We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

The Myth of Redemptive Violence
Check out Shane Claiborne’s excellent piece on the problem of violence posted yesterday on Huffington Post. Money quote:
“Christian theologians have said Jesus teaches a ‘third way’ to interact with evil. We see a Jesus who abhors both passivity and violence and teaches us a new way forward that is neither submission nor assault, neither fight nor flight. He shows us a way to oppose evil without mirroring it, where oppressors can be resisted without being emulated and neutralized without being destroyed.”
If you’re interested in exploring this subject further, Greg has also written some articles and Q&As on the subject of Christian non-violence.
Category: General
Tags: Non-Violence
Related Reading

Is Having the “Right” Theology the Core of Christianity?
Last week, we posted a piece by Greg that challenges the practice being violent “in the name of Jesus” toward others who err theologically. (Click here to read this post.) Being that this piece got a lot of attention, we thought it worthwhile to provide some further explication to this point, especially in the light…

Is the Jesus of Revelation Wrathful?
In the second coming of Jesus, will he turn with wrath? Will he come as a roaring lion, ready to put on his display all of his anger, power, and might? What does the Jesus revealed in Revelation look like? This is a short clip that addresses these questions. If you want to watch the…

Does the Old Testament Justify “Just War”?
Since the time of Augustine, Christians have consistently appealed to the violent strand of the Old Testament to justify waging wars when they believed their cause was “just.” (This is Augustine’s famous “just war” theory.) Two things may be said about this. First, the appeal to the OT to justify Christians fighting in “just” wars…

Is Non-Violence a Key to Christian Discipleship?
For the first three centuries of the church, Christians understood that forgoing the use of violence and expressing God’s self-sacrificial love was central to discipleship. However, this mindset changed after the Church acquired power in the fourth century. Entire theological systems have been developed to support the use of coercive power. However, contrary to that…

Washing Osama’s Feet – blog post 8/28/07
(This post was written by Greg on Sunday, October 28, 2007. It was such a controversial entry that he had to write a follow-up post which you can read here) Brad Cole is a friend of mine who runs a ministry called Heavenly Sanctuary. This ministry puts on Conferences around the country on the Character…

An Author Repents
In 1969, 19 year old William Powell wrote the now classic The Anarchist Cookbook. He was very angry at the time that the US military was pursuing him to fight in the Vietnam War. It’s basically a “how-to” book on surviving a violent government action against its own citizens. Today William is on a very…