Nonresistance (or non-resistance) is "the practice or principle of not resisting authority, even when it is unjustly exercised". At its core is discouragement of, even opposition to, physical resistance to an enemy. It is considered as a form of principled

nonviolence Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...

pacifism Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ...

which rejects all physical violence, whether exercised on individual, group, state or international levels. Practitioners of nonresistance may refuse to retaliate against an opponent or offer any form of

self-defense Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of Force (law), ...

. Nonresistance is often associated with particular religious groups, such as Anabaptist Christianity. Sometimes nonresistance has been seen as compatible with, even part of, movements advocating

social change Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations. Sustained at a larger scale, it may lead to social transformation or societal transformat ...

. An often-cited example is the movement led by

Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British ...

in the struggle for Indian Independence. While in particular instances (e.g., when threatened with arrest) practitioners in such movements might follow the line of nonresistance, such movements are more accurately described as cases of nonviolent resistance or

civil resistance Civil resistance is a form of political action that relies on the use of nonviolent resistance by ordinary people to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and co ...

History

Anabaptist Christianity, which emerged in the Radical Reformation of the 16th century, became defined by its adherence to the doctrine of nonresistance, which they teach is found in the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

in Matthew 5:39: "do not resist him who is evil." The term ''nonresistance'' was later used to refer to the Established Church during the religious troubles in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

following the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

and Protestant Succession. Nonresistance played a prominent role in the

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...

movement in the 19th-century United States.

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

, Adin Ballou, and

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

were notable advocates of nonresistance. However, there were variations between them. Gandhi's '' Satyagraha'' movement was based on a belief in resistance that was active but at the same time nonviolent, and he did not believe in using nonresistance (or even nonviolent resistance) in circumstances where a failure to oppose an adversary effectively amounted to cowardice. "I do believe," he wrote, "that where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence."

Christian theology

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

nonresistance is based on a reading of the Sermon on the Mount, in which

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

says: Members of the Anabaptist Christian (

Mennonite Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

Amish The Amish (, also or ; ; ), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, church fellowships with Swiss people, Swiss and Alsace, Alsatian origins. As they ...

, Hutterite, Schwarzenau Brethren,

River Brethren The River Brethren are a group of historically related Anabaptist Christian denominations originating in 1770, during the Radical Pietist movement among German colonists in Pennsylvania. In the 17th century, Mennonite refugees from Switzerl ...

, Apostolic Christian and Charity Christian) denominations, Holiness Pacifists such as the Emmanuel Association of Churches and Church of God (Guthrie, Oklahoma), as well as other peace churches like the Quakers, in addition to the

Moravian Church The Moravian Church, or the Moravian Brethren ( or ), formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century and the original ...

, have interpreted this passage to mean that people should do nothing to physically resist an enemy. According to this belief, only

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

has the right to execute punishments. Nonresistant Christians note that sacrificial love of Jesus resulted in his submission to crucifixion rather than vengeance. Anabaptist theology teaches: The

traditionally has taught the principle of nonresistance. In the Gnadenhutten massacre, members of the U.S. Militia murdered pacifist Moravian Christian Lenape at their settlement in Gnadenhutten (meaning "Houses of Grace" in the German language) and they became recognized as Christian martyrs: To illustrate how nonresistance works in practice, Alexandre Christoyannopoulos offers the following Christian anarchist response to

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

: Author James R. Graham wrote, "The Christian is not a pacifist, he is a non-participationist." A main application of this theology for nonresistant Christians is to practice conscientious objection with respect to military

conscription Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...

. In addition to conscientious objection, nonresistant practices of Old Order Mennonites,

, and

Conservative Mennonites Conservative Mennonites include numerous Conservative Anabaptist groups that identify with the theologically conservative element among Mennonite Anabaptist Christian fellowships, but who are not Old Order groups or mainline denominations. Co ...

include rejection of the following civil practices (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:1–8): sue at law, lobby the government, hold government office, use the force of the law to maintain their "rights" .

Footnotes

References

NonResistance.org

The Doctrine of Nonresistance in Anabaptist Theology - Pilgrim Mennonite Conference
*{{cite book , last = Bondurant , first = Joan V. , author-link=Joan Bondurant , title=Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict , url = https://archive.org/details/conquestofviolen0000bond_l9k2 , url-access = registration , publisher=Princeton UP , year=1988 , isbn=0-691-02281-X

- written in 1927 by John Horsch, a Mennonite historian and church leader.
Nonresistance
- article in the ''Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia''

* ttp://www.fredsakademiet.dk/library/tolstoj/tolstoy2.htm#contents Tolstoy's Legacy for Mankind: A Manifesto for Nonviolence, Part 2 Christian ethics Nonviolence

History

Christian theology

See also

Footnotes

References