Nonviolent Action: What Christian Ethics Demands but Most Christians Have Never Really Tried

There are numerous examples throughout history of effective nonviolent action. Nonviolent protesters defied the Soviet Empire's communist rulers, Gandhi's nonviolent revolution defeated the British Empire, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s peaceful civil-rights crusade changed American history. Recent scholarship shows that nonviolent revolutions against injustice and dictatorship are actually more successful than violent campaigns. In this book, noted theologian and bestselling author Ron Sider argues that the search for peaceful alternatives to violence is not only a practical necessity in the wake of the twentieth century--the most bloody in human history--but also a moral demand of the Christian faith. He presents compelling examples of how nonviolent action has been practiced in history and in current social-political situations to promote peace and oppose injustice, showing that this path is a successful and viable alternative to violence.
Contents
Foreword by Richard Mouw
Introduction
Part I: Proving It Works: From Early Beginnings to Stunning Successes
1. Early Developments
2. Gandhi: Defeating the British Empire
3. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhian Nonviolence: The Battle against American Racism
4. Nonviolent Intervention in Guerrilla Warfare
5. Wheelchairs versus Tanks
Part II: Defeating the Soviet Empire
6. Solidarity: A Trade Union and the Pope versus Communist Dictators
7. The Revolution of the Candles: The Nonviolent Overthrow of East German Communists
Part III: Recent Victories of a Growing Movement
8. "Gather the Women to Pray for Peace": Liberian Women Overthrow a Dictator
9. Nonviolence in the Arab Spring
10. Intervening, Accompanying, and Reporting: The Growth of Peacemaker Teams
Part IV: The Time to Act
11. Truly Testing the Possibilities of Nonviolent Action--for the First Time in Christian History
12. The Moral Equivalent of War
Index