“A tour-de-force in understanding nonviolence.” — Phillip Lioi, Polk State College

“This is by far the best collection of writings on nonviolence I have yet encountered. It includes a good variety of approaches and traditions, many essential classics, and a good number of studies of active nonviolence in the contemporary world.” — Kenneth Basom, University of Northern Iowa

“I’ve often used the first edition and this is even better: updated, expanded, and a more holistic, detailed exegesis of the power and philosophy of nonviolence.” — Tom H. Hastings, Portland State University

“Students like having the most significant readings in one text. The Second Edition is a splendid improvement; the new articles bring it up to date (including new readings on Islam and more current conflicts). This is the best single text I have seen on this subject.” — John D. Copenhaver, Shenandoah University

“The text does a great job of bringing together classical and contemporary readings from a variety of religious and cultural sources. I am particularly pleased that it also gives case studies of religiously inspired and organized movements for nonviolent social transformation.” — Peter Gathje, Christian Brothers University

“Nonviolence in Theory and Practice is the perfect book for providing clear and grounded answers to the student who asks, in the face of the violences that flood the globe, ‘Where do we go from here?’ It raises their hopes that another kind of world is possible, free from the brutalities and wars they witness today.” — Wendy Hamblet, Adelphi University

Part I: ORIGINS

NONVIOLENCE IN EASTERN PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
1. The Ethics of Jainism (I. C. Sharma)
2. From The Way of Lao Tzu
3. From The Dhammapada
4. On the Bhagavad-Gita (Doris Hunter)

JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, AND ISLAM
5. Nonviolence in the Talmud (Reuven Kimelman)
6. How Transforming Power Has Been Used in the Past by Early Christians (Lawrence S. Apsey)
7. Saint Maximus the Confessor on Nonviolence (Thomas Merton)
8. Islam, Nonviolence, and Global Transformation (Razi Ahmad)

SECULAR ORIGINS: CHALLENGES TO INJUSTICE AND GOVERNMENT POWER
9. From The Crito (Plato)
10. Civil Disobedience (Henry David Thoreau)

Part II: THREE MODERN PHILOSOPHERS OF NONVIOLENCE: Tolstoy, Gandhi, and King

NONRESISTANCE TO EVIL
11. Letter to Ernest Howard Crosby (Leo Tolstoy)

FROM PASSIVE RESISTANCE TO DIRECT ACTION
12. Satyagraha: Congress Report on the Punjab Disorders (Mohandas K. Gandhi)
13. Satyagraha in Action (Joan Bondurant)

ACTIVE NONVIOLENCE
14. How Transforming Power Was Used in Modern Times—Against Race Prejudice in America (Lawrence S. Apsey)
15. Letter from Birmingham Jail (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Part III: WOMEN AND NONVIOLENCE

THE PIONEERS
16. The Women of the Bible and Greece (David Daube)
17. Nonviolence and Women (Margaret Hope Bacon)

WOMEN AND MILITANT NONVIOLENCE IN THE NUCLEAR AGE
18. On Revolution and Equilibrium (Barbara Deming)
19. Molly Rush and the Plowshares Eight (Liane Ellison Norman)

CONTEMPORARY FEMINISM AND NONVIOLENCE
20. Maternal Nonviolence: A Truth in the Making (Sara Ruddick)

Part IV: PACIFISM
21. The Moral Equivalent of War (William James)
22. The Pacifist Spirit (A. A. Milne)
23. Impossible Pacifism: Jews, the Holocaust, and Nonviolence (Evelyn Wilcock)
24. From The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle (J. Glenn Gray)
25. Peace through Strength (Liane Ellison Norman)
26. Pacifism and Invasion (Jessie Wallace Hughan)
27. War, Power, and Nonviolence (Robert L. Holmes)

Part V: THE PRACTICE OF NONVIOLENCE

PERSONAL PERFECTION
28. Feelings and Perceptions (Thich Nhat Hanh)
29. Learning True Love (Sister Chân Không)
30. Pacifism as a Way of Life (Richard Taylor)
31. A Muslim Views the Promise of Nonviolence (Ibrahaim Abdil-Mu'id [Clayton] Ramey)

NONVIOLENCE AS A POLITICAL TOOL
32. Nonviolent Action: An Active Technique of Struggle (Gene Sharp)
33. Why Civil Resistance Works (Maria J. Stephan and Erica Chenoweth)
34. Liberation without War: Is There a Nonviolent Way to Overthrow Dictators and Achieve Democracy? (Jack DuVall)

PRINCIPLED POLITICAL AND LABOR NONVIOLENCE
35. Cesar Chavez and Principled Nonviolent Strategy (José-Antonio Orosco)
36. Satyagraha in Tibet (Samdhong Losang Tenzin)
37. Loving One's Enemies (Barry L. Gan)

NONVIOLENCE, NATURE, AND ANIMAL RIGHTS
38. Reverence for Life (Albert Schweitzer)
39. Jaina Cosmology and Gaia Theory (Christopher Key Chapple)
40. Ahimsa (Arundhati Roy)
41. The Indian Way (Richard Deats)
42. Nonviolence and Animal Rights (Gary L. Francione)

Part VI: EXAMPLES OF NONVIOLENCE

NONVIOLENCE IN ASIA
43. The Peacemaker of the Pashtun Past (Karl E. Meyer)
44. The Philippines: The Nonviolent Revolution That Surprised the World (Richard Deats)
45. Jungle Nonviolence (Stephen Braun)

NONVIOLENCE IN AFRICA
46. Nonviolence Plays a Role in Ending Apartheid in South Africa (The Center for the Study of Conflict)

NONVIOLENCE IN THE WEST
47. Nonviolent Resistance against the Nazis in Norway and Holland during World War II (Ernst Schwarcz)
48. Lithuania’s Nonviolent Struggle (Richard L. Deats)
49. Transforming Power in the Labor Movement—Cesar Chavez (Karen Eppler)

NONVIOLENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
50. The Druze of the Golan: A Case of Nonviolent Resistance (R. Scott Kennedy)
51. Living Truth: A Jewish Perspective (Allan Solomonow)
52. Nonviolent Resistance: A Strategy for the Occupied Territories (Mubarak E. Awad)
53. Nonviolence in the Israeli Women’s Peace Movement (Gila Svirsky)
54. Nonviolence: Ordinary Palestinians Fight for Their Freedom (Lucy Nusseibeh)