Shalom

In his book, Nonviolence, Mark Kurlansky laments that there is no good word for "not violence" other than "nonviolence." He complains that "pacifism" isn't an active enough word for what he desires and that "peace" is, in its own right, too passive. It seems to me that the word Kurlansky is looking for is shalom. It is a wholeness and wellness that can only be brought about by the presence of God, specifically the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, and Isaiah, the God revealed most fully in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It seems that we will never make sense of nonviolence apart from the presence of God and, again, the God who refuses to win by coercion, but whose victory is understood most fully in a cross.