The God-Bearing Body as Demand for Non-Violence: Of Vulnerability and Incarnational Theology

What response might Christianity offer to the problem of violence? The cross has often been upheld as a symbol of non-violence. Yet it has also been upheld as the symbol of those who promote colonization, patriarchy, and oppression. Little scholarship exists exploring the idea of non-violence’s foundation in the womb of a woman rather than the cross built by man. This paper will argue that in the incarnation, we see God’s embrace of and entering in to the universal vulnerability of humanity that makes violence insupportable under any circumstance. Christian calls to nonviolence, then, begin not at the cross, but within the womb of Mary, the mother of God.