J Denny Weaver

Drew G. I. Hart, who teaches at Messiah University, has said that Weaver's memoir is "A must-read for the pews and the classroom that ultimately should lead us to the streets." Written for lay readers as well as interested theologians, this memoir displays how a theological career develops and a new theological doctrine emerges. New Moves reveals the author's wandering path from Mennonite Sunday school boy to the author of a trend-setting work of atonement theology that attracted praise and hostility. Writings as varied as the war memoirs of Charles de Gaulle and works by black, womanist, and feminist theologians both altered the author's career arc and made major contributions to his theological products. The author's key theological move was to reject and then pose an alternative to the satisfaction atonement image. Since its articulation by Anselm of Canterbury, this image has been a dominant atonement motif among Christian traditions for nearly 900 years. Integral to the discussion of the career arc is New Move's development of this new atonement image. The author's initial efforts were attempts to develop an image that would reflect the commitment to nonviolence of his inherited Mennonite tradition. However, the encounter with Black Theology made clear that the issues concerned all Christians and revolved around Jesus' rejection of the sword. The result has found acceptance in ecumenical circles as well as his Mennonite tradition. A bonus of this memoir is that through it readers will also gain an overview of the elements of the author's systematic theology for all Christians.

Playing off a child's question concerning whether parents would put their son to death on a cross, this book plunges headlong into the ongoing debate about the character of God. The church confesses that God is revealed in Jesus. This book explores the implications of that radical claim. Jesus' life reveals his rejection of violence and calls for an understanding of God in nonviolent terms. Weaver thus invites us to embrace a nonviolent atonement image, in contrast to our inherited atonement images. Deriving theology from the narrative of Jesus also leads Weaver into discussions about the very nature of theology, the character of the Bible, the divine violence in the Old Testament (as well as the purported divine violence in the book of Revelation), and a rethinking of historic Christology. Each of these discussions has implications for life today--for economics, forgiveness and restorative justice, violence, gender discrimination, racism, and more. This second, expanded edition of God Without Violence is an introduction to foundational issues of theology and ethics, suitable for church discussion groups and introductory college classes.

Playing off a child's question concerning whether parents would put their son to death on a cross, this book plunges headlong into the ongoing debate about the character of God. The church confesses that God is revealed in Jesus. This book explores the implications of that radical claim. Jesus' life reveals his rejection of violence and calls for an understanding of God in nonviolent terms. Weaver thus invites us to embrace a nonviolent atonement image, in contrast to our inherited atonement images. Deriving theology from the narrative of Jesus also leads Weaver into discussions about the very nature of theology, the character of the Bible, the divine violence in the Old Testament (as well as the purported divine violence in the book of Revelation), and a rethinking of historic Christology. Each of these discussions has implications for life today--for economics, forgiveness and restorative justice, violence, gender discrimination, racism, and more. This second, expanded edition of God Without Violence is an introduction to foundational issues of theology and ethics, suitable for church discussion groups and introductory college classes.

This book displays how the nonviolent Word of God made visible in Jesus Christ is expressed in the contemporary idiom of the peaceable grain of the universe. Moving between historic Anabaptist understandings of Jesus as revealing the ""Word of God"" and more recent expressions of Jesus as disclosing the ""grain of the universe,"" the book invites a reading of Scripture centered in Jesus' life and teachings as told by the narratives of the New Testament. This approach to the Bible discovers there a persuasive witness to the power of nonviolent action in both historic movements and contemporary settings. Beginning with the radical wing European Reformation, the book explores how new understandings of biblical authority expressed in the language of that era have relevance now over five centuries later when stated in a contemporary language for evangelical, ecumenical, and anti-racist Christian witness. To that end, chapters in Part One explore how Reformation-era Anabaptists expanded or went beyond the received understandings of Scripture and Word in confronting their crises. In Part Two the chapters apply this expanded understanding of the Word to contemporary understandings of the Bible and theology, dialogue across black-white lines, and in nonviolent witness and activism.

This book displays how the nonviolent Word of God made visible in Jesus Christ is expressed in the contemporary idiom of the peaceable grain of the universe. Moving between historic Anabaptist understandings of Jesus as revealing the ""Word of God"" and more recent expressions of Jesus as disclosing the ""grain of the universe,"" the book invites a reading of Scripture centered in Jesus' life and teachings as told by the narratives of the New Testament. This approach to the Bible discovers there a persuasive witness to the power of nonviolent action in both historic movements and contemporary settings. Beginning with the radical wing European Reformation, the book explores how new understandings of biblical authority expressed in the language of that era have relevance now over five centuries later when stated in a contemporary language for evangelical, ecumenical, and anti-racist Christian witness. To that end, chapters in Part One explore how Reformation-era Anabaptists expanded or went beyond the received understandings of Scripture and Word in confronting their crises. In Part Two the chapters apply this expanded understanding of the Word to contemporary understandings of the Bible and theology, dialogue across black-white lines, and in nonviolent witness and activism.

This bold new statement on the nonviolence of God challenges long-standing assumptions of divine violence in theology, the violent God pictured in the Old Testament, and the supposed violence of God in Revelation. In The Nonviolent God J. Denny Weaver argues that since God is revealed in Jesus, the nonviolence of Jesus most truly reflects the character of God. According to Weaver, the way Christians live -- Christian ethics -- is an ongoing expression of theology. Consequently, he suggests positive images of the reign of God made visible in the narrative of Jesus -- nonviolent practice, forgiveness and restorative justice, issues of racism and sexism, and more -- in order that Christians might live more peacefully.

A provocative study that cuts to the very heart of Christian thought, The Nonviolent Atonement challenges the traditional, Anselmian understanding of atonement -- along with the assumption that heavenly justice depends on Christ's passive, innocent submission to violent death at the hands of a cruel God. Instead J. Denny Weaver offers a thoroughly nonviolent paradigm for understanding atonement, grounded in the New Testament and sensitive to the concerns of pacifist, black, feminist, and womanist theology. While many scholars have engaged the subject of violence in atonement theology, Weaver's Nonviolent Atonement is the only book that offers a radically new theory rather than simply refurbishing existing theories. Key features of this revised and updated second edition include new material on Paul and Anselm, expanded discussion on the development of violence in theology, interaction with recent scholarship on atonement, and response to criticisms of Weaver's original work. Praise for the first edition: -The best current single volume on reconstructing the theology of atonement.- -- S. Mark Heim in Anglican Theological Review -Weaver provides an important contribution to atonement theories by seriously inserting the contemporary concerns of pacifist, feminist, womanist, and black theologians into the centuries-old christological conversation. . . . A provocative but faithful proposal benefiting any student of christology.- -- Religious Studies Review -A noteworthy contribution to the literature on the atonement. Weaver provides a useful critique of the history of atonement motifs; he does a fine job of placing Anselm's theology in its historical context; he creatively fuses a singular biblical vision from the earthly narrative of the Gospels and the cosmic perspective of the Apocalypse; and he attempts to relate discussions of the atonement to Christian social ethics.- -- Trinity Journal -This is a superb succinct survey and analysis of classical and contemporary theories of the atonement, ideal for students and general readers. . . . A clearly written, passionately expressed introduction to current debates on the atonement. . . . Excellent resource.- -- Reviews in Religion and Theology