Christian Commitments to Political Nonviolence

Abstract

Should we as religious ethicists seek to understand what traditions other than our own or our own area of scholarship have to say about particular ethical issues as knowledge parallel to our own, or can we allow what we learn to make a difference in our own ethical positions? Writing from the perspective of Christian ethics, the author argues that we can indeed allow what we learn to inform Christian ethical evaluations and to shape ethical conclusions, with neighbor love and concern for the common good as grounds for doing this. Using forms of commitments to political nonviolence as a test case, the author first reviews major positions on war and peace ethics within Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and then explores how Jewish and Muslim ethical assessments can inform a choice between Christian absolute pacifism and practical pacifism.

Publisher

Wiley

Publication Date

9-1-2021

Publication Title

Journal of Religious Ethics

Department

Religion

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jore.12363

Keywords

Pacificism, Comparative religious ethics, Christian ethics, Muslim ethics, Jewish ethics, War and peace ethics

Language

English

Format

text

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