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Jesus Christ, Peacemaker: A New Theology of Peace
A new theology of peace that renders the just war theory near mute by making Jesus and his teachings the cornerstone of both theory and practice.
312 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 10, 2014
14 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
About the author
Terrence J. Rynne
5 books4 followersTerrence J. Rynne M.B.A., S.T.L., Ph.D.
Dr. Rynne is currently co-President of the Sally and Terry Rynne Foundation which is dedicated to peacemaking and the empowerment of women. The Foundation recently funded the launch of Marquette University’s Center for Peacemaking.
Previously Dr. Rynne was President of the Rynne Marketing Group, a nationally recognized health care marketing firm. Prior to founding the firm he was a hospital administrator at Lutheran General and Westlake Hospitals. He has served as a parish priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago, and as a faculty member of the Archdiocesan Seminary at Mundelein.
Dr. Rynne’s MBA is from Northwestern University and his PhD in theology is from Marquette University.
Dr. Rynne’s book, Gandhi and Jesus: The Saving Power of Nonviolence, was published in the Spring of 2008 by Orbis Books.
Dr. Rynne is currently co-President of the Sally and Terry Rynne Foundation which is dedicated to peacemaking and the empowerment of women. The Foundation recently funded the launch of Marquette University’s Center for Peacemaking.
Previously Dr. Rynne was President of the Rynne Marketing Group, a nationally recognized health care marketing firm. Prior to founding the firm he was a hospital administrator at Lutheran General and Westlake Hospitals. He has served as a parish priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago, and as a faculty member of the Archdiocesan Seminary at Mundelein.
Dr. Rynne’s MBA is from Northwestern University and his PhD in theology is from Marquette University.
Dr. Rynne’s book, Gandhi and Jesus: The Saving Power of Nonviolence, was published in the Spring of 2008 by Orbis Books.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 17, 2016
Aside from it being heretical and anti-Catholic, Rynne never gave solid examples of everyday peace making. He contradicted himself multiple times, and seemed to be a disciple of Gandhi rather than Jesus. The sarcastic comments I've written in the margins throughout the novel and my laughter at some Rynne's statements on account of their sheer ridiculousness were the only things which gave me enjoyment while reading this book.
September 22, 2014
We have here a readable book on the subject of the Gospel's witness to Jesus as a person of radical peace. Rynne surveys the Gospels to demonstrate that the teaching and practice of Jesus was consistently nonviolent. Attention is given to the historical and social setting of Jesus' time to show that the times were not conducive to peace. Rynne surveys the first three Christian centuries to show that nonviolence was the normal teaching of church leaders and that they took the pacifist stance of the Sermon on the Mount as normative for all Christians, not just for a spiritual elite. The so-called "just war" theory enters after Constantine through Ambrose & Augustine. The Just-War theory is examined and critiqued, primarily for its assumption that violence is the only way to deal with violence and the only way to protect people. Rynne makes a strong case for thte need for Christians today to develop nonviolent means of dealing with violence and uses Gandhi & King as examples of how it can be done practically. The current people who enter violent situations unarmed to help mediate disputes that Rynne mentions strike me as braver than people who go around with automatic weapons. An important book accessible to a wide range of readers.
February 9, 2017
I have been making my rounds through Protestant and Catholic authors who write on the topic of nonviolence in our current culture. I commend Rynne for taking on the task of seeking to construct a theological argument for Christians to practice active nonviolence in whatever society we find ourselves. There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus did indeed want all his Christians to be peacemakers in whatever profession they find themselves in (even a soldier!), but I think peacemaking looks different amongst all peoples and cultures, but I digress.
I wasn't particularly fond of this work. I tried to go in with an open mind, but I think Rynne goes into this book with a bad approach. His audience should be (likely) Catholics who do not have a problem with violence per se (in a limited sense), and that he wants to convince to take up the practice of nonviolence if it is indeed what Christ mandates. Yet, the language and approach from Rynne seems to be not aimed at people who might hold those opinions. For example, people who approve of Just War and the use of violence to maintain order most likely are far right conservatives who are Catholic. These Catholics might appreciate the traditional Catholic approach which does allow for violence to be used. They likely would have a traditional understanding of the development of just war theory and the Catholic stance on sacred tradition, natural law, and scripture and how that led to the development of JWT to begin with. So at the very outset of Rynne's book, he basically asks the reader to suspend their knowledge of natural law and to just read the bible on this subject. He has already lost that audience he needed to lure towards his argument by this point. A faithful Catholic is not going to buy suspending natural law to just read what the bible has to say on a topic, because if Jesus called someone to a moral stance like nonviolence, that moral stance would be apparent by natural law as well! So already Rynne's stance is not Catholic because he is calling for a scriptural approach over natural law, but the Catholic approach is always both/ and to scripture, tradition, natural law.
Rynne also keeps putting Imma next to Abba when he refers to God. While I get his point (God has motherly qualities as well as fatherly), the scriptures he has called us to focus on solely always refer to God only as Abba. So he is already adding concepts that he has discerned about God onto his understanding of scripture when he asked us not to do that ourselves. Also, this was another part that irritated me, was his discussion of the understanding of Christ as King. He seems to scoff a bit when having to even mention that Christ is King over his Kingdom on Heaven and Earth, but only because he doesn't like the political concept of monarchy. He tries to throw a Martin Luther King Jr. spin on it by referring to it as 'Kindom' as opposed to "Kingdom". Still, whether one likes it or not, the Kingdom that Jesus preaches about is not a democracy, it is a divine monarchy. Christ is ruler and sovereign over every land and over the entire spiritual realm. To try to minimize that or start to stumble over that concept shows that this work may not be entirely Catholic. That is truly what my problem was with this work. It seemed to be a better Protestant treatise on nonviolence than a Catholic one. Generally, this book did not do well to convince me of adopting the full nonviolent lifestyle Rynne desires. I do believe Christians should practice nonviolence, but to a certain extent. As Bishop Robert Barron said, quoting Cardinal George, "I want Catholic pascifists just like I want Catholic celibates. While it is good that many are called to that lifestyle, not everyone is called to it."
I wasn't particularly fond of this work. I tried to go in with an open mind, but I think Rynne goes into this book with a bad approach. His audience should be (likely) Catholics who do not have a problem with violence per se (in a limited sense), and that he wants to convince to take up the practice of nonviolence if it is indeed what Christ mandates. Yet, the language and approach from Rynne seems to be not aimed at people who might hold those opinions. For example, people who approve of Just War and the use of violence to maintain order most likely are far right conservatives who are Catholic. These Catholics might appreciate the traditional Catholic approach which does allow for violence to be used. They likely would have a traditional understanding of the development of just war theory and the Catholic stance on sacred tradition, natural law, and scripture and how that led to the development of JWT to begin with. So at the very outset of Rynne's book, he basically asks the reader to suspend their knowledge of natural law and to just read the bible on this subject. He has already lost that audience he needed to lure towards his argument by this point. A faithful Catholic is not going to buy suspending natural law to just read what the bible has to say on a topic, because if Jesus called someone to a moral stance like nonviolence, that moral stance would be apparent by natural law as well! So already Rynne's stance is not Catholic because he is calling for a scriptural approach over natural law, but the Catholic approach is always both/ and to scripture, tradition, natural law.
Rynne also keeps putting Imma next to Abba when he refers to God. While I get his point (God has motherly qualities as well as fatherly), the scriptures he has called us to focus on solely always refer to God only as Abba. So he is already adding concepts that he has discerned about God onto his understanding of scripture when he asked us not to do that ourselves. Also, this was another part that irritated me, was his discussion of the understanding of Christ as King. He seems to scoff a bit when having to even mention that Christ is King over his Kingdom on Heaven and Earth, but only because he doesn't like the political concept of monarchy. He tries to throw a Martin Luther King Jr. spin on it by referring to it as 'Kindom' as opposed to "Kingdom". Still, whether one likes it or not, the Kingdom that Jesus preaches about is not a democracy, it is a divine monarchy. Christ is ruler and sovereign over every land and over the entire spiritual realm. To try to minimize that or start to stumble over that concept shows that this work may not be entirely Catholic. That is truly what my problem was with this work. It seemed to be a better Protestant treatise on nonviolence than a Catholic one. Generally, this book did not do well to convince me of adopting the full nonviolent lifestyle Rynne desires. I do believe Christians should practice nonviolence, but to a certain extent. As Bishop Robert Barron said, quoting Cardinal George, "I want Catholic pascifists just like I want Catholic celibates. While it is good that many are called to that lifestyle, not everyone is called to it."
January 26, 2018
Absolutely superb. This book provides clear understanding of the meaning of peacemaker. The author makes distinct the words of the gospel that can be most definitively attributed to Christ and his call to ALL on earth to be peacemakers. It gives understanding to true nonviolence.
The text provides a clear understanding of when and why the church as an institution began to deviate from Christ's message and how we need to return to peacemaking in our families, neighborhoods, countries, church, and across cultures around the entire world. While many readers, including myself, can clearly see where we fall short as peacemakers, this book is uplifting in its guidance and direction to consciously living as a peacemaker. I give it my highest recommendation.
The text provides a clear understanding of when and why the church as an institution began to deviate from Christ's message and how we need to return to peacemaking in our families, neighborhoods, countries, church, and across cultures around the entire world. While many readers, including myself, can clearly see where we fall short as peacemakers, this book is uplifting in its guidance and direction to consciously living as a peacemaker. I give it my highest recommendation.
October 24, 2014
Having Catholic roots and a passion for peace I read this book as soon as it became available. I was overwhelmed by learning that Christ's basic message, Love Your Enemy, was actually practiced successfully for two or more centuries. Only with Augustine in the 4th century did the Just War Theory emerge as the Catholic Church's teaching. Terrence Rynne's comprehensive research establishes a foundation for a new theology of Nonviolence based totally on Christ's actual life and words.
October 24, 2014
A brilliant survey of the history of Catholic thought on nonviolent resistance. Brings pacifism into the mainstream by emphasizing that pacifists are not, or at least should not be, passive.
July 13, 2015
Scholarly yet readable. Grounded in Catholic-Christian history and also firmly set in modern scholarship
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews