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Teaching Peace: Nonviolence and the Liberal Arts

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This is a perfect book for introducing college or university students to the philosophy of Christian nonviolence (pacifism). An opening chapter defines violence and shows the development of the concept of nonviolence from one of "not resisting" evil to "passive resistance" to nonviolent direct action in struggles for justice and peace. The rest of the book looks at the various disciplines of the liberal arts (the humanities, arts, and sciences) from the perspective of a prior commitment to nonviolence and analyzes the results. Does a commitment to nonviolence make a difference in the teaching of history (must students simply memorize battles and wars, as if they are the only important events? What difference does a commitment to nonviolence make to understanding the economics of global marketization? Does nonviolence play any role in understanding cell biology or mathematics? Many of the answers will surprise you.
The work is intended to provoke more conversations than it answers. Here is a book that could challenge your notions of education, violence and nonviolence, and of the difference that minority convictions make in one's approach to a discipline in the liberal arts.