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Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices For Abolishing War
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216 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1992
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About the author
Glen H. Stassen
17 books10 followersGlen Harold Stassen was a Southern Baptist theologian who helped define the social-justice wing of the evangelical movement in the 1980s and played a role in advancing nuclear disarmament talks toward the end of the Cold War.
Stassen studied nuclear physics at the University of Virginia and worked briefly in a naval laboratory after graduation before deciding that he could not contribute to the development of nuclear weapons. He quit to attend Union Theological Seminary in New York City and received his doctorate from the Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C., in 1967.
He taught at Kentucky Southern College (now part of the University of Louisville) and Berea College in Kentucky before joining Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. There, Dr. Stassen clashed with administrators who urged faculty members to place ideas like prohibiting abortion, the subordination of women in the family and the literal truth of biblical texts at the core of their teaching.
More than personal rectitude and obedience to rules of behavior, Dr. Stassen argued, Christian ethics demanded organized action to save the world from self-destruction.
“Christians need more than an ethic of ‘just say no,’ ” he wrote. “Jesus didn’t just say no to anger and revengeful resistance, but commanded transforming initiatives: ‘Go make peace with your brother or sister; go the second mile with the Roman soldier.’ ”
What Christians needed, he said, was “an ethic of constructive peacemaking.”
Dr. Stassen championed a pragmatic approach to social justice and world peace. In a series of books beginning in 1992, he outlined a program of grass-roots activism to reduce military spending, improve the lives of the disadvantaged and give citizens a voice in international conflict resolution.
Dr. Stassen’s version of political activism in the 1980s and ’90s put him at odds with leaders of the religious right, who were focusing on opposing abortion and gay rights.
Dr. Stassen was among the few prominent evangelical leaders to publicly challenge the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the leader of the Moral Majority, over his electioneering on behalf of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaigns in 1980 and 1984. And he was among the few to criticize Reagan over his domestic spending cuts, his military buildup and his use of the phrase “evil empire” in 1983 to describe the Soviet Union.
He went on to help mobilize the international disarmament movement that, by some accounts, played a role in removing intermediate range nuclear missiles from Western Europe in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
Theologians had long wrestled with the Christian response to war, and whether it was ever morally justified to kill. Two schools of thought had emerged: pacifism, which said it was never justified, and “just war” theory, which described circumstances in which killing in war was morally defensible. Dr. Stassen advocated what he called a third option: preventing wars from starting in the first place.
In Just Peacemaking: Transforming Initiatives of Justice and Peace (1992) and a dozen other books on nonviolence and conflict resolution, Dr. Stassen described techniques for hard-nosed negotiating in which both parties admit culpability for past deeds, take a clearheaded measure of the interests of the other side and sometimes make calculated unilateral initiatives.
“Biblical realism,” as he described the mind-set for negotiations like these, “is about diagnosing sin realistically and seeking deliverance, not merely about affirming some high ideals.”
- summarised/edited from The New York Times Obituary
Stassen studied nuclear physics at the University of Virginia and worked briefly in a naval laboratory after graduation before deciding that he could not contribute to the development of nuclear weapons. He quit to attend Union Theological Seminary in New York City and received his doctorate from the Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C., in 1967.
He taught at Kentucky Southern College (now part of the University of Louisville) and Berea College in Kentucky before joining Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. There, Dr. Stassen clashed with administrators who urged faculty members to place ideas like prohibiting abortion, the subordination of women in the family and the literal truth of biblical texts at the core of their teaching.
More than personal rectitude and obedience to rules of behavior, Dr. Stassen argued, Christian ethics demanded organized action to save the world from self-destruction.
“Christians need more than an ethic of ‘just say no,’ ” he wrote. “Jesus didn’t just say no to anger and revengeful resistance, but commanded transforming initiatives: ‘Go make peace with your brother or sister; go the second mile with the Roman soldier.’ ”
What Christians needed, he said, was “an ethic of constructive peacemaking.”
Dr. Stassen championed a pragmatic approach to social justice and world peace. In a series of books beginning in 1992, he outlined a program of grass-roots activism to reduce military spending, improve the lives of the disadvantaged and give citizens a voice in international conflict resolution.
Dr. Stassen’s version of political activism in the 1980s and ’90s put him at odds with leaders of the religious right, who were focusing on opposing abortion and gay rights.
Dr. Stassen was among the few prominent evangelical leaders to publicly challenge the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the leader of the Moral Majority, over his electioneering on behalf of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaigns in 1980 and 1984. And he was among the few to criticize Reagan over his domestic spending cuts, his military buildup and his use of the phrase “evil empire” in 1983 to describe the Soviet Union.
He went on to help mobilize the international disarmament movement that, by some accounts, played a role in removing intermediate range nuclear missiles from Western Europe in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
Theologians had long wrestled with the Christian response to war, and whether it was ever morally justified to kill. Two schools of thought had emerged: pacifism, which said it was never justified, and “just war” theory, which described circumstances in which killing in war was morally defensible. Dr. Stassen advocated what he called a third option: preventing wars from starting in the first place.
In Just Peacemaking: Transforming Initiatives of Justice and Peace (1992) and a dozen other books on nonviolence and conflict resolution, Dr. Stassen described techniques for hard-nosed negotiating in which both parties admit culpability for past deeds, take a clearheaded measure of the interests of the other side and sometimes make calculated unilateral initiatives.
“Biblical realism,” as he described the mind-set for negotiations like these, “is about diagnosing sin realistically and seeking deliverance, not merely about affirming some high ideals.”
- summarised/edited from The New York Times Obituary
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 16, 2019
Published in 1992, this book is now most useful as a historical look at the Peace Movement in the late 80s. The sense of optimism that Stassen conveys has certainly been altered by the events of 9/11 and the subsequent "War on Terror" as well as the foreign policy disasters of the Trump years. It's also a useful component of Stassen's own evolution as a theorist of peacemaking.
Rev. Dr. Glen Stassen was one of my professors at Southern Seminary and a co-congregant at Crescent Hill Baptist Church. He was an inventive thinker, a fine teacher and a good, if quirky, man. His presence on the scene of Baptist and Christian ethics and foreign policy thinking is missed.
Rev. Dr. Glen Stassen was one of my professors at Southern Seminary and a co-congregant at Crescent Hill Baptist Church. He was an inventive thinker, a fine teacher and a good, if quirky, man. His presence on the scene of Baptist and Christian ethics and foreign policy thinking is missed.
200-299-religion
November 4, 2019261.873
June 19, 2011
This book was written in the late 80s/early 90s. The idea iof the book is that there are always peaceful ways to resolve conflict whether that be between two individuals or two nations. Written by one of the founders of the "just peacemaking' movement he goes into detail outlining the call by Jesus to avoid bloodshed at any cost. He relates how the Gulf War spiraled due to inability of both the UN/US and Iraq to affirm each other's interests (not just economic) and how these simple conversation SNAFUs turned into the invasion of Kuwait and the invasion by the US after.
It's a good book. Pretty dry but it's written by a more academic person so not too surprising. wirth reading for sure.
It's a good book. Pretty dry but it's written by a more academic person so not too surprising. wirth reading for sure.
May 30, 2013
This is a unique approach to conflict. Much needed in today's chaotic world. The concept is fairly new and the support for it has been growing. This is a must read.
It contains a collection of pieces written by a variety of authors who have worked through this process together. Each addresses a different point of emphasis in the theory. They use clear examples where the use of each point would have been valuable in international politics. They are objective about the weaknesses of each point also.
Objective, useful and worth the time and money.
It contains a collection of pieces written by a variety of authors who have worked through this process together. Each addresses a different point of emphasis in the theory. They use clear examples where the use of each point would have been valuable in international politics. They are objective about the weaknesses of each point also.
Objective, useful and worth the time and money.
February 19, 2010
I wasn't too impressed by this, except for chapters 1, 2, 3, and most of 6. Stassen is a biblical scholar, and he excels in explaining the Sermon on the Mount and it's guidance for peacemaking. In addition, chapter 6 does a nice job explaining the origins of human rights language in the 17th century radical Baptist Richard Overton (one of the "Levellers"). These chapters were worth the price of the book.
September 16, 2012
I find John Howard Yoder to be one of my hero's, I found Glen Stassen to be also. He's a refreshing voice for transforming initiatives for justice and peace. I would have liked him to spend a few pages elaborating on what he would sees is a Christians role after war has begun. Perhaps that is for another book? But, as he states, whether or not you are a pacifist, a just war theorist or other, I think we can all work in the areas of just peacemaking. Brilliant.
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August 9, 2017Just War theory is reactive. Pacifism tends to passivism. "Just Peacemaking" is a third paradigm, necessary for the prevention of war. The ten practices listed in this book, the authors claim, are empirically supported by history.
I'm not giving a rating, because I haven't read it, only skimmed its table of contents and read parts of the Introduction. But I like what I read and recommend it.
I'm not giving a rating, because I haven't read it, only skimmed its table of contents and read parts of the Introduction. But I like what I read and recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews