Politics and Evangelism. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959.

This book contains no markings. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR115.P7 M3433]

Mayer, Harry Hubert. The Lyric Psalter: The Modern Reader’s Book of Psalms. New York: Liveright, 1944.

McCune, George McAfee. Korea Today. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950.

McNeill, John T. Christian Hope for World Society. Chicago: Willett, Clark & Company, 1937. [CALL # VW 3RD FLOOR HN31 .M2] This book contains a heavy amount of markings. It is a history of Christianity from the early church to the present. It concludes with suggestions for the church to move forward.

Meersch, Maxence van der. Fishers of Men; Tr. from the French. New York: Sheed & Ward, 1947.

168 Table of Contents

Mehring, Franz, Edward Fitzgerald, and Ruth Norden. Karl Marx: The Story of His Life. New York: Covici, Friede, 1935.

Meland, Bernard Eugene. Seeds of Redemption. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1947.

This book contains a medium amount of markings. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR115.C5 M4] Meyers, Lester. High-Speed Math. Princeton, N.J.: Van Nostrand, 1965.

Miksche, Ferdinand Otto. Atomic Weapons and Armies. London: Faber & Faber, 1955.

Miller, Hugh. The Community of Man. New York: Macmillan, 1949.

Miller, William Lee. The Protestant and Politics. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1958.

This book contains no markings. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR115.P7 M54]

Minear, Paul S. Christian Hope and the Second Coming. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954.

This book contains very minimal markings. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BS2545.E7 M5]

Morris, Charles William. Paths of Life, Preface to a World Religion. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1942.

Muhlen, Norbert. The Return of Germany, A Tale of Two Countries. Chicago: H. Regnery, 1953.

Murphy, Gardner. Human Nature and Enduring Peace: Third Yearbook of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1945.

Niebuhr, Reinhold. Reflections on the End of an Era. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1934.

––––––. Reinhold Niebuhr on Politics; His Political Philosophy and Its Application to Our Age As Expressed in His Writings. New York: Scribner, 1960.

Neumann, William L. America Encounters Japan: From Perry to MacArthur. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1963.

––––––. Making the Peace, 1941-1945; The Diplomacy of the Wartime Conferences. Washington: Foundation for Foreign Affairs, 1950.

PAFMECA Conference. The Fourth PAFMECA Conference, Held in Addis Ababa, February 2nd to 10th, 1962. Addis Ababa: Published by the Africa Department of the Foreign Office for and on behalf of the PAFMECA Secretariat, 1962.

169 Table of Contents

Palmer, George, and Gretta Palmer. Through God’s Underground: The Adventures of “Father George” Among People Under Soviet Rule. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1949.

Pauck, Wilhelm. The Heritage of the Reformation. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1950.

Péguy, Charles, Anne Green, and Julien Green. Basic Verities, Prose and Poetry. New York: Pantheon Books, 1943.

Pfleger, Karl. Wrestlers with Christ. New York: Sheed & Ward, 1938.

Picard, Max. The Flight from God. Chicago: H. Regnery, 1951.

Polakov, Walter Nicholas. Man and His Affairs from the Engineering Point of View. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins Company, 1925.

Polanyi, Michael. The Logic of Liberty: Reflections and Rejoinders. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.

Preis, Art. Labor's Giant Step, Twenty Years of the CIO. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1964.

Pyarelal. Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase. Ahmedabad: Navajivan, 1956.

Rauschenbusch, Walter. Prayers of the Social Awakening. Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1910.

This book contains no markings.

Reckitt, Maurice B. Religion in Social Action. London: John Heritage, 1937.

This book fairly heavily marked up. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR115.S6 R527]

Roberts, R. Ellis. H.R.L. Sheppard Life and Letters. London: J. Murray, 1942.

Rolland, Romain, and Eugene Löhrke. Palm Sunday. New York: H. Holt and Co, 1928.

Rosenstock-Huessy, Eugen. The Christian Future; Or The Modern Mind Outrun. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1946.

This book contains a heavy amount of markings. Muste wrote his name and “May 1946” inside the cover. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR479 .R6]

Rowland, Stanley J. Land in Search of God. New York: Random House, 1958.

170 Table of Contents

Rush, Benjamin. The Selected Writings of Benjamin Rush. Ed. Dagobert D. Runes. New York: Philosophical Library, 1947.

Rutenber, Culbert Gerow, and Joseph D. Ban. The Reconciling Gospel. Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1960.

Samuel, Maurice. Level Sunlight. New York: Knopf, 1953.

Santayana, George. Persons and Places. Vols. 1 and 2. New York: Scribner, 1944.

Sayers, Dorothy L. Begin Here; A Statement of Faith. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co, 1941.

Schmidt, Dietmar. Pastor Niemöller. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959.

Schneider, Herbert Wallace. Meditations in Season on the Elements of Christian Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1938.

Scott, Ernest Findlay. The Crisis in the Life of Jesus: The Cleansing of the Temple and Its Significance. New York: Scribner, 1952.

––––––. The First Age of Christianity. New York: Macmillan, 1935.

This book contains a medium amount of markings. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BS2410 .S43 1935] Scott, R.B.Y., and Gregory Vlastos, eds. Towards the Christian Revolution. Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1936.

This book is very heavily marked up. A note in Muste’s hand under his signature on the first page reads “Purchased and read circa Jan. 15-20, 1937.” [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR115.S6 S42] Scudder, Vida Dutton. The Franciscan Adventure: A Study in the First Hundred Years of the Order of St. Francis of Assisi. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1931.

Seaver, George. Albert Schweitzer: Christian Revolutionary. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1944.

Sencourt, Robert. Carmelite and Poet, A Framed Portrait of St. John of the Cross, With His Poems in Spanish. New York: Macmillan, 1944.

Smith, Louise Pettibone. Torch of Liberty: Twenty-Five Years in the Life of the Foreign Born in the U.S.A. New York: Dwight-King Publishers, 1959.

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Solovyov, Vladimir Sergeyevich, and S. L. Frank. A Solovyov Anthology. New York: Scribner, 1950.

Spring, Howard. And Another Thing. New York: Harper, 1946.

This copy belonged to Muste’s daughter Constance, was purchased in June 1947, and contains minimal markings, which do not resemble Muste’s style. [CALL # VW LL PR6037.P68 A7] Stalin, Joseph. Leninism. New York: International Publishers, 1928.

Stanford, Derek. Christopher Fry, an Appreciation. London: P. Nevill, 1951.

Steere, Douglas V. On Beginning from Within. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1943.

This book contains almost no markings.

––––––. Prayer and Worship. New York: Association Press, 1938. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BV4501 .S794] This book contains a light amount of markings. Muste wrote his name inside the cover.

Stein, Walter, et. al. Nuclear Weapons and Christian Conscience. London: Merlin Press, 1961.

Muste lightly marked up this collection of essays, which argue that nuclear disarmament is the only rational and moral choice. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR115.A85 .N8 1961]

Strausz-Hupé, Robert. Power and Community. New York: Praeger, 1956.

Streit, Clarence K. Union Now: A Proposal for a Federal Union of the Democracies of the North Atlantic. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939.

This book contains no markings.

Stolz, Karl Ruf. The Psychology of Religious Living. Nashville: Cokesbury Press, 1937.

Stringfellow, William, and Anthony Towne. The Bishop Pike Affair; Scandals of Conscience and Heresy, Relevance and Solemnity in the Contemporary Church. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

Sullivan, J. W. N. The Limitations of Science. London: Chatto and Windus, 1934.

Tead, Ordway, and Benson Y. Landis. The Case for Democracy: And Its Meaning for Modern Life. New York: Association Press, 1938.

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Thompson, Francis. Complete Poetical Works. New York: Boni and Liveright, n.d.

Thorndike, Lynn. A Short History of Civilization. New York: F.S. Crofts, 1926.

Tillich, Paul. The Shaking of the Foundations. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1948.

This book contains a medium to light amount of markings up until the end of chapter eight (p. 75). The remaining thirteen chapters are clean. [NOT SKIMMED]

Tippett, Thomas. When Southern Labor Stirs. New York: J. Cape & H. Smith, 1931.

Tobias, Robert. Communist-Christian Encounter in East Europe. Indianapolis: School of Religion Press, 1956.

Tomlin, E. W. F. Simone Weil. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954.

Trilling, Lionel, and Pawel Mayewski. The Broken Mirror: A Collection of Writings from Contemporary Poland. New York: Random House, 1958.

Trotsky, Leon. The Real Situation in Russia. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1928.

––––––. Whither Russia? Towards Capitalism or Socialism. New York: International Publishers, 1926.

Underhill, Evelyn. Ruysbroeck. London: G. Bell, 1915. [CALL # VW 4TH FL BV5095.J3 U53]

This book contains a light amount of markings. Muste wrote his name and “1915” inside the cover.

United States Congress, House Committee on Government Operations. Civil Defense for National Survival. Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, Eighty-Fourth Congress, Second Session. Washington: U.S. Government Print Office, 1956.

Van Dusen, Henry P., ed. The Christian Answer. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1945.

This book contains a heavy to medium amount of markings. Muste purchased it in February 1946. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR479 .V28]

Van Paassen, Pierre. Visions Rise and Change. New York: Dial Press, 1955.

Veblen, Thorstein. The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation: And Other Essays. New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1919.

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Visser ‘T Hooft, Willem Adolph. None Other Gods. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1937.

This book contains a medium amount of markings. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR 479.V5] Visser ’T Hooft, Willem Adolph, and Joseph Houldsworth Oldham. The Church and Its Function in Society. Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1937.

The first half, written by Visser ’T Hooft, contains a light amount of markings while the second half, by Oldham, is more heavily marked up. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BV600.V53 C48] Vivekananda, Swami. Raja-Yoga, or Conquering the Internal Nature. New York: Ramakrishna- Vivekananda Center of New York, 1939.

Vlastos, Gregory. Christian Faith and Democracy. New York: Hazen Books and Association Press, 1939.

This book contains a medium to heavy amount of markings. It was sent to Muste by the publisher for him to review. It is not clear if Muste ever wrote a review or for what journal the review was to be for. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR125 .V6]

Voltaire, and Joseph MacCabe. Toleration and Other Essays. New York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1912.

Walsh, Chad. Stop Looking and Listen, An Invitation to the Christian Life. New York: Harper, 1947.

Warburg, James P. Agenda for Action: Toward Peace Through Disengagement. New York: Academy Books, 1957.

Warner, Rex. The Cult of Power, Essays. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1947.

Waskow, Arthur Ocean. The Limits of Defense. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1962.

Waterman, Leroy. The Religion of Jesus: Christianity’s Unclaimed Heritage of Prophetic Religion. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1952.

This book contains a medium amount of markings. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR121 .W265] Watkin, E. I. Men and Tendencies. London: Sheed & Ward, 1937.

Watts, Alan. Behold the Spirit: A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion. New York: Pantheon, 1947.

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This book contains no markings. It is the 1951 third printing. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BV5082 .W37] Weil, Simone. Gravity and Grace. Trans. Arthur Wills. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1952.

Muste heavily underlined some short sections but left much of the book unmarked. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR B2430.W473 P43] Wesley, John, Percy Livingstone Parker, and Augustine Birrell. The Heart of John Wesley’s Journal. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1903.

West, Charles C. Communism and the Theologians: Study of an Encounter. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1958.

––––––. Outside the Camp: The Christian and the World. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959.

This book contains no markings. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BR481.W47 O9]

Whipple, Leon. The Story of Civil Liberty in the United States. New York: Vanguard Press, American Civil Liberties Union, 1927.

Wieman, Henry N., and Walter M. Horton. The Growth of Religion. Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1938.

Winslow, E. M. The Pattern of Imperialism, A Study in the Theories of Power. New York: Columbia University Press, 1948.

Wood, H.G., et. al. The Kingdom of God and History. Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1938.

Some of the essays are heavily marked up, others contain few markings. [CALL # VW 4TH FLOOR BT94 .K5] Zahn, Gordon C. In Solitary Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jägerstätter. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964.

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Appendix 2: Authors Cited By Muste And Other Known Influences

Note: This appendix lists selected authors and texts cited by Muste in his writings. It is admittedly incomplete.

Akhenaten (also “Ikhnaton”).

Muste listed “Ikhnaton” on a list of “powerful stars in mankind’s firmament” who have rejected war and “employed non-violent methods to achieve justice and brotherhood” (Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 9). Akhenaten, as he is now known, was an Egyptian pharaoh in the early 1300s BCE.

Andrews, C.F.

Included by Muste in a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” (Not By Might, 199).

Assisi, St. Francis of

See “Francis of Assisi.”

Auden, W.H.

Muste quotes Auden in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, pages 93-94, 96, 171.

Barth, Karl.

At the Puidoux Theological Conference, Muste argued against Barth’s position that while war is sin, the state must still retain an army for extreme cases. Later, Muste quotes another statement by Barth approvingly (Meyer, Report on the Puidoux Theological Conference, IV/15, IV/18).

Bernanos, George. Plea for Liberty.

Muste quotes Bernanos in Not By Might, pages 207-208. Bernanos argues that Christianity is about bold hopes, not minor, slow, realistic change.

Bourne, Randolph. “The War and the Intellectuals” and “Unfinished Fragment on the State.” In Untimely Papers. 1919.

Muste says these essays should be required reading (Not By Might, 138).

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Bradley, Dwight. “Pacifism and Civilization.” Christendom (Summer 1941).

Muste recommends this essay in Not By Might, page 93. Bradley argues that “the major Hebrew prophets, in contrast with the court preachers… kept themselves unpopular because of their insistence that the destiny and duty of Israel was to be an ethical nation whose example and teaching should one day reform and redeem the whole world…. Jesus personally accepted the role of Suffering Servant which the major prophets had originally assigned to Israel as a whole…. if Christianity is bereft of its pacifism it becomes ethically meaningless and therefore socially valueless.” (quoted in Muste, Not By Might, 93).

Brittain, Vera.

Included by Muste in a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” (Not By Might, 199).

Brunner, Emil.

Muste criticizes Brunner’s belief that the prophet should speak in general terms, not propose a specific program (Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 21). He approving quotes Brunner’s assertion that “winning a war” is no longer a phrase that makes sense (Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 50).

Burnham, James. The Machiavellians.

Muste draws from this book in Not By Might, pages 45-46.

Chalmers, Allen Knight.

Included by Muste in a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” (Not By Might, 199).

Cournos, John. Open Letter to Jews and Christians.

Muste quotes Cournos in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, pages 201-202 and mentions his book on page 81. He also includes it in the bibliography at the end of Non- Violence in an Aggressive World.

Cullmann, Oscar.

A paper by Cullmann, “The Kingship of Christ and the Church in the N.T.,” was discussed at the Puidoux Conference in 1955. A brief comment by Muste on the paper is found in Albert Meyer’s minutes from the conference.

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Dimnent, Edward Daniel.

Muste listed Dimnent around 1918 on a questionnaire under “profoundly impressed by what men?” (Muste, “Alumni Questionnaire”). Dimnent was a professor at Hope College while Muste was there and later became its president.

Dodd, C.H. History and the Gospel.

Muste quotes Dodd to argue that the kingdom of God is aimed at the transformation of the situation today, not just in some future time (Not By Might, 157).

Dulles, John Foster. War, Peace, and Change.

Muste includes War, Peace, and Change in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World and quotes it on page 151.

Ehrenstrom, Nils.

Muste quotes Ehrenstrom on the kingdom of God and the political sphere in Non- Violence in an Aggressive World, page 33.

Eliot, T.S.

Muste quotes Eliot in Not By Might, page 44.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo.

Jo Ann Robinson writes that Emerson was one of Muste’s major influences during his childhood and young adult years (“Pacifist & Prophet,” 7).

Ferré, Nels F.S.

Muste quotes Ferré in Not By Might, page 217.

Finkelstien, Louis. Akiba: Scholar, Saint and Martyr.

Muste recommends this book in Not By Might, page 93.

Fox, George.

One of the primary founders of Quakerism, quotations from Fox show up occasionally in Muste’s works. He placed Fox on a list of “powerful stars in mankind’s firmament” who

178 Table of Contents

have rejected war and “employed non-violent methods to achieve justice and brotherhood” (Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 9).

Frank, Waldo. The Jew in Our Day and “The Jew in Our Day: Preface to a Program.” Contemporary Jewish Record (February 1944).

Muste recommends this book and article in Not By Might, page 92.

St. Francis of Assisi.

Muste put St. Francis on a list of “powerful stars in mankind’s firmament” who have rejected war and “employed non-violent methods to achieve justice and brotherhood” and on another list of famous pacifists (Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 9, 81). He also included him on a list of mystics that greatly influenced him (Muste, “Alumni Questionnaire”).

Gandhi, Mohandas.

Muste includes Gandhi in a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” and notes that his is, “of course… by far the most significant single figure in contemporary religious pacifism” (Not By Might, 199). Gandhi appears seven times in Not By Might and is quoted by Muste on multiple occasions. Muste includes him in a list of “powerful stars” and as an example of the effectiveness of nonviolence in Non- Violence in an Aggressive World, pages 6 and 160. He also appears frequently in “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” Essays.

Gillespie, John H.

Muste listed Gillespie around 1918 on a questionnaire under “profoundly impressed by what men?” (Muste, “Alumni Questionnaire”). He was a professor at New Brunswick Theological Seminary.

Gillian, Strickland.

Muste quotes one of his poems in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, pages 15-16.

Gregg, Richard. The Power of Nonviolence.

Muste includes Gregg on a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” (Not By Might, 199). He recommends Gregg’s The Power of Nonviolence in Not By Might, page 128 and in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, also page 128. He also includes it in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World.

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Hard, William. “St. Thomas.”

Muste quotes this “brilliant” poem in “Fragment of Autobiography,” pages 338-339.

Heard, Gerald. The Source of Civilization and Pain, Sex, and Time.

Muste includes Heard on a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” (Not By Might, 199). Muste recommends his writings in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, page 15. He includes The Source of Civilization and Pain, Sex, and Time in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World.

Heering, G.J. The Fall of Christianity: A Study of Christianity, The State and War.

Muste includes this book in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World. It is a systematic historical look at early Christianity and war, Christianity and the state, the state and war, morality and war, and the task of Christianity “today.”

Hillyer, Robert.

Muste quotes approvingly from Hillyer in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, page 79.

Hocking, William Ernest.

Muste draws from Hocking in Not By Might, page 170. Hocking was a non-pacifist who argued that pacifists are necessary for the church and are a “rare treasure.”

Holl, Karl. Distinctive Elements in Christianity.

Muste quotes Holl approvingly in “Pacifism and Perfectionism,” Essays, pages 311-312.

Holmes, John Hayes.

Included by Muste in a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” (Not By Might, 199).

Hook, Sidney.

Muste quotes Hook in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, pages 91, 194-195.

Horton, Walter Marshall.

Muste quotes Horton in Not By Might, page 171. Horton argues that the church is to be a “living cell of the new divine order that is to be.”

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Housman, Laurence.

Muste includes Housman on a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” (Not By Might, 199).

Hughan, Jessie Wallace. If We Should be Invaded.

Muste mentions If We Should be Invaded in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, pages 159-160. He also includes this War Resisters League pamphlet in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World.

Hunter, Allen. Three Trumpets Sound: Kagawa, Gandhi, and Schweitzer.

Muste includes Hunter on a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” (Not By Might, 199). Muste also includes Three Trumpets Sound: Kagawa, Gandhi, and Schweitzer in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World.

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World and Ends and Means and An Encyclopedia of Pacifism.

Muste includes Huxley on a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” (Not By Might, 199). He mentions Brave New World on page 189 of Not By Might. From Ends and Means Muste gets the idea that the means determine the ends (Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 91). Muste also mentions Huxley in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, pages 176, 194. Muste includes Ends and Means and An Encyclopedia of Pacifism in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World. He also quotes Huxley in “Fragment of Autobiography,” pages 336-337.

Ikhanaton.

See “Akhenaten.”

Isaiah (biblical author).

Muste put Isaiah on a list of “powerful stars in mankind’s firmament” who have rejected war and “employed non-violent methods to achieve justice and brotherhood” and on another similar list (Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 9, 81).

Jeremiah (biblical author).

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Muste put Jeremiah on a list of “powerful stars in mankind’s firmament” who have rejected war and “employed non-violent methods to achieve justice and on another similar list (Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 9, 81).

Jesus the Christ.

The central figure in Christianity, the teachings of Jesus had a major impact on Muste. Muste put Jesus on a list of “powerful stars in mankind’s firmament” who have rejected war and “employed non-violent methods to achieve justice and brotherhood” and on another similar list (Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 9, 81).

Jones, Rufus.

Jones was a major early influence in Muste. Muste includes him on a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” (Not By Might, 199).

Jones, Stanley.

Muste includes Jones on a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” (Not By Might, 199).

Kagawa, Toyohiko.

Muste includes Kagawa on a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” in Not By Might, page 199 and on a list of famous pacifists in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, page 9.

Keats, John. “Ode to a Grecian Urn.”

Muste reports being “transfigured” by this poem in “Fragment of Autobiography,” page 337.

Kennedy, Charles Rann. The Terrible Meek.

Muste mentions The Terrible Meek approvingly in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, page 81.

Kuyper, Abraham. Lectures on Calvinism: Six Lectures Delivered at Princeton University in 1898 Under Auspices of the L.P. Stone Foundation. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1931.

Muste praises this text in his 1938 article, “Church’s Witness to Her Faith.”

Lao-Tse.

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Also known as Laozi, this Chinese philosopher lived somewhere between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE, assuming the writings attributed to him came from one individual. He is best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching. Muste put Lao-Tse on a list of “powerful stars in mankind’s firmament” who have rejected war and “employed non- violent methods to achieve justice and brotherhood” (Muste, Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 9).

Lester, Muriel.

Muste includes Lester on a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” (Not By Might, 199).

Lewis, H.D. Morals and the New Theology.

Muste quotes Lewis extensively in “Pacifism and Perfectionism,” Essays, pages 314-317.

Lincoln, Abraham.

As a child, Must developed a keen interest in Abraham Lincoln and claims to have learned the American Dream from Lincoln’s speeches. For some of Muste’s reflections on this see Not By Might, pages 130-131.

Lippmann, Walter. “The Gun-Versus-Butter Stereotype.” Herald Tribune (Jan 20, 1966).

Muste quotes Lippmann approvingly in “Inscrutable War, Inscrutable Peace,” Liberation 10, no. 11 (February 1966): 55.

Luxemburg, Rosa.

Muste quotes this antimilitarist and communist in Not By Might, page 44. She writes, “the main thing is to be good… that is what binds and unbinds all things, it is better than all cleverness and self-righteousness.”

Lyons, Eugene. Assignment in Utopia.

Muste cites Lyons in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, pages 84, 92-93.

MacGregor, G.H.C. The Relevance of an Impossible Ideal and The New Testament Basis of Pacifism.

Muste draws from The Relevance of an Impossible Ideal in Not By Might, pages 156, 158-159. Muste includes The New Testament Basis of Pacifism in the bibliography at the

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end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World and recommends it on pages 11 and 81, saying that all Christians and students of the Bible should read it.

Macintosh, Douglas Clyde. Social Religion.

Muste includes Social Religion in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World.

Macmurray, John. The Clue to History.

Muste quotes Macmurray in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, page 35. Muste calls this book “brilliant.” He also includes it in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World.

Mayer, Milton S.

Muste quotes Mayer in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, page 167.

McGiffert, A. Cushman.

A professor of Muste’s at Union Theological Seminary in New York, McGiffert had a profound influence on him. His lectures emphasized the need to reevaluate theological ideas that may have been overly influenced by the time in which they arose. They led Muste to reject many of the doctrines he had perviously accepted, challenging the young pastor’s faith and leading to him seriously consider leaving the ministry (Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 16). Muste listed McGiffert around 1918 on a questionnaire under “profoundly impressed by what men?” (Muste, “Alumni Questionnaire”).

Muelder, Walter G.

Muste draws from Muelder in Not By Might, page 214, in service of the argument that pacifism is a mainstream position, not an unimportant fringe one.

Murry, J. Middleton. Heroes of Thought and The Necessity of Pacifism.

Muste quotes extensively from Heroes of Thought in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, pages 185-186 and cites him on page 133. He includes Heroes of Thought and The Necessity of Pacifism in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World.

Niebuhr, Rienhold.

Rienhold Niebuhr appears often in Muste’s works, mostly as an intellectual opponent.

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Niebuhr, Richard.

Richard Niebuhr appears often in Muste’s works, including in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, page 192.

Oldham, J.H. Article in the Christian News Letter (October 1940).

Oldham argues that if a distinction between war and murder cannot be maintained, that Christians must become pacifists or give up Christianity. Muste quotes him in Not By Might, page 161.

Page, Kirby. How to Keep America Out of War.

Included by Muste in a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” (Not By Might, 199). Muste includes How to Keep America Out of War in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World.

Péguy, Charles.

Péguy was a socialist who believed that socialism that is not based on Christianity is a dangerous delusion. He also held a strong belief in the oneness of humanity and allied himself with the “damned.” See Not By Might, 60-61.

Pfleger, Karl.

Muste quotes Pfleger, who writes, “life had no object, had not the least significance, if there were no community” (Not By Might, 61).

Rauschning, Hermann.

Muste quotes Rauschning approvingly in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, page 89.

Raven, Charles E.

Included by Muste in a list of “writers on whose books much of our pacifism is nurtured” (Not By Might, 199).

Redding, J. Saunders. No Day of Triumph.

Muste quotes from No Day of Triumph in “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” Essays, 286, 288.

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Royce, Josiah.

Muste quotes Royce in “Fragment of Autobiography” to help explain why Muste left the church, given his prior mystical experiences.

Rukeyser, Muriel. The Life of Poetry.

Muste quotes The Life of Poetry in “Saints for this Age,” Essays, 425. He describes her writing as “moving.”

Sabatier, Auguste. Religions of Authority and the Religion of the Spirit. New York: Hodder and Stoughton, 1904.

Listed by Muste under the question “profoundly impressed by what books?” in an alumni questionnaire sent out by Hope College in 1918. It lays out in great detail the Roman Catholic and Protestant understandings of authority before moving on to a discussion of what Sabatier calls “the religion of the spirit.”

Selznick, Philip. “Revolution Sacred and Profane.” Enquiry (Fall 1944).

Muste quotes Selznick, who argues that pacifism is essential for socialism and that democracy and pacifism are inextricably linked (Not By Might, 210-211).

Schlamm, Willi. The Dictatorship of the Lie.

Muste mentions this book in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 91-92. Schlamm addresses the lack of morality in socialism.

Shapiro, Harold. What Every Young Man Should Know About War.

Muste includes What Every Young Man Should Know About War in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World.

Shaw, Charles Gray.

Shaw was a professor of Muste’s when he took courses at New York University while at New Brunswick Seminary. Muste said he was the one who he remembered most from the university (Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 13).

Shridharani, Krishnalal. War Without Violence: A Study of Gandhi’s Method and Its Accomplishments.

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Muste includes War Without Violence in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World and mentions it on page 160.

Silone, Ignazio. Fontamara and Bread and Wine.

Muste mentions this Italian novelist in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, pages 94-95, and quotes Bread and Wine at length.

Spring, Howard. And Another Thing.

Muste quotes this autobiography extensively in Not By Might, pages 94, 118, 154-156. The quotations touch on the necessity of religion being in politics, “you cannot serve God and Mammon,” renunciation of war, and the necessity of pacifism for the survival of Christianity. Muste notes that Spring, despite his belief that Christianity cannot survive unless it becomes pacifist, is not himself a pacifist.

Stratmann, Franziskus. The Church and War: A Catholic Study.

Muste includes The Church and War in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World.

Streit, Clarence. Union Now.

While Muste notes that the proposal for a pan-European organization in Union Now contains “highly desirable features,” he argues that it errs at a vital point by not recognizing the need for a mutually beneficial economic situation (Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 143).

Sutphen, James G.

Muste listed Sutphen around 1918 on a questionnaire under “profoundly impressed by what men?” (Muste, “Alumni Questionnaire”). He was a professor at Hope College.

Swanwick, H. M. Collective Insecurity.

Muste includes Collective Insecurity in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World and quotes it at length on pages 122-123.

Thomas, Evan W.

Muste quotes a letter by his friend Thomas, who was a conscientious objector in WWI, at length in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, pages 168-170.

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Thomas, Francis. “The Hound of Heaven.”

This was one of Muste’s favorite poems, a fact he mentions in numerous sources including “Fragment of Autobiography,” page 333.

Thomas, Norman and Bertram D. Wolfe. Keep America Out of War.

Muste includes Keep America Out of War in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World.

Thoreau, Henry David. Multiple works including “Civil Disobedience.”

Muste repeatedly refers to and quotes Thoreau’s thought, including in Not By Might, 46, 67, 135, 152 and in “What the Bible Teaches About Freedom,” Essays, 288, 289, 290.

Tillich, Paul. Interpretation of History.

Muste quotes from Tillich on page 171 of Not By Might to the effect that if the church renounced power, it could truly become the church and that this would be one of the great turing points of history. Muste draws upon Tillich to argue that the way of love cannot be forced on people or nations (Not By Might, 107). He also quotes from Interpretation of History on page 195 of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World.

Tolstoy, Leo.

Jo Ann Robinson notes that Muste stressed having read Tolstoy during his pre-pacifist days as pastor of Fort Washington Reformed Church (Abraham Went Out, 20).

Toynbee, A.J. Study of History.

Muste quotes Toynbee’s conclusion that civilizations commit suicide (Not By Might, 9).

Vagts, Alfred. History of Militarism.

Muste cites History of Militarism in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, pages 59-60.

Van Houte, Jacob.

Muste listed Van Houte around 1918 on a questionnaire under “profoundly impressed by what men?” (Muste, “Alumni Questionnaire”). Van Houte was a pastor in Holland, Michigan, where Muste went to high school and college.

Vernon, Ambrose White.

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Muste listed Vernon around 1918 on a questionnaire under “profoundly impressed by what men?” (Muste, “Alumni Questionnaire”). It is not clear in what context Muste knew (of) Vernon. He authored a number of books, some of which Muste could have read prior to 1918.

Wallace, Jessie. If We Should Be Invaded.

Muste cites If We Should Be Invaded as providing evidence that a nonviolent response to an invasion would be easier and more effective than a violent response (Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, 159-160).

Watkin, E.I. Article in Catholic Peacemaker (August 1945).

Muste quotes Watkin, an English Roman Catholic, who critiques the failure of Catholics to apply just war theory and argues that in the atomic age, no war could possibly be just (Not By Might, 174-175).

Werfel, Franz. Jeremiah: Hearken Unto the Voice.

Muste includes Jeremiah in the bibliography at the end of Non-Violence in an Aggressive World and mentions it on pages 24, 81. Note: different translations/editions may use either part of the title as the sole title.

Wiel, Simone. “The Illiad––or the Poem of Force.” Politics (November 1945).

Muste draws upon this essay multiple times and also praises its topic, Homer’s Illiad. See Not By Might 63, 71-72. Among the ideas Muste finds in this essay is the notion of that force can be defined as that which turns a person into a thing.

Wild, John. Plato’s Theory of Man.

Muste quotes Wild to the effect that democracy leads to tyranny and theocracy is the only solution (Not By Might, 95). See also Not By Might, pages 101, 103.

Williams, Daniel Day. God’s Grace and Man’s Hope.

Muste quotes Williams approvingly in “Pacifism and Perfectionism,” Essays, pages 313-314.

Whitehead, T.N. Leadership in a Free Society.

Muste quotes this book in Not By Might, page 69.

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Woodbridge, Frederick.

Woodbridge was a professor of Muste’s when he took courses at Columbia University while at New Brunswick Seminary. Muste said he was the one who made the “deepest impression” (Robinson, Abraham Went Out, 13).

Woolman, John.

Muste mentions Woolman in lists of famous pacifists in Non-Violence in an Aggressive World, pages 9, 81.

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Appendix 3: Books Assigned By Muste For a Course on the Church and Social Action

Note: These texts are included on the recommended reading list from a course titled “The Church and Social Action” that Muste taught at New Brunswick Theological Seminary. The reading list accompanies lecture notes from the Spring of 1944 in the Swarthmore Peace Collection, Papers of A.J. Muste, microfilm reel 89.3. The bibliography contains a few sources published in 1945 and may be from a later session of the class. The publisher information was, for the most part, not included by Muste and has been added.

A Message to the Churches from the National Study Conference on the Churches and a Just and Durable Peace (Cleveland Ohio January 16-19, 1945). New York: Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, 1945.

Alcoholics Anonymous. [No more publication information is given].

Anthony, Donald, et. al.. How Collective Bargaining Works: A Survey of Experience In Leading American Industries. New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1942.

Baillie, John. What Is Christian Civilization? New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1945.

Bainton, Roland H. “Churches and War: Historical Attitudes Toward Christian Participation: A Survey from Biblical Times to the Present Day.” Social Action 11, no. 1 (January 1945).

Bennet, John Coleman. Christianity and Our World. New York, NY: Association Press, 1943.

––––––. Social Salvation. 1941.

Chalmers, Mary M. The Home Beautiful: An Elective Course Suggested by Readings in Genesis and Exodus. Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1931.

Carpenter, J. Henry. Peace Through Co-Operation. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1944.

Dawber, Mark A. Rebuilding Rural America. New York: Friendship Press, 1937.

Dawson, Christopher. Religion and the Modern State. London: Sheed & Ward, 1935.

Dodd, C.H. History and the Gospel. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1938.

Ehrenström, Nils. Christian Faith and the Modern State: An Ecumenical Approach. London: Student Christian Movement Press, 1937.

Eliot, T. S. The Idea of a Christian Society. London: Faber and Faber, 1939.

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Emerson, Haven. Alcohol: Its Effects on Man. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1936.

Ferré, Nels Fredrick Solomon. The Christian Fellowship. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940.

Frank, Waldo David. The Jew in Our Day. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1944.

Gregg, Richard Bartlett. The Power of Nonviolence. Philadelphia: J.P. Lippincott, 1934.

Groves, Ernest Rutherford. Christianity and the Family. New York: Macmillan, 1942.

Haggard, Howard Wilcox, and E.M. Jellinek. Alcohol Explored. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1942.

Hearn, C. Aubrey. Alcohol the Destroyer. Nashville, TN: The Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1943.

Heering, Gerrit Jan. The Fall of Christianity; A Study of Christianity, the State and War. New York: Fellowship Publications, 1930.

Inter-Council Committee on Post-war Planning. Postwar Plans of National Interdenominational Agencies. New York: Friendship Press, 1944.

International Council of Religious Education. Social Pronouncements by Religious Bodies Affiliated with and Related to the International Council of Religious Education, 1930-1939: An Analysis. Chicago: International Council of Religious Education, 1939.

Interracial News Service. New York: Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. Periodical.

Issues in Agricultural Reconstruction: Information Service for March 5, 1943. New York: Federal Council of Churches, 1943.

Johnson, Charles S. A Preface to Racial Understanding. 1936.

Johnson, F. Ernest. The Christian Citizen and His Government. Nashville, TN: Department of Christian Education of Adults, Methodist Board of Education, [N.D.].

Kichelberger, G.N. United Nations Charter. New York: American Association for the United Nations, [N.D.].

King, Albion Roy. The Psychology of Drunkenness. Westerville, IA: World League against Alcoholism, 1931.

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Landis, Benson Young. A Cooperative Economy: A Study of Democratic Economic Movements. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1943.

––––––. American Rural Life, a Christian Concern: A Discussion Guide for Rural and Urban Groups and Churches. Philadelphia: Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, 1942.

––––––. Bethlehem and Rochdale: The Churches and Consumer Cooperation, 1884-1944. Chicago: Cooperative League of the U.S.A., 1944.

Landis, Benson Y., and James Myers. Christianity and Work: A Study Course in the Ethics of Occupations. New York: Industrial Relations Division, Department of Christian Social Relations, Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, [1946].

Landis, Benson Y., ed. Religion and the Good Society: An Introduction to the Social Teachings of Judaism, Catholicism and Protestantism. New York: National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1943.

Lasswell, Harold Dwight. World Politics Faces Economics: Committee for Economic Development Research Study: With Special Reference to the Future Relations of the United States and Russia. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1945.

Lee, Umphrey. The Historic Church and Modern Pacifism. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1943.

Logan, Rayford Whittingham. What the Negro Wants. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1944.

MacGregor, G.H.C. The New Testament Basis of Pacifism. New York: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1936.

Macintosh, Douglas Clyde. Social Religion. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1939.

Macmurray, John. The Clue to History. London: Student Christian Movement Press, 1938.

MacWilliams, Carey. Ill Fares the Land: Migrants and Migratory Labour in the United States. London: Faber and Faber, 1945.

McNeill, John T. Christian Hope for World Society. Chicago: Willett, Clark & Co., 1937.

Millis, Harry A. How Collective Bargaining Works. New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, 1942.

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Muste, Abraham Johannes. Non-Violence in an Aggressive World. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940.

Myers, James. Do You Know Labor? New York: John Day Co, 1944.

––––––. How Labor and the Church Can Work Together: Program Suggestions for Labor Representatives and Church Members in the Labor Union Movement. New York: Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, [194-].

––––––. Labor and Co-Ops. Chicago: Cooperative League of the U.S.A., 1943.

––––––. Techniques for Churchmen in Social Education. New York: Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, 1943.

––––––. The Christian Attitude Toward Labor: A Meditation for the Middle Class. New York: Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, 1945.

Postwar Employment of Women. New York: Women’s Division of Christian Service of the Board of Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Church, 1945.

“Preachers Under Pressure.” Social Action (June 1945).

Reading List of the Rural Church. New York: Committee on Town and Country, [N.D.].

Roser, Henri. Reflections of a Pastor in Occupied France. New York, NY: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1945.

Scott, R.B.Y., and Gregory Vlastos. Towards the Christian Revolution. Chicago: Willett, Clark & Co, 1936.

Sorokin, Pitirim Aleksandrovich. Man and Society in Calamity: The Effects of War, Revolution, Famine, Pestilence Upon Human Mind, Behavior, Social Organization and Cultural Life. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1942.

Sturne, Ron Inigi. “The Catholic Church and Christian Democracy.” Social Action 10, no. 5 (May 1944).

Temple, William. Christianity and Social Order. Harmondsworth: Middlesex, 1943.

“The Relation of the Church to the War in the Light of the Christian Faith.” Social Action 10, no. 10 (December 1944).

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The Social Ideals of the Churches for Agricultural and Rural Life. New York: Christian Rural Fellowship, [N.D.].

Tillich, Paul. The Interpretation of History. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1936.

Troeltsch, Ernst. The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches. London: Allen & Unwin, 1930.

United Christian Youth Movement. Christian Youth and the Economic Problem. Chicago: United Christian Youth Movement, 1944.

Urgent Tasks of the Church in Town and Country: A Report of the National Convocation on the Church in Town and Country, Elgin, Illinois, November 14-16, 1944. New York: Committee on Town and Country, Home Missions Council of North America, the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America and the International Council of Religious Education, 1944.

Visser ‘t Hooft, Willem Adolph, and Joseph Houldsworth Oldham. The Church and Its Function in Society. London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1937.

Visser ‘t Hooft, Willem Adolph, and Tilly Weinstock. The Struggle of the Dutch Church for the Maintenance of the Commandments of God in the Life of the State. London: S.C.M. Press, 1944.

Wieman, Regina Westcott. The Modern Family and the Church. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1937.

Wood, H. G, et. al. The Kingdom of God and History. Chicago: Willett, Clark & Co, 1938.

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