Satyagraha and Nonresistance:

A Comparative Study of Gandhian and Mennonite Nonviolence

Weyburn Groff’s 1963 study examines and compares the Mennonite Church’s beliefs about and practice of nonresistance, and the Gandhian movement’s exercise of the effective nonviolent resistance of satyagraha.

“Groff’s comparative study of Gandhi and Mennonites is both a historical document and a contemporary challenge well worth turning to in our continued discernment, for nuclear issues remain at the top of our global challenges, our neighbors are global no matter where we live, and the world continues to need prophetic and pastoral expressions of agape-love.”
—John Paul Lederach

“For Mennonite readers whose energies may have been circumscribed by a too narrow definition of Christian discipleship, I offer this counsel: Our faithfulness is worked out not in isolation from the world but in the context of multiple faiths, when we act as citizens in particular times and places. We need to make common cause with all people who seek peace and justice. For other Christians and people of other faiths: I hope that reading this work may give you inspiration for this task. Many people in our world long for the day when greater creativity in the pursuit of peace will prevail, and with it, more sane ways of resolving the inevitable conflicts of the human community.”
—Weyburn Groff