463 - Christian Realism and Peacemaking: Issues in U.S. Foreign Policy

Christian Realism and Peacemaking: Issues in U.S. Foreign Policy
By Ronald H. Stone
Nashville, Abingdon, 1988. 191 pp. $12-95.

The author, long-time colleague in Presbyterian Peacemaking endeavors, former student of Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich, and now Professor of Social Ethics at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, has provided us with a suggestive study based on the premise that Christian "realism" and serious Christian commitment to peacemaking are not incompatible. Indeed, the two necessarily reinforce each other in the avoidance of either a detached idealism or a defeating cynicism, the author contends. Stone mixes insightful interpretation of biblical passages, analysis of the contributions of Tillich, Niebuhr, and others, and case studies of contemporary issues that confront those who would be both realists and peacemakers. General chapters explore familiar questions: the meaning and ethics of peacemaking and shalom, which he roots in I Corinthians 13; the causes of war; the nature of human rights; the tradition of justifiable war; and the utility of that tradition for revolutionary situations. Case studies focus on revolution in Central America, development in India, terrorism and the Shiite connection, and U.S.-Soviet relations. These latter two will create the most debate. In analyzing the quest for relevancy to the church, he provides a blueprint for the progression from peace as present to peace as program and, finally, to peace as public policy. Stone's book is a call to creative peacemaking in the quest for a just, peaceful world order.

Robert F. Smylie
Presbyterian United Nations Office
New York, N.Y.