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New Moves
"In his theological memoir, J. Denny Weaver tells how his career as a theologian developed and led to his shaping a nonviolent understanding of Jesus' Atonement"--
The Nonviolent God
This bold new statement on the nonviolence of God challenges long-standing assumptions of divine violence in theology, the violent God pictured in the Old Testament, and the supposed violence of God in Revelation. In The Nonviolent God J. Denny Weaver argues that since God is revealed in Jesus, the nonviolence of Jesus most truly reflects the character of God. According to Weaver, the way Christians live -- Christian ethics -- is an ongoing expression of theology. Consequently, he suggests positive images of the reign of God made visible in the narrative of Jesus -- nonviolent practice, forgiveness and restorative justice, issues of racism and sexism, and more -- in order that Christians might live more peacefully.
God Without Violence, Second Edition
Playing off a child’s question concerning whether parents would put their son to death on a cross, this book plunges headlong into the ongoing debate about the character of God. The church confesses that God is revealed in Jesus. This book explores the implications of that radical claim. Jesus’ life reveals his rejection of violence and calls for an understanding of God in nonviolent terms. Weaver thus invites us to embrace a nonviolent atonement image, in contrast to our inherited atonement images. Deriving theology from the narrative of Jesus also leads Weaver into discussions about the very nature of theology, the character of the Bible, the divine violence in the Old Testament (as well as the purported divine violence in the book of Revelation), and a rethinking of historic Christology. Each of these discussions has implications for life today—for economics, forgiveness and restorative justice, violence, gender discrimination, racism, and more. This second, expanded edition of God Without Violence is an introduction to foundational issues of theology and ethics, suitable for church discussion groups and introductory college classes.
The Nonviolent Atonement
This challenging work explores the history of the Christian doctrine of atonement, exposing the intrinsically violent dimensions of the traditional, Anselmian satisfaction atonement view and offering instead a new, thoroughly nonviolent paradigm for understanding atonement based on narrative Christus Victor. The book develops a two-part argument. J. Denny Weaver first develops narrative Christus Victor as a comprehensive, nonviolent atonement motif. The other side of the discussion exposes the assumptions and the accommodation of violence in traditional atonement motifs. The first chapter lays out narrative Christus Victor as nonviolent atonement that reflects the entire biblical story, thou...
Dirk Philips, A Sixteenth-Century Dutch Anabaptist
The purpose of this book is to shed light on the thought of Dirk Philips, who was a Mennonite leader in the sixteenth century, and to argue that his various doctrines, including his Christology, ecclesiology, soteriology, and anthropology, are interrelated with his view of the visible church. This book explains that Dirk Philips’ view of the visible church is much closer to the ecclesiology of Augustine’s tradition rather than to the ecclesiology of the Donatists’ tradition. Although Dirk Philips had excellent theological abilities and he was a leader who made a significant contribution to the development of the Mennonites camp, he did not receive much attention in the study of Anabapt...
God Without Violence
Playing off a five-year-old boy's question concerning whether parents would put their son to death on a cross, this book plunges headlong into the ongoing debate about the character of God. Following the historic faith confession that God is revealed in Jesus, the book's first chapter sketches the life and teaching of Jesus. That life, which reveals Jesus' rejection of violence, calls for an understanding of God in nonviolent terms. Weaver thus invites us to embrace a nonviolent atonement image, which stands as a direct challenge to the inherited atonement images. Deriving theology from the narrative of Jesus also leads Weaver into discussions about the very nature of theology, the character...
The Work of Jesus Christ in Anabaptist Perspective
How should Anabaptists, Mennonites and other Christians think today about the saving work of God in Jesus' life, ministry, death, and resurrection? In this volume, 20 leading theologians, biblical scholars, historians of Anabaptism, pastors, and peacemaking practitioners offer their reflections. In addition, while engaging the thought of J. Denny Weaver, they ponder such questions as these and more: Should Jesus' atoning work be viewed as a sacrifice? Or is it better viewed through "narrative Christus Victor"--as a defeat of the powers of sin and death? The book "makes a significant contribution to vigorous scholarly discussions about the nonviolent reconciling ministry of Jesus and the church's responsibility to preach peace in all of the contexts of a twenty-first century global society," says Kim S. Phipps, President, Messiah College. And John D. Roth, prolific author and speaker on Mennonite topics and Professor of History, Goshen College, says this: "Diverse in their approach and argument, the essays gathered in this collection nonetheless sparkle with theological insights that are certain to inspire, challenge and provoke."
John Howard Yoder
This book argues that for John Howard Yoder both theology (in particular Christology) and ethics are expressions of the meaning of the narrative of Jesus. All such statements are relative to a particular context, which means that theology and ethics are always subject to reaching back to the narrative in order to restate the meaning in new and ever-changing contexts. This methodology is visible in Yoder's Preface to Theology, which has been little used in most treatments of Yoder's thought. Yoder has been characterized as standing on Nicene orthodoxy, criticized for rejecting Nicene orthodoxy, called heterodox, and designated a postmodern thinker to be interpreted in terms of other such thin...
Atonement, Justice, and Peace
In this substantial study Darrin W. Snyder Belousek offers a comprehensive and critical examination of penal substitution, the most widely accepted evangelical Protestant theory of atonement, and presents a biblically grounded, theologically orthodox alternative. Attending to all of the relevant biblical texts and engaging with the full spectrum of scholarship, Belousek systematically develops a biblical theory of atonement that centers on restorative -- rather than retributive -- justice. He also shows how Christian thinking on atonement correlates with major global concerns such as economic justice, capital punishment, "the war on terror," and ethnic and religious conflicts. Thorough and clearly structured, this book demonstrates how a return to biblical cruciformity can radically transform Christian mission, social justice, and peacemaking.
Atonement and Violence
Recent years have witnessed a series of books, articles, and lectures raising serious questions about the Christian doctrine of the Atonement. While coming from a variety of sources, the questions usually center around the central issue of atonement and violence. Doesn’t the Atonement promote the idea of violence on the part of God? If so, isn’t such violence incompatible with a God of love? Doesn’t this doctrine send the wrong signal, excusing and perhaps even promoting such things as child abuse? Is it time to abandon what has become an outmoded and harmful doctrine? The authors of this book claim that to abandon the Christian doctrine of the Atonement is to abandon the central witne...
