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<p>One of the focuses of John Howard Yoder's theology is Christian nonviolence. From the teaching and example of Jesus, who dealt with the evil in the world and defeated it through obedience to the will of God to the point of dying on the cross, Yoder derives the normative Christian stance of nonviolence. It is expressed in the life of the disciples in their suffering with Christ the hostility of the world as bearers of the kingdom cause and in their living out the suffering servanthood in place of dominion. For Yoder, subordination is how Christ's model of servanthood is carried out into the concreteness of family life, and it is most extensively explored in his essay, "Revolutionary Subordination," in The Politics of Jesus.</p><p>This dissertation is an attempt to read household codes in the New Testament, especially Col. 3:18-4:1, together with Yoder, with a special emphasis on the husband/wife relation. Due to an exceptionally controversial character of Yoder's essay, it seeks to understand his main points, while identifying the elements that have caused strong opposition. The fact that these Haustafel texts have been historically abused to legitimate oppression and exploitation of persons poses a warning in one's endeavor to interpret them. Particularly telling is Americans' experience around slavery during and after the Civil War. The conflicting interpretations of the Bible between the proslavery camp and the abolitionists leave us in a hard place in addressing the issue of women's status in the household and in society.</p><p>Through examining key debates on the Haustafeln in the biblical scholarship focused on James Crouch and David Balch; two alternative views on the subject in theological ethics - Yoder and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza - and further discussions of their views aided by theologians such as Gordon Kaufman, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Jeffrey Stout, this study addresses issues found in Yoder and Schüssler Fiorenza. It concludes that Yoder's undue reliance on David Schroeder and his refutation of Martin Dibelius have led him to overlook the preexisting schema that was adopted and Christianized by the early church, and that he fails to name patriarchy a sin. Schüssler Fiorenza's problems are found in the areas of the biblical canon, tradition and democracy. The relevance of the slavery debates to this study is revisited through discussions of Mark Knoll and Dale Martin, and Yoder's nonviolent kingdom ethic is compared to Paul Ramsey's just war theory and backed up by Rowan Williams, Bernd Wannenwetsch, and Sarah Coakley.</p> / Dissertation

From angry torch-swinging Parisians attacking the Bastille and Russian workers rising up against the Tsar to outraged Chinese peasants exacting revenge on their landlords and Cuban guerrillas battling Batista’s army, revolutions without violence have in the past been near inconceivable. But when unarmed Iranians after an extended popular struggle forced Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, the last king of Iran, to flee Tehran on January 16, 1979, they had gifted the world a new and seemingly paradoxical phenomenon: a nonviolent revolution. Far from a historical oddity, such revolutions have since occurred on almost every continent. Over the past thirty years the function of guerrilla tactics, military coups, and civil war has increasingly been replaced by demonstrations, boycotts, and strikes. How can social scientists account for this “evolution of revolution” that have so altered the appearance of the phenomenon that by Arendt’s definition events in places like Iran, the Philippines, Chile, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine may not even qualify as revolutions? Yet, the popular overthrows of authoritarian regimes in each and every one of those countries were nothing less than revolutionary. The dissertation seeks to understand this recent development in the nature of revolutions by historically examining the phenomenon’s signal case, the Iranian Revolution. The core question asked is: what are the structural and historical forces that caused the Iranian Revolution to be the world’s first nonviolent revolution? The central argument is that both the emergence and success of the nonviolent Iranian Revolution can be explained by its internationalization. In other words, the Iranian Revolution turned out to be successfully nonviolent because, unlike previous revolutions, it was a global affair in which the revolutionaries intentionally and strategically sought to bring the world into their struggle against the state. Indirectly, the aim of this study is to generate the genesis of a theoretical framework that can explain more broadly the emergence and success of nonviolent revolutions in the late 1970s and beyond. / text

Beginning in December 2010, Tunisian citizens used techniques of protest, resistance and intervention in a struggle for freedom from the systems that had for decades denied them agency, autonomy and dignity. As a result of their resistance, in January 2011 the Tunisian people successfully deposed the authoritarian president Ben Ali after 23 years in power. Though this movement began spontaneously and operated without designated leadership, the role of the national labor union - The Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail (UGTT) - was vital in mobilizing and directing the uprising. This thesis will interpret the events of the 2011 Tunisian uprising through the framework of civil resistance, as defined by Gene Sharp and Hardy Merriman. Through the use of political defiance and noncooperation, civil resistance employs nonviolent tactics to challenge and remove entrenched political leaders and systems. This study will analyze the Tunisian uprising and the role of the UGTT in the movement using three indicators of civil resistance success: unity, strategic planning, and nonviolent discipline. Despite sporadic incidents of violence, this thesis asserts that the 2011 Tunisian uprising successfully enacted nonviolent civil resistance, and the implementation of nonviolent political action has made the establishment of a genuine and lasting democracy a real possibility for the future. The UGTT were invaluable in the 2011 uprising as facilitators and collaborators with the Tunisian people, and currently function in a pivotal nonpartisan and objective intermediary political role. Though the outcome remains uncertain and the conclusion of the revolution in flux, the 2011 Tunisian uprising has set an example and a precedent for civil resistance to the rest of the world.

Nonviolent Change Journal helps to network the peace community: providing dialoguing, exchanges of ideas, articles, reviews, reports and announcements of the activities of peace related groups and meetings, reviews of world developments relating to nonviolent change and resource information concerning the development of human relations on the basis of mutual respect. The Nonviolent Change Journal is published by the Research/Action Team on Nonviolent Large Systems Change, an interorganizational and international project of The Organization Development Institute.

This is a theoretical study of the importance of adopting a strategy when waging a nonviolent struggle on governmental oppression. It serves as a preparatory study for future research about the method of non-violent struggle. It is written to illuminate the difference between conducting a nonviolent struggle in a passive manner and conducting it in an active nonviolent manner, based on planning, structuring, discipline and hard work. Hence, the primary aim with this study is two-fold. First, it is to discern the advantages that come with developing a strategy when using non-violent action to pursue a struggle. Second, the aim is to construct an analytical framework for future studies of non-violent action. To reach the aim with this thesis, the following questions were asked: • Why should a strategy be used in non-violent action? • What similarities and differences are there between planning and structuring a nonviolent struggle, compared to an armed one? • Is there any core principles to follow and how is a clear strategy developed? This theoretical study is based on an argumentative method of research. A critical literature approach has been made and the material derives only from secondary sources like books and the Internet. The study outlines in an analytical framework that is developed to be applied in future research of non-violent cases. The outcome of this study indicates that to have a clear strategy is as crucial in a nonviolent struggle as in an armed conflict. It is of highest importance to have a detailed strategy if the struggle is going to be successful and to be able to utilize one’s resources and forces in a maximum way. When used to its maximum capacity, nonviolent action is a force that seems to be a fruitful alternative to bring about societal change.

This dissertation studies conflict in a hierarchical international system, the British Empire. How did the British Empire respond to violent and nonviolent resistance within its colonies? I develop a theory explaining how and why an imperial metropole becomes involved in and grant concessions to its colonies. Unlike federal nation-states and looser relationship like in an international organization, modern European empires were characterized by selective engagement of the metropole with its peripheral colonies. This has important implications for understanding metropolitan response to peripheral resistance. In contrast to more recent work, I find that violence was more effective at coercing metropolitan concessions to the colonies in the British Empire than nonviolence. I argue that this occurred because violence overwhelmed the capabilities of local colonial governments, and violence commanded metropolitan attention and involvement. This theory is supported with a wide range of data, including yearly measures of anticolonial resistance, every colonial concession made by the British Empire after 1918, daily measures of metropolitan discussions of colonial issues from cabinet archives, and web-scraped casualty data from British death records. In addition, I present in-depth case studies of British responses to resistance in Cyprus and the Gold Coast, along with a conceptual schema of different types of resistance to understand strikes, riots, terrorism, and civil disobedience in a number of other British colonies. My findings show that the effectiveness of resistance is conditional on the political structure that it is embedded in and that hierarchy matters for understanding state responses to resistance.

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This thesis seeks to understand which opportunities make excluded ethnic groups use nonviolence. The research question is: Under which conditions do politically-excluded ethnic groups initiate nonviolent resistance rather than violent resistance? The study challenges an existing assumption that ethnic exclusion creates opportunities for violence and hinders nonviolence, by exploring if constraints to violence favor nonviolence. I hypothesize that two opportunities from nonviolence theory – autocracy and mass participation – and two constraints to violence – the state having a powerful ally and high territorial outreach – constitute alternative pathways to nonviolence. I make a joint evaluation of these contrasting theoretical views with Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), using a comprehensive dataset of 79 campaigns initiated by excluded ethnic groups. The theory evaluation is complemented by three informative within-case studies: the Lithuanian Sajudis campaign (1988), the Druze resistance in Israel (1981) and the Malawian Anti-Banda campaign (1992). I find that opportunities from both theoretical strands work in combination. One pathway – mass participation in a state with high outreach and no powerful ally – leads to nonviolence in almost 71% of the cases occurring in that setting, and explains roughly 63% of all nonviolent campaigns initiated by excluded groups.

Text in German with abstracts in German, English and Xhosa / In dieser Foschungsarbeit werden zwei theologische Ansätze auf Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zueinander untersucht. Hierfür wird zunächst die täuferisch-mennonitische Gemeindearbeit auf ihre zugrundeliegende Theologie und Ekklesiologie untersucht. Als nächstes wendet sich der Fokus dem zweiten Ansatz, der Missionalen Theologie zu. Auch hier wird die zugrundeliegende Theologie und Ekklesiologie untersucht. Die notwendige Zuspitzung erfolgt durch die Eingrenzung auf die Entwicklungen in Deutschland. Nach dieser synchronen Herangehensweise können beide entfalteten theologischen Ansätze miteinander verglichen werden. Anschließend werden praktische Folgerungen gezogen, ob und inwiefern beide theologischen Ansätze miteinander kompartibel sind und welche Integrationsmöglichkeiten lohnenswert erscheinen. Hierbei wird die inhaltliche Nähe beider Ansätze deutlich. Die Missionale Theologie scheint der täuferisch-mennonitischen Gemeindearbeit eine Chance zu bieten, durch Ganzheitlichkeit und Kontextualisierung mehr Relevanz für die Gesellschaft zu entwickeln. / In this research, two theological approaches are examined for commonalities and differences. For this purpose, the Anabaptist-Mennonite church work is first examined for their underlying theology and ecclesiology. Next, the focus turns to the second approach, the missional theology. Again, the underlying theology and ecclesiology is examined. The necessary aggravation is achieved by limiting it to developments in Germany. Following this synchronic approach, both unfolded theological approaches can be compared. Subsequently, practical conclusions are drawn as to whether and to what extent both theological approaches are compatible with each other and which integration options seem worthwhile. The content of both approaches becomes clear. Missionary theology seems to offer Anabaptist-Mennonite church work a chance to develop more relevance for society through holistic and contextualization. / Kolu phando, iindlela ezimbini zakwalizwi ziyavavanywa kwizinto eziqhelekileyo kunye nokwahluka. Ukulungiselela le njongo, umsebenzi wecawe yama-Anabaptist-Mennonite kuqala uvavanyelwa isiseko sabo semfundiso yenkolo kunye ne-ecclesiology. Emva koko, ukugxila kugxila kwindlela yesibini, i-theology yobufundisi. Kwakhona, kuyaxilongwa ubuxhakaxhaka besayensi kunye ne-ecclesiology. Ukongezwa okufanelekileyo kufezekiswa ngokunciphisa umda kuphuhliso lwaseJamani. Ukulandela le ndlela ye-synchronic, zombini iindlela ezingachazwanga zenkolo zingathelekiswa. Emva koko, izigqibo ezisebenzayo ziyatsalwa malunga nokuba ingaba iindlela zombini ezi ndlela zenkolo ziyahambelana kwaye yeyiphi indlela yokudibanisa ebonakala iluncedo. Umxholo wezi ndlela zombini ucacile. I-Theology yabefundisi ibonakala ngathi inika icawe yama-Anabaptist-Mennonite ithuba lokuphuhlisa ukubaluleka koluntu ngokubhala izinto nangomxholo. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)