On Violence and Persuasion
Faculty Editorial
By: Dr. Matthew Bardowell, Assistant Professor of English, Missouri Baptist University
Lately, I’ve had occasion to reflect on violence. On a large scale, we see the violence of war and terrorist attacks. On a smaller scale we see domestic violence and the harm people do to individuals and communities. One way of explaining this might be to say that people respond with violence when someone stands in the way of what they want. Jesus’s violent death shows us that people responded to resistance in much the same way 2000 years ago. Jesus rejected violence, and it is interesting to think of how the gospel contrasts with the violent practices of the world. Jesus chooses a different way to move us from where we are to where he is. Not by force, but through persuasion. Accordingly, it might be possible to reduce every act of violence to a failure of persuasion.
Violence can never persuade; it can only coerce. How many conflicts might be avoided if the parties involved could change each other’s minds? If I could persuade you to stop doing something that angers me, I would never need to lash out in anger. Of course, persuasion is difficult to achieve, and so violence is the norm. Because I can’t reach the inner part of you that thinks and desires, I reach out for the part of you that I can affect. If I can’t make you want what I want, I can try to make you do what I want. But in resorting to violence, I am conceding defeat. I harm your body because I cannot reach your soul.
We see the failure of violence when Jesus is arrested in Gethsemane in Matthew 26. The crowd has come armed with swords and clubs because they mean to apprehend Jesus and they expect him to fight back. But Jesus recognizes the implicit failure of violence, and in doing so he accepts the violence that would be done to him. Because Jesus rejects violence, he lets us see just how powerless it is. The violence of those who beat and kill Jesus fails. He rises.
Contrast the violence of the cross with the incarnation. John 1:3 tells us that “Through [Jesus] all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” One way of understanding what Jesus comes to do is to see that he comes to persuade us. He comes to reach that part of each of us that clubs and spears cannot touch. The gospel story is a story of per-suasion, and even as Jesus is resurrected, he hints to his disciples that his plan to change the world through persuasion will continue even after he ascends to sit at the right hand of the Father. In John 16:12, he says “when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.” And so, let us give thanks to God for his great love and great gentleness. Let us rejoice in the powerlessness of violence. Let us consider the ways that God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, guides us with loving-kindness into all truth and persuades us to want the good that he wants.
Author’s Bio
Dr. Matthew Bardowell is an assistant professor of English at Missouri Baptist University. He specializes in medieval literature, specifically Old English Poetry and the literature of the Vikings. His research interests also include the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, the Inklings, aesthetics, and the study of emotion. Bardowell received his Ph.D. in English from Saint Louis University, M.A. in English from Florida Atlantic University and B.A. in English from Florida International University. He has written for numerous academic publications and presents at academic conferences.
