Five books on peace: add them to your Just Read tradition

Diverse as writings on the theology of peace often become, here are five approaches that provoke deeper engagement in Christian peace building.

Beyond the Law: Living the Sermon on the Mount Philip Clemens. Herald Press, 2007. 223 pages.

The tragedy of September 11, 2001 drove Philip Clemens – a Mennonite pastor and musician – back to a close reading of the Sermon on the Mount, which resulted in what he terms a “pastoral meditation” on themes of righteousness, community, and blessing. Clemens uses effective analogies, stories and illustrations, and also includes discussion guides at the close of each chapter, making Beyond the Law a useful book for sermon preparation, small group studies, and spiritual reading.

Blessed are the Pacifists: The Beatitudes and Just War Theory Thomas Trzyna. Herald Press, 2006. 136 pages.

In his little book Blessed are the Pacifists, Quaker professor of English Thomas Trzyna draws on far different sensibilities while considering the competing claims of the just war tradition and the Beatitudes. These differences bring a welcome freshness to his treatment of the Beatitudes as a “pacifist manual.” The book seems problematic on several fronts. Trzyna uses the Beatitudes as a strategy for doing what just war theory cannot do, insisting that these should be read as a move from principle to application to consequence. Nevertheless, his emphasis on peace as a way of life that can only be found over generations rather than by quick action is well taken.

Seeking Peace in Africa: Stories From African Peacemakers Donald Miller, Scott Holland, Lon Fendall, and Dean Johnson, eds. Cascadia Publishing House, 2007. 245 pages.

This collection of stories makes for engaging work, since it consists primarily of brief accessible pieces written by Africans about Africa. This book comes out of the ongoing work of the World Council of Churches’ “Decade to Overcome Violence,” and seeks specifically to counter “Afro-pessimism” with stories of ordinary Christians on Africa’s peace heritage. These non-theoretical grassroots accounts of hope, grace, and peace are unconventional and worthy of more reflection on the part of us foreigners who think we can figure out what to do for other continents.

Practicing the Politics of Jesus: The Origin and Significance of John Howard Yoder’s Social Ethics Earl Zimmerman. Cascadia Publishing House, 2007. 273 pages.

The amount of research and writing published on Yoder is growing exponentially, making it increasingly difficult to keep up, and in some cases to remain interested. However, I found myself drawn in by Zimmerman’s close reading of Yoder’s groundbreaking work, thanks to extensive archival materials now available to scholars.

This impressive work brings to view those people, factors, forces, and ideas that shaped Yoder, especially in The Politics of Jesus. Here we are shown the American Mennonite scene, the post-war European world where Yoder served with Mennonite Central Committee, the intellectual influence of Karl Barth and Oscar Cullman, and the importance of Yoder’s historical research in his doctoral work that was to have such a deep impact on his theology. This book is surely one of the most insightful secondary sources on Yoder and the main emphases of his social ethics.

A Precarious Peace: Yoderian Explorations on Theology, Knowledge, and Identity Chris Huebner. Herald Press, 2006. 250 pages.

Chris Huebner, professor of theology, philosophy, and ethics at Canadian Mennonite University, draws the reader in quite a different direction. Huebner engages in “Yoderian” (yes, that’s now a word) explorations of theology, knowledge, and identity by copying the master’s style through broad engagements with contemporary philosophy, theology, and social theory. This makes for demanding reading.

Huebner’s overarching concern is to unsettle or complexify precisely those notions that are prematurely or illegitimately settled in the minds of Christians in the wider church. He is especially concerned to call peace churches to continually question the very notions of peace that they hold dear, since to consider such notions as settled may itself be violent – an attempt to control people and events. By doing so, he helps us rethink tightly held notions of martyrdom, the nature of violence, ecumenism, and identity. All of this makes for a certain level of discomfort in reading this book, which I take to be the point.

While there is room here for additional engagement with biblical material and sources within the Christian tradition, the importance of this kind of work should not be underestimated, since it is often the areas in which we are most confident that we need the most reconsideration. Huebner motivates just that kind of discernment that, if heeded with care, could prevent smug triumphalism, the truncated self-righteousness of moralism, and the self-deceptive confidence that shuts off new possibilities of faithful discipleship.

Paul Doerksen is a high school teacher at Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute in Winnipeg, and recently completed a PhD on a critical comparison of theologians J.H. Yoder and evangelical Anglican Oliver O’Donovan.