Covenant of Peace by W.M. Swartley Book Review by W. Northey

Book Review of Covenant
of Peace: The Missing Peace in New Testament Theology and Ethics, Willard
M. Swartley, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmanns, 2006; 542 pp.

By Wayne Northey 

It was my good fortune to have spent a little time with Mennonite
New Testament theologian Willard Swartley at the June, 2006 Colloquium on
Violence and Religion (COV&R) in Ottawa, Canada. I first heard from him about what surely is
his magnum opus, the volume under
review. Though he has written and edited
over 20 books during his fruitful career as professor (now emeritus) of New
Testament at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhard, Indiana.

I sent him an e-mail upon completing the read, saying: “I
sat back with a sense of not a little ‘overpeace’. It was as daunting as it was exquisite… I sit here in a kind of awe-shock at the
amazing richness of the New Testament call to peace. You have, happily, overloaded all the
circuits!” Let me explain why. 

The author informs us that this book has been “brewing for
twenty years (p. xiii).” He further
states: “[T]his book is focused on a more modest and clearly defined task,
namely, to show that the major writings in the NT canon speak to the topic of
peace and peacemaking. Further, it
intends to show how we are to seek
peace, the motivations that guide
such actions, and what ‘habits of the heart’ or practices lead to peacemaking…”

He asks at the outset how is it that a major volume on NT
theology or Pauline theology would have only one or two references to peace,
even though that word and associated motifs are throughout – over one hundred
times in NT literature, and in every NT book except I John. “Put simply, why have peace and peacemaking
been topically marginalized in the NT academic guild? (p. 3)” 

Appendix I gives detailed analysis with reference to peace of
twenty-five major works of theology and ethics over the last half-century. The point is established: there is serious
deficiency of peace in these studies. In
only two of the twenty-five publications do peace and peacemaking shape the
material. Yet neither is a full
investigation of the NT. Peace is
neglected, even missing, in all the other studies. That deficiency extends to even major works
in missiology as well. Swartley further
laments Christians who promote peace not from Scripture but general notions of
justice and fairness. He also wonders at
Christians who stress biblical authority “and then put peace and peacemaking on
discount, regarding it secondary, perhaps even unimportant, to the evangelistic
mission of the church (p. 7).”

Swartley himself helpfully summarizes the content of the
book:

Chapter 1 shows how fundamental the peace-gospel emphasis is to the core NT
teachings, especially Jesus’ announcement and inauguration of the reign of God… This sets the stage for the entire
endeavour. For even amid diversity of
moral emphases, the strength and coherence of this vision permeates the whole
NT canon.

The second
chapter takes up a study of OT understandings of shalom and eir­ēnē in
Greco-Roman usage and addresses as well what may appear to be contrary
emphases, texts that are often used to defend use of violence for self-defense
or Christian participation in war. With
Chapter 1 functioning as foundational to the project as a whole, Chapter 2
presents a necessary definitional component.

… [M]y method
of treatment is largely canonical, as becomes clear in the order of Chapters 3
– 12 [that discuss the entire sweep of NT books], with the exception of
treating the Gospel of John as part of the larger Johannine corpus and thus
contiguous to Revelation…

The three
concluding chapters (13 – 15) are more thematic. Chapter 13 is a cross-sectional NT study of
“discipleship and imitatio Christi”
together since both are related to modeling Jesus’ way of peace. Chapter 14 then loops back to issues raised
in Chapters 2 and 3 but latent throughout as well: To what extent does the
peacemaking imperative reflect God’s moral character? What does one make of the warrior-God so
prominent in OT thought? As this study
shows, some texts portray Jesus coming to battle against evil, thus extending
the OT warrior motif. Hence Chapter 14
wrestles with this issue… Finally,
Chapter 15 takes up the hermeneutical and “performance” challenge prompted by
this study. It also summarizes in
schematic format key elements discussed in Chapters 3 – 12 directed toward
moral formation of character.

In the Summary
and Conclusion I identify leading emphases of this study, including
test-criteria for the NT Theologies and Ethics volumes analyzed in Appendix
1. I also identify important issues to
be considered as we take up the challenge of this study: to be people of peace
who seek to promote peace in our world. I raise the life-commitment question: what does it mean to live in light
of this teaching, personally and corporately as God’s people? (pp. 9 & 10)

Swartley points out that Historical Jesus studies by writers
such as N.T. Wright, Marcus Borg, and John Dominic Crossan do emphasize the
peace of Jesus, and wonders at the gap between such research and ethics and
theology studies. That said, except in
N.T. Wright’s case, such Historical Jesus studies tend to drive a wedge between
Jesus and the New Testament writings, which latter are viewed, through the
postmodernist lens, with suspicion as texts of power. Swartley on the other hand reads the
canonical texts as the “play” to watch, while not unaware of the vast array of
theories about what goes on behind the scenes. At the very least, most Historical Jesus studies seem to say as much
about the researcher’s personal preferences as about anything substantive about
Jesus.[1]

Swartley convincingly points out that the “way” of Jesus was
hardly one of power, rather of persecution and death. Is the NT therefore the central world text of
deconstruction of power over/violence, and “crucifying” it (René Girard) the
ultimate act of cutting off the nose to spite the face? Similarly, Swartley draws on studies that
show the early church selection of the NT canon and martyrdom stand in vital
relationship to each other: hardly the way of power posited by postmodernists. René Girard, much discussed by Swartley in
the thematic chapters, in fact argues that the NT texts like no other ultimately
deconstruct scapegoating and the scapegoat mechanism, so fundamental to all
exercise of power over. 

At the end of his last chapter, Swartley quotes Richard Hays
at length, commenting: “I affirm Hays’s nonviolence manifesto and call for the
complement of positive peacemaking teaching and action as revealed to us by NT
Scripture (p. 429).” I once asked George
F.R. Ellis, cosmologist and winner of the 2004 Templeton Prize for Progress
Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities, why Christians
through the ages so rarely lived out this dominant NT “covenant of peace”. He replied quietly: “I guess it’s just too
difficult.” 

Willard Swartley’s book is outstanding clarion call to
embrace the unthinkable – peace for this world, and living a life of peace, knowing
that “with God all things are possible.” One can scarcely imagine the revolutionary impact of a worldwide shift
in the church towards the NT vision for peace and peacemaking. 

I will conclude with Richard Hays’ manifesto quoted and endorsed
by Swartley:

Those who are members of the one
body in Christ (Rom. 12:5) are never to take vengeance (12:19); they are to bless their persecutors and minister to their enemies, returning
good for evil. There is not a syllable
in the Pauline letters that can be cited in support of Christians employing
violence.

With regard to the issue of violence, the New Testament’s message
bears a powerful witness that is both univocal and pervasive, for it is
integrally related to the heart of the kerygma and to God’s fundamental
elective purpose. [Swartley comments:
“My version of this claim is that the NT speaks univocally and pervasively of peace/peacemaking as one central feature
of the gospel (p. 418).”]

One reason that the world finds
the New Testament’s message of peacemaking and love of enemies incredible is
that the church is so massively faithless… Only when the church renounces the way of violence, will people see what
the Gospel means… The meaning of the New
Testament’s teaching on violence will become evident only in communities of
Jesus’ followers who embody the costly way of peace (p. 429).[2]