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Nonviolence and Religion

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A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 December 2021) | Viewed by 53466

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Louise du Toit

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Guest Editor

Department of Philosophy, Stellenbosch University, Matieland 7602, South Africa
Interests: feminist philosophy; embodiment; sexuality and sexual difference; violence and the hermeneutics of violence; naming violence

Prof. emer. Ephraim Meir

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Guest Editor

Department of Jewish Philosophy, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel
Interests: modern Jewish philosophy; dialogical philosophy; Levinas’s metaphysics; inter-religious theology

Prof. emer. Ed Noort

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen, 9712 GK Groningen, The Netherlands
Interests: Hebrew Bible; hermeneutics; book of Joshua; history of the ancient near east; non-violence; Gandhi

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Palaver

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Chief Guest Editor

Institute of Systematic Theology, University of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Interests: religion; violence; nonviolence; democracy; populism; M.K. Gandhi; R. Girard

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Contemporary research addresses mainly religion and violence. This special issue starts the other way around and looks first at human violence in order to investigate religious potentials to strengthen the case for nonviolence. Contributions that take human violence as its starting point may engage with it from a biological, anthropological, psychological or historical perspective. Regarding nonviolence and religion, a key example is the Indian lawyer and political ethicist Mohandas K. Gandhi whose concept of satyagraha was influenced by his own Hindu tradition but drew also on Jainism, Christianity and Islam. Gandhi’s thinking will be discussed in depth by investigating its historical development, its use of ancient authoritative texts, its contribution to interreligious dialogue, its relation to gender, its relevance for our world of today, and its limits. This special issue invites researchers to discuss similar religious thinkers and activists who engaged in nonviolence from their own religious backgrounds. Possible examples – without excluding those who are not explicitly mentioned here – are the African American minister and activist Martin Luther King, the peace and human rights activist Abraham Joshua Heschel, Gandhi’s friend and Muslim pacifist Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the Islamic scholar Jawdat Said and the Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee. Contributions are also welcome that focus on how different religions or confessions have related to nonviolence historically. Has nonviolence become more important in recent decades? Does nonviolence play a role in interreligious dialogue?

Prof. Dr. Louise du Toit
Prof. Dr. emer. Ephraim Meir
Prof. Dr. Ed Noort
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Palaver
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

religion
nonviolence
violence
M.K. Gandhi
Judaism
Christianity
Islam
Buddhism
Hinduism
Jainism
interreligious dialogue
gender
hermeneutics
anthropology
civil resistance
civil disobedience
pacifism
non-cooperation
coexistence
peace activists

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Published Papers (14 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research

6 pages, 317 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Introduction to the Special Issue “Nonviolence and Religion”

by Louise Du Toit, Ephraim Meir, Ed Noort and Wolfgang Palaver

Religions 2023, 14(3), 403; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14030403 - 16 Mar 2023

Viewed by 2065

Abstract

Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in 2001, many scholarly debates have focused on the relationship between religion and violence [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonviolence and Religion)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

18 pages, 387 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Gandhi and the World of the Hebrew Bible: The Case of Daniel as Satyagrahi

by Ed Noort

Religions 2022, 13(9), 859; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13090859 - 14 Sep 2022

Viewed by 2647

Abstract

Among the biblical characters used as examples in developing and explaining satyagraha, Daniel is the most important after Jesus. In Gandhi’s speeches and writings from 1909 to 1946, Daniel served as the ideal satyagrahi both in South Africa and in India. Over time, Daniel received company in the gallery of examples in which Socrates occupied a prominent place. Depending on theme, place, and audience, past and present characters from different traditions and scriptures accompanied Daniel. They represented the development of aspects of satyagraha: nonviolent active resistance as a weapon of the strong, courageous actions as a deliberate choice without excitement, love for the antagonist, preparedness to suffer, and no fear of death. All these aspects are embodied by the Gandhian Daniel. Gandhi emphasized the active role of Daniel as a resister, not the traditional view of the victim of court intrigues. In this paper, I argue that the image of the ideal satyagrahi Daniel could be strengthened by combining the court narratives from the first half and the apocalypses from the second one of the biblical book. The article provides context both for Gandhi’s political and religious practice and for the book of Daniel. The strange world of apocalypses seems to contradict the model of the Gandhian figure Daniel. However, they are crisis literature, and it makes sense to observe how the protagonist and his audience in times of occupation, persecutions, and war ask for guidance. Apocalypses show how Jewish resistance to foreign rule was conceived. The result of the survey is a complex image of competing literatures from roughly the same period and the hands, heads, beliefs, and sufferings behind them. The view of the end of history, a program of nonviolence, and hope in the Daniel apocalypse serve as contrast propaganda to contemporary visions on the violent Maccabean revolt and the Seleucid persecutions. They offer a nonviolent counterweight to the ideology of the state propaganda of the Seleucids. They contradict the historiographic idealization of the Maccabean revolt and its armed resistance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonviolence and Religion)

18 pages, 314 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Gandhi and the Gender of Nonviolent Resistance

by Louise Du Toit

Religions 2022, 13(5), 467; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13050467 - 23 May 2022

Viewed by 4306

Abstract

The special issue of which this article forms a part looks at human violence and tries to investigate religious potentials to strengthen the case for nonviolence as the preferred method of social change. This article’s focus is on Gandhi’s version of a faith-based form of nonviolent resistance, called Satyagraha, and its relation to gender. In particular, the article asks whether this Gandhian tradition holds any value for women’s struggles and for contemporary feminist politics. The first section follows the historical development of Gandhi’s thinking on women’s participation in Satyagraha, from South Africa to India. The second section gives a brief overview of the recent empirical work conducted by Erica Chenoweth on the impact of women’s participation on the outcomes of mass movements over the past century. The final section places these two thinkers in conversation and draws out the value and limitations of Gandhi’s thinking for contemporary women’s struggles and feminist resistance. Although the direct focus is on the relation between women and nonviolent revolutionary campaigns and movements, indirectly the unstable gendered dichotomies, male–female, masculine–feminine, and violence–nonviolence, will be simultaneously drawn upon and problematised. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonviolence and Religion)

18 pages, 312 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Islamic Hermeneutics of Nonviolence: Key Concepts and Methodological Steps

by Adnane Mokrani

Religions 2022, 13(4), 295; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13040295 - 29 Mar 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3405

Abstract

The article traces the key concepts and methodological steps that make an Islamic theology of nonviolence plausible. It offers the tools for a critical reading of classical texts, “sacred” history, and globalized modernity. The article deals with the theology of nonviolence as part of modern and contemporary theologies: those of religious pluralism, feminism and liberation, which are interconnected and share the same hermeneutical knots and challenges. Nonviolence theology can be considered the big umbrella that includes all these aspects. It is a postcolonial approach, nurtured by Sufism, that aims to liberate theology from past and present power claims and build the bases for radical reform. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonviolence and Religion)

11 pages, 285 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Jawdat Saʿid and the Islamic Theology and Practice of Peace

by Rüdiger Lohlker

Religions 2022, 13(2), 160; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13020160 - 11 Feb 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4291

Abstract

Among the leading Islamic thinkers and activists promoting a theology of peace based on the Qur‘anic revelation is Jawdat Saʿid. Framing his role by an analysis following the conceptualization of Shahab Ahmed the Qur‘anic context of the ideas of Saʿid are presented, and these ideas are contextualized within the recent Syrian revolution before it turned into civil war. Fundamental ideas of the theology of Saʿid help to explain the thoughts of a lesser known activist of nonviolent action based on a specific and revolutionary interpretation of the Qur‘an. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonviolence and Religion)

19 pages, 386 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Gandhi’s Use of Scriptures: A Hermeneutic of Nonviolence against Letters That Kill

by Ed Noort

Religions 2022, 13(2), 153; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13020153 - 10 Feb 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2834

Abstract

Against the background of differing opinions about Gandhi’s views on the relationship between political action and religious inspiration, this paper examines his use of scriptures, if he made hermeneutical decisions and if so, what they were. The starting point is a letter from Gandhi in which he pleaded against reading the scriptures literally and named truth, ahiṃsā, and a living faith as criteria. Reason is most important, but with limitations; ahiṃsā, nonviolence, is never at stake, but the definition of what may be called hiṃsā, or ahiṃsā, is dependent on place, time, and situation. Faith-based truth as Faith = God enabled the use of religious language and definitively bridged the religious and the secular. For an understanding of Gandhi’s personal faith, his statements on Rama and Ramarajya as the Kingdom of God on earth are important. Gandhi found a leading principle in 2 Cor 3:6: “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life,” comparing it often with a literal vs. figurative reading. The connecting factor between Gandhi and Paul was their situation, which is more fully explained for Paul. Both tried from a different perspective to reformulate their religious heritages in a new way by claiming that their now-defended truth was already present in the scriptures. Both needed a hermeneutical key and found it in the killing letter and the life-giving Spirit. For Gandhi, it meant the right to expand the original meaning of texts to realise ahiṃsā hic et nunc. The last section of this paper offers examples of Gandhi’s use of this principle in changing contexts: the opening of the temples of Travancore, his approaches to the Gita, his exegesis of Galatians, and his readings of the Hebrew Bible. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonviolence and Religion)

19 pages, 283 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Defending Victims, Practicing Restraint: God-Consciousness and the Use of Force in the Qur’an

by John J. Ranieri

Religions 2022, 13(2), 124; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13020124 - 27 Jan 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2422

Abstract

The Qur’an speaks frequently of victims and the need to defend them—whether they are the marginalized, the oppressed, those who bring God’s word to a resistant people, or the early community of believers. However, the obligation to defend victims leads to the question of whether force can be used in their defense (including self-defense). Too often, this question is addressed by isolating passages that allow for the use of force, trying to identify their occasions of revelation, and considering whether later passages abrogate earlier ones. This approach suggests that the use of force or violence is an identifiable theme in the Qur’an, detachable from its broader message. However, the question of how and when force may be used is inseparable from the important Qur’anic notion of God-consciousness (taqwa), which ifs presupposed in the Qur’an when considering whether the use of force is justified. God-consciousness serves both as a source of restraint for those who would resort to violence out of anger or indignation, as well as a critical standard for those who find themselves conflicted over the possible use of force. Considering the question of the use of force in the defense of victims in light of God-consciousness shifts the focus away from isolated passages and arguments about abrogation to a more open and adaptable approach that calls into question the use of force as one option among others, and leaves open up the possibility of a non-violent response as entirely keeping with the spirit of the Qur’an. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonviolence and Religion)

17 pages, 331 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Saving Nation, Faith and Family. Yoram Hazony’s National Conservativism and Its Theo-Political Mission

by Michaela Quast-Neulinger

Religions 2021, 12(12), 1091; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12121091 - 10 Dec 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3104

Abstract

Particularly pushed by the Edmund Burke Foundation and its president Yoram Hazony, the political movement of National Conservativism is largely based on specific concepts of nation, faith and family. Driven by the mission to overcome the violence of liberalism, identified with imperialism, national conservatives shape potent international and interreligious alliances for a religiously based system of independent national states. The article gives an outline of the main programmatic pillars of National Conservativism at the example of Yoram Hazony’s The Virtue of Nationalism, one of the current ideological key works of the movement. It will show how its political framework is based on a binary frame of liberalism (identified with imperialism) versus nationalism, the latter supported as the way forward towards protecting freedom, faith and family. The analytic part will focus on the use of religious motifs and the construction of a specific kind of Judaeo-Christianism as a means of exclusivist theo-political nationalism. It will be shown that Hazony’s nationalism is no way to overcome violence, but a political theory close to theo-political authoritarianism, based on abridged readings of Scripture, history and philosophy. It severely endangers the foundations of democracies, especially with regard to minority and women’s rights, and delegitimizes liberal democracy and religious traditions positively contributing to it. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonviolence and Religion)

19 pages, 288 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Australian Christian Conscientious Objectors during the Vietnam War Years 1964–72

by Geoffrey A Sandy

Religions 2021, 12(11), 1004; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12111004 - 15 Nov 2021

Viewed by 3630

Abstract

Many young Christian men faced a moral dilemma when selective military conscription was introduced in Australia during the Vietnam War from 1964–72. The legislation was the National Service Act in 1964 (NSA). Some believed that their Christian conscience did not allow them to kill or serve in the army. Most of them sought exemption as a conscientious objector decided at a court hearing. Others chose non-compliance with the NSA. All exercised nonviolent Holy Disobedience in their individual opposition to war and conscription for it. Holy disobedience stresses the importance of nonviolent individual action, which was an idea of A.J. Muste, a great Christian pacifist. The research reported here is strongly influenced by his approach. It is believed to be the first study which explicitly considers Christian conscientious objectors. A data set was compiled of known Christian conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War years from authoritative sources. Analysis allowed identification of these men, the grounds on which their conscientious beliefs were based and formed and how they personally responded to their moral dilemma. Many of their personal stories are told in their own words. Their Holy Disobedience contributed to ending Australia’s participation in the Vietnam War and military conscription for it. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonviolence and Religion)

22 pages, 389 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Gandhi’s Militant Nonviolence in the Light of Girard’s Mimetic Anthropology

by Wolfgang Palaver

Religions 2021, 12(11), 988; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12110988 - 11 Nov 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4286

Abstract

Nuclear rivalry, as well as terrorism and the war against terror, exemplify the dangerous escalation of violence that is threatening our world. Gandhi’s militant nonviolence offers a possible alternative that avoids a complacent indifference toward injustice as well as the imitation of violence that leads to its escalation. The French-American cultural anthropologist René Girard discovered mimetic rivalries as one of the main roots of human conflicts, and also highlighted the contagious nature of violence. This article shows that Gandhi shares these basic insights of Girard’s anthropology, which increases the plausibility of his plea for nonviolence. Reading Gandhi with Girard also complements Girard’s mimetic theory by offering an active practice of nonviolence as a response to violent threats, and by broadening the scope of its religious outreach. Gandhi’s reading of the Sermon on Mount not only renounces violence and retaliation like Girard but also underlines the need to actively break with evil. Both Gandhi and Girard also address the religious preconditions of nonviolent action by underlining the need to prefer godly over worldly pursuits, and to overcome the fear of death by God’s grace. This congruence shows that Girard’s anthropology is valid beyond its usual affinity with Judaism and Christianity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonviolence and Religion)

20 pages, 347 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Non-Violent Liberation Theologies of Abraham Joshua Heschel and Mahatma Gandhi

by Ephraim Meir

Religions 2021, 12(10), 855; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12100855 - 11 Oct 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3410

Abstract

This article explores how Gandhi and Heschel developed a liberation theology that was rooted in their religious praxis, which implied an active, non-violent struggle for the rights of the oppressed. A first section discusses what separates the two spiritual giants. A second section describes the affinities between them. The third, main section describes how they formulated a non-violent liberation theology that aims at the liberation of all. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonviolence and Religion)

14 pages, 264 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Gandhi and Sustainability. An Attempt to Update Timeless Ideas

by Wilhelm Guggenberger

Religions 2021, 12(9), 753; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090753 - 13 Sep 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3194

Abstract

Linking Gandhi and sustainability may seem like a fashionable gimmick at first glance. However, if sustainability is understood in a holistic way, as a transformation of human–environment relations as well as of social and economic structures, this image changes. If one also takes seriously that Gandhi’s understanding of non-violence does not only include the avoidance of physical violence, but a fundamental attitude in different areas of life, such as economy or the use of technology, it becomes clear that sustainability, as it is currently being promoted by the United Nations in Agenda 2030, and Gandhi’s concept of satyagraha pursue identical goals. Gandhi, as well as elements of the Christian ethical tradition, can enrich political programs with a spiritual dimension, without which profound changes in human attitudes will not be possible. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonviolence and Religion)

16 pages, 289 KiB

Open AccessArticle

When Bodies Speak Differently: Putting Judith Butler in Conversation with Mahatma Gandhi on Nonviolent Resistance

by Louise Du Toit and Jana Vosloo

Religions 2021, 12(8), 627; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12080627 - 10 Aug 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3338

Abstract

This article puts political philosopher Judith Butler in conversation with Gandhi, on the topic of nonviolent resistance. More particularly, we compare them on a systematic philosophical level. Although we focus on Gandhi’s more activist side, by delving into the ontological presuppositions that Butler and Gandhi share, we can do some justice to how his activism is firmly rooted in a faith-based understanding of the world. We discuss four themes in each of which they complement each other: namely, the ontological roots of the nonviolent imperative; their rejection of an instrumental view of violence; nonviolent resistance seen as communicative action; and nonviolence viewed as a way of life. This discussion shows that while they have very different starting points and vocabularies, and while some tensions remain, there is much scope for cooperation, solidarity and alliance between religious and nonreligious practitioners of nonviolent resistance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonviolence and Religion)

17 pages, 317 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Gandhi’s View on Judaism and Zionism in Light of an Interreligious Theology

by Ephraim Meir

Religions 2021, 12(7), 489; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070489 - 30 Jun 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5248

Abstract

This article describes Gandhi’s view on Judaism and Zionism and places it in the framework of an interreligious theology. In such a theology, the notion of “trans-difference” appreciates the differences between cultures and religions with the aim of building bridges between them. It is argued that Gandhi’s understanding of Judaism was limited, mainly because he looked at Judaism through Christian lenses. He reduced Judaism to a religion without considering its peoplehood dimension. This reduction, together with his political endeavors in favor of the Hindu–Muslim unity and with his advice of satyagraha to the Jews in the 1930s determined his view on Zionism. Notwithstanding Gandhi’s problematic views on Judaism and Zionism, his satyagraha opens a wide-open window to possibilities and challenges in the Near East. In the spirit of an interreligious theology, bridges are built between Gandhi’s satyagraha and Jewish transformational dialogical thinking. Full article

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