The Politics of Discipleship and Discipleship in Politics

The Politics of Discipleship and Discipleship in Politics is a work of dialog and cooperation at every level. At the core of this volume are lectures by Jurgen Moltmann, originally delivered at two Mennonite seminaries at the height of the Cold War. Theologians at those seminaries then responded to each of Moltmann's lectures, and those are included as well. Added to this collection are: a new essay by Moltmann on peacemaking and dragonslaying, a new foreword by Willard Swartley, and a new preface by Moltmann. In this post-9/11 world, this dialog has fresh relevance.

The first step to peace is to accept the difference of the other as gift from God. For who can will to annihilate what is received as gift? The penetrating essays in this book are a wonderful testimony of theological work born out of honest engagement, precisely because each author accepts that truth is not a possession and hence its custody is shared, even with those once perceived as adversary. If there is such a thing as pedagogical non-violence this book is a fine exhibit.
--Harry J. Huebner
Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, Canada

While the immediate threat of nuclear disaster has receded since this dialogue between Moltmann and several Mennonite scholars in the 80s, the reality of war has not. In this collection, enriched with a recent essay by Moltmann arguing that ""the love of enemies is a realistic ethic of responsibility,"" Mennonites and Moltmann fruitfully push each other to clarify Lutheran, Reformed, and pacifist ethics in response to evil.

--Gayle Gerber Koontz
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary

Jurgen Moltmann is Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology in the Protestant Faculty of the University of Tubingen, Germany. Among his many important and award-winning works are The Coming of God, The Source of Life, God for a Secular Society, and Experiences in Theology.

Willard Swartley (editor) is Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, editor of numerous books, and author of over a half dozen, with the latest, Covenant of Peace: The Missing Piece in New Testament Theology and Ethics.