Mennonite Weekly Review

LANCASTER, Pa. — Attending a conference on peacemaking in Minneapolis in October, Lutheran pastor Rolf Olson didn’t know he was about to be challenged to use some of the lessons he had learned right away.

Among other speakers, Olson had heard retired Bluffton (Ohio) University religion professor J. Denny Weaver.

Weaver had spoken about the concept of the “nonviolent atonement” in which God embodies only peace and compassion, never resorting to violence to enact his will.

This idea would make a lasting impression on Olson — so deep it would be evoked only days later at the funeral of Olson’s daughter, Katherine, 24, who was murdered while her father was at the conference on Oct. 25.

“Do not say her senseless and violent death was what God wanted,” Lutheran pastor Tom Koelln said at the young woman’s funeral, alluding to one of Weaver’s talks. “God did not want another angel. That would be an insult to God and an insult to the Olson family. We do not believe in a cruel and capricious God. What happened was evil — undisguised, uncensored, unmasked evil.”

Weaver’s talk was part of a conference organized by the Lancaster-based Preaching Peace ministry. Preaching Peace, which has a Web site devoted to spreading the gospel of Christian nonviolence, is led by a group of theologians and lecturers that includes Michael Hardin, who attends Akron Mennonite Church.

Hardin said the seminars and conferences that Preaching Peace hosts each year build not only on Christ’s message of peace but also on interpretations of mimetic theory, an approach to discourse outlined by retired Stanford University professor Rene Girard.

Mimetic theory, Hardin said, holds that people learn by imitation, or mimicry. People often imitate rivalries, leading to the scapegoating of those deemed threatening. According to Girard, Christ is the ultimate nonviolent scapegoat — carrying the burden of human sins, redeeming mankind without using force and providing a peaceful example to imitate.

“It’s something that really is part and parcel of who we are as human beings,” Hardin said of the theory’s tenets.

Preaching Peace, which draws on speakers from a variety of Christian backgrounds, offers several nonviolent atonement seminars each year on topics ranging from “Perceptions of God That Lead to Violence” to “Restorative Justice as Forgiveness.” The first such gathering in 2008 will be held Jan. 12-15 at Parkersburg, W.Va.