Nonviolence: A Christian Calling

Nonviolence: A Christian Calling: Weekly Summary
Saturday, September 26, 2026

Sunday
I don’t think there’s any way we can call ourselves Christians without aiming for nonviolence as our ideal. –Richard Rohr

Monday
This revolution of nonviolent love is not a utopian fantasy. There are many stories of Christians whose lives bear witness to this revolution of tenderness and from whom we can learn the requirements of the way of nonviolence.
–Emmanuel Katongole

Tuesday
It requires great self-denial and the surrendering of our selves to God to be committed to peace and to nonviolent action to bring about change. —Jean Zaru

Wednesday
Only one thing is more difficult to deal with than the individual ego, and that’s the corporate ego, which is usually more disguised, protected, and denied.
Unless we’re willing to face it, we will continue to participate in cycles of anger, hatred, and violence rather than healing and justice. –Richard Rohr

Thursday
This is Jesus’s simple message: Holiness is no longer to be found through separation or exclusion, but through radical inclusion.
Any exclusionary system only lays the solid foundation for violence in thought, word, and deed. –Richard Rohr

Friday
Our vocation as Christians is to respond to God’s call to join in the divine dance of compassionate and nonviolent love, collaborating with God’s healing power to fashion the conditions for true peace.
—Ken Butigan and Patricia Bruno

Week Thirty-Eight Practice: Desiring Goodness for All

Rabbi Amy Eilberg acknowledges the daily commitment required to make peace in ourselves, among others, and in the world:

[Peacebuilding] is a way of being in the world, a way of bringing peace, of being peace in everyday encounters, in personal and professional relationships, in the communities of which we are a part, and in our life as a nation.

In this expansive sense, we implicitly choose in every human interaction whether to act with nonviolence and respect or with animosity and judgment. Living out a commitment to peace is a full-time job, something we may do everywhere we interact with people in our lives. It is for all of us, and it is a life’s work.

From this broad perspective, peacebuilding practice is an expression of spiritual virtues valued in most religious traditions, such as kindness, compassion, gentleness, generosity, patience, and respect for all people…. [1]

It is as simple and as challenging as this. The desire for the well-being of all people is what moves us to work for peace, and this same desire makes it possible for us to care for all people in any conflict.

Though we may be more connected to one “side” or more inclined toward one viewpoint in the dispute, on a deeper level, we sense a bond of common humanity with everyone involved. We want what is best for all of them.

Like a parent responding to estrangement among her children, she wants for all of them to be happy, for all of them to thrive, for all of them to be free of the pain of ruptured relationships…. The more of us adopt this goal as an intention for our lives, the more peace and harmony there will be in the world. [2]

References
[1] Rabbi Amy Eilberg, From Enemy to Friend: Jewish Wisdom and the Pursuit of Peace (Orbis Books, 2014), 222.

[2] Eilberg, From Enemy, 265.