Solidarity, compassion, truth: the pacifist witness of Dorothy Day.

Abstract

The truth of the gospel requires witnesses, and the pacifist witness of Dorothy Day embodies the peaceable character of a church that, in the words of Stanley Hauerwas, "is not some ideal but an undeniable reality." In this thesis I provide a thick description of Day's pacifism and order this description theologically in terms of witness. I argue that her witness is rooted in three distinct yet interrelated principles: solidarity with the poor and the enemy through exploring the doctrine of the mystical body of Christ, compassion for the suffering through practicing voluntary poverty and the works of mercy, and a commitment to truth through challenging the logic of modern warfare and the Catholic Church's failure to live up to its own doctrine. I also argue that Day's witness is inexplicable apart from her orthodox Catholicism and her life among the poor at the Catholic Worker.