Lee Griffith is a teacher, author, and social activist currently working with a community mental health program in Elmira, New York. A frequent contributor to magazines like The Other Side, Sojourners, and Brethren Life and Thought, he is also the author of The Fall of the Prison: Biblical Perspectives on Prison Abolition, chosen by Christianity Today as one of the best books of 1993.
America
"What more appropriate time than this year of bombings,
retaliations, wars, and rumors of war to investigate the meaning
and practice of terror, especially in its relationship to
faith?...This is a welcome but disturbing book for serious American
Christians." Religious Studies Review
"There are few books that would qualify for my 'must read' list,
but this is one. The compelling timeliness of the topic is only
surpassed by the thoroughness with which the author addresses it. .
. This book is well suited as a text in courses on contemporary
world issues, international relations, peacemaking, as well as
theological analyses of theodicy and suffering. " Mark
Juergensmeyer, author of Terror in the Mind of God
"This is a timely and thoughtful reflection on the epidemic of
religious violence in our time. Lee Griffith destroys the myth that
terrorism is the sole property of Islam and explores the bloody
images to be found in every religious tradition. He shows
convincingly that religion is used -- and abused -- in the service
of political causes that deflect its emphases on transcendent
values and peace. He is not afraid to challenge the assumption that
violence should be countered by violence, and he argues that our
response to terrorism has to be more elevated than its cause. This
is an important statement, one that will appeal especially to
readers from a Christian background, but one that will interest
anyone who wants to understand the dark side of religious faith."
Walter Wink, author of The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the
Son of Man
"This book was already in production when the events of September
11, 2001, took place. It is as if Lee Griffith saw it all coming
and wrote this thoroughgoing study of terrorism and its antidote,
nonviolence, in anticipation of the worldwide terrorist campaign
and the ill-conceived counterviolence of the great powers. His
timing could scarcely have been more providential, or our debt
greater." Choice
"An important book." Theological Book Review
"A searching discussion of a theology of peace." NAPRA Review
"This book was written and titled nearly a year before the terrible
crimes of 9/11, yet it contains a clear, cogent, and amazingly
prescient commentary on the current international crisis." Tony
Campolo, Eastern College
"This book is a call for Americans to take a good look at ourselves
and to reflect on what God requires of us in these painful days
since September 11, 2001. It will be upsetting to anyone who says,
'My country, right or wrong! But right or wrong, my country!' I
believe that the publication of this book is proof of God's perfect
timing." Elizabeth McAlister
"Some of us feel that in its war on terrorism our nation has become
a monster, its deadly and duplicitous actions imitating and
imitated by those whom it names 'terrorists.' Some of us are
haunted by the spectre of institutions of domination -- the CIA,
NSA, WTO, IMF, the World Bank, the Pentagon -- institutions that
enable the very crimes they were instituted to preclude. Some of us
resist the taxonomy of 'good people' versus 'evil people' and
refuse to be terrified on command. Some of us would rather suffer
ourselves than be the cause of another's suffering. For all who
choose living compassion, binding wounds, and sharing resources so
as to deny terror any power over us, The War on Terrorism and the
Terror of God is must reading." Howard Zehr, Eastern Mennonite
University
"The War on Terrorism and the Terror of God is an immensely
poignant and profoundly prophetic book. The fact that it was
written before the attacks of September 11 only adds to its power:
it anticipates and provides a critical analytic framework for
understanding most of the issues raised by these attacks, but does
so without the 'skewing' of perspective that has affected the world
in its aftermath."
Ask a Question About this Product More... |