Philosophy Prof Questions Desire for Invulnerability Library: LIF-ART Keywords: PACIFIST PEACE SPIRITUALITY WAR RELIGION Description: In his book, Kerry Walters argues that Americans live in a culture of fear that prizes security and dreads vulnerability above everything else. This need to feel safe is why many react angrily to pacifists, he says. (Book: Jacob's Hip: Finding God in an Anxious Age)
Gettysburg College News Release For Immediate Release 3/19/03 Contact: Mary Dolheimer, 717-337-6801, mdolheim at gettysburg.edu
Gettysburg College prof questions desire for invulnerability in book on 9/11 and war
GETTYSBURG, Pa. - Kerry Walters, the William Bittinger Professor of Philosophy at Gettysburg College, says that his new book on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks "might never have been written but for the grandmotherly woman who walked out of church one morning and gave me the finger."
On that post-9/11 Sunday, Walters, a Christian pacifist, was participating in a sidewalk vigil for peace in his hometown of Lewisburg. He was shocked by the intense anger directed against the vigil by people leaving church services and wondered why "followers of the Prince of Peace get so upset when others take peace seriously." His new book, "Jacob's Hip: Finding God in an Anxious Age," tries to answer that question.
In the book, Walters argues that Americans live in a culture of fear that prizes security and dreads vulnerability above everything else. This need to feel safe is why many react angrily to pacifists, he says. Witnesses for peace frighten people because they call into question "our cultural obsession with security," Walters says, noting that fear too often breeds violence.
"Jacob's Hip" illustrates the lesson learned by the Old Testament figure Jacob, after his hip was broken in a wrestling bout with an angel: Great spiritual blessings and a greater appreciation of life can come from embracing rather than fleeing vulnerability. Walters argues that the "national frenzy with military might" erodes a sense of community and only makes people feel more isolated and at risk. "The heart of the Christian gospel is that God dared to accept insecurity by becoming human, and in doing so taught the world a new way to think about what it means to be human," he says. "How can Christians think that their life's goal ought to be invulnerability, especially when they try to acquire it violently?"
"Jacob's Hip" is Walters' 17th book. A member of the Center for Nonviolent Living, the Episcopal Peace Fellowship and the Third Order Franciscans, he is a popular speaker on spirituality and peace-related topics.
Gettysburg College is a highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences. With approximately 2,400 students, it is located on a 200-acre campus adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park. The college was founded in 1832.
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