A Pacifist Way of Knowing: John Howard Yoder's Nonviolent Epistemology

Review

Whether in Yoder's approach to Christology within the first portion of this collection or in other important areas, epistemology is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the legacy of John Howard Yoder. Bringing these essays on Yoder's way of knowing together in one volume should go far toward correcting these misperceptions.
--J. Denny Weaver
author of The Nonviolent Atonement
I am not a pacifist, but reading John Howard Yoder the past several years, I am moving in his direction. Meanwhile, this remarkable collection of Yoder's writings offers wisdoms, bearing many other names, that enrich me in mind and spirit right now. There are wisdoms about the truth universal that resides in the particularity of my scriptural tradition, about the covenantal context in which ethics may be received, about why serving the good begins only where we are and why we can talk about it only from where we are, and about why, oh why, we have to be patient.
--Peter Ochs
editor of The Return to Scripture in Judaism and Christianity

Product Description

Description: In A Pacifist Way of Knowing: John Howard Yoder's Nonviolent Epistemology, editors Christian Early and Ted Grimsrud gather the scattered writings of Yoder on the theme of the relationship between gospel, peace, and human ways of knowing. In them, they find the beginnings of a pacifist theology of knowledge that rejects strategies of empire while at the same time avoids a self-defeating relativism. Endorsements: "Whether in Yoder's approach to Christology within the first portion of this collection or in other important areas, epistemology is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the legacy of John Howard Yoder. Bringing these essays on Yoder's way of knowing together in one volume should go far toward correcting these misperceptions." --J. Denny Weaver author of The Nonviolent Atonement "I am not a pacifist, but reading John Howard Yoder the past several years, I am moving in his direction. Meanwhile, this remarkable collection of Yoder's writings offers wisdoms, bearing many other names, that enrich me in mind and spirit right now. There are wisdoms about the truth universal that resides in the particularity of my scriptural tradition, about the covenantal context in which ethics may be received, about why serving the good begins only where we are and why we can talk about it only from where we are, and about why, oh why, we have to be patient." --Peter Ochs editor of The Return to Scripture in Judaism and Christianity About the Contributor(s): Christian E. Early is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Theology, Eastern Mennonite University. Ted G. Grimsrud is Professor of Theology and Peace Studies, Eastern Mennonite University.

About the Author

John Howard Yoder taught at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary and later became a professor of theology and ethics at the University of Notre Dame and a fellow of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. He is the author of The Politics of Jesus (1972), The Priestly Kingdom (1984), For the Nations (1997), and several other books.

Christian E. Early is Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He is coeditor with Ted Grimsrud of A Pacifist Way of Knowing (Cascade Books, 2010).

Ted Grimsrud is the Professor of Theology and Peace Studies at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Among his books are Instead of Atonement: The Bible's Salvation Story and Our Hope for Wholeness (2013), Compassionate Eschatology: The Future as Friend (2011), A Pacifist Way of Knowing: John Howard Yoder's Pacifist Epistemology (2010), and Theology as if Jesus Matters (2009).