About the Author

Ronald E. Osborn is an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Peace and Justice Studies Program at Wellesley College.

Reviews

""In reading Osborn you cannot help but think, 'He has to be kidding. He has to be putting us on to suggest there is a connection between anarchy and that form of Christianity called Adventist.' But he is not kidding. Rather he has written a book of lively essays to remind us that a commitment to peace is a challenge to any order based on violence. It was the Adventists, in their early formations, who reminded us that a commitment to peace cannot avoid challenging orders based on violence; that peace requires a different kind of order altogether. This is a call to the church to be that community based on the order of Christ's peace."" --Stanley Hauerwas author of Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary ""This book is a bracing read for anyone trying to make sense of Christian witness in a violent world. Osborn ranges both widely and deeply, connecting insights from theology, history, literature, and political science in startling and inventive ways. He shows how violence creates its own momentum, and offers a wide range of resources for countering that momentum. Anyone interested in living creatively in a destructive world will benefit from this book. It is the kind of book that has the power to transform lives."" --William T. Cavanaugh author of The Myth of Religious Violence ""The Christianity of the American Empire has not only come to accept the normalization of violence; it often celebrates it! How desperately American Christians need the keen insights regarding the demonic dynamics of power and violence that Ronald Osborn reflects in these essays!"" --Greg Boyd author of The Myth of a Christian Nation