Previous

October 1975 · Vol. 4 No. 4 · p. 392 

Book Review

A Strategy for Peace

Frank H. Epp. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1973. 128 pages.

Reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

This series of eleven essays by the president of Conrad Grebel College represent an attempt to speak to the question of war from a Christian pacifist position. The essays include papers published previously and lectures given at universities, in churches, etc. They reflect very sharply the agony of the late 1960’s and the mounting revulsion against the war being waged by the United States in Vietnam.

Written for Christian audiences, they focus on two approaches to Christian pacifism: the obedience motif stemming from the reconciliation effected by the cross (“Evangelism and Peace”), and the pragmatic motif stemming from the preference of pacifism to militarism on strategic grounds (“On Being Afraid of Communism”).

Epp’s contribution focuses for us as Christians what our individual and collective (church) stances need to be in light of the good news.

Vern Ratzlaff
Mennonite Brethren Bible College

Previous