The breadth and depth of this text powerfully illuminates the distinctive Christian call to faithful peacemaking, particularly in our own day. While daunting, this is the enduring call to disciples and Church, named in the Gospels and underscored in the Presentation of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of Church: “Transforming social realities with the power of the Gospel, to which witness is borne by women and men faithful to Jesus Christ, has always been a challenge and it remains so today at the beginning of the third millennium.”

This text argues persuasively that nonviolence is “constitutive of the life of faith” and “a necessary foundation for a culture of peace” (7). It includes a number of descriptions of nonviolence, such as “the thorough rejection of violence combined with the power of unconditional love in action” (8); “a paradigm of the fullness of life rejecting violence and killing, returning good for evil, healing divisions, and putting sacrificial love into action for a just, peaceful, sustainable and reconciled world” (19); “a way of life, a spirituality, and a method for preventing or stopping violence without using violence, while also fostering just and peaceful alternatives” (20); and “a force that resists injustice and violence, a spiritual discipline and a powerful strategy that challenges violence without using violence, transforms conflict, fosters just, peaceful, effective and sustainable resolutions to conflict and seeks the well-being of creation and community” (59). Contributors to the text approach nonviolence and a just peace ethic from a principled theological perspective while also examining its application as a practical framework and set of strategies. The authors are not only focused on war but wisely deal with multiple forms of interpersonal as well as collective violence.

The text offers the beautiful insight that the spread of active nonviolence is a contemporary sign of the times. It explores the foundations of nonviolence in Scripture as well as in Church teaching documents, and from various theological perspectives (including Christology, pneumatology and ecclesiology). This sampling of 20th and 21st century Church teaching documents, and of various theological disciplines, warrants our serious consideration.

The book provides a thoughtful and nuanced call for the Church to take up a renewed moral framework for building peace. Renewal will come through embracing the rich Biblical wisdom around peace, as well as the growing understanding of how to build a sustainable peace in the face of real and often seemingly intractable conflict. Such peace is rooted in the varied experiences of Christians in every culture who are successfully living out their faith in the face of violence, as well as in the core Christian principles, norms and values that can sustain peace.

While the text describes and analyzes Church-wide teaching and international efforts, one of its more engaging aspects is the narration of concrete, local examples. The new moral framework mentioned above is illustrated with examples drawn from peacemaking efforts at the US/Mexico border, in response to gang violence in El Salvador, amidst civil war in South Sudan and in Syria, and in connection to questions that surround the role of policing within local communities, among others.

I was particularly struck by the call to parishes to practice nonviolence and embody a just peace ethic. This seems an under-appreciated emphasis today, yet it resonates with the Biblical emphasis on local Christian communities and the great potential for parishes to become schools of Christ-like nonviolent love.

A lower-level point: Though this book includes an extensive set of footnotes to relevant resources, there is no topic index, which would make using the book in some academic contexts a little more difficult. Nonetheless, the book would serve as an excellent basic text for an undergraduate course or a parish study group. Readers, instructors and facilitators may wish to get the study guide available through the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative.

The clear Gospel focus, contemporary examples from around the world, concrete recommendations and the comprehensive structure of this text lay out a clear, persuasive and passionate argument for Catholics, families, parishes and the Church as a whole to take up the call to nonviolence and just peace. I look forward to further reflection on this text, to sharing and discussing it with others, and to incorporating it into my own teaching.