Must Christianity Be Violent?

by Chase, Kenneth R.; Jacobs, Alan

• ISBN13: 9781556354335
• ISBN10: 1556354339
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-07-09
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Pub

Summary

The Crusades.The Conquest of the Americas.U.S. Slavery.The Jewish Holocaust.Mention of these events evokes a variety of responses from Christians, including guilt, defensiveness, and bewilderment. Given such a tangled historical relationship to aggression and injustice, how can Christians answer those who argue that our faith is inherently violent, or that Christian doctrines inevitably lead to sacrifice, conquest, and war? In Must Christianity Be Violent? editors Kenneth R. Chase and Alan Jacobs have gathered pointed essays that provide specific responses to these arguments. Divided into histories, practices, and theologies, the essays explore the historical causation of Christian violence and discuss practices that promote what one contributor calls just peacemaking. The contributors explore the history of Christian violence and advocate the need for an uncompromised biblical theology in our search for peace. This timely collection will appeal to readers of Christian history, ethics, and theology, and those who want to better understand the specifically Christian response to violence and cultivation of peace.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 7
Introduction: The Ethical Challenge	p. 9
Histories	p. 21
The First Crusade: Some Theological and Historical Context	p. 23
Violence of the Conquistadores and Prophetic Indignation	p. 37
Is God Violent? Theological Options in the Antislavery Movement	p. 50
Christians as Rescuers during the Holocaust	p. 69
Have Christians Done More Harm than Good?	p. 79
Practices	p. 95
Beyond Complicity: The Challenges for Christianity after the Holocaust	p. 97
How Should We Then Teach American History? A Perspective of Constructive Nonviolence	p. 107
Christian Discourse and the Humility of Peace	p. 119
Jesus and Just Peacemaking Theory	p. 135
Theologies	p. 157
Violence and the Atonement	p. 159
Explaining Christian Nonviolence: Notes for a Conversation with John Milbank	p. 172
Violence: Double Passivity	p. 183
Addendum: Testing Pacifism: Questions for John Milbank	p. 201
Christian Peace: A Conversation between Stanley Hauerwas and John Milbank	p. 207
Afterword	p. 224
Contributors	p. 236
Notes	p. 237
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