PeaceDocs | Bibliography | Ancient Traditions
CHAPTER 2: Ancient Traditions
The Pax Romana
98. Benario, Herbert W. An Introduction to Tacitus. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1975.
Pages 123-34 provide useful introduction to Tacitus as the moral writer and social critic of Rome and its wars of expansion.
99. Petit, Paul. Pax Romana. James Willis, trans. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.
Covers the period from 31 B.C.E. to C.E. 193. Studies the Roman army, defenses, frontiers, and the imperial succession, all basic elements of the Roman concept of peace. Religious life, society, and civilization are also treated.
100. Waddy, L.H. Pax Romana and World Peace. New York: Norton, 1954.
Praises the benefits of Rome’s military domination of the Mediterranean world in much the same terms that a Roman noble of the day might have.
101. Zampaglione, Gerardo. The Idea of Peace in Antiquity. Richard Dunn, trans. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1973.
Examines the philosophical underpinnings of the Roman theory in Stoic concepts of world order, the reality of Roman repression in such episodes as the British revolt of C.E. 85 , and the real benefits to the empire of centralized authority. On the other hand, the Pax Romana never really shaped a unified theory of government, which relied on ad hoc arrangements and local autonomy.
Roman Virtue
102. Den Boer, Willem. Private Morality in Greece and Rome. Leiden: Brill, 1979.
Essential background reading to understand the Sermon on the Mount for classical Greek and Roman notions of “neighbor,” “outsider,” and “enemy.” In the classical world “neighbor” had no Hebrew sense of companion in the covenant, but of one who physically stands beside another. No notions of love or spiritual equality were implied. For Aristotle and the classical tradition outsiders, “barbarians,” were natural slaves and inferiors, really not even human. The poor, slaves, and women, all the weak, could never be considered “blessed.” Highlights the revolutionary content of the Sermon and the social impact of peacemaking.
103. Earl, Donald C. The Moral and Political Tradition of Rome. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1967.
Good background for a study of virtus, the ethic of the Roman nobility. For the Roman virtue consisted of winning personal preeminence and glory in the commission of great deeds in service to the Roman state. War was the highest stage for such deeds.
104. Finley, Moses I. Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology. New York: Penguin Books, 1983.
In addition to its background information on Roman and Greek attitudes to the outsider and the powerless, this provides an excellent introduction to the historiographical issues involved in the study of Roman and Greek slavery and modern uses and abuses of historical evidence to serve ideological ends. A useful warning to those who seek to understand Roman concepts of freedom and humanity in the context of Christian teachings on peace and justice. Excellent bibliography.
105. Grant, Frederick C. Ancient Roman Religion. New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1957.
A collection of source readings and introductory essays on the progress of Roman religion from agricultural cult concerned with security and prosperity, to the mystery and philosophical influences of the East, to the Imperial cult. Religious policy under the empire, the the growth of Christianity, the Roman reaction, and eventual conversion are all included. Useful readings for understanding the peace message of the New Testament in the context of the official demands of the Roman state cult.
106. Lewis, Naphtali, and Meyer Reinhold. Roman Civilization. Sourcebook II: The Empire. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.
An excellent collection of primary sources on Roman religion, law, and imperialism, and their confrontation with Christianity.
107. MacMullen, Ramsay. Roman Social Relations 50 B.C. to A.D. 284. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974.
The discussion of “class” on pages 88-120 is especially helpful for the context of Chritianity’s message.
108. Nock, A.D. “Religious Developments from the Close of the Republic to the Death of Nero,” CAH 10: 465-511.
Sets the context for the Christian conflict with the Roman religion and state. “Roman religion is in its essence a matter of cult acts. What results has little to do with the emotion or imagination or speculation of the individual.” Useful background for understanding how Christianity’s call to individual conscience and conversion and its ideas of peacemaking were thus totally alien to official Roman religious sensibility.
109. Sherwin-White, Adrian N. Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament. Oxford: Clarendon, 1963.
Examines the powers of the Roman imperial system and its effects on provincial life in the first century A.D., its coercitio, cognitio, and imperium, including the legal basis for the trial of Christ. Sets the legal context for the Christian message of love of enemy and obedience to God above man in such instances as the tribute coin and the centurion at Capernaum.
110. Wiedemann, Thomas. Greek and Roman Slavery. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981.
Examines both the legal and ontological status of the slave and the Greek and Roman concept that all foreign subjects were slaves and the moral inferiors of their masters. Necessary background for the revolutionary claims of Christians that all humans were moral equals.
Gentile and Jew
111. Allegro, John Marco. The Chosen People. A Study of Jewish History from the Time of the Exile Until the Revolt of Bar Kocheba. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1971.
A good, general introduction to the historical elements of the Roman occupation of Palestine, its tightened grip on the life of Israel, the political elements among the Jews, their differing attitudes to Rome, and the context of the Christian message of love of enemies.
112. Barrett, Charles Kingsley. The New Testament Background. New York: Harper & Row, 1961.
A collection of documents illustrating the life of the Roman Empire that dominated the life of the New Testament, including religious, philosophical and political tracts, and Jewish historical, rabbinical, and scriptural selections.
113. Bruce, F.F. New Testament History. New York: Doubleday, 1971.
A good historical account of Judaism from Cyrus to Augustus and of New Testament Judaism, ranging from the Essenes to the Zealots. Christ, the Gospels, the primitive church, Paul, and the spread of Christianity to Rome are all placed in the historic context of the Roman Empire.
114. Bultmann, Rudolf. Primitive Christianity in its Contemporary Setting. New York: Meridien, 1956.
Examines the intellectual background to both the Hellenistic and Judaic traditions in conflict in Palestine at the time of Christ. Christ and his teachings were both tied to a definite intellectual, social and political context.
114.1 Chilton, Bruce. Abraham’s Curse: The Roots of Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. New York: Doubleday, 2008.
115. Foerster, W. From the Exile to Christ: A Historical Introduction to Palestinian Judaism. Gordon E. Harris, trans. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1964.
Part II covers the Palestine of Jesus’ day. Good bibliography.
116. Lohse, Eduard. The New Testament Environment. John E. Steely, trans. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1976.
A very good general survey of the historical background to Christ’s message: Judaism in the Hellenistic world, New Testament Judaism, the politics and society of the Roman Empire, its religious and philosophical movements. The bibliography is limited.
117. Stevenson, G., and Arnaldo Momigliano. “Rebellion within the Empire,” CAH 10 (1966): 840-65.
Good background for Jewish-Roman relations in the Christian era, relations marked primarily by hate for the Romans among the conquered Jews and contempt and repression by the Romans for their subject people.
The Meaning of Peace in the New Testament
118. Bauer, W. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979, 331, 687.
For the Greek New Testament meanings of the words ecthros for personal enemy and enemy in battle, and pleision for neighbor. Necessary background for understanding Christ’s call for love of neighbor and enemy.
119. Beck, H., and Colin Brown. “Peace,” New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1978, 2: 776-83.
Examines the New Testament meanings of eirene. The Christian concept of peace is all embracing, and the New Testament is the “gospel of peace.” Peace is associated with agape (love), charis (grace), and zoe (life); and Christ is the mediator of that peace, bringing the kingdom of God and reconciliation to the world. Christ himself is peace, as is the kingdom of God. Peace is both the gift and challenge to his followers. The eirenopoios (peacemaker) is not the one who imposes peace, as in classical Greek, but the one who brings this salom, the ethical person. Extensive use of biblical citations.
120. Brock, Peter. The Roots of War Resistance. Pacifism from the Early Church to Tolstoy. Nyack, NY: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1981.
Christ’s Sermon on the Mount is truly pacifist, but it has been variously explained away by Catholics as counsels to perfection; by Lutherans, including Niebuhr as being personal and individual; and by Augustine and the just-war tradition, which sees killing as a form of love. Christ was nonviolent, even in his most vehement criticism of the rich and powerful and in his prophesies of future divisions. His message of peace was cumulative, not specific to a few isolated texts. His message of nonviolent suffering, forgiveness, and love of enemy are hard to square with the use of violence or war.
121. Cadoux, Cecil J. The Early Church and the World. Edinburgh: Clark, 1955.
Ranging from Christ to Constantine, provides an excellent and specific treatment of attitudes to war and peace, the state, and the individual peacemaker in the first centuries. Essential background reading.
122. Curran, P.C. “Peace,” NCE 11 (1967): 37.
Implicit in the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount is the notion that peace is only imperfect in this life. A pre-Vatican II interpretation.
123. —. “Epikeia,” NCE 5:476-77.
Essential to the Christian meaning of peace, epikeia means reasonableness in one’s dealings with other people, a “restrictive interpretation of positive law” that leads one above the limits of human law to the higher law of God.
124. Egan, Eileen. “The Beatitudes, The Works of Mercy, and Pacifism.” In Thomas A. Shannon, ed. War or Peace? The Search for New Answers. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982, 169-87.
A reflection on the Sermon on the Mount, the loss of early Christian pacifism, the distortion of Christian virtues in the contemporary world, and a call to return to these Gospel virtues.
125. Foerster, W., et al. “Eirene,” Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Gerhard Kittel, ed.; Geoffrey W. Bromley, trans. and ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1976, 2: 400-420.
Examines the meanings of eirene in the New Testament from that of greeting and farewell, to salvation and fulfillment, to an inner commitment to God that can lead to bitter enmity with those who do not share it. Eirene is not merely inner peace and harmony of the soul; that is charis. The peacemaker, eirenopoios, is one who establishes peace and concord between people.
126. Frend, W.H.C. Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker House, 1981.
A definitive study, with much useful background information for the Hebrew and New Testament traditions. Christ rejected the messianic violence of the Maccabean tradition in favor of the cross, the suffering servant and prophet. Martyrdom was accepted from the time of Paul on as a perfect imitation of Christ in nonviolent witness to his truth.
127. Fuller, R.H., and I Fuller, eds. Essays on the Love Commandment. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978.
Not seen.
128. Furnish, V.P. The Love Command in the New Testament. Nashville: Abingdon Press 1972.
Focuses on the text of Matthew 5:38-48, related texts, and the forms and history of interpretation.
129. —. “War and Peace in the New Testament,” Interpretation 38, 4 (1984): 363-79.
Reviews the political world of the New Testament and Christ’s ministry and word. The world of the New Testament was one at peace, in which Christian believers did not hold power, and of which Christians did not believe themselves a part. Nevertheless, the message of both Jesus and Paul was one of nonviolence. Even their imagery, while sometimes violent is meant to illustrate spiritual points about the kingdom and its approach.
While war and peace are not specifically part of Christ’s message, war is never seen as part of God’s purpose, and obedience to God always held above that to Caesar. The early church fully understood this nonviolence. Reviews many key texts often used to support war and rejects war interpretations.
130. Gross, Heinrich. “Peace,” An Encyclopedia of Biblical Theology. The Complete Sacramentum Verbi. Johannes Baptist Bauer, ed. 3 vols. New York: Herder & Herder, 1970, 648-51.
Peace is both a gift and a task to constantly seek peace. While it is a gift of the Son, it is also a commitment by his disciples to the kingdom of God. Extensive use of biblical citations.
131. Kissinger, Warren S. The Sermon on the Mount: A History of Interpretations and Bibliography. Metuchen, NJ: ATLA Bibliography Series, vol. 3, 1975.
A comprehensive history of interpretations from the Ante-Nicene Fathers to the present followed by an immense bibliography. Kissinger’s afterword concludes: “The Sermon on the Mount’s radical demands cannot be evaded by understanding them as a summons to repentance and as a preparation for the word of grace. They are not an interim ethic.…”
132. Kittel, Gerhard. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Geoffrey W. Bromley, trans. and ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1976.
A valuable resource.
133. Lassere, Jean. War and the Gospel. Oliver Coburn, trans. Scottsdale, PA: Herald Press, 1962, reissued 1974.
An unabashedly pacifist interpretation of the New Testament that has received much criticism for its admitted “critical insight.” While pagan empires are long dead, the values of antiquity live on in the modern love of war and the cult of the state. In the Protestant sectarian tradition, Lassere attempts to uncover the true pacifism of the Christian church before its supposed lapse into barbarism with Constantine and the Catholic Middle Ages. Nevertheless, his close attention to the classic biblical texts and his refutation of standard misinterpretations of these texts to bolster the crusade and the just war make this essential reading. For Lassere “pacifism” is too narrow a term, often confused with “passivism.” Nonviolence and active struggle are more in keeping with the Gospel sense.
134. Léon-Dufour, Xavier. “Peace,” Dictionary of Biblical Theology. P. Joseph Cahill, ed.; E.M. Stewart, trans. New York: Seabury Press, 1973, 411-14.
Examines the meanings of eirene and pax in the New Testament. In the Gospels peace is not calm but division. Christ is the prince of peace announced by the angels and hailed on his entry into Jerusalem. He retains the powers of peace contained in the Hebrew word: healing, forgiveness of sins, restoration to life. John’s Gospel stresses the challenge and promise of peace in Christ’s commission to his disciples. Paul’s epistles tie peace inextricably to love of God and of fellow humans. The Mystical Body is the chief agency of this peace. The Apocalypse makes the New Jerusalem the vision of peace that Christians pursue relentlessly.
135. Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968, 647.
For the meaning of pleision, one’s neighbor.
136. MacGregor, C.H.C. The New Testament Basis of Pacifism. Nyack, NY: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1968.
Even though some of the issues MacGregor confronts now seem outdated, this is an excellent introduction to the texts and basic principles of the Gospels and Epistles. He rejects objections that the Sermon on the Mount was meant as an interim ethic, for particular individuals, as Semitic hyperbole, or as counsels to perfection. It is basic to understanding Christ’s message. While Christ’s kingdom is not of this world, that does not mean it is not for this world. Truth, love, and peace are Christ’s message. Active nonviolence are its methods, and its context is fully political, fully in keeping with Jewish, and Christ’s own, concepts of the Messiah. The Christian message of the New Testament is definitely aimed to undercut Rome and its prevailing ethos.
Yet Christ’s rejection of Messianic war lead to immediate abandonment by his followers and to his cross. Christ’s followers must imitate this cross, not for the suffering but the witness to the truth that it is not the individual Christian, but God’s truth that triumphs. Presents a helpful assemblage of important texts on peace, selflessness, love, forgiveness, love of enemy, suffering, and reconciliation.
137. Makarewicz, S. “Epikeia (in the Bible),” NCE 5: 476-77.
An essential part of Christian peacemaking is epikeia, or forbearance, akin to the equity that a judge exercises to rise above the letter of the law in order to reach justice. It is the opposite of strict justice, the lex talionis, “an eye for an eye.” In imitating Christ’s own forbearance and gentleness, which mistakenly appears to some as a passive meekness, Christians will later share in the splendor of Christ as the glorified judge.
138. McSorley, Richard, S.J. New Testament Basis of Peacemaking. Washington: Georgetown University Center for Peace Studies, 1979.
A fundamental book for the Christian peace tradition, this covers much the same ground as MacGregor. (See 136.) It deals with basic principles of the New Testament. These include the priority of love of God and our neighbor, as well as love of our enemies. Such love is not passive, however, but is active peacemaking. Love can never support killing or the use of force in war. Police action should not be confused with war. The pacifist is not against nonlethal, limited force applied in accordance with law. Other principles include God’s parentage of all people, our love for them as brothers and sisters, and the infinite value of the human person. The end of love is equal to the means, thus we must reject temptations to power and force and imitate Christ.
The book also covers the classic texts that support nonviolence and rebuts their use to support militarism. It then surveys the peace tradition in the early church and the just-war theory and answers objections to the pacifist position. The book’s outlook is activist, it aims at an audience seeking the scriptural foundations for action.
139. Merton, Thomas. “Blessed Are the Meek: The Christian Roots of Nonviolence.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 208-18.
Focuses on Christ’s call in the Sermon on the Mount for true Christian humility, its true meaning, not passive meekness or tameness, but a selflessness, a desire not to win but to witness God’s truth, thus avoiding moral aggression. True peace is based on the unity, not the division, of humanity. True humility, the weakness of Christ, is like the mustard seed, a slow, secret growth of the hidden power of God that is manifest in one’s person. This power is not the desire to prove the other wrong, but it aims at real conversion of both the other and of the self. Nonviolence must be shown as a desirable alternative, not a moral cudgel. This meekness is not a flattering attempt to please one’s enemy but a trust in the goodness of other people and a refusal to despair.
140. —. “Peace: Christian Duties and Perspectives.” In Thomas Merton. The Nonviolent Alternative. Revised edition of Thomas Merton on Peace. Gordon Zahn, ed. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1980, 12-19.
Christ is the prince of peace. The Christian is the peacemaker, the true child of God. Moral passivity is the worst danger for the Christian. The just war is impossible.
141. “Paix,” Dictionnaire de théologie catholique. Tables générales. 2: 3407-9.
Christ as the author of true, not simply, exterior, peace.
142. Perkins, Pheme. Love Commandments in the New Testament. New York: Paulist Press, 1982.
This excellent study guide covers the problem of the New Testament ethic, the double love command (Mt. 22:34-40, etc.), the love of enemies, modern interpretive metaphors, the parables of the prodigal son and the good Samaritan, love and Christian conscience, love as Christian freedom, as the fulfillment of the law, love of enemies as witness to God’s truth, love of enemies and submission to authority, and God as love. Good selected bibliography, incorporating much recent scholarship.
143. Piper, John. ‘Love Your Enemies’: Jesus’ Love Command in the Synoptic Gospels and in the Early Christian Paraenesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
A remarkable textual study with thoroughgoing notes and bibliography that demonstrates both the genuineness of Jesus’ love command and its living tradition in the early church. Surveys the Stoic, Scribal and Rabbinical traditions to show the originality of Christ’s message. Even the Hebrew Bible’s call to love one’s neighbor and sojourners in the land, to reject inner as well as outer grudges, cannot be seen as the sources for the New Testament teaching to love one’s enemies voiced by Jesus and repeated by Paul. Christ has rejected the lex talionis, “an eye for an eye.” Even the institutionalization of Christ’s message in the early church could not blunt the force of this command.
It is the act itself that shows Christ’s true followers, it is not a prerequisite to becoming the children of God. The way to the goal, the kingdom of God, thus becomes the goal itself. Love of enemy is also a paradox resolved by political context. For while love of enemy rejects violent resistance, it does not forego all resistance, nor does it ignore evil: it aims to convert the enemy over to the truth.
144. Rodriquez, M. “Peace (in the Bible),” NCE 11: 37-38.
In the New Testament eirene conflated both the Hebrew and the Greek meanings of peace. Objectively it meant eschatological salvation and cessation of divine wrath, right relations among peoples. Subjectively it meant serenity and tranquility of soul in the awareness of reconciliation with God. In the Gospels it appears as the gift of Christ, the Messianic peace possessed by the Christian even in the present world. In the Epistles it coexists even with the most active conflict as the consequence of justification. It is the fruit and effect of God’s grace. In the early church it is also the term used to describe their flourishing condition. Extensive use of biblical citations.
145. Schroeder, F. “Paul, Apostle, St.,” NCE 11: 1-12.
A good review of his life, teachings, and writings.
146. Sider, Ronald J. Christ and Violence. Nyack, NY: Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Not seen.
147. Van der Ploeg, J., O.P. “Peace, I, In the Old Testament,” Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible. Louis F. Hartman, C.SS.R., trans. and ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963, 1782-84.
The New Testament continues Old Testament meanings of peace, using eirene to covey all the meanings of salom. Peace is a Messianic promise, a gift of Christ, a condition of strife with the world, and the flourishing condition of the primitive church. For Paul peace is also the reconciliation between Gentile and Jew that Christ has brought. Extensive use of biblical citations.
The Politics of the Gospels
148. Bammel, Ernst, and C.F.D. Moule, eds. Jesus and the Politics of His Day. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
A collection of essays that sets out to examine the thesis that Jesus was somehow allied with the Zealot movement of armed resistance to Rome. Topics discussed range from Jesus’ relations to the Zealots, his religious opposition to Judaism, the sources for the trial of Christ, the revolt of C.E. 70 in Christian tradition, Jesus’ reputation as a brigand in the anti-Christian polemics of the pagans, the question of the tribute coin, Jesus’ claim to bring “no peace but a sword,” the question of the two swords brought by the apostles just before his arrest, the political charges against Jesus, and his trial. The overriding conclusion of the collection is that Jesus was announcing a new order that went beyond political aims but that inevitably brought him and his followers into conflict with the established order. Well annotated with an excellent index to biblical citations.
149. Cassidy, Richard J. Jesus, Politics and Society. A Study of Luke’s Gospel. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1983.
While Jesus and the Zealots were on opposite poles of the world of action and ideas, Jesus’ teachings were still powerfully revolutionary, and he was considered dangerous to the Roman Empire. Cassidy examines Luke as a historian, Jesus’ social teachings, his attitudes toward political rulers, his trial and execution, the political situation in Israel at the time, social and economic factors, and the various political factions vying for supremacy within Judaism. Well annotated, with an excellent bibliography.
150. Daube, David. Civil Disobedience in Antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1972.
Includes many groups: women in the Bible and in Greece and Rome, children and slaves, prophets and philosophers, religious minorities, and liberation movements. Christians are excluded since Christ resorted to violence at a key moment: the cleansing of the Temple. The Sermon on the Mount was in no way nonviolent.
151. Ferguson, John. The Politics of Love: The New Testament and Nonviolent Revolution. Nyack, NY: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1979.
This is essential and basic reading for an understanding of the meaning of Christian peacemaking from the New Testament to Constantine. While it is unfair to extract individual biblical texts either to support or to refute pacifism, current biblical scholarship seeks the overall context of Jesus’ words. Such an examination leads one to conclude that the Sermon on the Mount contains Christ’s true teaching. His command to love your enemy is not a temporary ethic, it is political and social, not merely personal; and it is a command, not a counsel to perfection. Paul’s letters, written down before the Gospels, fully share in Jesus’ call to peacemaking. Examines all the key texts in the New Testament, along with problem passages that have traditionally been used to support the warmaker and those supposedly supporting the just-war tradition.
152. Grant, Robert M. Early Christianity and Society. Seven Studies. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1977.
A good survey of Christian attitudes to patriotism, taxes, work, occupation, property, the state, and the Pax Romana. Discusses the conflict inherent in the classic dichotomy between Romans 13 and Apocalypse 13, of Rome as God-given authority, or Rome as the persecuting beast.
153. Niebuhr, Reinhold. Moral Man and Immoral Society. New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1960.
The classic statement of the position that the individual Christian’s morality and the Gospel call to perfection has nothing to do with the morality of politics or the secular world, and that the Christian message is at heart nonpolitical. A major objection to any definition of peace as active and engaged with social justice.
154. Troeltsch, Ernst. The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches. Olive Wyon, trans. New York: Harper & Row, 1960.
An historical survey of the development of Christian ethics, stemming from the same tradition as Niebuhr’s (153), that saw Christian ethics as essentially quietist.
155. Zampaglione, Gerardo. The Idea of Peace in Antiquity. Richard Dunn, trans. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1973.
It is difficult to justify even the just war from an exegesis of the Sermon on the Mount, the heart of the Gospel. Imagery of violence is either allegorical or used in parables. Yet Zampaglione’s interpretation of peace in the New Testament is a quietist one. Christ’s peace was internal and promised for the future. Love of enemy is merely the means to some future, and individualistic, salvation. Christ’s message of peace as interpreted by the early church was essentially otherworldly. No attempt was made to change the present world, and expectations of peace were apocalyptic. Pacifism was simply one element needed to free the downtrodden from frustration and a sense of inferiority. Paul called for obedience and accommodation to political reality.
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