Trying to figure out peace theology

Ted Grimsrud—October 4, 2025

In the Fall of 1980, Kathleen and I looked forward to our year at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries with little idea what to expect. We hoped for inspiration and to understand better our Christian pacifist convictions. We learned more than we imagined we could. And by the end of the school year, I had a new goal I had not imagined before—to study for a PhD in peace theology. When we returned home to Oregon, we began a fifteen-year period that would include more education for both of us, culminating in my doctorate from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. I would also spend about ten years as a pastor in three settings. This period culminated when I became a college professor in peace theology. Those fifteen years proved to be a time of learning what peace theology would mean to me.

Taking the first steps

In 1981, I could imagine three different directions. I could focus on the intellectual arena and become a professor, teaching and writing. Or I could turn toward direct action and be a full-time peace activist. I found both options attractive but unlikely to be possible. A third option seemed a more realistic way to combine intellectual and on-the-ground work—to serve as a pastor. We planned for Kathleen to return to college for a couple of years. I would complete my work for a masters degree in peace studies from AMBS.

As it turned out, a couple of unexpected developments caused us to adapt our plans. An unplanned, and joyful, pregnancy meant Kathleen would have her hands full with her college classes and becoming a new mother. Also, I was offered an interim pastorate when the Eugene Mennonite Church pastor took a sabbatical. So, my hands were full, too, with my coursework, the arrival of our son Johan, and serving as a half-time pastor. This left little time for peace activism work, so it fell to the side.

Kathleen loved her studies. Each class gave her an opportunity to learn new things and to work on integrating her peace convictions, philosophical inclinations, and her rapidly evolving faith convictions. Johan arrived midway through the first of Kathleen’s two years as a full-time student. We struggled to find time and energy for everything. The baby’s presence required numerous choices of priorities that meant our lives did not unfold quite like we had expected. However, we generally successfully managed to juggle all the elements of our lives.

The pastoring option

I pastored at Eugene Mennonite Church during the Fall and Winter of 1982. I cannot say I loved pastoring. However, I did enjoy the preparation and delivery of sermons. I received positive feedback from the congregation, enough so that I felt emboldened to submit a series of sermons as articles to The Gospel Herald, the weekly magazine of the Mennonite Church. The publication of those articles opened several doors a few years down the line, played a key role in my next pastoral assignment (interim pastor at Trinity Mennonite Church in Phoenix), and formed the bases for my first book (Triumph of the Lamb: A Self-Study Guide to the Book of Revelation, 1987). I felt free to express my theological convictions in sermons, classes, and conversations. I used the sermons as opportunities to reflect on peace theology. It was a good discipline to focus on biblical materials and to apply them to peacemaking issues in our world.

I had gotten interested in the book of Revelation with the debates we had about pacifism at Orchard. The decidedly non-pacifist perspective of God in Revelation (as we all assumed) seemed to argue against pacifism. I had to find out if I could read Revelation pacifistically. So, I got to work and received a shock. I discovered that in fact a significant group of scholars offered peaceable readings of Revelation. During our year at seminary, I took a class on Revelation and realized even more that Revelation indeed should accurately be seen as a book of peace.

When I started my interim pastorate, I decided to jump right in and try to work out what I thought about Revelation. My attempts, over the course of seven sermons, to present the peace teachings of Revelation received positive responses, enough to give me the courage to submit them to the Gospel Herald. Those articles elicited quite a few letters from readers, almost all positive. During the remaining time of my interim I continued the pattern of finding peace themes in the Bible and bringing those out in the sermons.

The academic option

The idea of pursuing an academic career became more attractive as I worked on my MA. I enjoyed the studying and writing. The academic option best matched my passion. I taught a college course on Christianity and war that I enjoyed. Five years later, I encountered one of the students and he told me that that had been his favorite class in college. For my thesis, I took on a large topic—“Foundations for Christian Social Responsibility.” I liked working on a big project like that. My central thesis that theologically we should hold “love” and “justice” together has remained an important motif for my later theological work.

We decided that our next step would be to pursue graduate studies. I wanted to test my interests in becoming a scholar of peace theology. The pastoral option would be a good backup. I I did not feel confident that graduate school would lead to an academic career. I knew that few graduate students found professorial positions. However, both Kathleen and I loved the idea of studying theology at a higher level, and we could then see where that would lead us.

We did experience some good fortune. I got accepted to the GTU, and we planned to move to Berkeley. Kathleen would attend Pacific School of Religion, one of the GTU member schools. In the meantime, we would spend a year in Phoenix with Kathleen’s family so they could learn to know Johan. In Phoenix, Trinity Mennonite Church unexpectedly offered me an interim pastorate. I enjoyed preaching to a larger audience. I also enjoyed teaching a couple of Sunday School classes. One on the book of Revelation allowed me to write the first draft of the book I published a few years later. Another class introduced the Mennonite tradition to new members. I co-taught it with Guy Hershberger, the great Mennonite peace theologian.

Christian pacifism in history

The transition to my doctoral program challenged but invigorated me. The GTU allowed students to individualize their own programs. I kept mine centered on peace themes. Because the US Catholic Bishops had issued their widely noticed pastoral letter on nuclear war shortly before I began the program, the GTU had more direct interest in peace related themes during the years I was there than normal. It also helped that the Bishops’ Letter made the unprecedented (in official Catholic circles) move to recognize pacifism as a legitimate option for Catholics. That helped people in my program (most of whom were Catholics) give more credence to my perspective.

I centered my work around five comprehensive exams. I focused on (1) early Christianity and war and peace; (2) the main currents in 20^th century Christian just war thought; (3) analyzing the hermeneutics of Latin American liberation theologians compared with philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer; (4) a critique of social thinker Ernst Troeltsch’s understanding of sectarianism; and (5) an overview of 20^th century Christian social ethics. For my dissertation, I analyzed the witness of World War II conscientious objectors in the United States.

I interviewed several dozen World War II COs and read most of the published literature. My main resource was our library’s treasure-trove of newspapers that the CO’s various Civilian Public Service camps scattered across the United States published. These newspapers contained many articles by COs that articulated their philosophies and their experiences at the time and reflected a wide variety of perspectives—thus serving as an ideal source for me.

I challenged understandings of “conscience” that focus on the individual convictions of COs. Such analyses tend to ignore the social context for the formation and sustenance of pacifist convictions. I emphasized how local faith communities shaped their youth’s convictions. These communities provided concrete support to enable these COs to sustain and deepen their pacifist convictions during their time of service in face of pressure from the wider society and from the government’s CPS system to abandon their CO stances. I also analyzed the experience of the several thousand COs who chose not to cooperate with the draft and ended up in prison.

I identified four distinct tendencies of thought and origins among the COs. The tendency most familiar in typical understandings was the “resister tendency,” young men who resisted the draft itself and went to prison. Resisters tended to be radical politically and to be deeply critical of the entire American warring state. A second tendency more willingly cooperated with the government, sought social reform, and worked for change within the political system

The third group, by far the most numerous, “servants” understood as their calling to offer works of service as an alternative to the world’s warring. They did not make general arguments in favor of pacifism for the outside world but focused on how communities of faith with pacifist convictions could model a peaceable way. The fourth group, “separatists,” had little interest in changing the wider world. They had negative views about the world’s social and political systems—including the war system. They sought to be as separate from the world as possible.

Back to the Bible

It took nine years for me to get a college teaching job. During those years, I wrote some and pastored in two different congregations. My pastoring work included Bible study and preaching. The sermon-making process involved interaction with people in the congregations—few of whom had formal theological training but many of whom loved to think and to explore new ideas related to their faith. A key event during my Eugene years happened as a result of the first war on Iraq under the leadership of President George H. W. Bush. I welcomed the task of preaching peace in the midst of a warring state. In my overtly antiwar sermons, I drew on the Bible and the Mennonite peace theology tradition. The affirmation offered by the congregation and the numerous useful conversations were deeply meaningful.

In 1994, we moved to Freeman, South Dakota, so Kathleen could join me in a shared pastorate at Salem Mennonite Church. Our new church was almost ten times larger than the Eugene congregation. At Salem, I had many more pastoral responsibilities than I had had in Eugene. But I also had Kathleen to share them with. I felt challenged to find ways to work at peace theology in an environment that did not fully affirm that emphasis. The politically conservative people in the congregation did respect the Bible and the Mennonite peace tradition. Insofar as I framed my sermons in biblical terms and in classes referenced the Mennonite tradition, my ideas about peacemaking found a positive reception.

Going forward in this series of posts, I will now step away from the autobiographical themes and turn first to constructive theology and then to an analysis of the American Empire in relation to peace theology. As befits a Mennonite approach to theology, the framework I develop in the next five posts draws directly from the Bible. I will construct a Bible-centered framework for interpreting American history and culture in relation to the practice of war and peace. I will also briefly summarize and critique the failure of the broader Christian tradition to apply the Bible’s anti-imperial message to how Christians have related to their own nations’ warism.

[This is the tenth of a long series of blog posts, “A Christian pacifist in the American Empire” (this link takes you to the series homepage). The ninth post in the series, “A second conversion and a new community,” may be found by clicking on this link. The eleventh post, “Learning from the Bible’s suspicion of empires” may be found by clicking on this link.]