Search Results: non-violence
Christus Victor Atonement and Girard’s Scapegoat Theory
Category: General
Tags: Atonement, Character of God, Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology, Love, Rene Girard, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Christus Victor view of Atonement, Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
…of violence. For whenever God stooped to allow biblical authors to project their own violence onto him, imagining him to be a perpetrator of violence, God was being made a victim of violence, for he had to bear this sin. Imagine, if you can, the pain it must have caused…
IV Church History
…University Press, 2001) 3 Non-violence of the Early Church Note: These are works that make the case that, prior to the fourth century “Constantian Revolution” when the church first embraced the power of the State, the church generally taught that Christians are called to abstain from all violence. See…
Jesus and Nationalistic Violence
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Kingdom of God, Nationalism, Non-Violence, Peace
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
…Gospel serves as a sort of inauguration address, clearly reveals that Jesus did not buy into the Jewish nationalism and militarism of the Old Testament. Understood in its original historical setting, it becomes apparent that Jesus’ teaching on unconditional love and non-violence was nothing less than a repudiation of the…
OT Violence and Christian Behavior
Category: General
…and do good to our enemies (Mt.5:44-45; Lk 6:27-36). We’re to never retaliate or use violence in self-defense (e.g. Matt 5:38-39; Rom. 12:17-21; I Thess.5:15; I Pet 3:9 ). No where in the New Testament is this example or these teachings about non-violence ever qualified. No where do we find…
A Non-Violent Creation
Category: General
Tags: Creation, Non-Violence, Peace, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
A biblical teaching that we often overlook regarding the centrality of non-violence concerns God’s original vision of creation. We have grown so accustomed to the violence we experience as a part of nature that we don’t even question whether it is supposed to be the way it is. However when…
Endorsements for Crucifixion of the Warrior God
Category: General, Press
Tags: Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology
…violence of God in the Bible. But we have nothing like this study of Boyd who offers a major contribution and a significant advance in our thinking about the problem. Boyd brings his enormous erudition and his acute theological passion to the question. He looks the violence of God, as…
ReKnew Conference
…therefore shift their imitative impulses away from redemptive violence to redemptive nonviolence as a way to identify themselves and participate in God’s self-revelation through the death of Jesus. With 20 years of experience as a restorative justice mediator and trainer, Ted will integrate the power of Victim Offender Dialogue into…
Final Thoughts on Copan’s Critique of Crucifixion of the Warrior God
Category: General
Tags: Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology, Paul Copan
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
…a holy sacrifice to him. In short, even if we conceded that God sometimes resorts to the kinds of violence certain NT authors (allegedly) ascribe to him, we still would need to account for depictions of God commanding and engaging in the horrendous types of violence certain OT authors ascribe…
The Non-Violent Jesus Clothed in Violence
Category: General
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
…could be argued for non-violence. On the assumption that there is no incongruity between what God wills and God’s own eternal nature—viz. on the assumption that God isn’t a hypocrite—then the fact that Jesus’ example and teaching indicates that enemy-loving non-violence is central to what God wills must imply that…
Does Hebrews 11 Praise Violence? A Response to Paul Copan (#2)
Category: General
Tags: Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Non-Violence, Paul Copan
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
…crucified Christ reveals a God who is inherently non-violent and who calls on his people to abstain from violence. But before I turn to this passage, I’d like to make an important preliminary observation. Much of Copan’s paper is spent trying to demonstrate that neither Jesus nor the authors of…
A Critique of Eller’s Thesis
Category: General
…and redeem people. Violence is a tragic but necessary means to a loving, healing and redemptive end (e.g. 72-77). Moreover, Eller brilliantly highlights the fact that throughout the Old Testament God inspires prophets to paint a picture of the future in which violence will no longer be necessary. Still, Eller…
The Phinehas vs. Jesus Conundrum
Category: Essays
Tags: Cruciform Theology, Essay, Jesus, OT Violence, Phinehas, Violence
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
…this material contradicts the enemy-loving, non-violent attitude he commands us to have. As a number of concerned scholars have been saying, to remain silent about violence-inciting material is to condone it and to thus bear some responsibility for the violence it incites. Indeed, even Jesus renounced the Old Testament’s “eye…
Does Following Jesus Rule Out Serving in the Military if a War is Just?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Kingdom Living, Non-Violence, Q&A
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence, Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
…is adequate. For one thing, why should kingdom people assume that considerations of whether violence is “justified” or not have any relevance to whether a kingdom person engages in violence? Jesus is our Lord, not a human-constructed notion of justice. And neither Jesus nor any other New Testament author ever…
The Heresy of “Just War”
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Faith, Just War, Law, Non-Violence, Old Testament
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
…should not be applied to those who appeal to the violence of the OT as a positive precedent to justify engaging in violence. Not only is the violence of the OT intertwined with the law, but I would argue that Jesus’ self-sacrificial death on the cross reveals God’s non-violent character…
Could Old Testament Warriors Have Been Mistaken?
Category: General
…gets turned on each other (Adam on Eve, Cain on Abel, etc.). Eller brilliantly traces the escalation of violence throughout Genesis and the Old Testament. Human on human violence, then, is the result of our estrangement from God. More specifically, violence is rooted in our unwillingness to trust God for…
What’s “the Christian Position” on Whether or Not the U.S. Should Immediately Withdraw its Troops?
Category: General
…leaders to pull our troops out of the Iraq immediately. I have declined all offers. One leader in a peace organization recently wondered how I can preach non-violence and yet be unwilling to publicly urge an immediate troop withdrawal. I suspect she thought I was being inconsistent and cowardly. I…
What I – a Pacifist – Would say to Obama About the Crisis In Syria
Category: Essays
Tags: Current Events, Essay, Government, Just War, Non-Violence, Pacifism, Peace, The Sword, War
Topics: Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
…are supposed to embrace pacifism. Many people assume this, and I’ve found that the implausibility of this position is one of the main reasons some people reject pacifism. After giving talks about the kingdom call to unconditional non-violence, I’ve frequently received responses like: “Are you telling me our government should…
Early Anabaptists and the Centrality of Christ
Category: General
Tags: Anabaptists, Cruciform Theology, Menno Simons
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
…Christ with an unparalleled emphasis on the call to obey his teachings and follow his example. In addition, because Luther and Calvin remained within the Constantinian ecclesial paradigm, and thus assumed a just-war perspective on the use of violence, they failed to appreciate the centrality of the enemy-loving non-violence in…
Memorial Day
Category: Essays
Tags: Essay, Jesus, Kingdom Living, Non-Violence, Pacifism, Self-Sacrificial Love, Soldiers, War
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence, Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
…Friday. 4) The notion that we can “save the world” or “fix the world” through violence is the a lie that has fueled almost every war – and it has never, in the long run, worked. Every attempt to save or fix the world through violence simply ensures that violence…
A Conflicted Memorial Day
Category: General
…the long run, worked. Every attempt to save or fix the world through violence simply ensures that violence will raise its ugly head again in the near future. 5) The idea that we can and must “save the world” or “fix the world” through violence is predicated on a mistrust…