Ain’t Gonna Study War No More: Biblical Ambiguity and the Abolition of War
by Albert C. Winn

Foreword by Walter Brueggemann

Anybody who knows Al Winn will know to expect a book on peace that is honest, trenchant, evocative, and energizing. And that is exactly what this book is. The thing about Al Winn is that he cares so much and knows so much -- rare combination! He cares so much because there resonates in his body the deepest passions of Christian faith for justice, peace, and human welfare. And those passions regularly drive him to public action that is risk-taking and future-creating. He knows so much because he is an informed, disciplined scholar who works the classic sources, and who thinks with judiciousness about the present crisis. This book, as a result, is a rich, well-documented resource.

The outcome of that caring and knowing is a book that will force rethinking and that will summon to reperception and to faithful action. Winn is honest about the ambiguity of the Bible on his topic, but equally unambiguous about the requirement of the gospel in our particular moment of discernment and obedience. His book is a courageous, poignant contribution to the missional crisis now facing the church. Winn understands about the match between means and ends, and understands that peaceful ends require peaceable means. The message, rooted deep in this man of peace, offers the best of evangelical faith in an accessible, inescapable way.

Walter Brueggemann

Columbia Theological Seminary