Christian Peace and Nonviolence

Long (religious studies & peace & conflict studies, Elizabethtown Coll.) has created a crisply edited and inclusive collection that demonstrates the coherence and richness of nonviolence in the history of Christian thought. Taken together, the 116 examples of essays, scripture, and poetry convey a sense of aesthetic expression, moral clarity, and intellectual vitality that parallels the history of Christianity. Nonviolence is a concept explored here from the apology of the second-century theologian Tertullian through the Reformation leader Jakob Hutter and 20th-century pacifist A. J. Muste. The latter's "Open Letter to Reinhold Niebuhr" recalls that the debate about nonviolence has been within both the Church and larger society. Less-known selections emerge, such as the 1813 essay of David Dodge, founder of the New York Peace Society. Well-known pacifist thinkers, for example, Lev Tolstoy, are well represented. Long's notes about each author provide valuable context for his selections.