When glamour beckons, can Benedictine values compete? “Do you reject the glamour of evil?” This striking question from the Catholic rite of baptism for adults has received surprisingly little attention from theologians. One might summarize all Benedictine values and practices as answering this question by turning from the merely glamorous toward quieter, deeper joys. The…
Author: Gerald Schlabach
Christian peace theology:
internal critique and interfaith dialogue
On March 1 I spoke at two break-out sessions on the topic of “Christian Peace Theology: Internal Critique and Interfaith Dialogue” at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Faith and Peace Day, in Minneapolis. Here’s what I said I would do: This session will survey theological debates over war and violence within the Christian tradition in…
“Confessional” nonviolence and the unity of the Church:
Can Christians square the circle?
Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 34, no. 1 (2014): 125-44. Abstract: Both within and among churches that have traditionally held to just war teaching, various formulas in the last 50 years have allowed for the recognition that Christian pacifism is a respectable tradition alongside just war. It is not obvious, however, how historic peace churches…
Sharing Peace:
Mennonites and Catholics in Conversation
Sharing Peace brings together leading Mennonite and Catholic theologians and ecclesial leaders to reflect on the recent, first-ever international dialogue between the Mennonite World Conference and the Vatican. The search for a shared reading of history, theology of the church and its sacraments or ordinances, and understandings of Christ’s call to be peacemakers are its most prominent themes.
Must Christian pacifists reject police force?
Abstract: Chapter 5 in A Faith not Worth Fighting for: Addressing Commonly Asked Questions About Christian Nonviolence, eds Tripp York and Justin Bronson Barringer, The Peaceable Kingdom Series, no. 1 (Eugene OR: Cascade Books, 2012). Click here to download or read on Academia.Com.
For and Against Dula Against Schlabach
A response to Peter Dula’s critique of Unlearning Protestantism in “For and Against Hauerwas Against Mennonites” (Mennonite Quarterly Review, July 2010) ACRS Reading Group, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA, 27 September 2010. On behalf of the ACRS Reading Group in Harrisonburg, Ray Gingerich has asked me to respond to Peter Dula’s “trenchant” and “poignant” critique…
Unlearning Protestantism:
Sustaining Christian Community in an Unstable Age
This insightful book addresses the “Protestant dilemma” in ecclesiology: how to build lasting Christian community in a world of individualism and transience. Gerald Schlabach, a former Mennonite who is now Catholic, seeks not to encourage readers to abandon Protestant churches but to unlearn lessons that are no longer productive. He explains that what may have…
Excerpts from Augustine On Christian doctrine
Translation is from series 1, vol. 2 of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers published 1886-1890 and in the public domain. Click here to read.
Excerpts from Augustine’s City of God
These excerpts seek to give students and other new readers an overview of long argument that threads through of Augustine’s massive City of God. Translation is from series 1, vol. 2 of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers published 1886-1890 and in the public domain. Click here to read.
Meeting in exile
Historic peace churches and the emerging peace church catholic Journal of Religion, Conflict and Peace Volume 1. Issue 1, Fall 2007. First presented as a lecture for Presentation Sisters’ Peace Studies Forum, 23 January 2004, Fargo ND. For the three “historic peace church” colleges of Indiana to join together in the Plowshares Peace Studies Collaborative and its…
For Joetta
Prose Haiku July 2007 We walk the labyrinth, my love and I. Curving around each other, almost crossing, turning away, back, parallel, apart, one mysterious destination. Labyrinthian ways run through the bed where we touch tenderly and weep bitterly. They take us to the table at the center of the maze – extend? defend? bend…
You converted to what?
One Mennonite’s journey Commonweal, June 1, 2007 At Pentecost 2004, I made a small yet formidable step in my life of Christian discipleship. Having considered myself a “Catholic Mennonite” for years, I entered into full communion with the Roman Church and became what I think of as a “Mennonite Catholic.” Catholic friends were gratified but puzzled. After all, this might not have seemed an…
Just Policing, Not War:
An Alternative Response to World Violence
For decades, the Catholic Church and historical peace churches such as the Mennonites have come together in ecumenical discussions about war and peace. The dividing point has always been between pacifism, the view held by Mennonites and other peace churches, and the just war theory that dominates Catholic thinking on the issue. Given the transformation…
Benedictine values and the need for bridging
Monastic Institute, Saint John’s Abbey, 6 July 2006 Bridgefolk is about, well, bridging — transcending old polarities, exchanging and integrating the gifts of mutually “separated brethren” and sisters too. It is about imagining Christ’s Church without the divisions that long seemed to be givens, and doing the next thing God gives us to do in order that…
At Peace and Unafraid:
Public Order, Security, and the Wisdom of the Cross
Co-edited with Duane Friesen Many Mennonites are clear about avoiding the violence of war and some types of police activities. Less clear, though, is the extent to which Mennonites should participate in the coercive systems needed for safe, stable and peaceful communities. This book provides theological reflection on this and other questions of Mennonite nonviolent…
Journeying together toward Jesus Christ
from Faith Connection, newsletter of Faith Mennonite Church, Minneapolis June 2004 On Sunday, May 16, I shared with the congregation my plans to be received into the Catholic Church at the Pentecost Vigil, on May 29, at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church here in St. Paul, even while maintaining associate membership at Faith Mennonite. I look forward…
Just policing:
how war could cease to be a church-dividing issue
Abstract: Might Christians who have long been divided along just-war and pacifist lines agree some day that just policing—and only just policing—is legitimate? In an essay first written as a resource for the first international dialogue between Mennonites and Roman Catholics, the author offers a thought experiment on what would be necessary for war eventually to cease to be…
Statement upon confirmation in the Catholic Church
St. Peter Claver Catholic Church, St. Paul, MN Pentecost Vigil 29 May 2004 Today, at this vigil, we begin to mark the fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, when God launched the Church out of a dazed and fearful band of disciples — promising with the gift of diverse tongues to create a…
Personal letter to Bridgefolk
From: Schlabach, Gerald W. Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 7:25 AM To: BRIDGEFOLK@LS.CSBSJU.EDU Subject: [BRIDGEFOLK] Personal letter from Gerald Schlabach May 20, 2004 Dear friends: On May 29, at the Pentecost Vigil service at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church here in St. Paul, I plan to be received into the Catholic Church. This moment has…
Just policing, not war
America magazine July 7, 2003 Virtually every Christian tradition is trying to have it both ways on war. Twenty years ago the U.S. bishops published The Challenge of Peace, which explicitly paired just war and pacifism as legitimate Christian responses to war. Three years later, Methodist bishops in the United States made a similar affirmation. And…