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 47 endurance of evil does not mean a recogni- tion of its rights. That is sheer sentimentality, and Jesus will have nothing to do with it. The shameful assault, the deed of violence, and the act of exploitation are still evil. The disciple must realize this, and bear witness to it as Jesus did, just because this is the only way evil can be met and overcome. The very fact that the evil which assaults him is unjustifiable makes it imperative that he should not resist it, but play it out and overcome it by patiently enduring the evil person. Suffering willingly endured is stronger than evil; it spells death to evil. There is no deed on earth so outrageous as to justify a different attitude. The worse the evil, the readier must the Christian be to suffer; he Y ou have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. (Matt. 5:38–42) The right way to requite evil, according to Jesus, is not to resist it. We are concerned not with evil in the abstract, but with the evil person. Jesus bluntly calls the evil person evil. If I am assailed, I am not to condone or justify aggression. Patient Above: Antonello da Messina, detail from Crucifixion Image from WikiArt (public domain) From Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Revenge,” in The Cost of Discipleship, trans. R. H. Fuller (SCM Press, 1959). Nonviolence: An Impossible Ideal? A Reading from Dietrich Bonhoeffer Seventy years ago, the martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer was killed in the Flossenbürg concentration camp on Hitler’s orders. Today he is often lionized as a hero of the armed resistance to Nazism – perhaps too uncritically (see our Summer 2014 issue). Wherever the biographical truth may lie, Bonhoeffer’s passionate call for Christian nonviolence cannot be just passed over. He asks us: Are we ready to take up our cross as Jesus did, or not?