Poets, War and the Human Inside the Enemy
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Our Guests
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Author of Fire By Night: Finding God in the Pages of the Old Testament and How To Have An Enemy: Righteous Anger and the Work of Peace. Pastor, parent, and pollinator gardner
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Carol Penner teaches and writes in the area of practical theology and after many years as a pastor in various Mennonite congregations, she joined the faculty at Grebel. Her research interests include feminist theology and Mennonite peace theology, and abuse issues. She has a popular blog of her worship resources at www.leadinginworship.com.
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Betty is a Conflict, Change, and Leadership Specialist at Credence and Co., with over 28 years of experience as a coach, mediator, trainer, facilitator, consultant and writer. Betty specializes in working with complex challenges, supporting leaders and their organizations to be at their best. Betty’s capacity to care deeply, listen well, and provide wise and thoughtful support allows her to help her clients engage in tough, meaningful, and important conversations, set directions, and achieve positive organizational change. Betty’s PhD (Free University Amsterdam) considers the intersection between conflict transformation and contemplative spirituality.
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After studies at Fresno Pacific University, Mennonite Brethren Bible College, University of Manitoba (BA Hons), and Harvard University Divinity School (MDiv, ThD), Tom served as hospital and prison chaplain in Winnipeg, as well as pastor in Thompson, MB, and Boston, MA. He served on the MCCanada Christian Formation Council and is presently chair of the Faith and Life Commission of the Mennonite World Conference. His teaching and preaching have taken him beyond North America to Europe, Asia, and Africa. Tom is author numerous articles, both popular and scholarly, as well as books such as Guilt and Humanness: The Significance of Guilt for the Humanization of the Judicial-Correctional System, 1982; Put on the Armour of God! The Divine Warrior from Isaiah to Ephesian, 1997; Ephesians (Believers Church Bible Commentary), 2002); Christus ist unser Friede: Die Kirche und ihr Ruf zu Wehrlosigkeit und Widerstand, 2007; Recovering Jesus: the Witness of the New Testament, 2007; and Killing Enmity: Violence and the New Testament, 2011. Tom and his wife Rebecca are members of First Mennonite Church, Kitchener, ON.
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Brian Zahnd is the founding pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri, and the author of ten books. His most recent book is “When Everything’s on Fire.”
Links and Resources
Books
How to Have an Enemy, by Melissa Florer-Bixler
The Space Between Us, by Dr. Betty Pries
Killing Enmity, by Dr. Thomas Yoder Neufeld
When Everything’s On Fire, by Brian Zahnd
Music
First Communion, Dane Joneshill
(Spotify | YouTube Music)
Poems
Glory of Women, Sassoon
Strange Meeting, Owen
Notable Quotes
“Foreheads of men have bled where no wounds were.
“I am the enemy you killed, my friend.
I knew you in this dark: for so you frowned
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.
Let us sleep now. . . .” ”
“O German mother dreaming by the fire,
While you are knitting socks to send your son
His face is trodden deeper in the mud.”
Is holding boundaries an act of mercy to the aggressor?
An enemy is someone whose story you've not heard. ~Brian Zahnd
The real enemies are these principalities and powers of hubris and pride that think that one nation needs to hold dominance over another just because. ~Brian Zahnd
I get frustrated when we talk so much about nonviolence, and we talk about war because we haven't been at war for decades. And yet, everyday violent actions happen in the church, and we aren't addressing it. Sexual violence is the number one type of violence our churches are dealing with right now. ~Dr. Carol Penner
We are all created, the just and the unjust alike, in the image of God. In some of us the image is deeply broken. But the Quakers have this wonderful way of wanting to see that of God in everyone. Mennonites haven't stressed that strongly enough in my view. We've been more obedience to “don't retaliate or turn the cheek.” We haven't really gone for yearning, for seeing the face of God in the enemy. ~Dr. Thomas Yoder Neufeld
