La Lettre aux paysans sur la pauvreté et la paix écrite avant les accords de Munich et publiée, après eux, en 1938, est par excellence le texte illisible de Giono. Communiquant avec l’idylle virgilienne, elle s’en sépare en parlant non pas des paysans mais aux paysans. S’il est un romancier célébré, ses essais sont jugés avec sévérité, son lyrisme romanesque y deviendrait inefficace et ils manqueraient de l’ambiguïté féconde des fictions. Aussi les a-t-on sciemment ignorés ou tenus pour de maladroites concessions au discours social. Plus grave encore, ce texte anti-technicien, pour la paix et pour la paysannerie, nourri par l’expérience de la guerre de 14-18, a paru vidé de toute sa substance par les événements historiques qui lui ont succédé et par l’exploitation approximative de certains de ses thèmes par le pétainisme, qui contribuera à l’inscription de Giono sur la liste noire des écrivains interdits de publication après-guerre. Or, chronologiquement, la Lettre se situe au pivot des « deux » œuvres ou des deux manières de Giono et porte en elle les traces d'une crise intérieure qui est un élément indispensable pour comprendre cette délicate articulation. D’une réflexion sur « les temps actuels », le romancier est passé à des fictions ancrées dans une temporalité stendhalienne. Pourquoi alors est-elle alors demeurée une sorte de point aveugle, impossible à regarder ? Réfléchir à cette Lettre et à sa réception, c’est poser de manière aiguë la question du texte, de son lien avec son contexte d’écriture et de lecture, d’autant plus que la Lettre veut être un geste, une entrée dans l’histoire. Si Albert Camus l’a lu à sa parution et en a rendu compte, Bernard Charbonneau, précurseur de l’écologie politique, s’en est très certainement inspiré sans le dire, et les silences de Maurice Blanchot qui écrit pourtant en 1942 un article sur Giono sont également significatifs. Que se passe-t-il si on lui choisit un autre contexte ? Si on la lit depuis la crise morale et politique des années 1970, sous l’éclairage des événements du Larzac ? Si on la considère à partir des écrits de Jean Baudrillard ? Qu’est-ce qui, ainsi, entre alors dans le temps où se situent ensemble le texte et son lecteur ? / The Lettre aux paysans sur la pauvreté et la paix (Letter to the Peasantry on Poverty and Peace), written before the Munich Agreement and published after it, in 1938, has become an illegible text. Related to Virgilian idylls, it nonetheless differs from them because it does not elaborate about peasants but addresses them. If Giono is a distinguished novelist, his essays are judged severely, his romantic lyricism is felt to be ineffective in non-fiction, and they appear to miss the fertile ambiguity of his novels. Thus, they were knowingly ignored or taken for awkward concessions to some weak social discourse. Worse, this anti-technological stance for peace and for peasantry, fed by the experience of the World War I, seems to be emptied of all substance by the historical events which followed it and by the vague appropriation of some of its themes by Petainism, that will contribute to put Giono on the official blacklist of banned writers after World War II.From tales on "current times", the novelist turned after the war to fictions rooted in a Stendhal-related temporality. And chronologically, the Letter is the pivot of Giono’s "two" works or “two” styles and reflects an inner crisis that sheds light on their elusive bond. Why did-it then remain a sort of blind spot, impossible to face? Examining this letter and its reception, acutely raises the issue of the relationship of the text with both its writing and reading contexts, especially as the Letter aims to be an action, with an effect on History. Albert Camus has read and chronicled it at the time; Bernard Charbonneau, the precursor of political ecology, was without a doubt inspired by the Letter without actually quoting it, and Maurice Blanchot’s silence in the article he wrote on Giono in 1942 is also significant.What happens if one chooses another context for the Letter, if one reads it from the point of view of the 1970s moral and political crisis, under the light of the Larzac struggle, if it is considered from the stance developed in Jean Baudrillard’s writings? What then is entering the moment in which the text and its reader coexist?

Since 1902 conscientious objectors in Sweden could apply for civil military services without arms, based on religious convictions. A new law in 1966 gave legal ground to apply for non-military service also based on ethical convictions. The number applicants increased much more than authorities expected. In the 1960s the political left also began involve themselves in pacifistic issues which has been quite studied before. But with the change of the new law, the number of applications with a religious (Christian) conviction also multiplied.With this background, this thesis set out to study two historical problems. First, it asks how the conscientious objectors from the nonconformist-churches were looked upon by the authorities. Secondly it enquires about the discrepancy between the pacifistic convictions found in the men doing non-army service from Pentecostal churches, versus the non-existing public support on a national level in the Pentecostal movement for their pacifism.3 (31)The study spans 1960-1976 and uses a comparison between four different narratives - the national military narrative, the individual-ethical narrative, the pacifistic-political narrative and the nonconformist-churches pacifistic narrative - as a method to explore different views. The thesis shows that the largest number of conscientious objectors came from the non-conformist churches and the Pentecostal movement. However, while the majority Pente-costals on grassroots level stayed true to an historical pacifism, the prominent leader, Lewi Pethrus, had a more nationalistic view accepting a militaristic narrative. This discrepancy was never publicly debated and while the Pentecostals exercised a strong pacifistic practice they never developed any formal doctrine for it. The thesis shows how grassroots pacifism was hindered to become a wider peace-vision in the Swedish Pentecostal movement.

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In the 1800s Sweden decided to change into a mandatory conscription-army, meaning that every man in the nation was obliged to be trained as a soldier. The Baptists were pacifists and this essay studies a Baptist offshoot named Fribaptisterna (Free Baptist), who from the start in 1872 opposed military-service. The Swedish government sentenced them to prison and penal work. This did not intimidate them as their determination was strong, resulting in new laws were passed in Sweden. In 1902 the king would accept exceptions and in 1925 a law was passed which made it possible for conscientious objectors to be released their military duty. This essay looks at the forming of the collective pacifistic identity among Fribaptisterna and study what practices the denomination had to mobilize its members to be pacifists and conscious objectors. / <p>Godkänt datum 2021-06-06</p>

This project traces the development of Christian nonviolence in the United States from the outbreak of World War I until just after World War II by focusing on one Christian pacifist organization. The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), organized in 1915 in opposition to World War I, embraced the left wing of the prewar social gospel and fused its radical vision for social reconstruction with their opposition to war. Over the next thirty years, Christian pacifists associated with the Fellowship applied their energies not only to ending international war but also to promoting reconciliation between employers and workers in the struggle for labor justice and ending racial discrimination. During this period, advocates of nonviolence struggled to define a practical means for applying the principles of Christian pacifism. In contrast to older histories of the interwar period, this study shows that pacifism, a central concern for liberal Protestants during that period, shaped the broader American tradition of dissent. It also rejects the notion that the Christian "realists," led by Reinhold Niebuhr, offered the only comprehensive Christian social ethic between the wars. Finally, this dissertation shows how Christian pacifists in the interwar period embraced and adapted the principles Gandhian nonviolence to the American scene. Members of the Fellowship founded the Congress of Racial Equality in Chicago in 1942 and developed methods of nonviolent direct action that were adopted by advocates for racial equality during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

The legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer has largely been dependent upon the understanding of his position of pacifism and just war in the context of the Second World War. His own writings and presentations, particularly ones advocating for pacifism, seem contrary to his actions and involvement in the resistance movement against Nazi Germany. Scholars on both sides of this debate have presented compelling evidence to sway their audience one way or the other concerning Bonhoeffer's ethical position. This debate is further complicated by Bonhoeffer's own view of his life as a "straight and unbroken course." As many have claimed Bonhoeffer's ethics to justify their own stance on pacifism and just-war, the purpose of this paper is to determine if such claims are warranted. This paper seeks to investigate such claims by looking at Bonhoeffer's own writings throughout the course of his life. It traces his biography in attempts to place his writings in context. While many of his writings are important in understanding Bonhoeffer's worldview, this paper largely focuses on Sanctorum Communio as the basis for his theological framework, and his publications of Discipleship and Ethics wherein lies the tensions of understanding his position. This paper will attempt to show that while Bonhoeffer was not against pacifism and in fact advocated for peace, his contextual ethics serves as strong evidence that he was not a pacifist according to its most basic definition.

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Master of Arts / Department of History / Robert D. Linder / As the United States descended into war in 1861, the religious leaders of the nation were among the foremost advocates and recruiters for both the Confederate and Union forces. They exercised enormous influence over the laity, and used their sermons and periodicals to justify, promote, and condone the brutal fratricide. Although many historians have focused on the promoters of war, they have almost completely ignored the Disciples of Christ, a loosely organized religious movement based on anti-sectarianism and primitive Christianity, who used their pulpits and periodicals as a platform for peace. This study attempts to merge the remarkable story of the Disciples peace message into a narrative of the Civil War. Their plea for nonviolence was not an isolated event, but a component of a committed, biblically-based response to the outbreak of war from many of the most prominent leaders of the movement. Immersed in the patriotic calls for war, their stance was extremely unpopular and even viewed as traitorous in their communities and congregations. This study adds to the current Disciples historiography, which states that the issue of slavery and the Civil War divided the movement North and South, by arguing that the peace message professed by its major leaders divided the movement also within the sections. In fact, by the outbreak of war, the visceral debates that occurred among the Disciples leadership did not center on the issue of slavery, constitutionality of secession, or even which belligerent was in the right. The chief point of contention was whether a Christian, based on New Testament precepts, could participate in war. The nonviolent leaders thought that their peace message derived from the New Testament would be the one thing that would preserve unity in the brethren. In reality, it became the primary source of division.

This is an art-remix project that focuses on a dream about art and music remixed and made within a context of nonviolence. The goal is to create temporary (and in the long term hopefully stabile) spaces of peace. It will be done within places where change needs to come, where it needs to be heard/seen/experienced. Weapon exports from Sweden are increasing even though there is research showing that nonviolent resistance in conflict is more effective. In this essay I discuss nonviolence and how I can implement that in my work to find a meaningful work for both me and my neighbours. The name of the project is Civil Oljudnad (= Civil Noise of Disobedience). / Civil Oljudnad

Save the Children Fund (SCF) was at its foundation in 1919 a value-driven organization. The values, or guiding principles, of the founding generation are the lens through which I look at the history of SCF, and the associated histories of war and peace, human rights and NGO-state relations. These guiding principles are identified as universalism, utilitarianism and optimistic pacificism. They can be understood as a paradigm to which the social community which made up the founding generation of SCF gave their assent. The first chapter locates the founding generation within the political culture of the anti-war movement. Succeeding chapters detail the metamorphosis of SCIF from a'contentious social movement into a respectable national organization. As soon as the organization adopted a national rather than a universal orientation, the coordinates of all its guiding principles shifted. In particular the optimistic pacificism of the founding generation was replaced by pessimistic defencism. It was not until after the Cold War that SCIF began to realign itself with its original guiding principles. The three guiding principles are found to be of continuing relevance. Universalism has been reasserted as a positive creed leading SCF to seize political opportunities to reach out to children from all sides. The organization has adopted a utilitarian perspective that affirms the dynamic role of young people in generating their own futures. Lastly, the primacy attached to peace by war-affected people has underlined SCFs urgent mission to uphold an optimistic belief in the possibility of peace.