Title: OvercomingViolence in Aotearoa New Zealand: A contribution to the World Councilof Churches Decade to Overcome Violence 2001-2010
Authors: several
Publisher: Philip Garside Publishing Ltd
Publication Date: 2002
ISBN: 0-9582275-5-1
Price: NZD24.95
Reviewed by: Richard Davis, New Zealand representative at theWorld Council of Churches consultation 'Theological Perspectives onViolence', which met near Colombo, Sri Lanka, November 1999.
Reviewed: September 2002
Related Web Sites:
 | World Council of Churches DOV Site |
| Churches' Agency on Social Issues DOV Page |
Thisbook is a collection of writings on the theme of overcoming violence inAotearoa New Zealand as a contribution to the World Council of ChurchesDecade to Overcome Violence (2001-2010). It is a somewhat eclectic mix,which includes poetry, a speech and essays from an equally diverse mixof authors. It is good to see some initiative come from the churcheswithout waiting for the World Council of Churches to do all the workfor us.
One thing the book lacks is an editor. As a result the book does nothave the coherence of better-planned anthologies. It is difficult tosee a consistent theme or approach, except overcoming violence, andthat is extremely broad. But it is also specific in that it does notaim to analyse the violence in our society, which was a littledisappointing since the Decade has a very wide definition, much likethe 1987 Report of the Ministerial Committee of Inquiry into Violencechaired by Sir Clinton Roper. It helps to know what we need toovercome, and whether violence can be a good, something many peoplebelieve, as shown in their calls for the death penalty, publicfloggings and support for Section 59 of the Crimes Act and the waragainst Iraq and Afghanistan.
There is a lot of opinion here that is good leftist common sense;war and poverty are bad, we need to look after the kiddies and havegreater social coherence, uphold the Treaty and respect others. Thelinks with violence are implied rather than explained and without adefinition of violence many people may not be convinced of the claims.
The book is unbalanced toward restorative justice, with two majorcontributions by Chris Marshall and Jim Consedine. While this is aworthy cause and does help in overcoming violence it is not a strictlypreventative strategy. Consedine writes that prisons are "structures ofviolence", quite true but they are also symbols of violence. Our courtsand prisons contain many violent people and there is little here aboutstopping people entering the justice system, but much about what to doonce they get there (and to stop them re-entering the system). There issome repetition between the contributions of Marshall and Consedine; asgood as they are in themselves.
There is little here for the Churches to do in their own life. TheChurch risks the danger of having of plenty of good ideas for others toimplement, without first eradicating violence from its own life. Dochurch investment policies support companies who make profits fromviolence? Does our church support theologies of redemptive violence ofthe kind Walter Wink has written about? Do we read the bible in suchways that support violence against homosexuals, ethnic groups andwomen? Is this way the book is a limited in its aim of providing a"tool for churches" but it may make it more accessible for others.