New Creation Conversations Episode 51 - Dr. David Cramer and Dr. Myles Werntz on the Eight Streams of Christian Nonviolence

Welcome to episode fifty-one of New Creation Conversations. In this first episode of this second year and second season of this podcast, I’m delighted to be joined in conversations by the co-authors of a wonderful new book on the complex history of Christian peacemaking Dr. David Cramer and Dr. Myles Werntz. 

David teaches at the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, and he is the Managing Editor of the Institute of Mennonite Studies. David’s scholarship focuses on Christian social ethics and the difference faith makes for how Christians live in contemporary society. Like me, David serves in both the academy and the local church. He is currently the teaching pastor at Keller Park Church – an urban congregation in South Bend, Indiana. His writing has appeared in scholarly journals and popular periodicals including Christian Century and Sojourners. 

Myles is Director of Baptist Studies and Associate Professor of Theology at Abilene Christian University, where he directs the Baptist Studies Center in the Graduate School of Theology. He is the author and editor of five books in theology and ethics and writes broadly on Christian ethics of war and peace, immigration, ecclesiology, and discipleship.

David and Myles became friends while working on their PhDs together in theology and ethics at Baylor University. Their mutual interest in the practice and history of Christian nonviolence led to a twenty-year conversation and exploration of the complicated and varied approaches of Christians across the centuries to the call of disciples to make peace in the world in Jesus’ name. That twenty-years of dialogue recently was released as a very helpful book, A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence: Key Thinkers, Activists, and Movements for the Gospel of Peace – published by Baker Academic. In their book, Cramer and Werntz explore eight different streams of Christian nonviolence that not only take different approaches to peacemaking, but they also think about the call to take up the cross of Christ in different ways. In such a divided and violent age, I’m thankful for those who keep reminding us that it is the call of the disciple to participate in the new creation by making peace. However, I found David and Myles’ Field Guide so helpful in showing how complicated obedience to this call can be, and how different followers of Jesus have found different ways to pursue this call with faith. I think you will find their work helpful and I’m excited to bring this conversation to you.