Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76Plough Quarterly • Summer 2015 41 literally put their lives on the line, risking being shot when they entered restricted areas. When Sister Megan was asked about these risks in an NPR interview, she answered that she was perfectly at peace with the possibility of being killed. Straight to heaven for her, no sweat! But how about the young security guard who might be obliged to shoot her? What of his mental and spiritual health after that? What Is Christian Nonviolence? The basis of Christian nonviolence is the same premise that underlies all of the church’s social teaching: that every man, woman, and child is created in the image of God. Persons are never a means to an end; they are ends in themselves, and thus are not to be violated in any way, either in body, mind, or spirit. Persons are not disconnected individuals in a war of all against all, as in the capitalist model; nor are they to be subsumed into a larger whole, as in the col- lectivist model. Instead, all are formed in, by, and for community. Thus Pope John XXIII, in his 1963 encyclical, Pacem in Terris, grounded his hope for peace in human rights. But how to establish and protect human rights? Most people throughout history have assumed this is only possible through physical force. An ancient Latin adage goes, Si vis pacem, para bellum – if you desire peace, prepare for war. That’s like saying, “If you desire grapes, sow briars.” Christian peacemakers would rather say, Si vis pacem, para pacem – if you desire peace, prepare for peace. Christian nonviolence fits comfortably into the larger fabric of a more universal non- ­ violence. The US Catholic bishops acknowl- edged this when they cited Mohandas Gandhi along with Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King Jr. in their 1983 pastoral letter, The Chal- lenge of Peace. Christian nonviolence takes a lesson from Hindu tradition in avoidance of harm, ahimsa, and in acknowledging the power of truth, satyagraha – “soul force,” as King translated it. Yet Christian nonviolence is also rooted in the gospel. It looks to the teachings of Jesus, the victory of the cross, the resurrection, and the witness of the church of the first three centuries, before the Constantinian accommodation. And it draws from a constant if submerged nonviolent tradition through subsequent ages: the witness of the Franciscans in the thirteenth century and since, the Quakers and Anabaptists from the seventeenth century to the present, and a minority of Catholics through the ages, even as the Just War tradition was dominant for fifteen hundred years. An Alternative to War Christian discipleship will be judged by the criteria of the Last Judgment: the works of mercy that Jesus describes in Matthew 25. As “Paperwork, cleaning the house, dealing with the innumerable visitors who come all through the day, answering the phone, keeping patience and acting intelligently, which is to find some meaning in all that happens – these things, too, are the works of peace.”  from The Catholic Worker, Dec. 1965 D O R O T H Y D A Y Photograph of Dorothy Day courtesy of the Marquette University Archives.