The Season for Nonviolence: A Reflection
Reflection written and shared by Beth Remmes, Coastal Outreach and Resiliency Coordinator for Georgia Interfaith Power & Light (GIPL) at Peace Prevails Event at Unity of Savannahon January 30, 2026.
The Season for Nonviolence offers 64 lessons grounded in the teachings of Gandhi and Dr. King on nonviolence and the transformative power of peaceful action.
What these daily resources don’t always highlight is the historical and spiritual connection between the movements that shaped these teachings. In 1936, during the nonviolent struggle for Indian independence, Gandhi met with American minister and theologian Dr. Howard Thurman. Thurman would later be known as the spiritual architect of the Civil Rights Movement, a spiritual advisor to Dr. King, and many other activists.
Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence profoundly shaped Thurman’s thinking. In 1949, Thurman wrote Jesus and the Disinherited, a book that counsels that,
“through love and the willingness to nonviolently engage the adversary, the committed individual creates the possibility of community.”
It is said that Dr. King often carried this book with him when he marched. The lineage of influence stretches even further back. Gandhi was inspired by the American writer Henry David Thoreau. In 1931, Gandhi told reporter Webb Miller, “I read Walden first in Johannesburg in South Africa in 1906 and his ideas influenced me greatly… Why, I actually took the name of my movement from Thoreau’s essay, ‘On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.’”
Beyond their shared commitment to nonviolence, Thoreau, Gandhi, Thurman, and King were also united by a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of our world.
Thoreau observes that, “A town is saved, not more by the righteous men in it than by the woods and swamps that surround it,” and muses that “Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of ourrelations.”
Gandhi echoes this relational wisdom when he observes, “What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.” He said, “The Earth has enough resources for our need, but not for our greed” and encourages us to “live simply so that others may simply live.”
Scholars have described Thurman as a “nature mystic,” and say that today that he would likely be considered an environmentalist. He often wrote about the sense of unity and grounding he experienced in nature. He describes this feeling as, “the signature of God is all around me, in the rocks, in the trees, in the minds of men.”
In a 1965 sermon, he warned that humanity cannot “poison the atmosphere, pollute the streams, denude the hills, and destroy any kind of creative ecology without at the same time affecting the psyche deep within.”
Focusing on an alternative, Dr. King offers a vision for the beloved community when he prays,
“Join with the Earth and each other, to bring new life to the land, to restore the waters, to refresh the air, to renew the forests, to care for the plants, to protect the creatures, to celebrate the seas, to rejoice in the sunlight, to sing the song of the stars, to recall our destiny, to renew our spirits, to reinvigorate our bodies, to recreate the human community, to promote justice and peace, to love our children and love one another, to join together as many and diverse expressions of one loving mystery, for the healing of the Earth and the renewal of all life."
Across Thoreau, Gandhi, Thurman, and King there is a shared conviction: life is interdependent. Human beings, and all life on Earth, exist within a web of relationships where harm to one ultimately harms all and care for one strengthens the whole.
As we move through the Season for Nonviolence, we are invited to not only learn from this lineage, but to live it—to practice nonviolence in our choices, our relationships, and our care for the world around us.
