Table Of ContentJust Revolution
Just Revolution
A Christian Ethic of Political Resistance
and Social Transformation
Anna Floerke Scheid
LEXINGTON BOOKS
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Copyright © 2015 by Lexington Books
Cover image “To the Sky,” © 2009 Nathan Ackman. www.nathanackman.com
Excerpts from Interpersonal and Social Reconciliation: Finding Congruence in African
Theological Anthropology, by Anna Floerke Scheid, Horizons, Volume 39, Issue 01
(Spring 2012), pp. 27–49, copyright © 2012 The College Theology Society. Reprinted
with the permission of Cambridge University Press.
“Waging a Just Revolution: Just War Criteria in the Context of Oppression,” by Anna
Floerke Scheid, was previously published in Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics,
32.2 (Fall/Winter 2012): 153–172. Reprinted with permission of The Society of Christian
Ethics.
“Under the Palaver Tree: Community Ethics for Truth-Telling and Reconciliation,” by
Anna Floerke Scheid, was previously published in Journal of the Society of Christian
Ethics, 31.1 (Spring 2011): 17–36. Reprinted with permission of The Society of Christian
Ethics.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Scheid, Anna Floerke, 1977-
Just revolution : a Christian ethic of political resistance and social transformation / Anna Floerke
Scheid.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7391-9094-4 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-7391-9095-1 (electronic) 1. Revolu-
tions--Religious aspects--Christianity 2. Government, Resistance to--Religious aspects--Christianity.
3. Peace--Religious aspects--Christianity. 4. Just war doctrine. 5. Christianity and politics. 6. Apart-
heid--South Africa. I. Title.
BT738.3.S3175 2015
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2015013902
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Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
1 Historical Context for a Case Study: Oppression in South Africa 1
2 Theological Roots of the Just War Tradition and Just
Peacemaking Theory 11
3 Just Peacemaking Practices for Resisting Oppression 39
4 The Just War Tradition and Revolution 71
5 Restorative Justice for the Common Good 109
6 Just Revolution and the “Arab Spring” 135
Bibliography 157
Index 163
About the Author 171
v
Acknowledgments
I am filled to brimming with gratitude to so many who inspired, supported,
and assisted me throughout the process of writing this book. Chief among
these are my extended network of family, friends, and colleagues who pro-
vided motivation and encouragement in the form of conversations, questions,
and oftentimes active and compassionate listening.
I am monumentally indebted to my mentors in theology and ethics, many
of whom read iterations of this text and all of whom have influenced the
development of my thinking and writing. In particular I thank David Hollen-
bach, S.J., Lisa Sowle Cahill, Stephen J. Pope, Thomas Nairn, O.F.M., and
Robert Schreiter, C.PP.S.
Several institutions and organizations have afforded me the opportunity to
present this material at both U.S. and international conferences where col-
leagues encouraged me to develop my thought across cultures, to pursue new
resources, and to sharpen lines of argumentation. I am grateful to the Society
of Christian Ethics, the Catholic Theological Society of America, the College
Theology Society, the Hekima Institute of Peace Studies and International
Relations, and Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church. Likewise, I
am grateful to my home institution, Duquesne University, most especially for
their generous support of my work via the Presidential Scholarship Award.
Moreover, I express my gratitude to all of my colleagues in the theology
department at Duquesne for their gracious support and to my research assist-
ants Jeffrey Schooley and Arlene Montevecchio for their hard work and
diligence.
In addition, several of my colleagues including Mark Allman, James P.
Bailey, Meghan Clark, Beth Haile, Marinus Iwuchukwu, Matthew Shadle,
Elochukwu Uzukwu, Elsabeth T. Vasko, and Tobias Winright read drafts of
vii
viii Acknowledgments
chapters and offered invaluable constructive criticism that has greatly
strengthened this book. Their friendship and colleagueship is indispensable
to my life as a scholar.
I am truly fortunate that my cousin, Nathan Ackman, is both a talented
and generous artist. I am extraordinarily thankful for the stunning and evoca-
tive cover image, “To the Sky,” that he created for this book.
Finally I thank those closest to me, who bore the brunt of my anxiety as I
wrote this text, but also share most deeply in my delight at seeing it come to
fruition. Thank you to my children Henry Daniel, Clare Susanna, and Eamon
Patrick, and to my husband and partner Daniel P. Scheid. Dan and I have the
somewhat rare blessing of being not only spouses and friends, but also col-
leagues. We are both theological ethicists, with offices just two doors apart.
When discovering this, people often remark that it must be difficult to work
with one’s spouse. Not so. Dan is the first sounding board for all of my ideas,
the kindest but most honest (and thus most valuable) critic, a deeply intelli-
gent and vastly compassionate person, to whom I am ever grateful. Working
closely with my spouse is indeed a blessing, and one that I cherish.
This book is dually dedicated: first, to Dan, whose love and support
enabled me to write it; and second, to oppressed people—this book’s agents
and subjects—who endeavor to forge a more just and peaceful world.
