Religion and Nonviolence in American History

Bibliographic Data

ID4896943
AuthorsJoseph Kip Kosek (George Washington University, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume6
Issue8
Pages402-413
Publication date2012-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligion Compass (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1749-8171 • E-ISSN: 1749-8171
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1749-8171.2012.00365.x
OpenAlexW2144738609
LanguageEN
References cited44

Nonviolence has long been an important aspect of American religion. Understanding the tradition of religious nonviolence helps illuminate such subjects as the growth and limits of state power, the character of political dissent, and the significance of race in the nation's history. In the colonial period, Quakers tried to square the nonviolent ideal with the vagaries of pluralism and cultural conflict. Nineteenth-century nonresistants led by William Lloyd Garrison tied the problem of violence to the injustice of slavery. The connections between peace and justice were revitalized in the decades after the First World War, when Mohandas Gandhi's efforts in India suggested the viability of nonviolent direct action as a practical strategy for social change. That modern form of nonviolence achieved great success in the civil rights movement, as Martin Luther King, Jr. and other African American innovators used it to defeat white supremacy. Religious nonviolence was also at the center of antinuclear protests and the campaign to end the Vietnam War. More recently, nonviolence has appeared in the prolife movement and the opposition to United States military action in Afghanistan and Iraq

Civil disobedience · Dissent · Injustice · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Vietnam War · White supremacy · American Political and Social Dynamics · Gender Studies · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · Religious studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies