ABSTRACT
As Martin Luther King Jnr pointed out so forcefully, in a time of terror, violence tends to spiral out of control, constantly getting worse and destroying multitudes of innocent people, as well as losing sight of any sensible and achievable objectives, let alone looking to ways of resolving the initial disagreement and making peacemaking and the healing of old wounds more and more difficult. All the time the wounds get deeper, the rage sharper, and the possibilities of reconciliation more evanescent. Admiral Fisher represented a widely held view when, in criticizing the Hague Convention of 1899, he declared, ‘The essence of war is violence. Moderation in war is imbecility. Hit first, hit hard, and hit everywhere.’1
Apocalyptic theologies can, and often do, support this kind of attitude, and make things worse, especially if they persistently understand the world as the battlefield of Armageddon, the conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, the only outcome of which may be the total victory of the good and the elimination of the evil ones and all their works. It is important for Christians to remember that the Babe whose rocking cradle vexed two thousand years of history was – and is – also and primarily the Prince of Peace, and the Lamb who has already achieved through his life and death reconciliation, the One who on the cross prayed for forgiveness for his executioners.
