Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way (Facets)

Purchased the book to get the context of the time when Christ was teaching to ‘turn the other cheek’, ‘someone asks for a mile go with them Twain’ and give them to your coat and your cloak also. Christ’s way isn’t just submission, there’s ways to challenge non violently that work and can make a difference, but they are far more creative than the fight or flight alternatives

To help change me.

The Powers that Be is my favorite Walter Wink book. This consolidates the best gleanings from that book to explain what Jesus meant when he said: "turn the other cheek", "if he asks you to walk a mile, walk another", "if a man asks you for your cloak, give him your coat also". Insightful study on first century Jewish/Roman culture and the path to non violent resistence. For those who had no power, slaves and poor, this was a way to use the system against itself and be empowered. I love this Jesus. He is my hero. We could learn a lot from this teaching even today. Great preaching/teaching material.

This book delighted me! It was insightful, and full of historical explanations that clarified Jesus' teachings about nonviolence. It also had plenty of references to recent examples of non-violence to evil by force being successfully used to defeat oppressive regimes. It lost one star because some of his writing was poor, and some of his lines of logic needed to be fleshed out better. However, it got four stars for compiling loads of resources and anecdotes into one place and making it bite-sized. I'll definitely be reading this again.

Walter Wink here gives a fine overview and simplification of his thinking on the topic of nonviolence as presented in his various scholarly studies of the New Testament topics of the principalities and powers and the Son of Man. It gives new life to turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, and love of enemies. It is especially appropriate for classes and small groups of laypeople who have only an elementary background in biblical studies. For heartier fare on this issue that is at the heart of Christian faith and life one may turn to Wink's trilogy on The Powers. For comparable or related works I highly recommend John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus and William T. Cavanaugh, Torture and the Eucharist. One lack in this little monograph is that Wink doesn't mention the work of René Girard on desire and violence, although he has taken note of it in The Powers.

The most dangerous Christian idea that almost no Christian denomination will talk about, even though it was central to Jesus’ life.

This book was first introduced to me through a Wilmington College (Ohio) class on Quakerism and the Peace Testimony. It affirmed my beliefs that we have no right to kill other people, no matter what. Jesus was a radical, and understanding the context of his teachings help to make them clearer to our culture today. As a Christian (and now following the Quaker testimonies), I don't understand how someone who believes Jesus is Christ can kill another human being, when he states that we are to "love (respect) our enemies." This little book shows how nonviolent revolutions solve political problems in the long run, much more often than violent ones do, yet people still believe that nonviolence in passive and cowardly. This is a book that every Christian should read.

Christians who have more faith in their country’s militaries than their god should read this. This book serves as a really good starting point for folks looking beyond violence (however necessary we think it is sometimes) for protection, on the personal and national scale. A very quick read with plenty of external sources.

I am certainly more than glad that I have now read Walter Wink's 'Jesus and Nonviolence' & will almost certainly seek out more of his books.I find his writing somewhat beautiful at times & it feels that some ideas are repeated where they need not be, hence my rating of 4 stars. Having said that this book is full of exciting, and challenging, ideas, which is exactly what I would expect from such a title, and the real life examples and quotes offered are both inspiring and helpful. There were times when a sentence quite took me aback with its power, and that is always a wonderful when reading.But, whatever the ideas offered, and however occasionally convoluted the writing, I have seen my friends in Christian Climate Action quietly reading this book whilst surrounded by police during non-violent protest, and if it offers strength in moments like that then it is a fine book indeed.

Rating: 'it was OK' (2 stars on Goodreads)Wink makes great points and uses some examples from the Gospels which I hadn't seen in a nonviolent light before, so they certainly expanded how I thought about things, but overall this just didn't have as deep or as many arguments as were needed to fully persuade me that Jesus is all about nonviolence. I suspect and hope that he is, and I think Wink has actually helped me to reconcile my hope that nonviolence is right and that Jesus would support it, but I can't say more than this 'was OK' because I just wasn't fully convinced, the argumentation just wasn't persuasive enough for me. Others reading this may find different, however, so I certainly recommend this book for a read! Maybe if I read more on this topic I will become more convinced and I may come back and review this rating if so.

Really interesting book, no problems with delivery, happy with my purchase. Thanks.

If I only had one book on Jesus this would be it. The book looks at the life of Jesus and his message of active nonviolence and how we can make social change happen. All Christians should read and we should all try and implement, if only a little, what Jesus taught.

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