I ordered a book Dave Black mentioned on his blog, War, Peace, and Nonresistance by Mennonite historian Guy F. Hershberger, that arrived yesterday. It is quite a bit meatier than more modern books and is considered to be a classic work on Christian non-resistance. I bought a used hardcover copy from Amazon, so it doesn’t have a dustcover and has a few pencil underlinings but I saved more than half of the cost of a new and I got free shipping. I can’t imagine much has changed from the third edition to the most recent version.
A few dozen pages into it and already it promises to be an interesting read. It was originally released early in 1944, just a few months before D-Day. America had been at war for several years following Pearl Harbor. Writing this book at that time was a pretty bold move and probably quite unpopular with the rest of Hershberger’s countrymen.
One topic in the book I am really looking forward to is his examination of the differences between pacifism and non-resistance. While they may seem similar on the surface they are quite different when you look at the underlying philosophy/theology. I think this is such an important topic for the church and one that, as far as I can tell, hasn’t gotten much attention in recent years and virtually none from Christians coming at the topic from a more conservative viewpoint. Maybe I should write a book….
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