Grimsrud asks what Christian theology would be like if it consistently took Jesus' central command to love God and neighbor as the most important consideration.

In A Pacifist Way of Knowing: John Howard Yoder's Nonviolent Epistemology, editors Christian Early and Ted Grimsrud gather the scattered writings of Yoder on the theme of the relationship between gospel, peace, and human ways of knowing. In them, they find the beginnings of a pacifist theology of knowledge that rejects strategies of empire while at the same time avoids a self-defeating relativism.

Description: Do ""eschatology"" and ""peace"" go together? Is eschatology mostly about retribution and fear--or compassion and hope? Compassionate Eschatology brings together a group of international scholars representing a wide range of Christian traditions to address these questions. Together they make the case that Christianity's teaching about the ""end times"" should and can center on Jesus's message of peace and reconciliation. Offering a peace-oriented reading of the Book of Revelation and other biblical materials relevant to Christian eschatology, this book breaks new ground in its...

For thirty years, Mennonite pastor and theologian Ted Grimsrud has sought to present the call to peacemaking in a series of short articles published in various settings. When read together, they convey a powerful and practical vision for biblically-based pacifism. The first section of the book collects articles on various topics related to Christian peace convictions published in church periodicals. The second section contains short meditations on a variety of biblical texts originally published in Mennonite Weekly Review. These meditations present the Bible as a book of peace. The third and...

Description: Do atonement theologies that focus on Jesus' death underwrite human violence? If so, we do well to rethink beliefs that this death is necessary to bring salvation. Focusing on the Bible's salvation story, Instead of Atonement argues for a logic of mercy to replace Christianity's traditional logic of retribution. The book traces the Bible's main salvation story through God's liberating acts, the testimony of the prophets, and Jesus's life and teaching. It then takes a closer look at Jesus's death and argues that his death gains its meaning when it exposes violence in the cultural,...

A Mennonite preacher and blogger gathers fifty short writings that present a powerful message of world transformation and healing inspired by Jesus' way of shalom.

This collection of essays makes the case that the Bible provides a strong basis for Christian pacifism. The seventeen essays here, written with academic rigor yet in an accessible style, span over thirty years of reflection and argumentation supporting a strong affirmation that nonviolence is at the heart of the biblical witness and should be at the heart of Christian theology.

A war is always a moral event. However, the most destructive war in human history has not received much moral scrutiny. The Good War That Wasn't--and Why It Matters examines the moral legacy of this war, especially for the United States. Drawing on the just war tradition and on moral values expressed in widely circulated statements of purpose for the war, the book asks: How did American participation in the war fit with just cause and just conduct criteria? Subsequently the book considers the impact of the war on American foreign policy in the years that followed. How did American actions...