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

by John Howard Yoder, Ted Grimsrud (Editor), Christian E. Early (Editor)

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.

"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

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.

Genres: Philosophy

172 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2010

About the author

Yoder was a Christian theologian, ethicist, and Biblical scholar best known for his radical Christian pacifism, his mentoring of future theologians such as Stanley Hauerwas, his loyalty to his Mennonite faith, and his 1972 magnum opus, "The Politics of Jesus".