June 2003

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

Utopian Philosopher Adin Ballou: Strategist of Nonviolence

Michael True, emeritus professor, Assumption College, co-edited The Frontiers of Nonviolence (1998). Below is a revised version of his preface to a new edition of Adin Ballou, Christian Non-Resistance, ed. Lynn Gordon Hughes. Providence: Blackstone Editions, 2004

The 200th anniversary of the birth of Adin Ballou (1803-1890) is being celebrated by Friends of Adin Ballou, Hopedale, MA, and by Unitarian Universalists at their June national conference in Boston---and rightfully so. A popular preacher and co-founder of a 19th century utopian community, Ballou was perhaps the major theorist of nonviolence before Leo Tolstoy, who translated and reprinted his essays. Although he focused primarily on its personal rather than social implications, Ballou contributed significantly to our understanding of a concept that Hannah Arendt, among others, regarded as a major contribution to modern political theory.

Statue of Adin Ballou at the utopian community he founded at Hopedale, MA.

Tolstoy's writings, particularly The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894) were transformative for Gandhi, who may have known of Ballou's work as well. From there one can trace the development of nonviolence (or "non-resistance," according to 19th century writers) through activists and writers in the early twentieth century, on to Martin Luther King and Gene Sharp. At present, nonviolence may be understood as a philosophy and method of resisting injustice or humiliation, resolving conflict, and bringing about social change without killing or harming people.

Ballou's Christian Non-Resistance (1846) published three years before Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, advocated resistance to injustice and violence through the power of love. In doing so, it offered a "synthesis of two seemingly antithetical interpretations of Gospel nonviolence, one calling on Christians to withdraw from evil and the structures of evil" in witnessing for social change, "the other promoting social change through participation rather than withdrawal," as Angie O'Gorman has said.

Sympathetic to the anarchist attitudes of William Lloyd Garrison, especially his principled disrespect for laws and governments, Ballou advocated, in Thoreau's words, "not at once for no government, but at once a better government." A Christian socialist, Ballou argued from a religious perspective, while Thoreau argued from a philosophical or political base. Almost alone among abolitionists, who often embraced the Civil War as a Holy war, Ballou said that he "remained unmoved, except by sorrow for such a deplorable exhibition of mistaken ambition to promote a good end by evil means."

In hindsight, one recognizes Ballou's limitations as a strategist, while still acknowledging and appreciating his disciplined, persistent, and always good- natured intellectual endeavor. He addressed the conventional dismissals of the power of "non-resistance," while patiently exploring an alternative point of view. He offered both inspiration and guidelines for living nonviolence, focusing not only on what pacifists can't do, but what they can do as nonviolent activists.

Oakland, CA rally, April 5. Photo: Louise Dunlap

Since Ballou, many activists and theorists, including several Americans, have built on his insights and added essential details to the application of his ethic. Significant contributions include Richard Gregg, The Power of Nonviolence (1935/1966), the essays of Martin Luther King, Adam Curle, and especially Gene Sharp, whose The Politics of Nonviolent Action (1973) named 198 methods for nonviolent action. In a manner resembling Ballou's and Tolstoy's insistence on the "power" of love for resisting evil, Sharp demonstrates the "power" of nonviolence for social change.

The republication of Ballou's work offers a splendid opportunity for exploring further study, insight, and understanding of nonviolence. As a tradition, it desperately needs not only acknowledgement and appreciation, but also extended critique and further development. That work would include biographical and historical studies of Adin Ballou, as well as critical evaluations of his major writings, marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of this truly great American.

Previous Article    Next Article