Christian Non-Resistance

The most consequential book Adin Ballou wrote, and one of the most consequential any Universalist wrote: a complete doctrine of Christian nonresistance — the refusal of all violence, war, capital punishment, and coercive government service — 'illustrated and defended' with systematic rigor. Half a century later Leo Tolstoy encountered Ballou's writings, corresponded with his circle, and honored him at length in The Kingdom of God Is Within You; through Tolstoy the lineage runs on to Gandhi and King. Nonviolent resistance's American theorist was a Universalist minister from Massachusetts.

(Note: this summary was automatically generated and may be inaccurate.)