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| 20th Century Prophets and Theologians |
To learn more about alternatives to war, we can benefit from reviewing the experience and ideas of prominent individuals who led the way in the 20th century. We offer a sample drawn from liberation movements, parish churches, seminaries, and church hierarchy.
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Walter Rauschenbusch
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Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918) was a prominent leader of the social gospel movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States. Ordained in 1886, he served for 13 years as pastor of the Second German Baptist Church in "Hell's Kitchen" on the West Side in New York City. Living with persons mired in poverty, he saw first hand social and economic inequities of capitalism. He broadened his perspective by studying theology and economics at the University of Berlin and industrial relations in England in 1891-92. |
Rauschenbusch became professor of church history at Rochester Theological Seminary in 1902. From this base he presented his ideas in a series of influential books: Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Prayers for the Social Awakening (1910), Christianizing the Social Order (1912), The Social Principles of Jesus (1916), and A Theology for the Social Gospel (1917). The latter related the social gospel to traditional concerns of Christian theology: sin and evil, salvation, conception of God, baptism, the Lord's Supper, atonement, the Holy Spirit, Kingdom of God, eschatology.
Rauschsenbusch focused particularly on social and economic injustice and did not delve deeply into issues of war and peace. However, Prayers for the Social Awakening contain a passionate prayer "Against War" and an eloquent, still relevant prayer "For the Church." Read these two prayers.
Rauschenbush's Influence
by Martin Luther King, Jr.
(Recalling his days at Crozer Theological Seminary, 1948)
I came early to Walter Rauschenbusch's Christianity and the Social Crisis, which left an indelible imprint on my thinking by giving me a theological basis for the social concern which had already grown up in me as a result of my early experiences. Of course there were points at which I differed with Rauschenbusch. I felt that he had fallen victim to the nineteenth century "cult of inevitable progress" which led him to a superficial optimism concerning man's nature. Moreover, he came perilously close to identifying the Kingdom of God with a particular social and economic system–a tendency which should never befall the Church.
But in spite of these shortcomings Rauschenbusch had done a great service for the Christian Church by insisting that the gospel deals with the whole man, not only his soul but his body; not only his spiritual well-being but his material well-being. It has been my conviction ever since reading Rauschenbusch that any religion which professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the social and economic conditions that scar the soul, is a spiritually moribund religion only waiting for the day to be buried. It well has been said: "A religion that ends with the individual, ends."
From "My Pilgrimage to Nonviolence"
Also see:
Paul Minus Walter Rauschenbusch: American Reformer (Macmillan, 1988)
Max L. Stackhouse, Rauschenbusch Today: The Legacy of a Loving Prophet (1989)
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Mohandas K. Gandhi
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Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) developed techniques of nonviolence first in South Africa (1893-1915) in opposing discrimination against persons from India, and then in India (1915 -1946) in the quest for independence from Great Britain. He called his method satyagraha (soul force).
Gandhi was deeply influenced by the Bhagavad Gita from the Hindu epic Mahabharata, the Sermon on the Mount, and writings of Leo Tolstoy, who in turned was inspired by Jesus' teachings. Gandhi was an important influence on Martin Luther King, Jr., who was a champion of nonviolence in the U.S. civil rights movement. |
A Biography of Mahatma Gandi
Chronology: The Life of Mahatma Gandhi
Non-Violence–The Greatest Force
M. K. Gandhi (1926)
Non-violence is the greatest force man has been endowed with. Truth is the only goal he has. For God is none other than Truth. But Truth cannot be, never will be reached except through non-violence.
Read more....
Nonviolence -- The Only Hope
by Arun Gandhi
It is difficult to reconcile Gandhian thought with the modern theory that nonviolence is simply a strategy of convenience. In the words of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi nonviolence "is not a coat that you can wear today and take off tomorrow."....For Gandhi living nonviolence was a practical necessity. Unless one lives it, one cannot practice nonviolence....
Read more....
M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
This Institute was founded in 1991 by the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Arun Gandhi, and his wife, Sunanda, to teach nonviolence and create a network of organizations dedicated to nonviolence worldwide. Among resources on its web-based library are the following:
Fasts: A Chronology of Mahatma Gandhi's Fasts & His Reasons
Gandhi's Words - Quotations
Gandhi's Peace Prayers
Grandfather Gandhi: Peace Was His Way - Arun Gandhi recalls how his grandfather comforted him after Arun was beaten by whites in South Africa.
Another source:
Comprehensive Site by Gandhian Institute Bombay Savrodaya Mandal
The Experiments of Gandhi: Nonviolence in the Nuclear Age
by John Dear (1988)
What has become of Gandhi's experiments in truth, his rediscovery of nonviolence as the personal and public method for positive social change? What does Gandhi's nonviolent resistance and truth force mean for North Americans, forty years after his death?
Read more....
Reflections on the Fiftieth Anniversary of Gandhi's Assassination
by Mairead Maguire (1998)
Gandhi realized that the spirit of nonviolence begins within us and moves out from there. The life of active nonviolence is the fruit of an inner peace and spiritual unity already realized in us, and not the other way around. I have come to believe, with Gandhi, that through our own personal, inner conversion, our own inner peace, we are sensitized to care for God, ourselves, each other, for the poor, and for our world. Then we can become true servants of peace in the world. Herein lies the power of nonviolence.
Read more....
Also see:
John Dear, editor, Mohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings. 2002.
Richard Deats, Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Liberator. New City Press, 2005.
Vinay Lal, Gandhi -- A Select Bibliographic Guide
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Muriel Lester
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Muriel Lester (1883 - 1968): Ambassador of Reconciliation
by Michael L. Westmoreland-White
Muriel Lester, once one of the world's most famous Christian pacifists, is today little known. This deserves correction since Lester has been positively compared to both Dorothy Day and Jane Addams in her work for the poor and for peace.
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As far as I can determine, she never participated in a campaign of active nonviolence personally, but she was a key link in the convergence of several movements: the mystical Christian pacifism of Tolstoy, the pragmatic peacebuilding of the early 20th C. labor and feminist movements, the "liberal" pacifism of mainstream non-sectarian Protestantism between the 2 World Wars, and Gandhian satyagraha or active nonviolent direct action. Since Lester, like Day, was a witness to Christian pacifism through the very difficult days of World War II, her story deserves recovery for us, today.
Read more....
No Moratorium on the Sermon on the Mount
Remembering Muriel Lester
by Richard L. Deats
The job of the peacemaker is "to stop war, to purify the world, to get it saved from poverty and riches ... to heal the sick, to comfort the sad, to wake up those who have not yet found God, to create joy and beauty wherever you go, to find God in everything and in everyone." I heard Muriel Lester say this when I was a senior at McMurray College in Texas in 1951. In a campus-wide address, this perky Englishwoman went on to say a number of uncommon things as she examined the Cold War from the vantage point of the Kingdom of God.
Read more.... |
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