The fine research, careful analysis and personal reflections at the conclusion offer the reader just a tremendous resource—understanding of the past but, perhaps more importantly, how past and present shape future possibilities. This is such a hopeful book with the emphasis on grace—a timely word for us now.
—Lee Snyder, former president, Bluffton University
"At a time when religious life is changing rapidly, we do well to step back and look at the adaptations the church has made in response to the pressures of modernism in the last century. A study of history can serve as a thoughtful guide to a faithful future."
—Ervin Stutzman
“Ervin Stutzman is especially well equipped to tell this story, both because of his academic background and because of his leadership in the Mennonite church. He helps us to understand how the church responded to changing social and political settings in North America with imaginative restatements of its commitment to nonviolence and peace, and helps us see how church leaders re-envisioned the form of the church’s peace witness.”
—Gerald Mast, Series Editor, Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History
“From Nonresistance to Justice goes beyond previous studies of Mennonite peace theology by dealing with issues that have arisen since other works were written, by focusing on ‘rhetoric’ it suggests that language matters in shaping Mennonite life, it official statements that trace shifts in church bodies and views from church periodicals, attending to a wide range of voices--while not ignoring the writings of scholars; and it makes a powerful and much needed case for incorporating an emphasis on grace as central to an authentic peace theology. It’s a book well worth reading, and pondering.”
—Ted Koontz, Professor of Ethics and Peace Studies, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary
“Ervin Stutzman is interested in rhetoric both as a communication process and as a churchly process of discernment. In this fine study he examines the rhetoric of a century of peace writing; his close reading deals with dozens of official church documents as well as the massive volume of published writing. He adds to the church’s self-understanding and highlights sensitive communication as essential to being the body of Christ.”
—John A. Lapp, former Executive Director of Mennonite Central Committee