Violence in early Christian writings: Lessons for Christians in independent Zimbabwe

This work seeks to uncover the way in which the Church fathers have wrestled theologically with the ambivalent perspectives on violence. The early Christians, who took very seriously the injunction that they were not to take up the sword, refused to serve in the Roman armies for centuries. In essence, this work entails an historical enquiry as a basis for analysing the attitude of contemporary Christians to political violence in Zimbabwe. In the first two centuries, the problem of violence for Christians was treated as an appendage in the writings of the Church Fathers. Consequently, information about what Christians actually thought about the matter is derived from general comments on war and indirect references, which tell us little about the way in which the use of force can be reconciled in an individual's conscience with the Gospel. The article seeks to trace early Church perspectives on violence in order to find out whether the Christian attitude to politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe has its roots in church history.

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Main Author: Matikiti,Robert
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: The Church History Society of Southern Africa 2014
Online Access:http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-04992014000300002
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spelling oai:scielo:S1017-049920140003000022015-03-17Violence in early Christian writings: Lessons for Christians in independent ZimbabweMatikiti,RobertThis work seeks to uncover the way in which the Church fathers have wrestled theologically with the ambivalent perspectives on violence. The early Christians, who took very seriously the injunction that they were not to take up the sword, refused to serve in the Roman armies for centuries. In essence, this work entails an historical enquiry as a basis for analysing the attitude of contemporary Christians to political violence in Zimbabwe. In the first two centuries, the problem of violence for Christians was treated as an appendage in the writings of the Church Fathers. Consequently, information about what Christians actually thought about the matter is derived from general comments on war and indirect references, which tell us little about the way in which the use of force can be reconciled in an individual's conscience with the Gospel. The article seeks to trace early Church perspectives on violence in order to find out whether the Christian attitude to politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe has its roots in church history.The Church History Society of Southern Africa Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae v.40 n.2 20142014-12-01journal articletext/htmlhttp://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-04992014000300002en
institution SCIELO
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country Sudáfrica
countrycode ZA
component Revista
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databasecode rev-scielo-za
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region África del Sur
libraryname SciELO
language English
format Digital
author Matikiti,Robert
spellingShingle Matikiti,Robert
Violence in early Christian writings: Lessons for Christians in independent Zimbabwe
author_facet Matikiti,Robert
author_sort Matikiti,Robert
title Violence in early Christian writings: Lessons for Christians in independent Zimbabwe
title_short Violence in early Christian writings: Lessons for Christians in independent Zimbabwe
title_full Violence in early Christian writings: Lessons for Christians in independent Zimbabwe
title_fullStr Violence in early Christian writings: Lessons for Christians in independent Zimbabwe
title_full_unstemmed Violence in early Christian writings: Lessons for Christians in independent Zimbabwe
title_sort violence in early christian writings: lessons for christians in independent zimbabwe
description This work seeks to uncover the way in which the Church fathers have wrestled theologically with the ambivalent perspectives on violence. The early Christians, who took very seriously the injunction that they were not to take up the sword, refused to serve in the Roman armies for centuries. In essence, this work entails an historical enquiry as a basis for analysing the attitude of contemporary Christians to political violence in Zimbabwe. In the first two centuries, the problem of violence for Christians was treated as an appendage in the writings of the Church Fathers. Consequently, information about what Christians actually thought about the matter is derived from general comments on war and indirect references, which tell us little about the way in which the use of force can be reconciled in an individual's conscience with the Gospel. The article seeks to trace early Church perspectives on violence in order to find out whether the Christian attitude to politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe has its roots in church history.
publisher The Church History Society of Southern Africa
publishDate 2014
url http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-04992014000300002
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