The God of Peace: Toward a Theology of Nonviolence

The fruit of committed action as well as study, The God of Peace represents the first effort to outline a systematic theology beginning with the insight that God is nonviolent. This insight has been embodied in our time by figures like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Dorothy Day. Dear shows what Christian faith looks like when nonviolence is treated not simply as a subtopic of ethics or a political tactic, but as a hermeneutic lens through which every aspect of traditional Christian theology may be viewed. After establishing his methodology, Dear explores every aspect of traditional theology: the identity of God, the person of Jesus (prophet of nonviolence), Christ (Incarnation of nonviolent love), the nature and meaning of the Trinity (the nonviolent community at the heart of reality), as well as doctrines of creation, sin and redemption, theodicy, salvation, the church, eschatology, spirituality, and liturgy. Finally, Dear addresses Catholic social teaching and the "just war" theology, feminist and liberation theologies, and the consistent ethic of life.