Review
Title: Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Answer to an Age of Conflict
Author: J. David Pulsipher and Patrick Q. Mason
Publisher: Deseret Book & The Maxwell Institute
Genre: Non-Fiction
Year Published: 2021
Number of Pages: 288
Binding: Paper
ISBN: 978-1950304165
Price: 19.99
Reviewed by Conor Hilton for the Association of Mormon Letters
I have been waiting for this book my entire life. I have had pacifist/nonviolent impulses for as long as I can remember but felt that the violence and war throughout the Book of Mormon suggested that God required violence from His followers. Patrick Q. Mason and J. David Pulsipher challenge that assumption in their marvelous book Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Answer to an Age of Conflict. Over the last few years, I have become fairly persuaded by arguments from Patrick, David, and countless others that nonviolence is the way of the Lord. Patrick and David offer a uniquely Mormon ethic of nonviolence here, rooted in Restoration scripture—primarily the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine & Covenants, supplemented with statements and teachings from latter-day prophets and apostles.
The bulk of the book is dedicated to describing and articulating this uniquely Restorationist ethic of nonviolence, talking about the theological principles and teachings that should guide us in our discipleship and peacemaking. The book is in this sense, largely theoretical—offering interpretations and teachings but not focused on the practical work of living these teachings. While I wanted some more practice-based ideas, I think the work that Patrick and David do here is essential for paving the way for more practical discussions of implementing Restorationist nonviolence in our lives in the future. The book ends with a chapter that gestures towards this—focusing on what Patrick and David term “Just Ward Theory” (in a winking play on ‘just war theory’). Admittedly part of why I wanted more pragmatic advice and discussion here was so that I did not need to figure out how to best implement these teachings in my own life—I was looking to be ‘commanded in all things’ as it were (which we all know ‘it is not meet’ that that should be).
One of the most powerful pieces of the peacemaking theology that Patrick and David offer here is the way that it is grounded in Doctrine & Covenants 121. I loved the way that the book repeatedly engages with the principles found in that section, thinking about the many applications of persuasion and love unfeigned. This choice builds a strong foundation for the rest of the ethic of nonviolence. The book masterfully weaves these core principles throughout each of the chapters, creating an immersive tapestry of their argument.
The book offers a compelling alternative to many of the common interpretations of Restoration teachings about peace and war, but perhaps none more valuable than the way that Patrick and David reframe conflict. The book argues that there are two broad types of conflict—creative and destructive. Further, Patrick and David suggest that “Significantly, Restoration theology does not equate conflict with violence. Violence is a destructive form of conflict, but not all conflict is destructive. Rather, many if not most forms of conflict are potentially creative, even beautiful and necessary, because conflict is divinely ordained. Conflict is essential to the well-being of the universe in both its physical and moral sense” (67). I love the approach used throughout this chapter to describe the creative conflict as something unavoidable and even divine. Too often I think we, myself included, feel resistant to any conflict because of a desire to avoid ‘contention’. Patrick and David do some great work here to describe how peacemaking requires conflict—as long as it’s creative, not destructive.
I hope countless of my fellow saints read the good words of Patrick and David in Proclaim Peace, and that there’s an abundance of saints renouncing war and proclaiming peace. I hope to be a part of such efforts and hope all can join in the call to be peacebuilders as individuals and communities. In the final chapter, Patrick and David call on all of us to live up to this potential as a peacemaking people. They write, “So Latter-day Saints do not need to wait for the Church to create a Peacebuilding Department in Salt Lake City. We already have a clear commandment to ‘proclaim peace’…Rather than waiting for the introduction of a new Churchwide program, with creativity and inspiration, we can mobilize existing Church structures and resources at the local level to become more intentional peacebuilders in our communities” (220). I love this and feel inspired and chastened by it to put my shoulder to the wheel and get to work proclaiming peace. I hope to be a part of a great work with my fellow saints living up to the call issued here and am excited to see what lies ahead.