Gospel Nonviolence in Various Christian Traditions

Alexander, Paul.  Peace to War: Shifting Allegiances in the Assemblies of God. Foreword by Glen H. Stassen.  Cascadia, 2009.  I have this on order. It’s a revision of the author’s Ph.D. dissertation (which convinced him that his early Pentecostal forebears were right about pacifism) and I have seen excerpts published as articles in journals. The author is one of the founders of the Pentecostal and Charismatic Peace Fellowship.

Bainton, Roland.  Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace:  A Historical Survey and Critical Re-Evaluation.  Reprint.  Wipf and Stock, 2008. Originally published in the 1960s, this is a classic study of the three major forms of Christian thought about war and peace: pacifism, just war theory, and crusade or holy war theology.

Beaman, Jay.  Pentecostal Pacifism.  Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies, 1989.

Butigan, Ken. Franciscan Nonviolence:  Stories, Reflections, Principles, Practices,  and Resources.  Pace e Bene, 2004.

Bush, Perry.  Two Kingdoms, Two Loyalties:  Mennonite Pacifism in Modern America.  Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.

Cahill,  Lisa Sowle.  Love Your Enemies:  Discipleship, Pacifism,  and Just War Theory.  Fortress Press, 1994.  This historical survey shows that Christian pacifism and Just War Theory are rooted in two very different concepts of Christian discipleship (the Christian life) and that each of them comes is two main forms as well.

Carpenter, Alvin Leon.  From Missionary to Mercenary:  How the Church Went from Pacifism to Militancy and Why it Should Return.  iUniverse,  Inc., 2005. Haven’t read this yet.

Dekar, Paul R.  Creating the Beloved Community:  A Journey with the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Cascadia,  2003.

Dekar, Paul R.  For the Healing of the Nations:  Baptist Peacemakers.  Preface by Nancy Hastings Sehested. Foreword by Martin E. Marty.  Smyth and Helwys Press, 1993.

Gros, Geoffrey and John D. Rempel, eds.  The Fragmentation of the Church and its Unity in Peacemaking.  Eerdmans, 2001.  Sadly, this peaceful ecumenism was fragile and shattered by 9/11.

Hill, Johnny Bernard.  The Theology of Martin Luther King,  Jr. and Desmond Mpilo Tutu.  Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Hornus, Jean-Michel.  It is Not Lawful for Me to Fight:  Early Christian Attitudes Toward War, Violence, and the State. Eerdmans, 1980.

Johnson, Nicole L.  Practicing Discipleship:  Lived Theologies of Nonviolence in Conversation with the Doctrine of the United Methodist Church.  Pickwick Publications, 2009.

Kleiment, Anne and Dorothy Roberts, eds., American Catholic Pacifism:  The Influence of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement.  Praeger, 1996.

K’Meyer, Tracy Elaine.  Interracialism and Christian Community in the Postwar South:  The Story of Koinonia Farm.  University of Virginia Press, 2000.

D. Stephen Long.  Living the Discipline;  United Methodist Theological Reflections on War, Civilization, and Holiness.  Eerdmans, 1992.

Musto, G. Stephen.  The Catholic Peace Tradition.  Peace Books, 2008.

Nolt, Stephen.  A History of the Amish.  Rev. and Exp. Good Books, 1969.

Nuttall, Geoffrey.  Christian Pacifism in History.  World Without War Publications, 1971. Out of print. This is a classic that reprint publishers like Wipf and Stock need to re-publish.

Ross, Thomas Bender and Alan P.F. Sell.  Baptism, Peace, and the State in Reformed and Mennonite Traditions.  Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1991.

Sampson, Cynthia and John Paul Lederach.  From the Ground Up:  Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding.  Oxford University Press, 2000.

Schlabach, Theron F. and Richard T. Hughes, eds.  Proclaim Peace: Christian Pacifism from Unexpected Quarters.  University of Illinois Press, 1997. Hidden histories.  Chapters include pacifism as a minority strand of U.S. patriotism, 3 chapters on different strands of pacifism in the early years of Pentecostalism, Churches of Christ (one strand of the Stone-Campbell tradition), the (non-Pentecostal) Church of God, pacifism among Seventh-Day Adventists and early Mormons, Liberal Methodist pacifism between the World Wars and during the Vietnam era, the minority strand of American Catholic pacifism, and the tension between Just War thinking, active peacemaking, and blind nationalism in the Christian Reformed Church.

Stein, Stephen J.  The Shaker Experience in America:  A History of the United Society of Believers. Yale University Press, 1994.

Watt, Craig M.  Disciple of Peace:  Alexander Campbell on Pacifism, Violence, and the State.  Doulos Kristou, 2005.

Weddle, Meredith Baldwin.  Walking in the Way of Peace:  Quaker Pacifism in the Seventeenth Century.  Oxford University Press, 2001.

White, C. Dale.  Making a Just Peace:  Human Rights and Domination Systems.  Abingdon Press, 1989. The author is a retired United Methodist bishop.

Yoder, John Howard.  Christian Attitudes Toward War, Peace, and Revolution.  Ed. Theodore J. Koontz and Andy Alexis-Baker.  Brazos Press, 2009.  Published posthumously, this “companion to Bainton” was compiled by Yoder for his course by the same title and circulated informally for many years.

Yoder, John Howard.  Nevertheless:  The Varieties of Religious Pacifism.  Rev. and Exp. Ed.  Herald Press, 1992. Originally published, 1971.