J. Denny Weaver

A Pacifist Way of Knowing

Philosophy

“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.”

All Set Free

Theology

“All Set Free is a welcome addition to the growing body of literature that challenges the inherited ideas of a violent God and a God for whom forgiveness and salvation depend on a propitiating death of Jesus.”

Confronting a Controlling God

Theology

“Proclaiming Christianity that can cooperate with other religions and is understood as living the way of Jesus rather than as adherence to a theory about Jesus provides a welcome antidote to the violent God emulated by adherents of the contemporary form of Christendom, which Wallace repudiates so forcefully.”

Confronting Religious Violence

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Proclaiming Christianity that can cooperate with other religions and is understood as living the way of Jesus rather than as adherence to a theory about Jesus provides a welcome antidote to the violent God emulated by adherents of the contemporary form of Christendom, which Wallace repudiates so forcefully.”

Healing the Gospel

Theology

“Anyone concerned about the connection between theology and violence in American society will welcome Flood's Healing the Gospel. In a readable format, he explains why we should abandon violence-accommodating, penal substitutionary atonement, and replace it with atonement imagery that reflects the restorative justice Jesus lived.”

Instead of Atonement

Theology

“Against the assumption that Torah and the Prophets display a God of retribution, Grimsrud shows both picture God as merciful. Rather than dying because God demanded retribution for sin, Jesus died because the powers that opposed him--law, temple, empire--demanded retribution for breaking their rules. Many such challenges to the presumed biblical view of retribution make Instead of Atonement a welcome addition to recent arguments rejecting the prevailing acceptance of divine violence.”

Saved from Sacrifice

Theology

“Saved from Sacrifice will surely prove one of the most important of recent analyses of atonement and violence as well as the most thorough from a Girardian perspective. Its restatement of an atonement motif holds out the promise of productive conversation with other strands of theology.”

To Follow the Lamb

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“In the midst of the sometimes-violent rhetoric of Revelation, Grimsrud makes abundantly clear that Revelation features the nonviolent victory by the slain and resurrected Lamb, who reveals a nonviolent God, over the powers of evil, represented by the Roman empire. One of the most valuable contributions of this comprehensive theological analysis of Revelation is how it applies the book's nonviolent resistance to empire to the American empire.”