If Jesus Is Lord - by Ronald J Sider (Paperback)

About the Book

Noted theologian and bestselling author Ron Sider provides a career capstone biblical-theological case for the view that Jesus calls his disciples to love, and never kill, their enemies.

Book Synopsis

What does Jesus have to say about violence, just war, and killing? Does Jesus ever want his disciples to kill in order to resist evil and promote peace and justice?

This book by noted theologian and bestselling author Ronald J. Sider provides a career capstone statement on biblical peacemaking. Sider makes a strong case for the view that Jesus calls his disciples to love, and never kill, their enemies. He explains that there are never only two options: to kill or to do nothing in the face of tyranny and brutality. There is always a third possibility: vigorous, nonviolent resistance. If we believe that Jesus is Lord, then we disobey him when we set aside what he taught about killing and ignore his command to love our enemies.

This thorough, comprehensive treatment of a topic of perennial concern vigorously engages with the just war tradition and issues a challenge to all Christians, especially evangelicals, to engage in biblical peacemaking. The book includes a foreword by Stanley Hauerwas.

From the Back Cover

"The most insightful and persuasive treatise for Christian peacemaking"

"'Jesus intended that his followers should never kill anyone!' After you read If Jesus Is Lord, you will be able to reject this claim as unworkable in the real world, but you will not be able to dispute it. A compelling and challenging volume."
--Miroslav Volf, Yale Divinity School

"Ron Sider is a rare bird among biblical interpreters: he combines well-grounded scholarly attentiveness with a lively, practical passion for a world of just peace. Our long-term debt to Sider is deep and beyond calculation. This book comes at just the right time."
--Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

"If Jesus Is Lord is excellent and extremely helpful thinking for our Catholic Nonviolence Initiative. Thank you, Ron Sider!"
--Marie Dennis, copresident, Pax Christi International

"No one tackles the tough issues like Ron Sider. This book helped me draw closer to Jesus as Lord."
--Joel C. Hunter, former senior pastor, Northland Church

"Sider's explication of Christian nonviolence, for both individuals and society, is one of the strongest I have seen."
--Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners

"In If Jesus Is Lord, Sider has presented the most insightful and persuasive treatise for Christian peacemaking. A must-read!"
--Gabriel Salguero, president, National Latino Evangelical Coalition

"In every chapter, Sider presents a compelling invitation to follow Jesus's example of nonviolent and radical love."
--Mayra G. Picos Lee, board president, Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America

"I have been reading Sider for forty years, and this is his best case yet."
--Scot McKnight, Northern Seminary

"Sider has spent a lifetime shaking up the religious establishment, blurring the lines of Right and Left. This book is eminently readable, relevant, and impactful for Jesus followers across the spectrum."
--Susan Schultz Huxman, president, Eastern Mennonite University

"One of the most important books of the year, if not of the decade. It is, in a way, one of Ron's great legacies, a life's work, a magnum opus. . . . If Jesus Is Lord: Loving Our Enemies in an Age of Violence is a gift to the church, a call to faithfulness, and a very, very, important volume. Highly recommended."--Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Books (named a Best Book of 2019)

"A masterful defense of pacifism as the only faithful option for followers of Christ."--Jon Carlson, Evangelicals for Social Action

"A helpful defense of Christian pacifism from a biblical, Christological perspective by a longtime, articulate advocate of nonviolence."--Gordon Houser, The Mennonite

"Ron Sider, in If Jesus is Lord, examines the Sermon on the Mount and its implications for violence, war, and pacifism. I consider Jesus' teachings to be the most significant location for this entire discussion. . . . The most natural interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount seems to confirm that Christians in the first three centuries were right in thinking that Jesus intended to teach his followers never to kill."--Scot McKnight, Jesus Creed blog

"A timely and ultimately inspiring study for our troubled times, If Jesus Is Lord: Loving Our Enemies in an Age of Violence is unreservedly recommended reading for all members of the Christian community."--Midwest Book Review

"Reading this book is a disturbing experience--at least it should be for anyone trying to follow Jesus Christ today. . . . [Sider] sets out the case for Christian pacifism, doing so in a way that demands our attention and response, even those of us who have not been convinced up to now."--Trevor Jamison, Reform Magazine

About the Author

Ronald J. Sider (1939-2022; PhD, Yale University) was the founder and president emeritus of Evangelicals for Social Action and served as distinguished professor of theology, holistic ministry, and public policy at Palmer Theological Seminary at Eastern University. He wrote more than thirty books, including Nonviolent Action, The Early Church on Killing, Just Politics, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, Good News and Good Works, and the bestselling Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger.