Synopsis
Pacifists should learn to know and understand those with whom they disagree, so that they may be bridge-builders, nudging the world toward abandoning war.
About the Author(s)
Wolfgang “Wolf” Mendl was born in Berlin in 1926. His family fled that city because of their Jewish ancestry, and took in refugees from Germany after settling in London. Wolf began attending Quaker meeting in London with his mother, and felt attracted to the peace testimony and the sense of acceptance he felt within the meeting. He joined the Religious Society of Friends at age twenty, in 1946. He studied at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge. After three years teaching at a school inspired by the principles of Friends he came to Pendle Hill, where his studies focused on the peace testimony. He then began working with the American Friends Service Committee, organizing International Student Seminars in Japan. Upon returning to England, he entered the PhD. program at the King’s College, London’s War Studies department. His work on this subject led him to assist Friends in seeking a peaceful settlement to the Viet Nam conflict. His Pendle Hill pamphlet The Study of War as a Contribution to Peace analyzed the pacifist response to ideas about just war and pacifism in the nuclear age. He also worked on Britain Yearly Meeting’s discipline revision committee for eight years, and spent many years serving his home meeting, Watford, as an elder, providing much of the pastoral care at that meeting. Wolf Mendl died in 1999.
Pendle Hill Pamphlet #247
