STRIKE TERROR NO MORE: Theology, Ethics, and the New War

Following the events of September 11, many Americans sat down to CNN as if it were overdue homework, dutifully learning geographies, vocabularies and clichés to make sense of old and new realities. Beyond such information, however, many of us crave thoughtful ethical and theological analysis around the attacks on Washington and New York and America's October response. In this anthology, 38 Jewish and Christian scholars of theology and ethics, among other disciplines, reflect on Psalm 10:17–18: "O Lord you will hear the desire of the meek; you will strengthen their heart... so that those from earth may strike terror no more." For the contributors, recent events raise difficult questions of interpretation with respect to Psalm 10. "Who are the meek," asks editor Berquist, "and how will God protect them from terror?" The collection's five parts reflect on the following: root causes of September 11; insights from Scripture's apocalyptic tradition; theological wisdom on the way ahead; the "just war" tradition; and life and faith after September 11. This book is not a conversation, but a series of short, provocative pieces (excellent, with few exceptions) that express thoughtful and politically diverse leadership on the issues they address. Martin Marty, Fumitaka Matsuoka, Max Stackhouse, Ron Sider and Ariel Dorfman are among the contributors. The book would have been strengthened by including Islamic perspectives, not for ecumenism's sake, but in order to provide theological and ethical perspectives from the third tradition discussed in the essays. (Mar.)