William Penn | Peace Couple

We continue with the third chapter from the The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace This week we discuss the third chapter of the book which is an excerpt from Ralph Waldo Emerson‘s essay entitled War. This chapter is in the Pre-Twentieth Century section of the book . Last week we discussed an excerpt from a 1693 essay by William Penn entitled Essay Towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe.

Shall it be war, or shall it be peace?

The discussion in this chapter is, unfortunately, as modern as the Duke’s recent Facebook discussion with childhood schoolmates. The other participants in the discussion brought up every possible reason why the war they opposed is an acceptable course of action. The lesser evil. The corruption of money in politics. The current state of affairs. The Duke kept returning the discussion to the phrase that ends the selection from Emerson’s essay, and serves as this paragraph’s pull quote. Continue reading Power of Nonviolence Emerson War: Peace Book Chapter 3 10/3/11 →

We continue with the second chapter from the The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace This week we discuss the second chapter of the book which is an excerpt from a 1693 essay by William Penn entitled Essay Towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe.

This chapter is in the Pre-Twentieth Century section of the book . Last week we discussed the first chapter which contains the writings of the the Buddha, which was entitled Let a Man Overcome Anger by Love.

Even though one would expect a Duke to be conversant in dense, prosey writing, I must admit to this few page excerpt from Penn’s essay being rough going.

Penn starts off by arguing against the Latin proverb of the time that “Peace is Sought through War.” He argues instead that peace is found through justice. This quickly brings to mind Dr. King‘s response to the charge that the Montgomery Bus Boycott was disturbing the peace: Continue reading Power of Nonviolence Mighty Penn: Peace Book Chapter 2 of the Week 9/26/11 →