Nonviolence: Origins & Outcomes

About the Book

In Nonviolence: Origins and Outcomes, Collyer and Zepp provide an engagingly different introduction to nonviolence and its applicability to everyday life. Nonviolence is presented as an approach to life that emphasizes successful problem-solving, which necessarily avoids violence. Human foibles that thwart nonviolence are treated with understanding and gentle humor. Zepp, a religious studies scholar with a warmly down-to-earth bent, writes about ahimsa (Sanskrit for non-injury) and agape (Greek for unconditional good will or love towards others) as two historical origins of nonviolence. Collyer, a psychologist, contributes chapters on nonviolence training and its learning outcomes, which include a more informed set of skills for opposing violence, greater caring about others, more goal-oriented and realistic attitudes, and a sense of personal commitment. Both authors are interested in how nonviolence can be taught more successfully and made more applicable to the problems and situations that people commonly face in their relationships and at work, both short term and long term. Their approach stands in contrast to views of nonviolence as a special, occasional approach associated only with the emergence of special leaders like Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King. Collyer and Zepp make extensive use of Gandhi and King, but often they probe beneath the surface to show the role played by nonviolence in promoting the formation of coalitions, in fostering openness of communication, in combating "Enemy thinking", or in motivating forgiveness. The authors emphasize that nonviolence in the way Gandhi and King used it is accessible to anyone, can be learned, and is valuable even if not practiced perfectly.

About the Author

Charles Collyer, a native of Hamilton, Canada, received his doctorate in Psychology from Princeton University in 1976. He is Professor of Psychology, and a former Chair of his department, at the University of Rhode Island. He was a co-founder of the Center of Nonviolence and Peace studies at URI. He lives in Kingston, Rhode Island and in Westminster, Maryland, where with Dr. Pamela Zappardino, he also co-directs the Ira and Mary Zepp Center for Nonviolence and Peace education.

Ira Zepp received his doctorate from St. Mary's Seminary and University, and did graduate work in Islam at Hartford Theological Seminary. He has studied in India, Mexico, Israel, and Eastern Europe. For 31 years he taught religious studies at McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College). He is this author of many articles and eight books, two of which are related to the thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. Presently he is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at McDaniel College.

Bernard LaFayette, the author of the foreword, was a member of Martin Luther King's executive staff during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and has been a nonviolence educator for over forty years. A Harvard University Ed.D., he is a former President of his alma mater, American Baptist College in Nashville, Tennessee. He currently chairs the International Nonviolence Conference Board, and is Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence and Director of the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island.