If Jesus Is Lord: Loving Our Enemies in an Age of Violence

by Ronald J. Sider, Stanley Hauerwas (Foreword by)

Overview

What does Jesus have to say about violence, just war, and killing? Does Jesus ever want his disciples to kill in order to resist evil and promote peace and justice?

This book by noted theologian and bestselling author Ronald J. Sider provides a career capstone statement on biblical peacemaking. Sider makes a strong case for the view that Jesus calls his disciples to love, and never kill, their enemies. He explains that there are never only two options: to kill or to do nothing in the face of tyranny and brutality. There is always a third possibility: vigorous, nonviolent resistance. If we believe that Jesus is Lord, then we disobey him when we set aside what he taught about killing and ignore his command to love our enemies.

This thorough, comprehensive treatment of a topic of perennial concern vigorously engages with the just war tradition and issues a challenge to all Christians, especially evangelicals, to engage in biblical peacemaking. The book includes a foreword by Stanley Hauerwas.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493418268
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/16/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Ronald J. Sider (1939-2022; PhD, Yale University) was the founder and president emeritus of Evangelicals for Social Action and served as distinguished professor of theology, holistic ministry, and public policy at Palmer Theological Seminary at Eastern University. He wrote more than thirty books, including Nonviolent Action, The Early Church on Killing, Just Politics, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, Good News and Good Works, and the bestselling Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger.

Table of Contents

Contents
Foreword by Stanley Hauerwas
Introduction
1. Jesus's Gospel
2. Jesus's Actions
3. Jesus's Teaching in the Sermon on the Mount
4. Other Teachings of Jesus
5. Peace in the Rest of the New Testament
6. But What About . . . ?
7. Foundational Theological Issues
8. Problems with Pacifism
9. Problems with Just War Thinking
10. Jesus and Killing in the Old Testament
11. What If Most (or All) Christians Became Pacifists?
12. Nonviolence and the Atonement
13. Christians and Killing in Church History
14. If Jesus Is Lord
Indexes