The varieties of mennonite peacemaking: A review essay

Mennonite Peacemaking: From Quietism Activism. By Leo Driedger and Donald B. Kraybill. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press. 1994. Pp. 344. $14.95. From the Ground Up : Mennonite Contributions International Peacebuilding. Edited by Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach. Oxford: Oxford U. Press. 2000. Pp. 316. $35.00 The Journey Towards Reconciliation. By John Paul Lederach. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press. 1999. Pp. 204. $9.95. A Mennonite Statement and Study on Violence. Newton, KS: Faith & Life Press, 1998. Pp. 30. $8.95. In a twentieth century marked by two world wars, a cold and numerous local conflicts, North American Mennonites injected two modest cross currents into national and international mainstreams. For one, they furnished a supply of flesh-and-blood peacemakers in what, for the sake of simplicity, could be identified as three waves. Early on, with the advent of conscription in 1940, these were conscientious objectors military service and performers of many types of alternative service. This was a relatively large wave, for conscription affected all Mennonite men; and even though significant numbers of Mennonites (54% in the U.S., 38% in Canada) chose serve in the military as combatants or noncombatants, many chose the conscientious objector alternative service route. Then, both prior and following the end of U.S. conscription in 1975, came a second and smaller, more radicalized cadre of activists in a wide range of Christian (and secular) peace and justice organizations and movements. The focus shifted a wide variety of national and international issues--not the least of which were efforts end the military draft and the in Vietnam, as well as other protests of U.S, foreign policy. Finally, as the first wave dissipated with the end of the draft but while the second continued, yet a third surge formed and continued gain momentum as the century drew a close: Mennonites discovered, and became intensely active in, the field of conflict mediation as practitioners, trainers and theorists. As a complement this activity, a body of literature inform and communicate the Christian peacemaking stance central Mennonite identity and understanding of the gospel gradually took shape. If up 1930 Mennonites had written little about their peace convictions, this state of affairs soon began change as Mennonites became more literate and energetic in their peacemaking efforts, especially with the advent of World War II. Following that conflict, both official church bodies and individuals produced theological and biblical treatises, formulated statements or testimonies, developed typologies, studied the impact of Mennonite peace thought in ecumenical conversations on social ethics, and, cap the effort, compiled a 740-page bibliography of a half-century of Mennonite peace literature. (1) A happy synergy of doctrine and association lay behind these two contributions. Neither would have materialized without a deeply rooted theology and ethic of what, in the second half of the nineteenth century, had come be called nonresistance--the rejection of retaliation, revenge, coercion and military service, anchored in New Testament teaching and christology. Indeed, no theological theme is more central the Anabaptist Vision or the historical identity of Mennonites than what H. S. Bender in his famous essay of 1943 called 'an ethic of love and nonresistance.' (2) In wartime and in those fragile periods of war prevented which the world calls peace, Mennonites consistently affirmed that peace is both inseparable from the gospel and at the heart of the incarnation. No less essential, however, was the mobilizing role of the Mennonite Central Committee in its worldwide programs for rank-and-file Mennonites and its leadership in articulating peace convictions; for many Mennonites, since 1920 these activities came to symbolize what it means be an Anabaptist Christian in today's world. …