Just revolution
Subtitle: a Christian ethic of political resistance and social transformation
By: Anna Floerke Scheid
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Lanham
Language: eng
Number of pages: 171
ISBN-13: 9780739190944; 9780739190951
Subjects: Christianity and politics; Revolutions; Just war doctrine; Apartheid; Resistance to Government; Peace; Christianity
Description: Despite the U.S. Catholic Bishops' 1983 declaration that "insufficient analytical attention has been given to the moral issues of revoluationary warfare," theological scholarship has been slow to engage in systematic analysis of what makes a revolution ethical or unethical. Just Revolution: A Christian Ethic of Political Resistance and Social Transformation aims to address this lacuna. What principles and practices ought to guide people who want to free themselves from dictatorial or oppressive governments? With this question in mind, this book focuses on oppressed peoples as agents of their own processes of social transformation. The model of just revolution proposed endeavors to limit violence to do the least possible harm while overcoming political oppression, working toward justice, and promoting long-term efforts at peacebuilding and sociopolitical reconciliation. Using the South African struggle against apartheid as a case study, Just Revolution posits an ethic for revolutionary activity that begins with nonviolent just peacemaking practices, allows for limited and restrained armed resistance in accordance with revised just war criteria, and promotes post-revolutionary transitional justice and social reconciliation. Together the practices and criteria that emerge from this study yield a rich and theologically grounded ethic of just revolution. -- from back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-162) and index.
Table of contents: title: Historical context for a case study: oppression in South Africa; title: Theological roots of the just war tradition and just peacemaking theory; title: Just peacemaking practices for resisting oppression; title: The just war tradition and revolution; title: Restorative justice for the common good; title: Just revolution and the Arab Spring.