“The Sermon on the Mount from Anarchist, Anabaptist and Antiracist Perspectives”

Jan 2011 Bartimaeus Institute

We explored how Jesus’ passion for social transformation was expressed in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and looked at how Christian practitioners of nonviolence have looked to this manifesto ever since. We honored the King Holiday by looking at what 20th century Anabaptism, the anarcho-pacifism of Tolstoyans and Catholic Workers, and Civil Rights activism have to teach us about faith and nonviolent movement-building. Ella Baker (left), Dorothy Day and Anna Schulz were briefly profiled as practitioners of those respective traditions. In a special session Elaine reported on her recent trip to the Ukraine to investigate the complicated historical lessons to be learned from Maknovists and Mennonites during the Russian revolution. It was a timely conversation about discipleship and liberation politics!