Peace on Earth : The Role of Religion in Peace and Conflict Studies 9780739176290, 9780739176283

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Peace on Earth

Peace on Earth ,

The Role of Religion in Peace and Conflict Studies Edited by Thomas Matyók, Maureen Flaherty, Hamdesa Tuso, Jessica Senehi, and Sean Byrne

LEXINGTON BOOKS Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK

Published by Lexington Books A wholly owned subsidiary of Rowman & Littlefield 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com 10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth PL6 7PP, United Kingdom Copyright © 2014 by Lexington Books All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Peace on earth : the role of religion in peace and conflict studies / edited by Thomas Matyók, Maureen Flaherty, Hamdesa Tuso, Jessica Senehi, and Sean Byrne. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7391-7628-3 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-7391-7629-0 (electronic) 1. Peace-building--Religious aspects. 2. Conflict management--Religious aspects. I. Matyók, Thomas, 1953-, editor of compilation BL65.P4P4316 2013 201'.7273--dc23 2013041561 TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

We dedicate this book to the memory of Sean’s mother, Patricia Byrne, who passed away suddenly on February 21, 2013. We also with to dedicate this work to the memory of our colleagues John Darby, Cynthia Irvin, and Jacob Bercovitch.

Contents

Acknowledgments 1

ix

Can People of Faith, and People in Peace and Conflict Studies, Work Together? Thomas Matyók and Maureen Flaherty

1

Part I: Peace and Conflict Studies in a Contextualized Place 2

Religion, Peace and Violence: Tensions and Promises David Creamer and Christopher Hrynkow

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3

Ahimsa: A World without Violence? Klaus Klostermaier

31

4

Blessing-Based Love (Agapē) as a Heuristic Key to Understanding Effective Reconciliation Practices: A Reading of I Corinthians 13 in a Peacebuilding Context Vern Neufeld Redekop

47

Part II: Religions and Peace and Conflict Studies 5

Catholic Peacemaking: A History and Analysis with Special Emphasis on the Work of the Community of Sant ’Egidio John F. Perry

69

6

Evangelical Women and Transformative Peacebuilding Kristen Lundquist, Hien Vu, and Chris Seiple

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7

Judaism and the Path to Peace Michael Lerner

105

8

Islam and Peace and Conflict Studies Nathan C. Funk

121

9

The Role of Indigenous African Religion in Peacemaking Hamdesa Tuso

143

10 Aboriginal Peoples in Canada and the Role of Religion in Conflict: The Ever Elusive Peace Paul Nicolas Cormier

165

11 Mennonite International Peacebuilding and Local Ownership Chuck Thiessen

181

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Contents

12 Let Us See What Love Can Do: Quaker Contributions to Peacebuilding Vernie Davis 13 Haïtian Vodou: Peace Begins Within Margaret Mitchell Armand 14 Eastern Orthodox Christianity: Provocations and Challenges for a Just Peace in an Era of Conflict and Global Transitions Harry Anastasiou 15 Ancient News from Buddha’s Research Lab: The Role of Buddhism in Peace and Conflict Settings Katharina Bitzker

201 223

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16 Hinduism: War, Peace, and Peace and Conflict Studies S. I. Keethaponcalan

287

17 Daoist Harmony as a Chinese Worldview Yueh-Ting Lee, Honggang Yang, and Min Wang

303

18 Humanity’s Coming of Age: A Bahá’í View of the Process toward World Peace Charles Egerton 19 Religious Leader Engagement: Military Chaplains Engaging Indigenous Religious Leaders and Their Communities in Operations (Voices from the International Chaplaincy Community) Padre S. K. Moore

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335

Part III: The Way Forward: Four Faith Models 20 Striving for Justice and Peace on Earth, Catholic Peace Initiatives Ismael Muvingi

353

21 Peace building Principles and Values in Islam : Beyond the Basic Framework Mohammed Abu-Nimer

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22 Peace on Earth: The Anabaptist-Mennonite Perspective Lois Edmund

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23 Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam: The “Oasis of Peace” Deanna Armbruster

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24 Conclusions: Peace on Earth Revisited Hamdesa Tuso, Jessica Senehi, and Sean Byrne

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Index About the Contributors

425 435

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Eric Wrona and Lexington Books for their confidence and willingness to put this work forward. Their ongoing support of this project contributes to an expanding discussion regarding the many roles religion can play in the field of Peace and Conflict Studies. Thanks are also extended to Jessica Roberts for her editing assistance, author relations, and organizational support in preparing this book for publication. Her commitment to this project ensured its timely completion. A note of thanks also goes to Stephanie Smith for her proof reading and formatting efforts. Thomas Matyók, Maureen Flaherty, Hamdesa Tuso, Jessica Senehi, and Sean Byrne gratefully acknowledge the contributors to this volume for their support and willingness to engage in investigating the multiple dimensions of religion in the academic study and practice of Peace and Conflict Studies. We also recognize the Arthur V. Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice, St. Paul’s College, University of Manitoba, home to the PhD and Joint MA Program in Peace and Conflict Studies, and the Program in Conflict and Peace Studies at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. We are grateful to the Mauro Centre for providing a small grant for copy editing expenses for this book. Special thanks go to Renee Matyók for her belief in, and support of, this project.

ix

ONE Can People of Faith, and People in Peace and Conflict Studies, Work Together? Thomas Matyók and Maureen Flaherty

If religion is the missing dimension of statecraft, 1 it may also very well be the most understudied phenomenon within the field of Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS). On its surface, this is an extremely odd acknowledgement considering PACS is deeply rooted in traditional peace churches within the Abrahamic religions, 2 and religion maintains a trajectory toward peace. 3 Buddhism and Hinduism, not commonly recognized as peace churches, also honor caring for each other. 4 As a religion that privileges peace, Islamic peacebuilding is currently expanding. 5 Even the PACS vocabulary is filled with terms common to multiple religious traditions; peace, reconciliation, nonviolence, and right relationship are but a few examples. 6 An adjustment in the field’s approach to religion vis-à-vis peace development and conflict transformation is needed. The goal of this book is to demonstrate the varied ways by which religion can contribute to the creation of a less violent world built on a foundation of justice, through faith-informed conflict management, transformation, and reconciliation. Those engaged in conflict resolution practice are often told that God and religion have no place in the peace development process. 7 Especially in the West, the field remains highly conflicted over the role of religion in PACS. One thing is certain, however: God and religion have a de facto presence in the world, and demand the attention of those engaged in peace building. It is not that religion is returning as an aspect of study of peace and conflict studies after a long absence since the Treaty of Westphalia. 8 Rather, one question to be con1

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fronted may be, “Why in the academy have we mostly ignored studying the role of religion in contributing to the development of peace and the nonviolent transformation of conflict?” POTENTIAL FOR VIOLENCE Discussing the potentially positive roles that religion can play in peacebuilding does not mean we should ignore the violence that often occurs in the name of faith. History is replete with examples of violence committed in the name of one’s religion or god over another group or state’s religion or god. Dharmapala in Sri Lanka and Ian Paisley in Northern Ireland are but two examples. The list of examples can grow quite large. Jim Crow preachers used religion to support segregation extending the ways religion was used to validate slavery. Osama bin Laden used religion to justify the worst kind of violence. In response to the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, Jerry Falwell employed religious rhetoric suggesting the attacks were God’s punishment. A preacher in Florida burned the Koran stirring up emotions against Muslim Americans. Certainly, American political elections provide examples of religion being used to divide people. President Obama was obliged to give a speech during his first campaign for the White House explaining his faith and religion in response to the efforts of those using it to divide the electorate. When we speak of the role of religion in contributing to peacebuilding, we do so recognizing the incongruity present in the observation. Though religion may move along a path toward peace, some religious actors and leaders may not. The academic literature is filled with examples of excesses of religious leaders who have used faith as cover for their political, cultural, and economic gain at the expense of another group or nation. What remains underrepresented in the PACS literature are examples of the many ways that religion contributes to peacebuilding. None of this is to suggest that an uncritical acceptance of religion will lead to peace and justice. Rather, we contend that when religion is absent from the peacebuilding table, it is unlikely that a lasting, inclusive peace can be attained in the post-accord peacebuilding phase. When critical analysis is absent, and in an attempt to simplify the conflict, religion and religious figures can easily become a scapegoat. As a result, it is often consigned to the category of causes of conflict obstructing the potential to engage religion as a positive contributing actor within a conflict transformation and peace building process. Focus directed at religion and religious actors as sole causes of conflict is attention not paid to those contributors operating in the shadows redirecting political, social, and economic resources. Yet, religious motives often play a significant role in escalating conflict, too.

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Simplistic thinking blocks the ability to envision the potential. Too often, graduate students and fellow academics refer to religion as if it were a homogeneous activity, a problem to be solved. Many students and academics have little understanding of the complexity inherent in religion, and worse, little desire to investigate and understand the many positive roles religion can play in bringing about positive peace. Understanding the role of religion in PACS should be built on a solid foundation of scholarship. Religion can be contentious and constructive. Just as peace can be ambiguous, so can religion. Essential for the short- and long-term success of PACS scholars and practitioners in peace building is an understanding of the many roles played by religion in conflict situations. The PACS field continues to be dominated by Western thinking. 9 And, there appears a privileging of Western secular approaches to conflict transformation and definitions of peace. This Western-centric focus exists regardless of observations that the secular thesis has not manifested itself throughout the world, as predicted. 10 In fact, conservative estimates suggest that 79 percent of the global population believes in God 11 and, religion’s influence in world affairs is on the incline, 12 showing no signs of becoming decreasingly relevant. This point alone should interest conflict workers as they design peace building initiatives. Is it reasonable to expect that conflict workers will be successful in the field when, as Prothero 13 notes, religious illiteracy is present? The creative influence of religion 14 suggests that it can be integrated as part of overall peace building strategies. Rather than being viewed as divisive only, religion can contribute to the creation of solid foundations upon which social justice structures can be built. For example, the grassroots, bottomup actions of faith groups can work to achieve long-term sustainability by embedding responses to conflict anchored to moral principles. Justice is an animating characteristic of the Judeo-Christian and Muslim faiths. 15 CONFRONTING RELIGIOUS ILLITERACY In constructing multidisciplinary responses to conflict, we cannot afford to ignore the presence of religion. Billions of people frame their lives by the practice of their religious beliefs. 16 Religion may even be instinctual and coded in human DNA. 17 For many, religion provides an all-encompassing worldview. 18 It is useful to view religion as a primary driver of political action 19 recognizing Gandhi’s observation that “anyone who thinks that religion and politics can be kept apart, understands neither religion nor politics.” 20 This recognition requires that PACS academic programs embrace an understanding of religion, its place within the public square, and educate current and future peace workers about how to invite religious leaders to the peace building table in addressing multi-

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level conflict. Developing religious literacy is essential for peace scholars and peace workers and, as such, should be a core competency. Religion plays a unique and defining role within cultures. Religious literacy is the competency needed to be present as an ally with religious actors, and it is an understanding of religions’ specific language and grammar. Awareness of the symbols and metaphors present in daily life allows one to animate human interaction. Through religious literacy, religious fluency can be achieved, aiding in the process of engaging religious actors at multiple levels; micro, meso, macro, and mega. Religious fluency is based on (1) respect, (2) religion specific knowledge, and (3) engagement. RESPECT Respect undergirds any PACS process and cannot be achieved without understanding the where and why of participants. While respect itself can be a contested term, here it defined as the deep regard for individuals as they work to develop meaning in their lives. It is from the heart. Demonstrating respect can be perceived as inauthentic when it is little more than an acquired skill. Respect perceived as inauthentic becomes another form of power-over. Deep respect is built on a shared human condition. RELIGION-SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE Religion specific knowledge is connected directly to respect. It is caring enough about those with whom we engage as allies to learn about their religion, and who they are. In this way, deep knowledge and deep respect illuminate each other. Knowing another’s religious foundation can provide insight into a group’s collective unconscious as well as individual awareness. ENGAGEMENT Engagement is the welcoming of the religious other to the peace building table. Through respect and knowledge, peace workers develop deep relationships with religious actors in order to arrive at positive peace outcomes built on social justice. This activity is horizontal and elicitive 21 with the peace worker acting as an ally, not a prescriptive expert. As each engagement in a PACS context is always power with, never over. In order for PACS scholars and practitioners to engage in critical conflict transformation, it is necessary to address the absence of religious literacy by incorporating it as a core competency within the field of study and practice. The PACS field can ill afford to ignore the sacred within

Can People of Faith, and People in Peace and Conflict Studies, Work Together?

5

people’s lives. Can PACS long survive in the area of peace building by failing to recognize the significance of faith to the world’s population? Is the role of PACS to serve as the handmaiden of elites advancing Northern ideology, or is it a field that stands for justice within local communities? The sacred is ambivalent. 22 It is a tool that can be used for good or ill. This book is advanced as a contribution to the emerging conversation regarding the positive roles religion can play in peace building and nonviolent conflict transformation. Assembled in this volume, leading PACS scholars demonstrate the many positive ways in which religion and religious actors are present in broadly defined peace building. The focus of this text centers on two seemingly present beliefs in faith traditions; the primacy of peace and the recognition that all are required to treat each other as they wish to be treated. Recognition of these beliefs, as central to these faiths, provides a point of entry for discussing the role of religion in Peace and Conflict Studies. The peace science and research literature is incomplete when it comes to the role of faith in peace building. This, of course, is a bit surprising considering the deep roots PACS has within multiple faith traditions. 23 Religious actors have been, and continue to be, present in reducing violence and resolving conflict, 24 and failure to address the significance of religion and faith in the lives of individuals is arrogant, and a form of cultural imperialism. 25 Crucial to positive peace building is a contextualized understanding of faith in extended peacemaking initiatives and praxis. What does faith in action look like? Library and bookstore shelves are filled with critiques of the negative impacts of religion in conflict scenarios. Religious extremists garner much of the press, leaving the day-to-day peace building activities of other religious actors less covered. In college and university classrooms, students can become mired in the divisive aspects of contending religious organizations and miss the many opportunities embedded in faith that can lead to nonviolent conflict transformation and peace building. This less understood alternate view of religion as a positive condition for peace building suggests that the complex roles played by religious organizations and actors is not addressed in many college curricula. Religion offers more than the numerous negative critiques that permeate contemporary, secularly dominated, thinking. Hesitation on the part of Westerners to discuss religion and spirituality 26 has resulted in an illiteracy leaving peace builders with an inability to understand how religion and religious actors view the world and construct it. Spiritual issues distinguish religious peace building as unique and establish it as an area of specialization within the PACS field of study and practice. 27 Certainly, religion is not the only answer to successful peacebuilding; however, it is an important piece of a larger multidisciplinary response to conflict and the manifestation of positive peace. Sedikides 28 suggests a

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psychological need for religion on the part of humans. Clearly, its very persistence suggests it addresses a critical human need. Religion has been present since the beginning of humankind and the transcendent and spiritual aspects of human beings have been a part of us from the start. 29 It is foolish to ignore what is. Faith-based organizations and their workers are often found on the frontlines of conflict throughout the world, conducting conflict resolution activities and advancing peacebuilding initiatives. As a form of Track II diplomacy, 30 religion can enhance formal state-centered peacebuilding strategies through the recognition of the moral dimensions of peace and the necessity of addressing conflict holistically. Peace is central to all religious traditions and is a unique organizing principle. 31 Outside of formal initiatives, religious organizations often possess a degree of credibility not often held by state parties. Religious leaders are able to connect through the universality of moral precepts and accepted religious texts. 32 Animating this book is a desire to capture the changing nature of peace building within a multi-faith context, and to introduce how those changes are influenced by other faith traditions. The role of religion in PACS is central to change processes and religious organizations and actors within a peace building context so that they can enter as positive participants in the process. Expressed throughout this book is the suggestion that necessary for successful conflict practice is a critical understanding of the role of faith in building and sustaining peace. Religious peace doctrine is constantly evolving. Peacemaking efforts take place within a contextualized space where faith is playing an increasing role. In today’s world, it is often difficult to separate the secular and the profane. Peace and Conflict Studies scholars, as well as practitioners, need to develop a sensitivity to the many roles faith and religious tradition play in contemporary inter- and intra-state conflicts. Religion is stepping into arenas where the secular has failed. 33 Throughout the world, many experience a crisis of faith in secular institutions and ideologies. 34 Rapid globalization is resulting in the declining relevance of nation-states. Religious actors steadily move into the public square and play critical roles in conflict transformation, management, and peace building. A significant social function of religion is its ability to create and solidify cooperative communities, 35 a key component of peace work. Since 1967, religious actors have become politically engaged, and are putting “secular regimes and ideologies on the defensive.” 36 The wall of separation between church and state, largely constructed after the Peace of Westphalia, is being dismantled. The struggle of Solidarity in Poland, with the support of the Catholic Church, stands as the point where religion returned to the political struggle. 37

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OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK This book is presented in three parts. Provided is a critical analysis of faith and religious institutions in peace building practice and pedagogy. The synergistic relationships among faith traditions and the multiple approaches to conflict transformation and peacebuilding result in a creative process having the potential to achieve a more detailed view of peace, containing breadth as well as depth. The first part of the book provides an introduction that places the work within a global religious framework vis-a-vis peace building. This introductory section provides an investigation of contemporary religious-centered peace building and outlines its contested aspects within a global space. In the second section of the book, a number of faith tradition contributions to the PACS field are captured. Each chapter is framed to address the following questions: 1. What are the key teachings of the religious tradition, discussed? 2. How do the traditions contribute to conflict? 3. How do the teachings contribute to peacebuilding and conflict transformation? The third section of the book provides case studies of faith in action within a peace building and conflict transformation context. Through the use of these exemplars readers are introduced to faith in action and the positive outcomes that can result. The work concludes with the editors’ recommendations for future faith-based peacemaking efforts. NOTES 1. Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson, eds., Religion, The Missing Dimension of Statecraft (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). 2. Ronald G. Musto, The Catholic Peace Tradition. (New York: Peace Books, 2002); Tom Woodhouse, “Adam Curle: Radical Peacemaker and Pioneer of Peace Studies.” Journal of Conflictology 1, no. 1 (2010): 1–8. Retrieved from http://Journal-ofConflictology.uoc.edu. 3. David Cortright, Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 183. 4. Ibid., 174. 5. Hudo, Qamar-ul and Katherine Marshall, “Religion and Peacebuilding,” in Integrated Peacebuilding: Innovative Approaches to Transforming Conflict, ed. Craig Zelizer (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2013), 151–152. 6. Mark Kurlansky, Nonviolence: Twenty-Five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea (New York: The Modern Library, 2006). 7. Rachel Goldberg, and Brian Blancke, “God in the Process: Is There a Place for Religion in Conflict Resolution?” Conflict Resolution Quarterly 28, no. 4 (2011): 377. 8. Roland Robertson, “Religion, International Relations and Transdisciplinarity,” in Selbstbeobachtung der modernen Gesellschaft und die neuen Grenzen des Sozialen, eds. Georg Peter, and Reuß-Markus Krauße (Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2012), 103–113.

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9. Thomas Matyok, “Designing a Way Forward: Why This Book? Why Now?” in Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies: Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy, eds. Thomas Matyok, Jessica Senehi, & Sean Byrne (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011), xxiii–xxviii; Victoria Fontan, Decolonizing Peace (Lake Oswego, OR: World Dignity University Press, 2012). 10. Monica Duffy Toft, Daniel Philpott, and Timothy Samuel Shah, God’s Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011), 1–3. 11. Ibid., 2. 12. R. Scott Appleby and Richard Cizik, Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for U.S. Foreign Policy (Chicago, IL: The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 2010), 1. 13. Stephen Prothero, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know—and Doesn’t (New York: Harper Collins, 2007). 14. Appleby and Cizik, Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for U.S. Foreign Policy, 8. 15. Joseph V. Montville, “Religion and Peacemaking,” in Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Religion, Public Policy, and Conflict Transformation, eds. Raymond G. Helmick, and Rodney L. Petersen (Radnor, PA: Templeton Foundation Press, 2001), 107. 16. R. Scott Appleby, The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation (Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield, 2000), 3. 17. Nicholas Wade, The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved & Why It Endures (New York: Penguin Press, 2009). 18. Raymond G. Helmick and Rodney Lawrence Petersen, Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Religion, Public Policy, and Conflict Transformation (Philadelphia, PA: Templeton Foundation Press, 2001). 19. Appleby and Cizik, Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for U.S. Foreign Policy, 19. 20. John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World (New York: Penguin Press, 2009), 50. 21. John Paul Lederach, Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995). 22. Appleby, The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation. 23. Jerome Barrett and Joseph Barrett, A History of Alternative Dispute Resolution (San Francisco: CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004). 24. Gopin, “Religion, Violence, and Conflict Resolution,” Peace & Change 22, no. 1 (1997): 1–31. 25. Jenny Lunn, “The Role of Religion, Spirituality and Faith in Development: A Critical Theory Approach,” Third World Quarterly 30, no. 5 (2009): 940. 26. Ibid. 27. Heather Dubois, “Religion and Peacebuilding,” Journal of Religion, Conflict, and Peace 1, no. 2 (2008). Retrieved from http://www.religionconflictpeace.org/taxonomy/ term/7. 28. Constantine Sedikides, “Why Does Religiosity Persist?” Personality and Social Psychology 14, no. 1 (2010): 3–6. 29. Bryan J. Hehir, “Why Religion? Why now?” in Rethinking Religion and World Affairs, eds. Timothy Samuel Shah, Alfred Stepan, Monica Duffy Toft (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 15–35. 30. Louise Diamond and John McDonald, Multi-Track Diplomacy: A Systems Approach to Peace, 3rd Edition (West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press, 1996). 31. Gopin, “Religion, Violence, and Conflict Resolution.” 32. Dubois, “Religion and Peacebuilding.” 33. Toft, Philpott and Shah, God’s Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics, 9. 34. Ibid., 13. 35. Jesse Graham and Jonathan Haidt, “Beyond Beliefs: Religions Bind Individuals into Moral Communities,” Personality and Social Psychology Review 14, no.1 (2010): 140–150.

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36. Toft, Philpott and Shah, God’s Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics, 79. 37. Robertson, “Religion, International Relations and Transdisciplinarity.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY Appleby, R. Scott. The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation. Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield, 2000. Appleby, R. Scott, and Richard Cizik. Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for U.S. Foreign Policy. Chicago, IL: The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 2010. Barrett, Jerome, and Joseph Barrett. A History of Alternative Dispute Resolution. San Francisco: CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004. Byrne, Sean, and Jessica J. Senehi. Violence: Analysis, Intervention and Prevention. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2012. Cortright, David. Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Diamond, Louise, and John McDonald. Multi-Track Diplomacy: A Systems Approach to Peace, 3 rd Edition. West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press, 1996. Dubois, Heather. “Religion and Peacebuilding.” Journal of Religion, Conflict, and Peace 1, no. 2 (2008). Retrieved from http://www.religionconflictpeace.org/taxonomy/term/ 7. Fontan, Victoria. Decolonizing Peace. Lake Oswego, OR: World Dignity University Press, 2012. Goldberg, Rachel, and Brian Blancke. “God in the Process: Is There a Place for Religion in Conflict Resolution?” Conflict Resolution Quarterly 28, no. 4 (2011): 377–398. Gopin, Marc. “Religion, Violence, and Conflict Resolution.” Peace & Change 22, no. 1 (1997): 1–31. Graham, Jesse, and Jonathan Haidt. “Beyond Beliefs: Religions Bind Individuals into Moral Communities.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 14, no.1 (2010): 140–150. Hehir, Bryan J. “Why Religion? Why now?” In Rethinking Religion and World Affairs, edited by Timothy Samuel Shah, Alfred Stepan, Monica Duffy Toft, 15–35. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Helmick, Raymond G., and Rodney Lawrence Petersen. Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Religion, Public Policy, and Conflict Transformation. Philadelphia, PA: Templeton Foundation Press, 2001. Hudo, Qamar-ul and Marshall, Katherine. “Religion and Peacebuilding.” In Integrated Peacebuilding: Innovative Approaches to Transforming Conflict, edited by Craig Zelizer, 151–171. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2013. Kurlansky, Mark. Nonviolence: Twenty-Five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea. New York: The Modern Library, 2006. Lederach, John Paul. Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995. Lunn, Jenny. “The Role of Religion, Spirituality and Faith in Development: A Critical Theory Approach.” Third World Quarterly 30, no. 5 (2009): 937–951. Johnston, Douglas and Cynthia Sampson, eds. Religion, The Missing Dimension of Statecraft. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Matyok, Thomas. “Designing a Way Forward: Why This Book? Why Now?” In Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies: Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy, edited by Thomas Matyok, Jessica Senehi, & Sean Byrne, xxiii-xxviii. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011. Micklethwait, John, and Adrian Wooldridge. God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World. New York: Penguin Press, 2009.

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Montville, Joseph V. “Religion and Peacemaking.” In Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Religion, Public Policy, and Conflict Transformation, edited by Raymond G. Helmick, and Rodney L. Petersen, 97–116. Radnor, PA: Templeton Foundation Press, 2001. Musto, Ronald G. The Catholic Peace Tradition. New York: Peace Books, 2002. Prothero, Stephen. Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — and Doesn’t. New York: Harper Collins, 2007. Robertson, Roland. “Religion, International Relations and Transdisciplinarity.” In Selbstbeobachtung der modernen Gesellschaft und die neuen Grenzen des Sozialen, edited by Georg Peter, and Reuß-Markus Krauße, 103–113. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2012. Sedikides, Constantine. “Why Does Religiosity Persist?” Personality and Social Psychology 14, no. 1 (2010): 3–6. Toft, Monica Duffy, Daniel Philpott, and Timothy Samuel Shah. God’s Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011. Wade, Nicholas. The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures. New York: Penguin Press, 2009. Woodhouse, Tom. “Adam Curle: Radical Peacemaker and Pioneer of Peace Studies.” Journal of Conflictology 1, no. 1 (2010): 1–8. Retrieved from http://Journal-ofConflictology.uoc.edu.

Part I

Peace and Conflict Studies in a Contextualized Place

TWO Religion, Peace and Violence: Tensions and Promises David Creamer and Christopher Hrynkow

Too often religion has been mobilized to fuel the animosity correlated with destructive violence, most especially when “the other” in any given conflict is demonized with supposed divine sanction. Yet, at the same time, spiritual innovators have been instrumental in peacemaking efforts at various points in history. Still today, despite counter-examples like theologically-themed terrorism, many people of faith source the continuing relevance of their religious traditions in affirming the value of diversity, nonviolence and justice for all peoples. Taking into careful consideration the views behind such phenomenon, in this chapter, we will wade into the sometimes-paradoxical relationships amongst religion, violence and peace. Our goal will be to name some of the general tensions and promises that emerge when religious ways of knowing and being in the world are directed, either consciously or unconsciously, in the service of peace or violence. We will ground our general discussion with reference to historic events and theorists working from both within and outside of specific faith traditions. In the minds and hearts of many people, the term religion conjures up the proverbial image of a double-edged sword. On the one edge, we find religion fueling the animosity correlated with destructive violence (especially when the “other” in any conflict is demonized by “divine” sanction) and, on the other edge, we find innovative religious personages and movements throughout the course of history whose very raison d’etre is directed towards building inclusive and lasting peace. As result, somewhat paradoxically, history is rife with examples from religious tradi13

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tions of institutional support for both peace and violence. This chapter will explore some of the tensions and promises that emerge when religious ways of knowing and acting are directed, either deliberately or unconsciously, towards the service of violence or peace. The English word “religion” has not always conjured up images related to peace or violence. The term “religion” derives from the Latin religio with ambiguous origins but, following the work of philologist Max Muller (1823–1900); most modern scholars understand that religio “began with the meaning of care, attention, reverence, [and] awe.” Later it “became more and more exclusively applied to the inward feeling of reverence for the gods and to the outward manifestation of that reverence in worship and sacrifice.” 1 During the era of Western imperialism, orientalists recognized that other cultures around the world, particularly those in the Near East and Asia, had—from the point of view of scholars, at least—“religions.” With this came the academic discipline we refer to as Comparative Religion, which, in turn, led to courses of study in World Religions. 2 These programmes have often been critiqued for reproducing false dichotomies. Historically, these courses of study in Western universities often began with “primitive” indigenous religions, progressed from the inadequacies of polytheism to the “superiority” of monotheism as found in the Abrahamic faiths, and culminated with a discussion of Christianity as the “ideal” world religion. Despite the authors acknowledged position embedded within the Roman Catholic tradition, our analysis of religion here, as it relates to both peace and violence, seeks to avoid such misdirected generalizations and judgments. Of interest to our discussion is the seemingly normative association of “religion” not with promoting either peaceful or violent change in the world but as focused on maintaining and justifying a sacred tradition, which has further been viewed as a static set of teachings and spiritual practices. Hence, the value of this book project and a number of the others listed in our bibliography. In a manner related to Muller’s point cited in the preceding paragraph, the majority of the academic literature has reproduced this understanding to varying degrees. In terms of the history of the academic study of faith in the Western world, for instance, it was only during the period known as the Renaissance that the Christian religion began to be studied outside of the discipline of Theology (the preserve of theologians working under the authority of the churches). Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527), to cite one well-known figure, asked questions about religion that had not been implicitly considered within the Western academic tradition earlier; in some ways a precursor to our modern comparative study of religion. In the context of the Renaissance humanism flourishing in the Florence of his day, Machiavelli focused on religion not because of its truth (presumably irrelevant in his eyes) but on its demonstrated ability to influence the decisions and actions of people. Although he was critical of the modus operandi of the

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Church of Rome (responsible for divisions among people and a decline in religious fervour), Machiavelli held that “religion well used” had the potential to create a more civil society. 3 Writing a few centuries later in Europe, Karl Marx (1818–1883) exposed morally problematic elements of misappropriations of religion in this world. The expansion of capitalism and increased industrialization had excessively benefited a small upper class at the cost of exploitative and inhuman working and living conditions for almost everyone else. Religion as understood, in this emerging analytical tradition, supported social inequality and tamed the masses by promising them “pie in the sky when they died” but not “food on their plates while they waited.” It follows that according to much Marxist analysis, the chief task of religion is to provide a means for maintaining this alienating and unequal status quo. It is in this intellectual context that Marx wrote some of his most lasting words: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.” 4 In significant ways, Machiavelli and Marx point to the “tensions and promises” inherent in efforts on the part of religion, to insert itself, either consciously or unconsciously, in the service of either peace or violence. Even through his rather utilitarian views, Machiavelli saw the potential of religion as an instrument for positive peaceful change in the world whereas Marxist analytical traditions critiqued religion as a tool used to perpetrate violence on poor, marginalized, and powerless and “the othered” in society. 5 Unfortunately, we can all instantly think of examples supporting Marxist critiques of religion as they related to war, social injustice and direct violence. Reviewing history, the heinous violence of the Crusades comes to mind. More recently we have Osama bin Laden’s misappropriation of jihad, and Joseph Kony’s strategy of employing child soldiers in his Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda. Yet, in contrast to these problematic instances of bloodshed sanctioned under the banner of religion, there are extraordinary examples of religion in the service of peace. Gandhi’s spiritually-inspired anti-colonial struggles, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Black Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the Dalai Lama’s campaign for a spiritual revolution on the earth, and Mother Teresa of Kolkata’s work with the poor, sick, and dying come to mind. With reference to these and other examples from various faith traditions, as well as a consideration of the work of interdisciplinary theorists working in the field, we join the authors of this volume in exploring the tensions and promises of religion in the service of peace and/or violence. In this regard, the idea that peace is not solely based upon the absence of war is a key point in the Peace and Conflict Studies literature. This insight has a long pedigree. The ancient Roman historian, Tacitus, quotes a conquered Caledonian chieftain as saying of the “terrible Romans, from

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whose oppression escape is vainly sought by obedience and submission” that “to robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a solitude and call it peace.” 6 In Rome to this day visitors to the ancient Forum can see the Arch of Titus, which commemorates the Roman general’s brutal subjugation of Jewish Judea in 70 CE. One of the panels of this triumphal arch (erected in 81 CE, soon after Titus’s death as Emperor) depicts booty from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem (including its huge seven branched menorah) being carried down the Sacred Way in the victorious general’s “triumph” (parade). 7 There are also extant monumental structures in Rome commemorating brutal victories of the emperors Septimius Severus, Constantine, and Trajan. In terms of religious function, a good portion of the plunder from these Roman triumphs served to replace, in the minds and hearts of the populous, horrific acts of violence and destruction with lavish public pageants (and their subsequent depictions in extravagant monuments and unrestrained literary descriptions). 8 Today, many religiously minded people have broadened their understanding of “peace” to include concepts such as a more equitable distribution of economic and cultural resources, positive relationships between nations and peoples, and a healthy ecological world. This shift to a more inclusive understanding lies behind Pope Paul VI’s often quoted statement, “If you want peace work for justice.” This idea was expanded upon in his encyclical, Populorum Progressio (“On the Development of Peoples”): “Peace cannot be limited to a mere absence of war, the result of an ever precarious balance of forces. No, peace is something that is built up day after day, in the pursuit of an order intended by God, which implies a more perfect form of justice among people” (#76) 9. A few years later in 1971, a meeting of representative Roman Catholic Bishops from around the world issued the written statement Justice in the World which included a religiously-based affirmation of the need for substantive peace: “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the Church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation” (#6). In line with such ecclesial examples, several scholars and activists working at the intersection of issues of violence and religion take a normative stance, arguing in their written work and by their practical example that given current realities and challenges religions ought to be unambiguously committed to a deep, just and sustainable peace. An example of a researcher bringing the activist and academic spheres together is Clinton Bennett. Informed by his university teaching, doctoral training in Islamic Studies, NGO work, theological training for the Baptist ministry and experience as a peace activist, Bennett’s In Search of Solutions fully acknowledges that religion has been mobilized to fuel the animosity cor-

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related with destructive violence, most especially when “the other” in any given conflict is demonized with supposed divine sanction. Following upon this acknowledgment, and wishing to affirm a revealed element to religious scriptures, Bennett suggests that believers should read all sacred books with the “hermeneutical key” of the Golden Rule as a lens to discern the manner in which “scriptures, correctly understood . . . point to a peaceful and just world as the only future that is wholly consistent with God’s plan.” 10 In this light those “problem texts” seemingly encouraging a form of violence sanctioned by religion, would then be muted by overwhelming spiritual concern for a just and peaceful world. Further, to help counter the divisiveness of both contemporary nationalist ideologies and the current structure of the nation-state, Bennett proposes political reform emanating from civil society and devolved local government actors’ efforts to reach across frontiers, with the goal of bringing about a global democratic future. Connecting the UN’s Millennium Development Goals to the eschatological visions in the Christian, Jewish and Muslim scriptures, Bennett holds that bringing religions into the service of peace, so that they might help in this political transformation, requires a non-exclusivist religious orientation. Such a response to the diversity response to pluralism focused on positive inter-faith relationships, which recognize the possibility of truth in other traditions and are geared towards improving all human life through the “ethic of the higher principle” manifest in nonviolence, love and justice. He understands such an approach to faithful living as not only violence intervention but also as violence prevention, arguing that as humanity matures and more people come to endorse such peace affirming understandings of religion, “the few” will find recruiting for the cause of violence increasingly difficult. In a similar vein and working more specifically with the resources of the Judeo-Christian Tradition, Protestant Biblical scholar, Walter Brueggemann, 11 points out that the first three of the Ten Commandments are about the holiness of God and the final six have to do with acting justly towards others, an indication that the doing of justice ought to be understood as the primary expectation of the God of Abraham. This emphasis additionally highlights the salient point “that love of God cannot be remote from love of neighbour (1 John 4:20), and that holiness and justice always come together.” 12 In Proverbs from the Hebrew Bible we read that “those who shut their ears to the cry of the poor will themselves also call and not be heard” (Proverbs 21:13) and, in the Book of Judith we read that for support of her efforts to save the people from the oppression of Holofernes, Judith cries out to “the God of the lowly, the helper of the oppressed, the supporter of the weak, the protector of the forsaken, the saviour of those without hope” (Judith 9:11). In the exodus event, God raises up Moses precisely because the Hebrews are oppressed: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their

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cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them. . . . I will send you [Moses] to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:7–10). This liberationist theme also has resonance in the Christian Scriptures, where we find Jesus at the beginning of his public ministry standing up in his local synagogue and characterizing his mission as inclusive and focused on doing justice. Reading from the prophet Isaiah (61–1–2), he says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:18–19). Later in the Christian Scriptures, one of the early followers of Jesus again emphasizes the necessity of an actively lived spirituality centered on doing justice: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. . . . For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead” (James 2: 14–17, 26). Seeking such a lively faith and Inspired by the reforms in Roman Catholicism as a result of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), Andrea Riccardi and a group of like-minded middle-class friends in Rome began to talk and pray about how they could live lives in imitation of the early followers of Jesus as described in the Acts of the Apostles. By the early 1970s they had formed the Community of Sant’Egidio and began to reach out to the poor in their midst. They started to teach the children of migrants living on the outskirts of Rome and organized after school programs for poor children already in school. This drew the religious community into the lives of families and they were soon working on social justice issues of all kinds. At the same time, they imaged their work as tied to gospel values and supported by prayer in community. From a small group in Rome, Sant ‘Egidio has grown into a network of communities numbering more than 70,000 and living in more than seventy countries. They are united by the same spiritual programming involving: prayer, ecumenical and interfaith dialogue, simple living in solidarity with the poor, and a strong commitment to working for peace and social justice. In 1986, Sant ‘Egidio took the lead in organizing the first in a series of inter-religious gatherings of world religious leaders to pray for peace. For several hours on October 27, 160 leaders from the world’s religions, gathered at the invitation of Pope John Paul II in the medieval Italian town of Assisi, so significant for its resonance with Saint Francis’s peace witness, to pray and fast for world peace. Not just Jews, Christians and Muslims but Buddhists and a Jain Holy Man, a Sikh, a Crow medicine man from Montana and a Zoroastrian were there. This World Day of

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Prayer for Peace saw monotheists, polytheists, animists and non-theists come together in as visually and doctrinally diverse a gathering as this world has seen. In the process, they dramatized one of the greatest of all human aspirations—to be one human family; understood and forming a unity expressed within an affirmably good reality of diversity. Further demonstrating the connection between the micro and macro level of peace, Sant’Egidio’s work with the poor in Rome soon led to programming aimed at illuminating inequality around the world, including Mozambique. Here, the community had been part of development projects for many years and now sought to promote peace between warring parties in Mozambique. Andrea Riccardi reasoned: “there’s no contradiction or difference between solidarity with the poor and solidarity with poor nations. War is something like the mother of all forms of poverty. War makes everyone poor, even the rich.” 13 In 1992, the Mozambiquan government and The Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) agreed to enter into direct negotiations at the headquarters of Sant’Egidio in the Trastevere area of Rome (in the presence of four outside “observers”). Government and rebel leaders concluded a peace pact, which lasted until this time of writing. Heading further east we can note that the Indian subcontinent has a long and uneven history of religion in the service of both violence and peace, which is worth reflecting upon, in part because so little of it is broadly disseminated in the West. More than 2000 years ago, Ashoka became Mauryan Emperor (269 BCE) and ruled most of present-day India and parts of today’s Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nepal for thirtyseven years. It is recorded that the early years of his reign were brutal. For example, hundreds of Asoka’s government ministers who failed a loyalty test were killed, as were all the members of a harem of several hundred when a few of the women insulted his person. 14 We know, too, that in 256 BCE, Ashoka conquered Kalinga in a brutal campaign in which more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians died and another 150,000 were deported. Precisely at this point in his life, religion enters as a force for peace. In one of the 33 edicts he ordered inscribed in rock around his kingdom, he records the regret he felt following this brutal war of aggression. Walking through Kalinga the day after its conquest, the edict states that he became sick from the destruction and death and pain and suffering caused to those who mourned. It goes on to say that Ashoka subsequently “converted” to Buddhism, pledged to wage no more wars of aggression, and encouraged his subjects to avoid anger and not to injure or kill animals or human beings (he may even have abolished capital punishment). 15 While various edicts extoll Ashoka’s efforts to spread Buddhist dharma (duty/proper conduct) and to live in harmony with the sangha (spiritual friends); they tell us, too, that he had an expansive view of dharma which included tolerance towards different religious groups, support for both Hindu Brahmins and Buddhist ascetics, and humane

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and generous treatment of all people. “All men are my children,” he had written in Rock Edict #7, “I am like a father to them. As every father desires the good and happiness of his children, I wish that all men should be happy always.” On Rock Edict #7 he had inscribed, “All religions should reside everywhere, for all of them desire self-control and purity of heart.” While Rock Edict #12 read “Contact (between religions) is good. One should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others. [Ashoka] desires that all should be well-learned in the good doctrines of other religions.” Almost eighteen hundred years later, in 1556, Akbar (1542–1605), came to the throne of the Islamic Empire of the Mughals which covered most of Northern India. Mughal architecture and artistry took form during Akbar’s reign and Mughal culture attained its peak of tolerance, harmony and openness. In this sense, a number of Muslim, Indian, and Western historians have described him as the greatest Mughal ruler of Indian history. Although a complex and multi-talented man—”by birth a mystic, by heredity a lover of knowledge, by experiences of early life impressionable and by court influences a Sunni” 16 —it can be argued that Akbar’s most admired quality and greatest legacy was his passionate search for the commonality shared by all religions and his practice of religious tolerance. This characteristic of Akbar is impressive, even astonishing, in the history of peace and conflict in general because he lived at a time when religious prejudice was rife and war was constantly waged in the name of religion in many parts of the world. However, despite wielding the imperial reigns of power, Akbar sought to cultivate his spiritual and cross-cultural knowledge, by surrounding himself with a diverse group of writers, scholars, musicians, painters, and translators. In line with this personal spiritual commitment that was to have social implications, Akbar’s most ambitious architectural undertaking was the construction of a new capital, Fatehpur Sikri (“Village of Victory,” completed in 1578) 17 at the heart of which he created a remarkable building (a single room), the diwan-i-khas (Hall of Private Audience). In the center of the hall stands a tall-decorated pillar on which rests a round platform; beneath which cascades an intricate twisting capital and the multi-religious decorative elements of an elaborately carved column. At the level of the top of this pillar, four walkways branch out to the corners of the building where there are four smaller platforms. Although scholars are not in agreement about the exact function of this unusual structure, most agree that Akbar would sit on silken cushions raised on the central platform as holy men of different faiths knelt at the ends of the walkways to put forward the teachings of their varied traditions. Following the Friday midday prayer in the Mosque, it was used regularly as a place for religious debate and dialogue among Sunni and Shi’a scholars, as well as Sufi mystics and representatives of other Islamic groups. Later, non-Muslims were included; Hindus, Jains, Jews, Zoroastrians, and even thinkers who

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denied the existence of a transcendental deity. They came together, in one of the world’s earliest interfaith dialogue groups, to discuss where and why they differed and how they could live together. After many months of these discussions (often continuing late into the night), Akbar became more and more convinced of the value and righteousness of all religions and began to construct a syncretic religion for his subjects, which he called “Din-i-Ilahi” (The Divine Faith). Akbar even wrote to the Pope in Rome asking him to send Catholic priests as envoys to enlighten him on Christianity and the sayings of Jesus. Accordingly, in 1580, three Portuguese Jesuits arrived from Goa to join in dialogue. Emperor Akbar came to understand that all existence is the manifestation of a single foundational divine reality, distorted in some ways by narrow religious affiliation. Guided by this enlightened philosophy, he issued an edict of universal toleration, forbade the forcible conversion of prisoners to Islam, married a succession of wives with different religious backgrounds, promoted Hindus at all levels of the imperial administration, and even entrusted his army to a former Hindu enemy. After thirty years as emperor he replaced the Islamic Hegira era dates by the Ilahi (“Divine”) era, which began with the first year of Akbar’s reign. In place of the Muslim profession of faith (There is no God but Allah and Mohammad is his prophet) he substituted the expression “Allah o akbar” (“God is great”). Westerners like to think of Europe as the birthplace of “enlightened” thinking (including the concept of religious freedom) but the spiritual history of Fatehpur Sikri stands as monumental testimony to the undeniable fact that while Giordano Bruno was being tried, tortured, and burned at the stake in Campo de’ Fiori by order of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Rome, Akbar was declaring that “no man should be interfered with on account of religion, and anyone is to be allowed to go over to a religion that pleases him.” 18 By respecting the full diversity of religious beliefs in India, Akbar in a significant sense laid foundations for the avowed nondenominational religious neutrality of the modern, secular Indian state. Today, in a world as divided on religious grounds as it has ever been, the emperor’s beliefs that different faiths could learn from each other by listening, and that listening neutrally to different faith traditions was crucial to the health of the state, are intuitions that can be considered more important than ever. Of course, contemporary India, despite its constitutional commitment to religious liberty and equality has not been immune to violence. Between Akbar’s time and today there was another imperial example that sought to actively reinforce notions of religious difference as identity markers. Perhaps too often throughout history, invading colonist powers, as a way of maintaining their control, have used the “Divide and Rule” strategy. The British Raj in India was fond of this strategy having perfected the colonial model prototype in Ireland. In contrast to Akbar’s emphasis on

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the cultural and religious commonalities that existed among the peoples of the subcontinent, the British encouraged local animosities and differences between the princely states and fueled mutual suspicions and unease between Hindus and Muslims, as one way to maintain their overall control. In this context, it is interesting to note that Hinduism emerged as a word and a “religion” only in the nineteenth century as it came to the attention of westerner scholars of comparative religion. 19 In this context, it is also important to state that prior to foreign contact there was no word or concept in any Indian language equivalent to “religion.” 20 Following upon the rebellion of 1857, there was a perceived need on the part of the British in India to better know the “Indians” so as to prevent such an unfortunate event in the future. In their efforts to understand India, classification by “religion” was a prime categorical difference. Religion came to the fore in a major way, and unwittingly perhaps, in an 1881 British census of India. Using established western understanding of religions as mutually exclusive, the survey required participants to identify themselves as belonging to one or another religion, caste or tribe. As a result of this, people became more aware of themselves as living within fairly sharply defined religious boundaries that emphasized how they were different from other groups, especially certain Christian foreigners who let them know that Indian religions were inferior to Christianity and even a negative force in Empire building. In addition, the census data made the people aware (often for the first time) that they belonged to groups of varying sizes, which were not evenly represented across the subcontinent; which, in turn, fed lingering apprehensions about these divisions. During the nineteenth century, a number of communal conflicts, based on religion, occurred in India and by the dawn of the twentieth century various nationalist movements had taken shape in the country. Compounding the situation was a series of complex religious revivals and powerful reform movements, especially in Hinduism and Islam, which contributed to a further sharpening of the perceived differences between groups. On the one hand, some argued that Islam by nature required a Muslim society and, especially in the old centers of Mughal power, the people looked back nostalgically to the days before the Raj. Hindus, in contrast, resented the Mughals as well as the British for their rule over Mother India and Hindu nationalists pushed for a revival of Hinduism as part of an independent India. In the 1940’s, as the Indian National Congress called on Britain to “quit” India, the Muslim League position was for Britain to “divide and quit” India whereas the Congress initially advocated for one India. At the same time Hindu nationalists argued for a Hindustan that would be controlled by members of the ancient majority religion. It seems that at the time, many religious people in India lost sight of the ways in which they had coexisted for centuries (even under Mughal rule) and instead focused on differences. Muslims

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fearing assimilation into a Hindu India called for a separate Islamic state in the north-west and east of the subcontinent. Accordingly, on August 14, 1947, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was born and at midnight (August 15), a separate India was freed from 350 years of British rule. Religious violence and the largest movement of people in global history surrounded the partition. Sadly, today, despite numerous faith-based initiatives that are geared towards building a culture of peace on the subcontinent, the mainstream Western media tends to concentrate on narratives of religious violence when discussing spirituality in contemporary India. 21 Yet, India has a long history of exporting a religiously themed culture of peace to the West. For example, the nineteenth century Hindu mystic, Ramakrishna (1836–1886), is perhaps the earliest example of an Indian peacemaker who was known in the Western world. Ramakrishna taught that all religions are valid, each one offering insight into one or another aspect of the one God. He studied the teachings and entered into the religious disciplines of various faiths, especially Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, before being awakened to the reality that, although they employ varying means, the world’s religious traditions all lead to the same end—”As many faiths, so many paths.” They are not contradictory or competing but complementary; what is required in our world is not uniformity of religion but a harmony among religions (a core of unity amid splendid diversity). In 1893, Ramakrishna’s most influential disciple, Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) was a key figure in the first major effort to bring together Eastern as well as Western representatives of the world’s religion traditions together at the 1893 Parliament of the World’s Religions, held in conjunction with Chicago’s World Columbian Exposition. He introduced the 8,000 attendees to Hinduism and Indian philosophy (including Yoga) and was a strong voice for unity among the world’s religions. Thanks to such contributions, the Parliament can be thought of as the beginning of worldwide inter-religious dialogue. After returning home, Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission in Howrah (1897), on the Hoogley River near Kolkata. Recalling Sri Ramakrishna’s words (‘Man is the greatest manifestation of God. If you seek God, then seek him in Man’), he expressed the goal of the Ramakrishna Mission as “for one’s own liberation and for the good of the world.” Today, this volunteer driven service organization has centers all over the world working in fields of concern to substantive peace as diverse as education, health care, and relief work. In 1993, during the centenary of the historic Chicago gathering, a more inclusive gathering (including, for example, Sikhism, indigenous religions, and new religious movements) took place, again in Chicago. It opened with the presentation of a draft document on Towards a Global Ethic: An Initial Declaration, a document on the critical state of the social, ecological and cultural environment. It was endorsed by many of those

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attending the conference, including Dali Lama XIV who delivered the closing address. 22 The global ethic, which the parliament agreed to, represents a “fundamental consensus” about world ethics. Although it is not meant to imply some sort of global religion or global ideology, it is intended to be a statement based on what is, in fact, already agreed to as held in common among the diverse religious traditions of the world: it ‘represents the minimum of what the religions of the world already have in common now in the ethical sphere.” 23 Given the reality of globalization, the parliament produced its document to underline its view that an ethical foundation agreed to by the Abrahamic faiths, as well as the mystical faiths originating in India and the wisdom religions of China, is universally valid for regulating human relationships across our fragile planet. That consensus discerned an essential core of religious teachings, such as the importance of tolerance, love and human dignity, which can then be used to form a spiritual basis for peace work within and across diverse contexts. Although an important explicit formulation emerges from the Parliament of the World’s Religions, this ethic has been active in other forms some time in the history of peace and conflict. For example, returning to the realities on the subcontinent, it is not uncommon to encounter references to the endemic hostility that exists between India and Pakistan being linked to an incompatibility between Hindus and Muslims. The implication behind these statements is that religious differences are at the heart of the conflict whereas, in fact, many scholars argue that the antipathy is fueled as much by power politics and economics as it is by religion. It is recognized today that the communal rioting following partition in 1947 originated in a distorted idea of the Muslim as “other” which was held by a majority of Hindu leaders who saw partition as an internal threat to the continued existence of India as a nation. The most prominent religious leader of the day, Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948), although opposed to partition, was instrumental in having the British “quit” India. His method was satyagraha, from the Sanskrit satya (“truth”) and agraha (“holding firmly to”), which he explained this way: “Truth (satya) implies love, and firmness (agraha) engenders and therefore serves as a synonym for force. I thus began to call the Indian movement Satyagraha, that is to say, the Force which is born of Truth and Love or nonviolence, and gave up the use of the phrase “passive resistance,” in connection with it.” 24 As Gandhi elaborated on many occasions, Satyagraha included Buddhist and Jain notions of nonviolence and avoidance of killing as well as ideas of equality, the golden rule, and agape often associated with the Abrahamic religions. Gandhi frequently spoke of the connections he saw between religious traditions, even referring to himself as a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian, and a Jew. A scene in Richard Attenborough’s movie Gandhi (1982) makes the imperative of love attached to this spiritual universalism clear. As Gandhi was

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fasting to bring an end to Hindu-Muslim communal violence in Kolkata, a Hindu extremist told Gandhi that, because Muslim extremists had killed his young son, he had killed a Muslim child and was “going to Hell.” Gandhi told him the way out of Hell was to “find a child whose mother and father have been killed and raise him as your own . . . only be sure that he is a Muslim and that you raise him as one.” 25 Mahatma 26 Gandhi was certainly not the originator of the spiritual tool of nonviolence, but he was the first person in modern times to find the astonishing inner resources of faith and courage to apply it against institutional injustice on a large scale. To great effect, the twentieth century black civil rights movement in the United States, led by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., drew heavily on Gandhian principles in crafting his nonviolent tactics of civil disobedience. Gandhi was himself influenced by theosophical writings, diverse religious traditions and crosscultural experiences. Hence, Gandhi and King remain important figures that can symbolize the potential for religions to contribute positive solutions to complex global, local, social and ecological conflicts. They do this through the principles they symbolically embody in their persons. Such principles, like nonviolence, love and justice are further manifest in a number of religious peacebuilding initiatives around the globe. For example, spurred on by the suffering of the people of Vietnam, Thicht Nat Han and his followers began working for a renewal of Buddhism that in 1967 they first called “Engaged Buddhism.” For his nonviolent efforts “Thay” (spiritual teacher), as he has commonly been called, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on several occasions, including by Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1967. After being exiled from Vietnam (1966–2005), Thicht Nat Han and Sister Chan Khong eventually founded Plum Village in 1982 as a place of compassion and loving-kindness, an education center for the plight of people in Vietnam and place of learning and retreat for engaged Buddhists and those interested in their project. At Plum Village, teaching is practice and practice is teaching according to Thay’s vision of the living dharma (here understood as the dynamic teachings of the Buddha). A key idea brought to life in the village is to practice a slow pace of life. For example, pilgrims are encouraged to simply breathe because they are alive. The goal of such intentional practice is to be present to and for the world. In line with this philosophy, the community also works to maintain high respect for children and other beings that are often voiceless in relation to the mass societies. Whereas, Buddhist scriptures tend to speak of four communities of persons: monks, nuns, laywomen and laymen; at Plum Village community includes non-human like trees, birds, water and air as members. In this light, Thich Nat Han teaches that the “American Dream” is unsustainable and violent, needing to be replaced with a different kind of holistic vision. Walking meditation is meant to nourish the spirit by listening and enjoying the Earth, as contrasted with false nourishment from

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a violent economy. For instance, inhabitants of Plum Village explore the belief that overconsumption of television feeds the seeds of violence. Partly due to the colonial connection between Christianization and violence in Vietnam, Thich Nat Han tends to encourage people to stay within their own religious traditions and to take “secondary roots” in Buddhism if they are interested. In this pluralist approach that remains grounded in spirituality, the final goal is to unite inner and outer self (in community and society) with “being peace.” Change is sought on both the individual and the sociopolitical level. Justice then becomes “being peace” for the benefit of the whole world. Despite such examples of religiously motivated communities working for substantive peace, in the end it may be informative to acknowledge that, to this point in human history, religion has too often been brought in the service of violence. Yet, as this short chapter had begun to show, there remains an active and creative group of religious people who are working to incarnate the promise and hope for peace in this world. To point one way that the balance of history may now and ought to be tipped in the favour of supporting substantive peace, it may be helpful to turn to the work of the self-styled “geologian” and former teacher of World Religions at Fordham University, Thomas Berry (1914–2009). Beginning in the 1980s, Berry began advocating for a peace that would exist beyond the false formulations of Pax Americana or Pax Romana to embrace not only a Pax Humana but also a Pax Gaia, the peace of the Earth from the ancient mythical name of the planet. From a Berryite perspective nothing less than a Pax Gaia will do because we have reached a point of crisis in our planetary history where one species is responsible not only for extreme inequality within its own ranks but also for putting in peril the diverse functioning of the natural world. It follows that transformation is needed in all areas that Berry labels as the human establishment, inclusive of religion, law, education and economics. The transformation of religion cries out for religious teaching and practices which support intertwined principles of social justice and ecological flourishing based on the simple, yet profound, moral insight that the universe is a communion of subjects not a collection of objects. This transformation, one based on the hope and possibility of a vital future, would touch on each of the legacies and sustainable future of human-human, human-Earth and human-divine relationships so that they become mutually enhancing and creative for all the members of the human and Earth communities. In this sense, transformed religion would participate in another sense of the root words for religion, religare, the active verb which signifies the “binding” or “tying together”—in this case of all things, all life and all persons. It is this shared sense of connection backed up by a deep social and ecological solidarity, which points to the necessary task of substantively peaceful religion in this century. At the end of the day we all share

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a common fate. In so much as religion is destructive in regards to social and ecological flourishing, it emerges as maladaptive as the human population of the planet heads towards eight billion people. Creative cooperation becomes that contextual imperative of the day in order to avoid intertwined social and ecological collapse. According to Berry this situation, calls for “moments of grace” and innovation will help get us through the related challenges and crises of our times. From a Berryite perspective, religion holds out the promise of contributing to a vital future by nourishing the psycho-spiritual energy necessary to drive the transformation of human establishments. In so much as the religious thinkers and activists explored in this chapter and volume do so, they contribute to the contextually required peaceful expression of religion needed in this world and prove themselves relevant in a crucial sociocosmic sense. NOTES 1. Max Muller, Natural Religion: The Gifford Lectures Delivered Before the University of Glasgow in 1888. Second Edition. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1892), 39. 2. Having “recognized” the reality of “religion” in various cultures, Western scholars found words in many languages which were routinely translated into English as “religion.” For example, the Sanskrit word dharma, often translated as “religion” more fundamentally means “law.” Even in Judaism and the Hebrew Bible, there is no single word that carries the same meaning as “religion” in English. 3. See J. Samuel Preus, “Machiavelli’s Functional Analysis of Religion: Context and Object.” Journal of the History of Ideas 40, no. 2 (year): 171–190. 4. See Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The Marx-Engels Reader, edited by Robert C. Tucker. (London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1978). The direct quotation is found in Marx’s 1843 introduction to his critique of Hegel’s philosophy of right. Liberation Theology argues that Marx’s analysis of religion is congruent with the view that religion is capable of having a functional face (fighting against injustice of all kinds) and a dysfunctional face (conserving an unjust status quo). We will return to the former distinction below, when we turn to specific examples of religion in the service of peace. 5. Recall here that once in play “othering” can be active process in and of itself. 6. Tacitus, “Life of Cnaeus Julius Agricola,” Ancient History Sourcebook, translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb. Last modified January, 1999. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/tacitus-agricola.asp. 7. Louis Feldman of Yeshiva University, New York, argues that Titus, as Emperor, used this looted wealth to help pay for the Coliseum; the vast amphitheater begun by his father Vespasian. See Louis H Feldman,” Financing the Coliseum,” Biblical Archaeology Review vol 27, no. 4 (2001): 20–25, 28–31, 60–61. 8. See Sarah Culpepper Stroup, “Making Memory: Ritual, Rhetoric, and Violence in the Roman Triumph” in Belief and Bloodshed: Religion and Violence across Time and Tradition, ed. Wellman, James K. (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), 29–46. 9. Note that Catholic Social Teaching documents, the written result of teaching office held by the Catholic bishop, inclusive of the Bishop of Rome, are conventionally cited by paragraph number. 10. Clinton Bennet, In Search of Solutions: The Problem of Religion and Conflict (London: Equinox, 2008), 28.

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11. Walter Brueggemann, The Covented Self: Explorations in Law and Covenant (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2009). 12. Ibid., 50. 13. Andrea Riccardi, The Sant’Egidio Book of Prayer (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2009), 80. 14. See Upinder Singh, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century (Toronto: Pearson Education, 2008). 15. Built by Ashoka in the third century BCE, the Great Stupa at Sanchi (built over relics of the Buddha) is the oldest stone structure in India. In 1989, it was added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites. 16. Makhanlal Roychoudhury. The Din-I-Ilahi or The Religion of Akbar (Calcutta: Calcutta University Press, 1941), xli. 17. One of the most impressive creations of Fatehpur Sikri is the Jama Masjid (Friday Mosque). Its southern entrance, at the top a monumental stairway leading up from today’s poor village of Sikri, is the impressive arched Victory Gate, considered to be one of the greatest examples of Muslim architecture in India. Constructed of red sandstone, it is decorated by carvings and white marble inlay. Along the inside of the arch is inlaid calligraphy which reads: “Jesus, Son of Mary (on whom be peace) said: ‘The World is a Bridge, pass over it, but build no houses upon it. He who hopes for a day, may hope for eternity; but the World endures but an hour. Spend it in prayer, for the rest is unseen.’” The phrase inscription is one of hundreds of sayings and stories of Jesus that are found in Arabic and Islamic literature. Some of these come from the four New Testament Gospels, others from early Christian texts such as the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas (later rejected), others again from the wider oral Christian traditions of the Near East. It is possible that some are authentic sayings and stories of Jesus that Islam has retained but which Western Christianity has lost. 18. Akbar quoted in Amartya Sen, The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005), 18. 19. See Peter Gottschalk, “A Categorical Difference: Communal Identity in British epistemologies” Religion and Violence in South Asia, 195–210. 20. Ibid., 202, 210. 21. For example, Delhi in 1984, Bhagalpur in 1989, Gujarat in 2002, Mumbai in 2008. 22. A 2004 Parliament in Barcelona, Spain, focused on four major issues: religiously motivated violence, access to safe water, the fate of refugees around the world, and the rising external debt of poor countries. The 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia had a strong focus on aboriginal issues but also engaged issues related to curbing religious extremism and violence as a way to promoting world peace and justice. 23. Parliament of the World Religions, A Global Ethic: The Declaration of the Parliament of the World’s Religions (with commentaries by Hans Kung and Karl-Josef Kuschel). (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 1993), p. 8. 24. Mohandas K. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publushing, 1928), 109–10. 25. Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India wrote a letter to Gandhi after this Calcutta fast in which he credited him with bringing an end to the horrific violence between Hindus and Muslims: “My dear Gandhiji: In the Punjab I have 55,000 troops, and riots, on my hands. In Calcutta I have one man and peace. May I pay my tribute to my one-man boundary force?” (Quoted from http://www.deleonism.org/ text/98020003.htm). 26. Mahatma is a title denoting “great soul,” often applied to M.K. Gandhi and first applied to Gandhi by the Nobel Prize winning Bengali writer, poet and artist, Rabindranath Tagore.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Almond, Gabriel A., R. Scott Appleby, and Emmanuel Sivan. Strong Religion: The Rise of Fundamentalisms around the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Appleby, R. Scott. The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. Baum, Gregory. Amazing Church: A Catholic Theologian Remembers a Half-Century of Change Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2005. Bennet, Clinton. In Search of Solutions: The Problem of Religion and Conflict. London: Equinox, 2008. Berry, Thomas. The Dream of the Earth. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990. ———. Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 2006. Bevans, Stephen. Models of Contextual Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2002. Brueggemann, Walter. The Covented Self: Explorations in Law and Covenant. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2009. Feldman, Louis H. “Financing the Coliseum.” Biblical Archaeology Review, Jul/Aug 2001, 20–25, 28–31, 60–61. Gandhi, Mohandas K. Satyagraha in South Africa. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing, 1928. Gottschal, Peter. “A Categorical Difference: Communal Identity in British Epistemologies” In Religion and Violence in South Asia, edited by John Russell Hinnells and Richard King, 195–210. Oxford: Routledge, 2007. Guiterez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics and Salvation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1973. Hinnells, John R. and Richard King, eds. Religion and Violence in South Asia: Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge, 2007. Juergensmeyer, Mark. Global Rebellion: Religious Challenges to the Secular State, from Christian Militias to al Qaeda. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. ———. Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. 3rd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince, translated by Daniel Donno. New York: Bantam Classics, 1984. Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The Marx-Engels Reader, edited by Robert C. Tucker. London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1978. Muller, F. Max. Natural Religion: The Gifford Lectures Delivered Before the University of Glasgow in 1888 (2nd Edition). London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1892. Nussbaum, Martha C. The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India’s Future. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009. Parliament of the World Religions, A Global Ethic: The Declaration of the Parliament of the World’s Religions (with commentaries by Hans Kung and Karl-Josef Kuschel). New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 1993. Pope Paul VI. “Populorum Progressio: On the Development of Peoples.” In Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage, edited by David J. O’Brien and Thomas A. Shannon, 238–62. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2000. Preus, J. Samuel. “Machiavelli’s Functional Analysis of Religion: Context and Object.” Journal of the History of Ideas 40, no. 2 (April–June, 1979): 171–190. Riccardi, Andrea. The Sant’Egidio Book of Prayer. Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2009. Roychoudhury, Makhanlal. The Din-I-Ilahi or The Religion of Akbar. Calcutta: Calcutta University Press, 1941. Selengut, Charles. Sacred Fury: Understanding Religious Violence. Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield, 2008. Sen, Amartya. The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. Singh, Upinder. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the twelfth Century. Toronto: Pearson Education, 2008.

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Stroup, Sarah Culpepper. “Making Memory: Ritual, Rhetoric, and Violence in the Roman Triumph.” In Belief and Bloodshed: Religion and Violence Across Time and Tradition, edited by James K. Wellman, 29–46. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007. Tacitus. “Life of Cnaeus Julius Agricola.” Ancient History Sourcebook, translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb. Last modified January, 1999. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/tacitus-agricola.asp. Wellman, James K., ed. Belief and Bloodshed: Religion and Violence across Time and Tradition. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. Wellman, James K. and Clark Lombardi, eds. Religion and Human Security: A Global Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Wellman, James K., and Kyoko Tokuno, eds. Religion, Conflict and Violence: Exploring Patterns Past and Present, East and West. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2012.

THREE Ahimsa A World without Violence? Klaus Klostermaier

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) introduced the word ahimsa—usually translated as ‘nonviolence’—into the vocabulary of public political discourse. His spectacular peaceful mass demonstrations against the British colonial government in India astounded the world and found many admirers. In a time, that is full of tensions, violent revolutions and the threat of large-scale wars, ahimsa sounds like a magic word to ban the specter of a looming worldwide catastrophe. This chapter intends to provide a summary of Gandhi’s ahimsa, discuss attempts to practice ahimsa and assess its chances in today’s world. AHIMSA Gandhi’s notion of ahimsa historically connects with Jainism and Buddhism, major religions that originated in sixth century BCE India. In Jainism ahimsa is “the highest law.” 1 Ahimsa is also the first of the Buddhist five (or ten) basic “commandments”. In both religions ahimsa meant “non-killing” and was primarily addressing the Hindu practice of sacrificing animals (and humans) to please a deity. Taking life of any kind in any form became a taboo and protecting life was considered a meritorious act. Major changes in Indian law and life had followed the conversion of large populations and their rulers to Buddhism and/or Jainism. The Jain who hold that everything is endowed with life—also the elements, water and air, stones and metals possess jivas—prescribe a rou31

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tine for its professionals that minimizes the danger of inadvertently taking life. Meals have to be prepared and eaten before sundown, in order to avoid attracting insects to lamps and fires. Jain ascetics have to wear a piece of cloth over mouth and nose to avoid harming the air-jivas. Buddhist bhikkhus were obliged to reside at one place during the rainy season and not to wander around, to avoid trampling on living beings that swarm during the monsoon and to prevent treading on the growing vegetation in the fields. Diseases and accidents that befell members of the sangha were explained as bad karma stemming from violations of living beings in previous lives. The Dhammapada Commentary contains numerous stories where the Buddha explains events, such as the sudden blindness of an otherwise blameless member of the sangha, as the consequence of some deeds in a previous life whereby living beings had been harmed. 2 Possibly under the influence of Buddhism, which had become the most popular religion in India by the fifth century CE, the devotees of Vishnu also began to exclude human and animal offerings from their rituals. Fruits, sweetmeats and flowers became the preferred articles in murti-pujas, the worship of images of gods. Krishna in the Bhagavadgita says: “Whoever offers a leaf, a flower, a fruit to me, is dear to me.” 3 By contrast, the worshippers of Shiva and Devi practice even today himsa in their temples: they kill animals such as goats and buffaloes (and occasionally humans) to placate and please the deity. Especially in times of danger and catastrophes such offerings are believed to be necessary. 4 Gandhi’s mother was a pious Vaishnava and one of his closest friends was an upright Jain. From both he received decisive impulses for his worldview. But, as he himself said, he owed his understanding of ahimsa as universal active love to the Sermon on the Mount. Some of his adversaries challenged it as un-Indian and accused him of spreading Christianity. 5 Like other Indians before, he believed that the West neither really understood nor practiced Christianity and that its “Christian civilization” was built on violence rather than on charity. He strongly asserted that he was a Hindu and that ahimsa was central in Hinduism: “Non-violence is common to all religions, but it has found the highest expression and application in Hinduism. (I do not regard Jainism or Buddhism as separate from Hinduism.)” 6 Hinduism, he added, believes in the oneness not merely of all human life, but in the oneness of all that lives! Gandhi gave the most detailed and comprehensive description of his understanding of ahimsa in his Ashram Observances in Action. 7 Ahimsa was the second of five vows that his closest followers had to take. The first, and foremost, was the Vow of Truth. Nonviolence is an expression of— and means to—satyagraha, “Truth-Grasping.” While ahimsa is a traditional Indian concept, the term satyagraha is Gandhi’s own creation. It is at the center of his life’s mission and the touchstone of all his activities. Truth was for Gandhi a synonym for God. He took pride in having “invented”

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the inversion of the traditional formula “God is Truth” by saying, “Truth is God.” Satyagraha is the core of true religion and ahimsa is a vital ingredient of it. Gandhi was not only an active politician and a reformer, he also lead a life of prayer and understood all of his activity as a realization of his faith in God. Truth, he says, is not just abstaining from telling some untruth to one’s fellow-humans: “Truth is God, the One and Only reality.” 8 All other vows are derived from this commitment to Truth. Gandhi insists that seekers and worshippers of Truth must not let themselves be tempted to any untruth, even if it seems to be of advantage in the service of a good cause. In this context he mentions Prahlada, the popular hero of an ancient Indian story, who disobeyed his parents because of his love for truth and risked being killed by his father for confessing the true God. 9 To realize Truth/God was the declared objective of Gandhi’s life and ahimsa the only means to achieve it. He challenged the British Colonial Government of India because it represented untruth. The success of ahimsa cannot be measured in terms of the success of violence: it has to do with the acquisition of ‘soul-force’ and not with the conquest of territory or the gain of power. Gandhi thinks in religious, not in pragmatic terms, when he says: “Self-sacrifice of one innocent man is a million times more potent than the sacrifice of a million men who die in the act of killing others. The willing sacrifice of the innocent is the most powerful retort to any insolent tyranny that has yet been conceived by God or man.” 10 Ahimsa is identical with Gandhi’s religion: “I know only one way—the way of ahimsa. The way of himsa goes against my grain. I do not want to cultivate the power to inculcate himsa. . . . The faith sustains me that He is the help of the helpless; that He comes to one’s succor only when one throws himself to His mercy. It is because of that faith that I cherish the hope that God will show me one day a path, which I may confidently commend to the people.” 11 The term satyagraha does have connections with traditional Indian thought. The Ultimate has been circumscribed in the Upanishads as satyam—jnanam—anantam (reality/truth—knowledge—infinity) or satyamshivam-sundaram (reality/truth—grace—beauty), expressing the essence as well as the qualities of the Supreme Being. The value of satyagraha lies not in the visible ‘success’ that an enterprise might have, but in the spiritual gain for the practitioner. It emphasizes the purity of motive and the righteousness of the cause. Satyagraha is “God-grasping” and thereby self-fulfilling. The inclusion of ahimsa in satyagraha had much to do with the specific historic circumstances of Gandhi’s involvement in the Indian Freedom Movement. When Gandhi joined in 1915 the Indian Congress—the body that actively worked towards India’s independence from British colonial rule—it included activists like Subhash Chandra Bose who pleaded for a “War of Independence,” a continuation of the “First War of Indepen-

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dence” of 1857 (called “Mutiny” in British sources). Bose assembled the Free Indian Army, which he later submitted to the control of the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in the hope that Hitler’s armies would conquer India after subduing Russia. In 1944 Bose traveled in a German submarine to Japan and joined the Japanese forces that came close to the borders of India, after overrunning Burma, which was then also under British control. 12 Gandhi resisted Bose from the very beginning. He rightly felt that a ‘war of liberation,’ as Bose had planned it, would lead to immense bloodletting. What Gandhi did not anticipate, when he later agreed to the partition of India as the precondition of Independence, was the bloodbath that followed the separation of the two nations of Pakistan and Bharat. He became dejected and disillusioned: he felt that his teaching had been ignored by his own people. Gandhi was certainly aware of the potential for violence between Hindus and Muslims: there had been many deadly Hindu-Muslim riots already under the British and the atrocities accompanying the partition revealed how violent Indians could be! At various points in his career Gandhi undertook fasts to bring an end to Hindu-Muslim riots and he included Muslim prayers besides Hindu and Christian hymns in his Ashram Bhajanavali, the book used for daily prayers by his followers. 13 Gandhi believed in the effectiveness and reasonableness of ahimsa. Ahimsa he held to be a human specific: its practice separates humanity from animals: “Non-violence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the brute.” 14 Nonviolence is a sign of strength of spirit—something uniquely human. Gandhi claims that ahimsa goes back to the beginnings of Indian civilization: “The rishis who discovered the law of nonviolence in the midst of violence were greater geniuses than Newton. They were greater warriors than Wellington. Having themselves known the use of arms, they realized their uselessness and taught a wary world that its salvation lay not through violence but through non-violence.” 15 He also considered ahimsa the basis of all existing human societies. If people were not fundamentally nonviolent in their daily life, humankind would have been eliminated long ago. Gandhi did not accept the Darwinian notion of “nature red in tooth and claw” but saw violence as a deviation from human nature. His own experiment consisted in the application of ahimsa on the political scene. He could claim already success for his approach in his peaceful resistance to the state in South Africa, which at that time had strict apartheid and a great amount of contempt for “colored people” of any provenience. There are two episodes that are foundational for Gandhi’s ahimsa. The first relates to a train journey in South Africa. As attorney for an Indian firm, he travelled first class from Durban to Pretoria. A white passenger who entrained on the way demanded that the “colored man” leave the compartment. Gandhi was offered a seat in a second-class compartment,

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but he preferred to spend the night in the cold waiting room of Pietermaritzburg rather than forgo his right to a first class seat. “My active nonviolence dated from that point in time,” 16 he would later say. The second episode had greater political potential. A new South African law demanded that all Indians take out registration cards with imprints of all ten fingers. This violated the Indians’ religious feelings. Gandhi called for passive resistance against this law, which he considered unjust. He called for satyagraha, “The strength that is born from truth, love and non-violence.” 17 The refusal to register resulted in a mass arrest of 155 Indians. Gandhi insisted that all voluntarily donned prisongarbs and strictly followed prison-routines. Gandhi used the time in prison to read religious books and to teach his fellow inmates. When, a short time later, the South African government no longer insisted on the registration, Gandhi recommended a voluntary registration. When this was not followed by an abolition of the “Black Act” of 1906, as Gandhi had hoped, he told the Indians to burn their registration papers. This resulted in his being jailed for a second time. In prison, he felt he was “the happiest man in the whole of Transvaal.” The prison became his college: he absolved an extended program of studies, reading religious, political, economical and sociological literature and spending a great deal of time in prayers. He wrote: “It would be the highest great fortune to be in prison for the interest and the wellbeing of one’s country and one’s religion.” 18 There are far-reaching implications of ahimsa as Gandhi understands it: ahimsa is not only a refusal to engage in violence, but also the absence of greed, ambition, and domination. It defines an entire culture. Gandhi anchored ahimsa in Truth: Satyagraha was the most crucial issue: Truth/ God had to be ‘grasped’ at all costs. It excluded all desire to wield power over others and all ill will: “Ahimsa is not the goal. Truth is the goal. However, we have no means of realizing truth in human relationships except through the practice of ahimsa. A steadfast pursuit of ahimsa is inevitably bound to truth—not so violence. That is why I swear by ahimsa. Truth came naturally to me. Ahimsa I acquired after a struggle.” 19 Gandhi made it clear that ahimsa was not an excuse for inaction in the face of injustice: “My non-violence does not admit of running away from danger and leaving dear ones unprotected. Between violence and cowardly flight, I can only prefer violence to cowardice. I can no more preach non-violence to a coward than I can tempt a blind man to enjoy healthy scenes. Non-violence is the summit of bravery.” 20 Included in ahimsa is a conscious abstention from taking revenge. Gandhi connected everyday working-for-a-living with ahimsa. Rejecting the ‘modern’ notion of work as a mere burden, to be thrown off at the first chance to enjoy life without having to work, he sees in work a divine obligation and the source of unfailing joy. In particular, he identified spinning—the cottage industry that he revived to provide work to villag-

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ers during the time when they had nothing to do on their fields—with ahimsa. The members of his ashram had to take a vow of spinning. The spinning wheel became an embodiment of ahimsa. He also explains his engagement for cow-protection as an expression of nonviolence: the cow is the supreme symbol for ahimsa. Gandhi’s most ambitious attempt at economics, his Constructive Program of 1945, is also built on ahimsa. The free India he is dreaming of consists of a republic of 500,000 self-sufficient villages: it is to be a “Ram Raj, Khudai Sultanat, Kingdom of God.” 21 If India could win its independence through nonviolence, it would become a model for the rest of the world. Gandhi believed that economic nonviolence was only possible in a village setting. Gandhi was aware that “a government cannot succeed in becoming entirely non-violent, because it represents all the people.” 22 His conclusion, however, was not to put limitations on ahimsa but to do away with government! He is speculating: “whether in an ideal society, there should be any or no government.” 23 While admitting that so far no state has existed without a government, “if at all it could come into being, it would be in India; for ours is the only country where the attempt has, at any rate, been made.” 24 Even if ahimsa on the level of the state was not yet possible, there is a big difference between dictatorship and democracy: “Science of war leads one to dictatorship pure and simple. Science of nonviolence can alone lead one to pure democracy.” 25 On many occasions Gandhi had to defend his utopian idea of a nonviolent state, but he insisted on its possibility and even suggested that there was a historic example for it in the reign of Ashoka. 26 Admitting that under the present circumstances it was not possible to have a nonviolent state, he insisted that it was meaningful to work towards it. Looking at the history of the world since Gandhi’s death, we find proof for Gandhi’s theories. Violent liberations from colonial rule have lead to the establishment of violence-dominated independent states: dictatorships and tyrannies. Standard economics, based on ruthless exploitation of nature and humans, has lead to widespread mass impoverishment and to numerous wars of aggression. The ideology that sees in military might the only guarantee for supremacy has led to constant conflicts and unwelcome interference with other countries. Gandhi’s utterance that “without truth and nonviolence there can only be destruction for humanity” 27 certainly has a prophetic ring: we see untruth and violence rising day-by-day, bringing humanity to the brink! Like the “beatitudes” of the Sermon on the Mount, that Gandhi considered the essence of Jesus’s teachings, ahimsa is an ideal that will always remain a desideratum and never fully become an earthly reality. While the Jesus of the Gospels may have come close to practicing what he is said to have taught (he too does have his moments of wrath, uttering threats of eschatological violence against the “unbelievers”) and while

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Gandhi largely realized in his own life his understanding of ahimsa, nobody in any position of consequence did so after them. The leaders of the Christian Church(es), who claimed to continue Jesus’s mission on earth, paid lip service to the Sermon on the Mount and followed in their practice the same power-calculus and ruthlessness as all other politicians. Karl-Heinz Deschner has collected massive historical evidence for the failings of the Church(es) to follow Christ’s teaching. 28 Violence, supported by Christian theory and praxis, is not a matter of past history only. Here is a telling contemporary episode: Rafael Seligman, an Israel-born Jewish writer, who grew up in Germany (where his German-born parents had moved back after WW II) describes in his autobiography 29 how as a young man he became fascinated by the “Jew Jesus” and felt attracted by the Sermon on the Mount. He even considered becoming a Christian. Contacting a prominent Dominican theologian, he wanted to explore the application of the command to “offer the other cheek”: “When I told [Fr. Basilius Streithofer] of my enthusiasm for the Christian principle of Non-Violence, he laughed heartily: ‘You need not take this too seriously! There are, of course situations where violence is also legitimate in a Christian sense, as when it is a question of defending one’s fatherland.’” Seligman adds: “At his words I envisaged the pastors, priests and popes who—in the two World Wars—accompanied soldiers on both sides of the front into the fire ‘with God’s blessings.’ Hitler’s Wehrmacht carried on its belts the slogan ‘God with us.’” 30 In conclusion he states: “The Christian theory of non-violence is countered by the practice of a history of wars and brutality in the name of this faith.” Mahatma Gandhi had declared Vinoba Bhave an “ideal Satyagrahi” 31 who should take over his legacy. Vinoba founded a “brotherhood of those who believe in Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology.” 32 Its name was to be Sarvodaya Samaj 33 with the aim “to strive towards a society based on Truth and Non-violence, in which there will be no distinctions of class and creed, no opportunity for exploitation and full scope for the development of both individuals as well as groups.” As its Basic Principle it declared: “Insistence on the purity of the means as well as that of the end.” It proposed a wide-ranging program that included communal harmony, abolition of class distinctions, prohibition, promotion of cottage industries, village sanitation, basic education, equality of status and rights for both men and women, heath and cleanliness, welfare of aboriginals, service of lepers, etc. Vinoba declared: “In this society—call it Sarvodaya Society for want of a better name—everybody who eats would be enjoined to do productive physical labor. Each would work according to his or her capacity and get according to his or her need.” 34 Vinoba contrasts his principle of loka-shakti (“People-power”) with the prevailing himsa-shakti (“military power”) and danda-shakti (“legal or state power”). He recruited loka-sevaks (“Servants of the people”) who had to sign a written promise that contained the following principles:

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1. I believe in truth, nonviolence and non-possession and I will endeavor to the best of my ability to live up to them. 2. I believe that real freedom can be realized by the awakening of the loka-niti (the universal law of humanity). Therefore I will not associate myself with any kind of politics in any form. 3. I will ever serve with a spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice without expecting anything in return. 35 Bahuguna Sunderlal came into close contact with Vinoba Bhave in connection with the Sarvodaya Samaj. He engaged himself on behalf of the people living in the Himalayan foothills whose traditional way of life was threatened by state developments, such as the clear cutting of the naturally grown forests of oaks and firs and replacing them with fast-growing eucalyptus trees, which exhausted the soil, triggered landslides and did not provide fodder for domestic animals. He also tried unsuccessfully to prevent the building of the Tehri-dam, 36 which was to disrupt the lives of thousands, by peaceful means, such as sit-ins and demonstrations. There are Gandhi bhavans and Gandhi research centers in today’s India, but there is little left of Gandhi’s dream of India as a beacon of ahimsa in a world of violence. India today has one of the largest modern armies and is in possession of atomic weapons. It used military force to repulse attacks from its neighbors China and Pakistan and it is constantly upgrading and expanding its military. Gandhi’s ahimsa has a quality of the surreal. Gandhi was aware of it. He often referred to Euclid’s ‘line without breadth and point without extension’ (which could not be drawn on a blackboard) as parallels to his own ideas. While Euclidean geometry is not ‘real’ in the ordinary sense, it is the basic framework for describing ‘reality’ and the presupposition for constructs in the ‘real’ world. To achieve an ideal, one has to use language that appears ‘unreal’ and strife for aims that seem ‘utopian’. Gandhi may not have been a success in the so-called “real world”—he died a violent death, poor and powerless—but he did achieve something extraordinary: he reminded humanity of its potential for selflessness. ROM GAN DHITHE IMPACT OF GANDHI ON OTHER PEACEMAKERS Gandhi evoked enormous interest in the world during his lifetime and even more so after his death. Mark Juergensmeyer mentioned in a 1984 paper 37 that there were—by then—over 400 Gandhi biographies and an untold number of scholarly papers dealing with Gandhi and his ideas. Meanwhile the flood of publications has swelled even more. Sir David Attenborough’s Gandhi film also was a huge worldwide success, attracting large crowds of viewers and vividly evoking the person and the spirit of Gandhi.

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The best-known major public attempt outside India to employ ahimsa in the pursuit of sociopolitical change was probably Martin Luther King’s struggle against US apartheid in the 1970s. King explicitly referred to Gandhi and even went to India to meet with Gandhi followers to study Gandhi’s ideas. 38 King found support from some influential members of the US administration and finally—at least legally—won his largely nonviolent battle. 39 He too, like Gandhi, was shot dead, although it is not yet clear, what the motives for his murder were. Unlike Gandhi, King did not lead an exemplary personal life and he could not claim that he desired nothing but God’s approval for whatever he did. Mark Juergensmeyer in Gandhi’s Way: A Handbook of Conflict Resolution 40 not only relates case studies of people who attempted to employ ahimsa but also develops techniques for nonviolence in everyday situations. One of the examples mentioned was an effort to prevent a US submarine on the West Coast from being armed with nuclear missiles. The initiators—James and Shelley Douglass—were convinced that nuclear weapons were “evil in themselves and symbols of a violent spirit in American society.” 41 They were able to persuade a number of people to join their protest and even received the blessings of a bishop. All to no avail: the military in conjunction with police forces proved stronger and they predictably foiled the noble effort. The nuclear missile in question— together with many others—is in place and is ready to destroy whatever target has been chosen for it. One of the major differences between Gandhi’s success and the Douglass’s failure is that Gandhi’s freedom movement had the majority of Indians behind itself, whereas Douglas’s antinuclear protest was not shared by the majority of Americans. Gandhi was able to connect with a tradition that had enshrined ahimsa as a core value. The American way of life is based on violence and the declared ambition of the United States is to be the most powerful military might on earth. Michael Nagler, described as “one of America’s most respected peace scholars and activists,” reports in Is There No Other Way 42 a number of episodes (especially in Central America) where courageous peace activists defused dangerous situations through peaceful interventions. In some cases they even offered their own lives in exchange for others. 43 It is heartening to learn that heroism of that kind is still practiced by some of our fellow-humans and that it even works! Examining the closer circumstances, it emerges that the dangerous situations into which these individual peace activists stepped, were always the consequences of earlier violent acts by state agencies. Peacemakers are idealistic individuals, whereas states consider violence the preferred way to achieve their aims. Peace-teams look like lay-actors on the international scene whereas the true professionals make war! Peacemakers receive little training and enjoy hardly any material support, whereas war-makers are thoroughly trained and are supported by virtually limitless budgets. States may not

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have enough resources to feed and house all their people properly, but they always have ample means for making war! There are many prestigious war-academies—there is nothing comparable on the peace side, although lately some schools have established small peace-study programs! Jonathan Schell in The Unconquerable World 44 not only devotes a whole chapter to Gandhi’s Satyagraha but also tries to show in a historic worldpanorama the ultimate effectiveness of nonviolence over against attempts to dominate the whole world through military power. He singles out Czechoslovakia’s “Velvet Revolution,” following Vaclav Havel’s appeal to peaceful resistance against the Communist regime that was reestablished by Soviet tanks in 1968, after it had been temporarily overthrown. Schell considers Havel’s essay Living in Truth a secularized version of Gandhi’s Satyagraha—especially so, since Havel emphasized nonviolence as an essential ingredient. Havel had expressed the firm belief that “at the basis of this world are values which are simply there, perennially, before we ever speak of them, before we reflect on them and inquire about them.” Like Gandhi, Havel held that there is an” indefinable something that may escape our understanding and our grasp, but for just that reason firmly grounds that world, bestows upon it order and measure and is the hidden source of all the rules, customs, commandments, prohibitions.” 45 PAX AMERICANA Schell’s book was widely praised as one of the most important contributions to peace studies: “perhaps the most impressive argument ever made that there exists a viable and desirable alternative to the continued reliance on war.” 46 Schell leaves no doubt that US imperialist designs on the world are today the greatest threats to world peace: “The idea of American global hegemony carries the rule of force to an extreme.” 47 As the only superpower left after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the United States embarked on a policy of preemptive wars, or “offensive deterrence.” The architects of this new policy “listed seven countries (Russia, China, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria) for which contingency plans for nuclear attack should be considered.” 48 The Iraq war was “justified” with falsified intelligence and made acceptable to the American public by mischievously linking Iraq with 9/11. The destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center certainly was a barbaric act, but the death of 3,000 innocent American civilians does not justify the killing of 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians and the ruin of an entire country for decades to come! Especially, since Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11! In each and every major air raid in WWII more than 3,000 civilians

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had died—and there were hundreds of such raids! Who would be insane enough to plead for revenge for these on the scale of the Iraq War? Libya, number six on the list, had the privilege of being bombed into ruins at the initiative of a U.S. President who had been awarded the Peace-Nobel Prize. The supposed “protection of civilians” consisted in provision of military support to armed insurgents. International law forbids such outside interference in a civil war. NATO bombs killed an estimated 60,000 and left several major cities in ruins! The “freedom fighters” established a regime that the United Nations openly accused of massive violations of human rights—the same crimes they accused the former government of! Syria, number seven on the list, is presently convulsed by a civil war that has been actively encouraged and supported by “The Friends of Syria.” Besides the well-known liberators of Libya these also include Saudi Arabia and Al Qaida: models of democracy and humanitarianism! Again, a flagrant violation of International Law! Iran, number five on the list is almost daily in the news. A former security adviser to President Obama published in the widely read Foreign Affairs a feature article with the frank title “Time to Attack Iran.” 49 Already four years ago, a Republican Presidential Candidate used to sing at rallies a ditty: “Bomb, bomb Iran.” One can only guess what the plans for number one and two are! “Peaceful interference” in elections apparently was so far not very successful—even the internet has its limits! War, war and more wars—is that the message that the “mightiest nation on earth” has to offer to the world today? Peace could be had at a fraction of the price that is put into war preparations! TRUTH AND UNTRUTH For Gandhi, Truth was the ultimate standard against which everything had to be measured. Today deception is considered the royal road to success. The vocabulary of peace is used to whitewash aggression. Predatory wars are declared “humanitarian interventions” and the destruction of entire cities goes under the label of “protection of civilians.” If “living in truth” is the precondition for peace, the chances for peace in our time are dim. Totalitarian regimes were always (rightly) accused of not telling their people the truth. Also, in today’s so-called free world, truth is not readily available. Some Orwellian “Ministry of Truth” seems to be controlling the ‘information’ that we are allowed to consume through the media. People who make genuine information freely available are facing criminal charges: Telling the truth has become a punishable crime! Serious doubts about the applicability of “Gandhi’s Way” to the world of today are in order. There is no contemporary Gandhi to begin with—a

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person with authority willing to sacrifice himself/herself for the wellbeing of the world without second thoughts and without further ambitions. There also is nobody of stature, for whom truthfulness would be absolutely essential. There is no politician in the whole world today whose words could be really trusted. Nor can we pin our hopes on our religious leaders. For Gandhi, Truth/God defined religion. Our religious authorities are defining God/Truth by their interests. Today’s God-talk comes from representatives of institutions with questionable moral credentials, with little respect for truth and no use for nonviolence—or from cranks and buffoons. Christian religious leaders have routinely supported the use of force and the military actions of their governments—keen on appearing “patriotic” and “loyal” citizens of their countries. Muslim scholars may declare Islam a “religion of peace” but the “real Muslims,” encouraged by their local imams, become suicide-bombers against fellow Muslims and attack Christian communities in Iraq, Nigeria, Egypt and other countries. Christianity also has a long history of interdenominational strife, leading to inter-confessional warfare. Some of the longest and bloodiest wars in Europe were fought between rival Christian groups. In our own lifetime we witnessed the decades-long violent conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, the massacre of a million Catholic Tutsis by Catholic Hutus—to just mention the most egregious recent examples of the proverbial Christian brotherly love in action. There is little historical evidence that the Abrahamic Religions would foster world-peace. Gandhi knew that people needed to be educated for nonviolence. This education has to begin early in life to become effective. Far from teaching nonviolence, our present popular culture introduces children from early on to violence and aggression. Our toy-stores are full of war-gadgets and ever-more violent computer games are invented. These are considered good preparation for real war! Modern wars of aggression are waged on computer consoles by IT specialists thousands of miles away from the “enemy.” Killing has become a computer game—it does no longer involve any personal risk for the attacker! In the military, Killology is taught as an academic discipline. Some popular sports have mutated into publicly displayed violence. The world of industry and business uses a vocabulary of war and competition: production and sale of arms has become one of the largest and most profitable segments of world-economy. SATYAGRAHA AND INTERGROUP CONFLICT It is one of the great ironies of history that Gujarat—where Gandhi was born and where the seeds of ahimsa were planted in his heart—became the scene of perhaps the ugliest and most brutal of all Hindu-Muslim riots in India’s recent history. 50 While the immediate cause of this orgy of

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violence was the response to an unprovoked dastardly firebombing by Muslim fanatics of Hindu activists in a train held up outside Godhra station, the really frightening fact was that Hindu organizations in the State of Gujarat under the leadership of its Chief Minister systematically brutalized Muslim men, women and children. Eyewitnesses reported mass-rapes, killings and burnings, often with the complicity of police. Even people who had seen earlier Hindu-Muslim riots were shocked! The local government, whose role it was to protect its citizens not only failed in its duty but became an agent and accomplice in loot and murder. The still existing Sabarmati Ashram near Ahmedabad, founded by Gandhi to train his coworkers in satyagraha 51 shut its gates to protect its inmates. What would Gandhi have done? He probably would have walked out with the most courageous of his disciples and offered himself in order to stop the violence. There was no Gandhi in 2002! NONVIOLENCE AND THE FUTURE Albert Einstein—referring to Mahatma Gandhi—surmised that, “Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe, that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.” 52 Gandhi is and will remain unique. None of those who had adopted nonviolence in whatever context came close to his standards. Some made a technique out of what for Gandhi was a realization of faith; others adopted nonviolence because they did not have enough power to gain their objectives by violence. The trivialization of Gandhi’s ahimsa into resolving a dispute between partners over time for dinner 53 exposes it to ridicule. There are many good reasons to assume that nonviolence would be the best policy in our world today but there is overwhelming evidence that it is violence that will shape our near future. There are infinitely more detailed war-plans than peace-plans and the “security” of a country is measured solely in terms of its military potential and its stockpile of lethal weapons. War has become a spectator sport. People who had never had to live through a war in their own country enjoy seeing war on TV played out in other peoples’ lands! That a war also brutalizes the “winners” is noticed only when a soldier on home-leave commits ghastly crimes among his own people. If, with Gandhi, we believed in ahimsa as the appropriate human way of life in the world-community, we would have to change a great deal of our present culture, which is largely built on violence. Apart from permanently fighting and encouraging wars against other people, we also engage in large-scale violence towards nature. We destroy vast areas on the earth to extract raw materials for our industries. We kill billions of animals for our meals. We think nothing of fomenting local conflicts to get the gasoline for our cars and to obtain the rare elements needed for our

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cell phones and other gadgets. World War III will probably be soon sold to us as an indispensable security-measure and a prerequisite for worldpeace! Can we hope for another Gandhi to arise in our time? NOTES 1. Ahimsa paramo dharma. 2. E. W. Burlingame, Buddhist Legends [Dhammapada Atthakatha] 3 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Wisdom Publications, 1990). 3. BG IX, 26; However, the Bhagavadgita advocates war as legitimate means to decide succession to the throne. 4. A practice, that was continued even into the twentieth century, was to put a human victim into the foundations of major building projects, such as bridges and dams, to guarantees their safety. 5. Young India 29.5.1924, 175. 6. Young India, 20.10.1927, 352. 7. Ashram Observances in Action, translated from Gujarati by Mahadev Desai, Navajivan Publishing House Ahmedabad, 1955. 8. Young India, 31.12.1931, 427. 9. Prahlada was the son of King Hiranyakashipu, a tyrannical ruler who had forbidden the worship of Vishnu, the highest God and had ordered his people to worship him instead. Returning from his teacher, to whom he had been sent for his education, his father asked him what he had learned. “Vishnu is the only God, the only Reality” was the answer. The enraged King sent him back to his teacher. Year after year the same thing happened. In the end Hiranyakashipu got so furious that he tried to get his son killed. Nothing worked: thrown from a precipice and into deep water Prahlada survived thanks to Vishnu’s help. In his fury Hiranyakshipu kicked a column in his palace shouting that Vishnu should come out from that pillar to save his son, whom he was going to decapitate. Lo and behold, Vishnu in his avatara as Man-Lion (Narasinha) came out and devoured Hiranyakashipu, thus saving Prahlada and rewarding his faith. 10. Young India, 12.2.1925, 60. 11. Young India, 11.10.1928, 342. 12. Bose is thought to have perished in a plane crash in 1945 but years later many Indians still believed that “Netaji” (the Leader) was alive. 13. Originally published in 1922, many reprints from Navajivan Prakashan Mandir, Ahmedabad. 14. Young India, 11.8.1920, 3. 15. Young India, 11.8.1920, 3. 16. D. G. Tendulkar, Mahatma: Life and Works of Karamchand Mohandas Gandhi, Bombay 1951–54, I, 39. 17. Tendulkar, Mahatma I, 132. 18. Tendulkar, Mahatma I, 121. 19. Harijan, 23.6.1946, 399. 20. Young India, 28.5.1924, 178. 21. Quoted in a speech in Bengal. Tendulkar, Mahatma VII, 34. 22. Harijan, 9.3.1940, 31. 23. Harijan, 15.9.1946, 309. 24. Harijan, 15.9.1946.309. 25. Harijan, 15.10.1938, 290. 26. Harijan, 12.5.1946, 123. 27. Quoted in Ahriman Narayan, Principles of Gandhian Planning (Bombay: Kitab Mahal, 1960), 335.

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28. Karlheinz Deschner, Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, 9 vols. (Hamburg: Rohwolt Verlag, Hamburg, 1986–2008). 29. Rafael Seligmann, Deutschland wird dir gefallen (Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 2010). 30. Seligman, 223. My translation. 31. P. Tandon, Vinobe Bhave, 105. 32. Sarvodaya– Principles and Programme, Navajivan 1951, 55. 33. Sarvodaya means “welfare of all”; samaj is “brotherhood.” 34. Suresh Ram, Vinoba and His Mission, 429. 35. Appendix D in Suresh Ram, Vinoba and His Mission, 511. 36. The Tehri is a tributary of the Ganges originating in the Himalayas. The Indian Government decided to construct a dam to harness its waters for the generation of electricity and to channel its water into the New-Delhi utilities systems. In the process a major settlement near the dam was flooded: the people were forcibly resettled and great damage was done to the fauna and flora of a large area in the Himalayan foothills. Following this and other diversions, the Ganges is now at a dangerously low level. 37. Mark Juergensmeyer, “The Gandhi Revival—A Review Article” Journal of Asian Studies, XLIII, no. 2 (1984): 293–298. 38. Michael J. Nojeim, Gandhi and King: The Power of Non-violent Resistance, Praeger, Westport CT, 2004. 39. That there still is a “race-issue” has been recently shown in connection with the shooting of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager, by a white security guard in Florida and the demonstrations following it. 40. Oxford 2003. 41. Juergensmeyer, Gandhi’s Way, 93. 42. Berkeley Hills Books, Berkeley CA 2001. 43. I was proud to see Carol Ridd, daughter of Carl Ridd, a former colleague in the Department of Religon Studies at the University of Winnipeg, prominently mentioned for her courageous acts! 44. Henry Holt & Co. 2004. 45. Quoted from Jonathan Schell, The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence and the Will of the People (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004), 206 f. 46. Quote from The New York Times printed on top of title page. 47. Schell, The Unconquerable World, 340. The United States maintains over 700 military bases around the globe and spends more on military and weapons than the rest of the world together! 48. Schell, The Unconquerable World, 326. 49. Matthew Kroenig, “Time to Attack Iran.” Foreign Affairs Jan./Feb. 2012, 76–86. 50. Chaitanya Krishna (ed.) Fascism in India, Manak: New Delhi. 2003. 51. The above referred to “Rules” were written for this institution! 52. Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, Crown: New York, 1985, 78. 53. Juergensmeyer, Gandhi’s Way, 69 ff.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Burlingame, Eugene W. Buddhist Legends [Dhammapada Atthakatha] 3 Vols. Cambridge, MA: Wisdom Publications, 1990. Deschner, Karlheinz. Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, 9 vols. Hamburg: Rohwolt, 1986–2008. Einstein, Albert. Ideas and Opinion. New York: Crown, 1985. Gandhi, Mahatma K. Ashram Observances in Action. Translated by Mahadev Desai. Ahmedabad, India: Navajivan Publishing House, 1955. Juergensmeyer, Mark. “The Gandhi Revival—A Review Article” Journal of Asian Studies 43, no. 2 (1984): 293–298. Krishna, Chaitanya. Fascism in India. New Delhi: Manak, 2003.

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Kroenig, Matthew. “Time to Attack Iran.” Foreign Affairs 91, (2012): 76–86. Narayan, Ahriman. Principles of Gandhian Planning. Bombay: Kitab Mahal, 1960. Nojeim, Michael J. Gandhi and King: The Power of Non-violent Resistance. Westport CT.: Praeger, 2004. Schell, Jonathan. The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence and the Will of the People. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004. Seligmann, Rafael. Deutschland wird dir gefallen. Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 2010. Tendulkar, Dinanath Gopal. Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Bombay: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India, 1963.

FOUR Blessing-Based Love (Agapē) as a Heuristic Key to Understanding Effective Reconciliation Practices A Reading of I Corinthians 13 in a Peacebuilding Context Vern Neufeld Redekop

For over a decade, I have been developing the implications of reconciliation as the transformation of mimetic structures of violence to mimetic structures of blessing. 1 One element of the meta-requisites for reconciliation is teachings of blessing; these define the goal and guide the reconciliation process. Since religious and other texts can be interpreted in ways that contribute to either violence or blessing, I have argued for a hermeneutics of blessing to guide the process of interpreting texts. 2 Now I wish to extend the overall argument by suggesting that the concept of blessing-based love (agapē in Greek; I will use the terms interchangeably) is both a key to understanding the effectiveness of reconciliation practices and a heuristic key that can guide the hermeneutical process of discovering teachings of blessing. This argument proceeds from the observation that in I Corinthians 13 the Apostle Paul argues that there is a categorical difference between actions done with agapē and those actions, which might seem identical, for which this kind of blessing-based love is absent. Since this chapter is one step in a deliberate sustained conceptual development, I will first put the present argument in the context of the process of defining and illustrating concepts related to reconciliation. Second, I will address the methodological issues inherent in using a text 47

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from the Christian testament in the context of peacebuilding. Third will be a contextual-rhetorical analysis of the passage at hand. Fourth, and finally, I will look at the implications in the context of contemporary deep-rooted conflict. [A] BLESSING BASED RECONCILIATION A quest to understand the motivations and dynamics of human atrocities leads to a path of exploring deep-rooted or identity-based conflict. This complex phenomenon can be understood as a mimetic structure of violence, which takes over a relational system that brings parties into contact with one another. In a mimetic structure there is mutual imitation of orientation, attitudes, and behaviors. There is a pattern of rhetoric and action that goes on through time—sometimes decades or even centuries. Mimetic structures may be at a latent stage in which the overt expression is suppressed or may be open with blatant expressions of either violence or blessing. The understanding of mimetic dynamics along with the concept of structure comes from René Girard. 3 Girard traces how violence has its roots in acquisitive mimetic desire in which people imitate the desires of others; wanting desperately what they have. 4 This can intensify to mimetic rivalries and eventually ontological mimesis in which parties want to be the other and are frustrated because they cannot. 5 When violence is introduced, in Girard’s terms, it is returned with interest, leading to the spirals of increased violence that are observed in escalating conflicts. With the conceptual breakthrough of mimetic structures of violence, came the insight that there were also mimetic structures of blessing, derived from an understanding of the Hebrew berakhah, which is usually translated “blessing.” In mimetic structures of blessing, parties in a relational system have an orientation, attitudes, and actions that contribute to the well-being each of the other. 6 There may be conflict and even rivalries, but given the orientation of blessing, these are turned into creativity. Drawing on Ervin Staub, 7 these can be thought of as being on a continuum with mimetic structures of violence on one end and mimetic structures of blessing on the other. Reconciliation then emerged as the transformation out of mimetic structures of violence and into mimetic structures of blessing. 8 This as an overarching framework raises the question of how does reconciliation happen; hence the following framework illustrating the dynamic interconnections between different elements of reconciliation. 9 At the heart of reconciliation are transformative discursive and symbolic processes. For these to occur there are certain pre-requisites, such as safety and having a vision and mandate to proceed. The process is guided by certain meta-requisites—institutional development, teachings

Blessing-Based Love (Agapē)

Figure 4.1.

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of blessing, and Gradual and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction (GRIT). If there is reconciliation, it results in personal healing, new relationships, a change of structures, a sense of justice, and transcendence. Reconciliation in the context of grave atrocities is a complex and difficult process. So much within the human psyche screams for a violence-based approach to justice—to make the perpetrator suffer and perhaps die. To have the emotional, volitional, and even cognitive strength to try another way demands courage, vision and spiritual resources. Teachings of blessing are stories, moral frameworks, and insights into the human situation that motivate people to reconcile and provide a basis for the process. I will address the methodological questions related to this concept in the next section; before doing so, I will develop the concept of blessing-based reconciliation. René Girard has offered a significant account of the emergence of reconciliation as a function of scapegoating. 10 By his account, a community can become vulnerable to undoing itself through runaway reciprocal violence resulting from acquisitive mimetic desire. If a scapegoat emerges, the community becomes united in pouring out its pent-up violence and frustration on the scapegoat. If they succeed, they become reconciled in the process. This can be generative of myths, taboos, and rituals designed to sustain reconciled relationships. 11 This is violence-based reconciliation. In contrast, I have argued for a blessing based reconciliation based on empathy (itself a mimetic phenomenon), responsibility,

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and connectedness, with resultant conciliatory processes. 12 Cameron Thompson argues for aphetic mimesis, which is a capacity to let go of wrongdoing and resentment—to forgive (forthcoming). It is mimetic in that it comes from a shared awareness of the situation (joint attention), is mimetically passed on within communities, and has a reciprocal effect. The biggest challenge for blessing-based reconciliation is to sustain aphetic mimesis in instances where there continues to be a violent response. 13 We will return to this in the final section. Where is religion in all of this? For Girard, the genesis of religion is the sense of awe—the Sacred—that occurred when reconciliation came about via the scapegoat. 14 With that sense of awe at a transcendent power that has been operative throughout the process come the myths and rituals that are characteristic of religion. As different peoples developed their own distinctive religious observances (albeit with similar underlying structures), these religious practices became convenient ways of establishing differences between cultural communities. With these boundarymarkers, designating a clear sense of who is inside and outside each community, there is the potential for collective rivalries over whose religious system is better. Hence religion can contribute to violence directly. There may be clashes over other things; religion as a boundary marker helps to give definition to the conflict. [A] METHODOLOGY How and on what grounds can biblical exegesis—in this case of I Corinthians 13—find a place within the context of inter-and intra-national peacebuilding? Critical in addressing this challenge is the epistemic status given the text and the kind of questions that are brought to bear in the analysis. Unlike an ecclesiastical context, there is no privileged authority given to the text in this context. In other words, it is not because it is in the Bible per se that this text is seen as providing useful insights. Rather, I hope to show that given the social and historical context of the text that there is something revealed that could be of value in our contemporary world. I would suggest that this value transcends particular religious and ideological boundaries. However, given the fact that this is a key text in Christian circles, that there are many Christians in the world, and that there are many Christians who are either parties to a conflict or engaged in conflict intervention and “peace-work,” there is a value added element in that there is a significant population that might be open to acting on its basis. By framing the methodology in this way, I hope to establish a way of approaching texts from any discipline or religion such that it can lend important insights to the world at large. Let me now show some of the steps by which I arrived at this methodological position.

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The concept of teachings of blessing was inspired by a reflection on the Exodus story 15 in which the presenting challenge was: How can oppressed people avoid mimetically oppressing others when they get into positions of power? The Exodus story is of a people who were slaves in Egypt escaping their oppressive situation and making their way to Canaan, which became their promised land and where they gained hegemony. Between the “freedom from” slavery and the “freedom to” enter the Promised Land were forty years spent in the desert where they received the Torah—literally teachings in the form of verbal instruction from Moses and eventually written codes. 16 These teachings have within them values that restrict oppression 17 (whether they were followed is another question). Later I applied this concept to reconciliation. 18 Post-enlightenment physics envy 19 has led to a general suspicion of religion (especially Christianity) as source of insight within the social sciences with their emphasis on empirical methodologies. Hence it is somewhat scandalous to base conceptual development on religious sources such as the Bible. To deal with this objection, I made a sustained argument around Torah (teachings) and berakhah (blessing) in which I employed a hermeneutical circle that went like this: step 1—provide a definition of the concept derived from the text; step 2—provide all the reasons why it might be scandalous to use this concept within the broader world of conflict studies; step 3—identify the benefits that might accrue with the use of the concept; and step 4—provide a new definition of the concept that takes into account the previous steps and renders it a useful concept within the context. 20 Coming out of this hermeneutical exercise are several realizations. First, religious-based texts can be used as the basis and motivation for both violence and blessing, and second, a hermeneutics of blessing needs to be employed systematically to generate teachings of blessing from religious, and by extension, scientific 21 and philosophical texts. Underlying this insight is the value that reconciliation of deep-rooted violent conflicts, and hence, the teachings of blessing that guide it, are a human good. In a case study analysis, I looked at the Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Romans through the eyes of exegete John E. Toews. 22 His paradigmatic argument is that Romans is essentially a conflict resolution/reconciliation document addressed to the identity-based conflict between Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome. Looking at it this way, we can see that Romans 12–15 is essentially a set of teachings of blessing—instructions on how diverse groups can live together in mutual respect doing the sorts of things that are mutually empowering in a complex relational system with many factors at play. At another level, Toews’s own peace orientation played a heuristic role in that it led to a hermeneutics of blessing enabling him to discover a new and convincing way to look at Romans.

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My research project, Spirituality, Emergent Creativity, and Reconciliation, started from the realization that even if all of the elements of reconciliation (in Figure 1) are present, reconciliation will not necessarily occur. The research question began with the hypothesis that spirituality can represent that which animates reconciliation. The challenge was to find a way of talking about spirituality that would be inclusive of different faith traditions as well as scientific/humanistic approaches. What emerged was an understanding that spirituality developed out of religious traditions, which gave it a metaphorical language, but has grown into something that encompasses more than these traditions. 23 It is a source of inner strength, it allows for profound transpersonal connections; it exemplifies an ethics of care; and it connects to that which is transcendent. 24 A final dimension of the methodological discussion comes from an article, resulting from the Spirituality, Emergent Creativity and Reconciliation research project, by systems biologist Stuart Kauffman. 25 In it he offers overwhelming evidence that there are no entailing laws that determine what can and will happen at a level of development from the biological on upward. He argues for a sense of enchantment and responsibility in this open-ended universe of many new possibilities. How these new possibilities are realized in complex adaptive systems cannot be predetermined. However, it is possible to identify conditions in which creative emergence is more likely. These conditions he associates with criticality—an optimum combination of diverse elements with a variety of ways of combining them. 26 Criticality is operative at every step of evolution, where emergent creativity leads to new species and new adaptations to ever changing environments. With every new development, there are adjacent possibilities. 27 Conditions of criticality existed in the interplay between the Apostle Paul and the coming together of divergent groups—Hellenistic Jewish and culturally Greek—within the corporate gathering of house churches in Corinth. Hence, the text under examination can be framed as an example of emergent creativity. Paul’s eloquent statement of agapē came out of his own intense concern and care for the Corinthians who were threatened by the centrifugal forces of inter-group rivalries. Putting all these methodological considerations together, the intellectual context is one in which there is a demand for teachings of blessing which can inspire and guide reconciliation processes. These can be derived from significant texts through a hermeneutics of blessing in which the guiding question is “How can this text be understood and interpreted in a manner that can add to the possibility of conflicted individuals and groups generating mimetic structures of blessing?” Once some teachings of blessing are identified, in emergent creativity fashion, these can open up adjacent possibilities. The adjacent possibilities include finding similar or complementary teachings in other traditions and the potential for these to work heuristically to guide the discovery of significant new in-

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sights around the complex field of reconciliation. With this methodological guide we will now examine I Corinthians 13. [A] CONTEXTUAL AND RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF I CORINTHIANS 13 The first core insight from I Corinthians 13 is that actions have several dimensions to them: there is the overt dimension that can be seen and there is the spirit/energy dimension, in this case agapē, that infuses the action with an orientation, attitudes, and goals. The second core insight is that this intangible side to an action can transform what is of fleeting, transient value into something that can have long-lasting impact and value. We will examine how the Apostle Paul establishes the first insight and how he develops the nature of blessing-based love as a characteristic of effective action. This chapter comes in the context of a relatively long letter to the Corinthian cluster of house groups that are addressed as though they were all gathered together in one ekklessia—a group called out; translated “church.” Factions, divided loyalties, and rivalries, constitute this group. Paul wants to establish a common identity among them by reconciling their differences and providing an ethical vision of how they can live together. Among these groups are Hellenistic Jews and ethnic Greeks; hence Paul has to use language in a way that communicates to both groups. Another cleavage is based on following different leaders—Apollos, Paul, Cephas, and Christ (1:12). They live in a major center of Greek culture, strategically placed at the isthmus joining the Peloponnesian peninsula to the mainland of Greece, making it a key commercial center. It is important for water travel, since it is adjacent to a harbor. Hence it is cosmopolitan. The main entrance is a wide road, paved with stones leading directly to the Bema, a platform roughly eight feet high, thirty feet long and ten feet deep. One would anticipate that special messengers from Rome would come to Corinth, march in the gate with much fanfare, mount the Bema and proclaim the official message from Caesar. It is also the place where the governor would sit and render judgment over those accused of wrongdoing. Corinth had two religious quarters. One of them had a number of Greek temples, each dedicated to a different god. The other had a cluster of Roman temples devoted to Roman gods. There was also an agora, a commercial area with stalls, each roughly eight by ten feet where artisans produced and sold their goods. Just outside the perimeter of the main city was a large amphitheater seating 14,000 people—perfect for plays and speeches. To make his initial point, Paul sets out a series of actions, which would seem exemplary in their own right. However, he points out that

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each of these is empty and to no avail if not accompanied by blessingbased love. Here are the actions: 1. Speaking eloquently: good rhetoric was valued in Greek culture generally and in Corinth in particular. The phrase used was to speak with the tongue of humans, even of special messengers (aggeloi—from which we get “angels”). Paul is speaking with multiple valences here. One can imagine eloquent messengers speaking on the Bema; we can also imagine mythological beings sent from God (in the Jewish tradition) or from the gods. Apollos, one of the Christian leaders with his own following, was known as a good speaker. Within the context of all these rivalrous groups, an eloquent leader could sway people to his or her side. Public orations in the amphitheater were common and we can imagine much recognition for the effective speaker. 2. Explaining profound knowledge: Paul uses the words “prophesy” (speak insightful messages as did the Hebrew prophets), “understand mysteries” (some of his audience would have come from mystery religions devoted to esoteric knowledge and experience) and “knowledge” (this plays into Greek love of learning). 3. Changing the world: Having the imagination and determination to take incisive action to make dramatic changes. The metaphor is having pistis (faith, faithfulness) to transpose mountains. 4. Sharing possessions: the action is to give all of one’s possessions; this may refer to the first group of believers in Jesus in Jerusalem where people sold all their possessions and gave them to the group. 5. Sacrificing one’s body: There was in ancient Greece a connection between human sacrifice and the emergence of theater. 28 This could be an allusion to the dramatic impact of having one’s body sacrificed and burned. Roasted human flesh was sometimes used for rituals. Given the amphitheater in Corinth, his audience would have been familiar with the impact of an individual sacrifice. Each of these actions is one that would be noticed and generally applauded by the community. It could set one apart as a mimetic model; as someone that others might aspire to copy, emulate, or even to be. As such, these actions could be the basis for self-aggrandizement or immortality (understood as having instigated sustained memories of greatness). They have analogues in the temptations of Jesus. Likewise, these actions could also be the basis for mimetic rivalries. In each case, Paul dismisses the impact of the action if done without agapē. The eloquent speaker is a clashing symbol, the expounder of knowledge and the one changing the world become nothing and there is no profit or gain accruing to the ones who give up possessions or body. Later he returns to these, saying that eloquent speaking, knowledge, or

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profound insights will amount to nothing of long-term value. The details are not as important as the overall point made with rhetorical flourish: in order to have lasting value, actions need to be carried out with blessingbased love. Paul then goes on to describe the qualities of agapē. He starts by identifying it with makrothumos—a compound word bringing together makros, meaning over extensive space or time, and thumos, one of the Greek constituents of the psuche, soul or essence. Thumos has to do with dignity, recognition and passion. 29 Macrothumos then is either the passion to persevere, the capacity to bear, or the ability to control anger being instigated by injustice. 30 As such it is closely associated with forgiveness, which is a letting go of justified anger, vengeance and retribution. Blessingbased love is then restrained in expression of vengeful anger. This then is associated with kindness. Agapē, Paul says, is not practicing zēloi—a word that is the root of zealous, but also has the connotation of jealousy. In its negative sense it can be associated with rivalry. Given the double meaning of this term, Paul follows it with a sentence that seems to indicate the kind of z ē loi he is talking about: bragging, self-inflation, indecency, striving for one’s own self-interest, irritated to the point of anger, and preoccupied with keeping an account (the word logizetai has to do with reasoning, a way of rational thinking) of wrongs or evil. He concludes the negatives—what blessing-based love is not—with the phrase “not rejoicing in adikia ”— from dik ē the word for justice and the prefix a, meaning “not.” In other words, blessing-based love does not take pleasure in injustice but is positively excited about discovering the truth. What follows in the description of agapē is interesting rhetorically. Paul repeats the word panta—all things—four times, each with a different verb: 1) blessing-based love keeps all things confidential, throwing “a cloak of silence over what is displeasing in another person”; 31 2) it is believing in the worth of the other, faithfully trying to do everything to make things work; 32 3) it hopes for the best; yet 4) endures the discomforts of when the best is not realized. Rhetorically there is a chiasm: an ABBA pattern, where A assumes that the other has done something wrong or difficult and B indicates belief or hope. So in relation to panta we have A—keep confidential what is displeasing; B—still believe in the person; B’—hope for the best; A’—endure the agony of disappointment when hope is not yet realized. Paul’s final statement about the nature of blessing-based love is that it never ekpiptei—it never quits. The root metaphors associated with this word are “leaves falling off the tree,” “ships drifting off course,” “losing something,” or “weakening.” 33 The overall impression is that blessingbased love is persistent in imagining, willing, desiring the well-being of the other, despite setbacks, difficulties, and troubles along the way. There is never a pride or boasting in having done this but a quiet rejoicing in the

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truth concerning the well-being of the other. Paul’s description of agapē adds richness and texture to the concept of desiring the subjectivity of the wounded or limited other, as developed by Rebecca Adams. 34 We must remember at this point that Paul is developing this concept in the context of rivalrous factions. People are in competition over who might have the better “gift”— that is who plays the more significant role in the community. Also, there are factions based on who has which “guru” and factions based on ethnicity, particularly Hellenistic Jew or ethnic Greek. In this case, Paul argues that if one makes agapē the object of desire, even if people compete for it, as he defines it, the practice of blessing-based love will enable people to not only live with their differences but transcend them. We will now take the concept, defined so eloquently (one could even say that Paul is speaking like the most eloquent human or aggelos—messenger— making this self-referential, since he is clearly patiently exercising blessing-based love for the Corinthian recipients of the letter) into the domain of working for reconciliation. [A] IMPLICATIONS FOR ADDRESSING CONTEMPORARY DEEPROOTED CONFLICT What should be clear is that the concept of blessing-based love was developed by Paul in the context of a complex, divided community that was susceptible to mimetic rivalries. One can sense that Paul feared that these rivalries could have undone all of the work he did to construct relational systems that were transformative and life-giving. The question becomes what can be conceptually helpful in addressing mimetic structures of violence that have taken over relational systems such that there is deeprooted conflict that might have had overt violence associated with it. We will begin by discussing blessing-based love as a value-added component to action. Noting the complexity of these kinds of situations, we will continue, second, with blessing-based love as a case of emergent creativity. Since one of the essential problems raised was the challenge of what animates reconciliation, our third point to consider is blessing-based love and spirituality. Fourth, as we look at blessing-based love as a heuristic key, we will engage the concepts from I Corinthians 13 with Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh’s work on True Love. Fifth, and finally, we will look directly at reconciliation practices. Blessing-Based Love as a Value-Added Component to Action The first insight from the I Corinthian 13 text is that actions have a complex character, such that the same action can be done with or without blessing-based love and that there is a difference. The first challenge we face is deciding which metaphor is most appropriate to talk about this

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intangible value-added dimension. Even in popular, non-religious discourse, ‘spirit’ is used in this way: “I sensed he had a malicious spirit about him”; “she has such a positive spirit”; “there was a good spirit in the room”; “we engaged in a spirited discussion.” Another word is ‘energy’: “When we met I felt I was up against negative energy”; “when she entered the room we sensed her positive energy.” Another metaphor might be ‘radiate’: “When I met him he radiated kindness.” Yet another would be ‘aura’: “She had an aura of peace around her.” Whatever the metaphor, there is a sense that we are aware of some intangible dimension that comes through in voice, body language, and other aspects of a person that we pick up on. Within the lexicon of the Apostle Paul, agapē is one of the fruits of the Spirit; that is, people who have a positive spirit about them (this is a re-working of Paul’s concept of being filled with a particular Spirit) will exude this as one of the characteristics. Our working hypothesis is that reconciliation is more likely to occur if people who have blessing-based love as a radiant source, aura, spirit, or energy get involved in the process, inspiring their imagination of what could be done. One thing we know with regard to agency is that action follows imagination. We also know that imagination is mimetically inspired: we see ourselves doing something like another person has done. The fact that someone else has done it means that there is a chance we could do it as well. 35 Some complex actions build mimetically on what was done earlier but with a sense that more could be done. 36 Someone radiating blessingbased love, by the definition above, is radiating hope. This hope can be picked up mimetically by one of the parties, motivating them to participate in reconciliation processes. Over a period of time, the blessing-based love radiated by someone can be picked up mimetically and replicated. Blessing-Based Love as a Case of Emergent Creativity This particular text, often used to epitomize the nature of love, can be seen as an example of emergent creativity. In its time it raised the standard for human relations, expressing a new ethical vision for how people in community can live together. There were a number of factors criticality present in the writing. First, there was the coming together of two historically rich systems of thought: Greek and Hebrew/Jewish. These were augmented by a new development within Judaism: the Jesus event and the Pauline vision to take the richness of Judaism as re-interpreted by Jesus to the Gentile world. He attempted to create a new community that extended the identity tent outward, including more peoples all the time. With this worldview, Paul was, in this missive, engaging the fruit of that vision, with its consequent internal conflict. What emerged out of his blessing-based love for the community as a whole was this rhetorically sophisticated argument for the primacy of blessing-based love. It

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emerged as part of the adaptation of a complex community relational system that was on the edge of chaos. With the writing of this chapter, directed to the budding Christian community of Corinth, came many adjacent possibilities, some of them bubbling away to the present time. Outside of the particular context of ancient Corinth, this statement on blessing-based love created a new standard for people to live together. Not all of the implications were always positive; there may well have been people whose self-esteem waned as they made themselves doormats for those around them in the name of blessing-based love. This realization suggests that the exploration of adjacent possibilities—new uses of a text—should be done critically. There should be on-going evaluation, in the light of other texts and experiences, on how best to apply conceptual insights. Blessing-Based Love and Spirituality If we are to assume that spirituality is that which animates reconciliation, we can ask, “What is there in the concept of blessing-based love that might enhance our understanding of spirituality?” It is clear from the context that for Paul, blessing-based love has everything to do with spirituality; it is the “spiritual gift” that for him is to be most highly prized. However, can the discourse about blessing-based love be ‘clicked and dragged’ ahead two millennia into a secular context? To give a systematic answer we will examine spirituality as a source of inner strength, the means of transpersonal connection, a capacity to transcend the limits and challenges of a situation, and as a source for an ethics of care. 37 Regarding inner strength, we note a dialectical relationship with blessing-based love. On the one hand it takes a lot of inner strength to really make blessing-based love an overriding component of action. Rather than think the best of an antagonistic other, we are inclined to be happy when the other has a setback and note all of the things they might do wrong. It takes a mental and emotional discipline to turn this impulse around into really seeing the humanity of the other, believing and hoping that transformation is possible. On the other hand, a capacity to incarnate blessing-based love is itself a source of inner strength. As we are successful in exemplifying the orientation, attitudes, and actions associated with blessing-based love, we can gain an appreciation for our own human worth. We can recognize within ourselves something worthwhile, meeting our own need for recognition (thumos) in a positive way. 38 Blessing-based love may well be the means by which profound transpersonal connections are made. The constellation of characteristics associated with it can well be the basis on which there is an opening to see the humanity one of the other. If agapē is subject to mimesis, such that each starts to exemplify this in a mimetic fashion, the relational system be-

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comes infused with a mimetic structure of blessing such that both parties contribute to the well-being of one another. Transcendence can break the logjam, pierce the veil of dehumanization, or connect with that which connects all things, revealing their interconnectedness. The humility that comes with seeing that one is but one small part of a bigger cosmos can lead to an ability to put the current exasperation with one’s other into an entirely different perspective. Does this irritating, even wrong, behavior matter in the much greater scheme of things? Of course it does in that everything has ripple effects; of course it does not in that there are so many other things that are of relatively greater importance. An ethics of care has developed in its own right over the last several decades. Initially, it was inspired by feminist ethicists who noted the transformative effects of caring for young children. 39 One simply has to put the demands of a vulnerable baby ahead of one’s own concerns. That germ of an idea was systematically expanded by noting its implications for “caring professionals” and more generally, how it becomes an ethical vision for humanity generally. Paul’s concept of agapē can be seen as giving additional definition to what an ethics of care is all about. Blessing-Based Love as a Heuristic Key For a concept to be a heuristic key means that it has the capacity to enhance the discovery of new and significant concepts. Put another way, it is a catalyst for emergent creativity at the conceptual level. In the first instance, I will argue that it can help give definition to a hermeneutics of blessing. Second, I will show that when it is used in cross-cultural comparisons it can bring out and perhaps reframe concepts in different traditions. A hermeneutics of blessing is an interpretive discipline whereby texts are interpreted in a manner that bolsters the capacity for mutually beneficial relationships. 40 If blessing-based love is the driving force behind the interpretive action, the very interpretation of texts becomes a means to enhance the well-being of an ever larger group of people. One example has to do with the interpretation of anti-Pharisaic/Judaic sayings of Jesus in the Christian Gospels. Given the fact that most of contemporary religious Judaism has its roots in the Pharisaic Judaism of the first century, these texts have been used for anti-Semitic purposes. Using a hermeneutics of blessing, we can point out that Jesus himself was likely a Pharisee and his critique was an in-house critique of peers. In fact, we can even show that some of Jesus teachings came close to the Pharisaic teacher Hillel. We can also point to the fact that the context of the writing of some of the Gospels was one in which the fledgling church felt threatened by the Judaic community, so some of the teachings of Jesus were framed in such a way as to try to argue for the place of the Christians as a group

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within Judaism itself. Words written in the context of a small group struggling for survival take on a completely different connotation when that very group (Christianity) gains global hegemony and threatens the very life, and sometimes the survival of the formerly more powerful group (Judaism). We can also give evidence that general statements referred only to tiny sub-groups: it is preposterous to say that “the Jews killed Jesus” when it was only a small group, animated by a political elite that was threatened by his popularity, that clamored for his execution. All this is to say that with a hermeneutics of blessing, we can raise questions about commonly accepted texts that have been used for hatred and exclusion. The Christian exegetical interpreter, motivated by blessingbased love in relation to Jewish people, can go even further, as John E. Toews 41 has done, in establishing the Jewish roots of so many key concepts within the New Testament. This is but one limited example of the power of a hermeneutics of blessing animated by blessing-based love. In the case of cross-cultural hermeneutics, blessing-based love can be used to highlight similar teachings in other traditions. This can have the effect of strengthening the concept on the one hand, or modifying or qualifying it on the other hand. Thich Nhat Hanh’s 42 concept of love serves as an example. For him, love involves four concepts: maitri (loving kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (joy), and upeksha (freedom). We will use the Pauline concept of agapē from I Corinthians 13 in a mutually heuristic manner to allow each conceptualization of love to draw out additional meaning from that of the other. Central to the Thich Nhat Hanh’s development of love are the concepts of mindful presence and effectiveness. Mindfulness has to do with being conscious of what you are doing. Love in this case is enhanced through four mantras. The first two express presence and recognition: “Dear one, I am here for you”; “Dear one, I know that you are here and it makes me very happy.” 43 The second pair is in the context of suffering: “Dear one, I know that you are suffering, that is why I am here for you”; “Dear one, I am suffering, please help.” The latter mantra involves coming to terms with one’s pride. These enhance the Pauline teaching by emphasizing that blessing-based love can be manifest in presence and attentiveness. For each of the four components of love, there is a demand that love is not just intention but that it is truly effective at producing certain results: maitri (loving kindness) brings happiness to the other; karuna (compassion) eases the pain of the other; mudita (joy) brings joy to the other, and upeksha (freedom) provides the other with a sense of freedom and equanimity. Effectiveness is based on the deep understanding that comes from mindful meditation on these different aspects of love— becoming increasingly aware of the state of oneself and the other. Paul’s list of characteristics of blessing-based love could enhance one’s capacity for effectiveness in the Buddhist scheme: not “bragging, selfinflation, indecent, striving for one’s own self-interest, irritated to the

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point of anger, and preoccupied with keeping an account of wrongs,” but celebrating truth and continuing to hope for all the best for the person. There is a conceptual congruence between being mindful of the other, and Paul’s idea that blessing-based love be a constituent of actions. Nhat Hanh likewise speaks of love as a kind of energy, even associating the idea of Buddha energy with the Christian concept of being filled with the Holy Spirit. In each case, love is associated with relationships. Nhat Hanh emphasizes a context of suffering and Paul is speaking to a context of mimetic rivalries: Corinthians trying to vie for the more important gifts and roles. Both deal with speech acts: Nhat Hanh 44 speaks about the capacity for loving speech, which is to “speak in such a way that the other is receptive toward listening.” Nhat Hanh’s emphasis on caring for oneself in order to be prepared to care for others suggests that Paul’s agapē be used reflexively: What does it mean to love oneself in the manner described in I Corinthians 13? To not keep track of our own wrongdoings, for instance, might help to free us of debilitating guilt. Blessing-Based Love and Reconciliation One of the reasons why the language of reconciliation was not used in the social sciences for many years was its association with religion in general and Christianity in particular. However, for nearly two decades there has been a growing tendency to refer to and develop the concept. What I am trying to do here is to test out whether concepts drawn from religion generally, and in this case from a Christian text, can be helpful in a broader context. Finally, we will discuss the concept of blessing-based love as a value-added dimension of reconciliation actions (process) and as a teaching of blessing that can help define the goal of reconciliation. Reconciliation can be undertaken for the sake of self-aggrandizement. Conciliators might want to be known as great at what they do. There might even be a Nobel Peace Prize lurking in the future. Like the hypothetical actor at the beginning of I Corinthians, one might be truly skilled at speech, at process, at theory, at analysis, or at persuasion. In this case we can ask: do orientation, intention, and attitude make a difference? In other words, is it important that the parties leading reconciliation processes do this with blessing-based love? Reconciliation of deep-rooted conflict, especially when there has been deadly violence involved, is complex and intricate. Subtle changes can make all the difference in how a process unfolds. Even raising the possibility of forgiveness to a victim who has lost a family member is extremely delicate. On the one hand, one could say, “How dare one even raise the issue?” On the other hand is the realization that forgiveness is often essential to moving forward. The conciliator walks in the middle of paradoxes like this. If she or he can show a genuine blessing-based love—

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a concern for the healing, happiness, well-being and health of the parties involved, it can make all the difference in the empowerment of perpetrators or victims or to make themselves vulnerable through an expression of remorse or an openness to forgive. Reconciliation has its hopeless moments when all that is evident is recrimination and intransigence; the kind of blessing-based love that hopes and endures can carry one through the dark times. Team members in a reconciliation process can have their differences. Egos may be on the line. Rivalries for control or for the best strategy may divert energy from the delicate issues at hand. It is agapē that can hold these impulses in check. There is a fine paradoxical line between helping in a way that truly empowers the parties to become agents, taking action to transform the situation, and being so helpful as to disempower by being paternalistic. It is the paradox of reconciliation needing to emerge from the parties themselves (no-one else can do it for them), and yet the parties need assistance to get the process started. The same action done with a slightly different attitude could have radically different results. When agapē includes caring for the agency and full subjectivity of the parties, it could potentially shape the outcome. It is one thing to get people to sign an agreement bringing a formal end to hostilities; it is another thing to reconcile people so that they co-exist peacefully and move beyond that to developing new, mutually supportive relationships. For the latter to happen, it is important to have mimetic models of people who can transcend hurt and difference to allow joy to enter in. Within every culture and historical tradition there is evidence of blessing-based love. There are stories and examples of people who exemplify this and there are teachings that encourage it. Likewise, mimetic rivalries and violence know no boundaries. Both exist concomitantly. In the case of extreme violence the need and desire for something different are most acute. The articulation of the characteristics of blessing-based love can help define an ethical vision that can serve as a goal for reconciliation. NOTES 1. Vern Neufeld Redekop, From Violence to Blessing: How an Understanding of DeepRooted Conflict Opens Paths to Reconciliation (Ottawa, Ontario: Novalis, 2002). 2. Vern Neufeld Redekop, “Teachings of Blessing as Elements of Reconciliation: Intra- and Inter-Religious Hermeneutical Challenges and Opportunities in the Face of Violent Deep-Rooted Conflict,” in The Next Step in Studying Religion: A Graduate’s Guide, ed. Mathieu E. Courville (London, England: Continuum, 2007), 129–146. 3. René Girard, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, trans. Stephen Bann, (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1987). 4. René Girard, Deceit, Desire, and the Novel: Self and Other in Literary Structure, trans. Yvonne Freccero, (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976). 5. René Girard, To Double Business Bound: Essays on Literature, Mimesis, and Anthropology, (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978).

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6. Redekop, From Violence to Blessing: How an Understanding of Deep-Rooted Conflict Opens Paths to Reconciliation. 7. Ervin Staub, The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence, (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1989). 8. Redekop, From Violence to Blessing: How an Understanding of Deep-Rooted Conflict Opens Paths to Reconciliation; Vern Neufeld Redekop, “Reconciling Nuers with Dinkas: A Girardian Approach to Conflict Resolution,” Religion 37, (2007): 64–84. 9. This is a variation on what was first published in Vern Neufeld Redekop, “A Post-Genocidal Justice of Blessing as an Alternative to a Justice of Violence: The Case of Rwanda,” in Peacebuilding in Traumatized Societies, ed. Barry Hart, (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2008), 205–238. 10. René Girard, Violence and the Sacred, trans. Patrick Gregory, (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977); René Girard, The Scapegoat, trans. Yvonne Freccero, (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989). 11. Girard, Violence and the Sacred. 12. Vern Neufeld Redekop, “Blessing-Based Reconciliation in the Face of Violence,” in René Girard and Creative Reconciliation: The Emergence of Forgiveness, Responsibility, and Blessing, ed. Vern Neufeld Redekop and Thomas Ryba. (Lanham: Lexington Books, forthcoming). 13. As an example of an irenic response to sustained violence, Cheyenne Elder Lawrence Hart recounts how traditionally peace chiefs led the Cheyenne people in a response to violence that did not include retaliation. When the Cheyenne were pushed by United States settlers to move further and further west, they eventually ended up at the Rocky Mountains. Subsequently, the peace chiefs were discredited and the Cheyenne people became noted for the intensity of the violent resistance to the encroaching settler population (recounted by Lawrence Hart in Ottawa ca. 1987). 14. Girard, Violence and the Sacred. 15. Vern Neufeld Redekop, “The Centrality of Torah as Ethical Projection for the Exodus,” Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis and Culture 2 (1995): 119–144. 16. I am not claiming that the first five books of the Hebrew Bible were all delivered intact at this period. Rather, it is clear in the narrative of the Exodus that the structure of the event included getting significant moral and judicial guidance from Moses in a manner that radically affected the moral vision, deontological norms, and requirements of the people of Ancient Israel. Later the prophets significantly enhanced the meaning to the principles that came to be articulated as Torah. 17. For example, every Shabbat, animals and slaves were to be allowed a chance to rest (Exodus 20:10) and the people were to remember that they themselves had been slaves (Deuteronomy 5:15). Every seventh year debts were to be forgiven (Deuteronomy 15: 1–11) and slaves released (Deuteronomy 15:12–18) and every fifty years land was to be re-distributed back to the original Israelite owners (Leviticus 25:8–28). 18. Redekop, From Violence to Blessing: How an Understanding of Deep-Rooted Conflict Opens Paths to Reconciliation. 19. This phrase is courtesy of biologist Stuart Kauffman. 20. Redekop, “Teachings of Blessing as Elements of Reconciliation: Intra- and InterReligious Hermeneutical Challenges and Opportunities in the Face of Violent DeepRooted Conflict.” 21. For example, Frans de Waal (2009) recounts his own profound transformation as an ethologist from examining only evidence of aggression and violence among primates to looking for and finding overwhelming evidence for mammalian empathy. Frans de Waal, The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society (New York: Three Rivers, 2009). 22. Vern Neufeld Redekop, “A Hermeneutics of Blessing as a Meta-Requisite for Reconciliation: John E. Toews’ Romans Paradigm as a Case Study,” Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies 17, no. 1 (2010): 235–266. 23. Ursula King, The Search for Spirituality: Our Global Quest for a Spiritual Life (New York: Bluebridge, 2008).

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24. Vern Neufeld Redekop, “Spirituality, Emergent Creativity, and Reconciliation,” in Peacemaking: A Comprehensive Theory and Practice Reference. Volume 2, ed. Andrea Bartoli and Susan Allen Nan (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2011), 585–600. 25. Stuart A. Kauffman, The Re-Enchantment of Humanity: The Implications of ‘ No Entailing Laws ’ (Forthcoming). 26. Stuart A. Kauffman, Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion (New York: Basic Books, 2008). 27. At the technological level, the emergence of the internet created the adjacent possibility for social networking through Facebook, LinkedIn and other mimetic spinoffs. 28. Mark Pizzato, Theatres of Human Sacrifice from Ancient Ritual to Screen Violence (Albany: SUNY Press, 2005). 29. Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: Avon, 1992). 30. Johannes Horst, “Macrothumia,” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Volume IV, ed. Gerhard Kittel (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), 374–387. 31. Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, trans. F.W. Gingrich and Frederick William Danker (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1958), 765–766. 32. Note that the root of pisteuei is faith or faithfulness. Since the context here is of relationships among people in a community, seemingly in relation to another within the community, I have put the emphasis here on believing the best about the other and faithfully trying to actualize it. 33. Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 243–244. 34. Adams makes the point that if a wounded Subject imitates the desire of a Model who desires her full subjectivity, she will eventually desire that for herself. In other words, she will have the dignity to believe in her own worth and the self esteem to be an Agent, capable of meaningful, creative, independent action. Rebecca Adams, “René Girard, Star Trek and Me: How Loving Mimesis Came to be,” in René Girard and Creative Mimesis: The Emergence of Caring, Consciousness, and Creativity, ed. Vern Neufeld Redekop and Thomas Ryba (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, Forthcoming). 35. James Alison, Raising Abel: The Recovery of the Eschatological Imagination (New York: Crossroad, 1996). 36. For example, JFK’s imagination, determination and dedication to get a person on the moon was fed mimetically by advances in space travel that had already occurred by the early 60s; by 1969 it became a reality, years after the President had been shot. 37. Vern Neufeld Redekop, “Spirituality, Emergent Creativity, and Reconciliation,” 585–600. 38. This is in contrast to Francis Fukuyama’s portrayal of political leaders engaging in hyperthumos behaviors, trying to get public recognition for themselves. See Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man. 39. Nel Noddings “Caring and Peace Education,” in Encyclopedia of Peace Education, ed. Monisha Bajaj (Charlotte, NC: Information Age, 2008), 87–92. 40. As an example of the opposite, note that Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations gives an overall impression of pointing to economic mimetic structures of blessing—everyone should be better off as a result of the manner in which economic life is conducted. However, economists with a hermeneutics of greed/violence have extracted from Smith the elements of a market fundamentalism that has led to an increase in the gap between rich and poor and the excesses of financial wizards that contributed to the economic crises of the past decade. 41. John E. Toews, Romans (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2004). 42. Thich Nhat Hanh, True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart (Boston, MA: Shambala Publications, 2004). 43. Ibid.

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44. Ibid., 40.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Adams, Rebecca. “René Girard, Star Trek and Me: How Loving Mimesis Came to Be.” In René Girard and Creative Mimesis: The Emergence of Caring, Consciousness, and Creativity, edited by Vern Neufeld Redekop and Thomas Ryba. Lanham: Lexington Books, forthcoming. Alison, James. Raising Abel: The Recovery of the Eschatological Imagination. New York: Crossroad, 1996. Bauer, Walter. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Translated, revised and augmented by F. W. Gingrich and Frederick William Danker. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1958. de Waal, Frans. The Age of Empathy: Nature ’ s Lessons for a Kinder Society. New York: Three Rivers, 2009. Fukuyama, Francis. The End of History and the Last Man. New York: Avon, 1992. Girard, René. Battling to the End: Conversations with Benoît Chantre. Translated by Mary Baker. East Lansing: Michigan University Press, 2010. ———. Deceit, Desire, and the Novel: Self and Other in Literary Structure. Translated by Yvonne Freccero. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976. ———. I See Satan Fall like Lightning. Translated by James G. Williams. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2001. ———. The Scapegoat. Translated by Yvonne Freccero. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989. ———. Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Translated by Stephen Bann. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1987. ———. To Double Business Bound: Essays on Literature, Mimesis, and Anthropology. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978. ———. Violence and the Sacred. Translated by Patrick Gregory. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977. Hanh, Thich Nhat. True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart. Boston, MA: Shambala Publications, 2004. Horst, Johannes. “Macrothumia.” In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Volume IV, edited by Gerhard Kittel, 374–387. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967. Kauffman, Stuart A. The Re-Enchantment of Humanity: The Implications of ‘ No Entailing Laws. ’ Forthcoming. ———. Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion. New York: Basic Books, 2008. King, Ursula. The Search for Spirituality: Our Global Quest for a Spiritual Life. New York: Bluebridge, 2008. Noddings, Nel. “Caring and Peace Education.” In Encyclopedia of Peace Education. Edited by Monisha Bajaj Pizzato, Mark. Theatres of Human Sacrifice from Ancient Ritual to Screen Violence. Albany: SUNY Press, 2005. Redekop, Vern Neufeld. “The Centrality of Torah as Ethical Projection for the Exodus.” Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis and Culture 2 (1995): 119–144. ———. From Violence to Blessing: How an Understanding of Deep-Rooted Conflict Opens Paths to Reconciliation. Ottawa, Ontario: Novalis, 2002. ———. “Reconciling Nuers with Dinkas: A Girardian Approach to Conflict Resolution.” Religion 37 (2007a): 64–84. ———. “Teachings of Blessing as Elements of Reconciliation: Intra- and Inter-Religious Hermeneutical Challenges and Opportunities in the Face of Violent DeepRooted Conflict. In The Next Step in Studying Religion: A Graduate ’ s Guide, edited by Mathieu E. Courville, 129–146. London, England: Continuum, 2007b.

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———. “A Post-Genocidal Justice of Blessing as an Alternative to a Justice of Violence: The Case of Rwanda.” In Peacebuilding in Traumatized Societies, edited by Barry Hart, 205–238. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2008. ———. “A Hermeneutics of Blessing as a Meta-Requisite for Reconciliation: John E. Toews’ Romans Paradigm as a Case Study.” Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies 17, no. 1 (2010): 235–266. ———. “Spirituality, Emergent Creativity, and Reconciliation.” In Peacemaking: A Comprehensive Theory and Practice Reference. Volume 2, edited by Andrea Bartoli and Susan Allen Nan, 585–600. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2011. ———. “Blessing-Based Reconciliation in the Face of Violence.” In René Girard and Creative Reconciliation: The Emergence of Forgiveness, Responsibility, and Blessing, edited by Vern Neufeld Redekop and Thomas Ryba. Lanham: Lexington Books, forthcoming. Staub, Ervin. The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Thomson, Cameron. “Mimetic Desire, Aphetic Mimesis, and Reconciliation as the Nexus of Letting Go and Turning Around: Conceptual Roots in Tomasello’s ‘Joint Attention.’” In René Girard and Creative Reconciliation: The Emergence of Forgiveness, Responsibility, and Blessing, edited by Vern Neufeld Redekop and Thomas Ryba, Lanham: Lexington Books, forthcoming. Toews, John E. Romans. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2004.

Part II

Religions and Peace and Conflict Studies

FIVE Catholic Peacemaking A History and Analysis with Special Emphasis on the Work of the Community of Sant ’Egidio John F. Perry

INTRODUCTION: VATICAN PEACE DIPLOMACY On December 29, 2003, a vehicle bearing diplomatic license plates and carrying the papal flag was ambushed by unknown assailants and Archbishop Michael Courtney died in a hail of bullets. The Irish prelate wearing a white cassock and a purple skull cap represented the Pope in Burundi and a month earlier had played an important part in negotiating a peace accord between the Government of Burundi and warring factions. 1 December 29th is now an important commemorative date in the Burundi calendar. Far away from Africa on the frontier between Argentina and Chile papal peacemaking diplomacy is remembered not by a national day honoring a Bishop’s contribution to a nation’s search for peace but by the fact that a mountain pass has been renamed after Cardinal Antonio Samorè, who before his death in 1983 helped settle a territorial dispute that could have led to war. The Irish archbishop and the Italian cardinal represent one facet of Catholic peacemaking. The Roman Catholic Church alone among the faiths of the world is involved in international diplomacy. 2 Over the past century the Vatican has enjoyed an ever expanding role in world affairs. In 2007, the Holy See had full ties with 176 states. In a formal sense Archbishop Courtney, Cardinal Samorè, and other papal diplomats represent the Holy See, not the Vatican state which, under a 69

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1929 ‘concordat’ with Italy, is the sovereign power in part of Rome. The diplomats report to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State, in the papal residence in Rome, the Apostolic Palace. The Secretariat of State has two departments; the Section for General Affairs deals with national churches, while the smaller Section for Relations with States does conventional diplomacy. Since 2006 the equivalent of the Vatican’s Foreign Minister is Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, a French expert on Islam. Born in Morocco, Archbishop Mamberti has represented the Holy See in Algeria, Chile, Lebanon, the Sudan, and at the UN. Although the Section for Relations with States has only 18 diplomats and 19 other staff in Rome, visitors to the Vatican “foreign ministry” are amazed at the knowledge they find. “We are priests,” said one veteran. “We have no family. We work 24 hours a day if necessary. It’s the key to understanding why we are so few, and so efficient.” Obed Ben-Hur, Israel’s envoy to the Holy See added that “they have an advantage: they are highly cultured. They know languages. They know history. They are very well informed.” 3 A former papal envoy to a war torn nation remembers how the American embassy would send a diplomat each morning to ask him about the war zones, knowing that the pope’s man would have been fully briefed by local nuns. 4 CATHOLIC THEOLOGY AND HISTORICAL PRACTICE: AN AMBIGUOUS LEGACY To understand the context in which papal diplomacy carries out its peace making and other activities today it is necessary to review briefly some Catholic theology and history. Dr. Ronald G. Musto, a professor of Medieval and Renaissance History, has written an important study 5 in which he argues that between the period of St. Paul to the Emperor Constantine, Christians actively affirmed nonviolence. Their positive peacemaking efforts tried to convert Rome and overturn its social and ethical life to represent more correctly the new relationship between God and humanity revealed through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Peace began in the human heart and necessarily worked outward to external manifestations which resulted in institutional change. Early Fathers of the Church preached against war and stressed that unjust killing of innocent humans was a mortal sin. When forced to acknowledge Roman gods, Christians gave up their lives in martyrdom thereby imitating Christ in the hope of ushering in the new kingdom. The Edict of Milan of 313 CE brought an end to the Diocletian persecution of Christians and ushered in a period until the seventh century and the reign of the Emperor Charlemagne when the early church and the empire mutually supported one another for survival and became increasingly integrated.

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Peace became associated with one’s right to order and harmony, determined by the divine justice administered through the clergy. 6 Despite the language and reality of war, the Bible is replete with visions of peace. Part of the realism of the Bible is its attempts to bridge the gap between its world and our own with visions of peace accompanying the reality of war. 7 Christian thinkers such as Ambrose of Milan and Augustine of Hippo tried their best to retain the gospel meaning of peace. Ambrose said that for his fellow Christians the Lord, not weapons, protected them. Augustine reiterated the dichotomy between the internal attitude of ‘true’ peace and the external ‘false’ peace of the world, but condemned violence utilized for peacemaking as “a perverted imitation of God.” 8 For Augustine, the only valid reason for going to war was the restoration of peace. Although he used the phrase “justum bellum” (just war) he did not intend it to imply that war was a positive good or that justice was obvious. 9 The rise of Charlemagne’s dynasty in the Western Roman Empire (800s) represented a militarization of the Christian society and altered Christian concepts of peace. Peace, understood to be a gift provided by the empire, was imposed from above and guaranteed by force. 10 The key distinction was between external peace (social order) and internal peace (of the heart). Those who did not recognize the supreme power of the Christian emperor were considered enemies of the faith, and the Hebrew Bible justified holy war against them. The peace of the gospels was in large part relegated to the monks, nuns and clergy The First Crusade, launched by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, defined Moslems as disturbers of Christian peace. “Peace had once again come to be defined by those who wielded political power, a power maintained by violence.” 11 The Crusades had their Christian critics which led to voluntary poverty movements seeking alternatives to violence. Groups of lay people renounced wealth and lived in simplicity and peace, devoting themselves to works of mercy in imitation of the gospel. 12 The papacy at times protected pacifist groups who refused to take up arms, but excommunicated many others who disobeyed the command to conform. The religious orders of Francis of Assisi and Dominic of Guzman emerged the members of which were inspired through “poverty and a life of wandering preaching [to] attempt to confront and win over heretics by nonviolence through reason and ethical persuasion.” 13 The Franciscans and Dominicans were known as mendicant orders and during the thirteenth century a movement among them arose seeking a rapprochement with Islam. “[S]tudy played a role in it. Dominican priories began to study oriental languages after 1236.” 14 Already in 1226 Pope Honorius III had written a letter permitting missionaries working in the East to dress

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in local clothes, to wear a beard, and to have their hair cut according to local custom. 15 Between 1100 and 1500, peace became more closely associated with justice and a mistaken theory of just war developed. A Roman notion Christianized by Augustine and carried into the Middle Ages by Isidore of Seville considered a war to be just if it was waged by legitimate authority, had a just cause, and was fought with the intention of restoring peace. While such requirements condemned a war of hatred or war waged for the sake of acquiring wealth or land “the theory of just war is not Christian in any proper sense of the word: it has no biblical, theological, or canonical foundation.” 16 New political and social organizations in Europe, instituted by an increase in monarchical power that led to conquering of lands and accumulation of wealth, fostered a glorification of war. The theater, pulpit, and even children’s textbooks became vehicles to stress an unquestioned obedience to rulers and to criticize pacifists as traitors. 17 Between the Council of Trent (1545–63) and the First Vatican Council (1869–70), the Catholic peace tradition was diminished by the rise of absolutism, the Counter Reformation, and an overall decline in attentiveness to Catholic spirituality. 18 Doctrinal dissent was prohibited among intellectuals—enforced by the Inquisition and the Index of Prohibited Books—and a defensive stance, fearful of ‘heresy,’ regulated education. Lay participation in the life of the Church was drastically reduced. With little room for dissent or positive peacemaking, Catholic spirituality became more internal and passive: the movements of Jansenism and Quietism stressed inner peace and rejected religious activism. 19 TWENTIETH-CENTURY CATHOLIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO INTERNATIONAL PEACE According to Father Drew Christiansen, it is difficult to identify the precise starting point of modern Catholic peacemaking. 20 Credit must go to Pope Benedict XV for his efforts to end the First World War. To him we owe the phrase “Never again war, war never again.” 21 Another possible starting point would be with Pope Pius XII. A former Vatican diplomat, Pius took great interest in international affairs, and played a significant role in Cold War politics. On the negative side of Pius XII stands his silence in the face of Nazi atrocities, especially the Holocausts in Eastern Europe and Croatia. 22 Others, including the present author, would disagree and argue that the true starting point came with Blessed John XXIII. Not only did he play an important role in perhaps the most dangerous of post-war confrontations, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, but Pope John also issued an encyclical letter on peace that for the first time elaborated Catholic teaching on the matter in a coherent way. Pacem in terris (“Peace

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on Earth” 1963) 23 influenced the way that the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) attempted to engage the world. Father Christiansen points out that Pacem in terris “also provided the motivation for the most sustained Catholic contribution to post-conciliar peacemaking, namely, the church’s defense of human rights as the foundation of peace.” 24 During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy White House urgently sought out ways and means to communicate with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. After receiving an urgent request from the White House, Pope John sent a letter to Premier Khrushchev, who welcomed the message, and began his movement back from the brink. In presenting the Catholic vision of peace Father Christiansen begins with Blessed John XXIII and Pacem in terris. 25 “Peace,” says Father Christiansen “is not the mere absence of war, nor even the avoidance of war. Peace is the positive realization of the dignity of the whole human family.” 26 This Catholic vision of peace consists in four elements, argues Father Christiansen: “(1) human rights; (2) development; (3) solidarity; and (4) world order. Pacem in terris re-conceived the whole of Catholic political theology in terms of human rights. The common good was redefined as the “objective recognition, respect, safeguarding and promotion of the rights of the human person.” The encyclical declared that “upholding the common good so defined was the goal of all public authority.” 27 A second element of the Catholic understanding of peace has to do with the value of integral or authentic development. This is articulated in the Second Vatican Council’s Gaudium et spes (“The Pastoral Constitution on the Church and the Modern World” 1965), 28 as well as in Pope Paul VI’s Populorum progressio (“Development of Peoples” 1968), 29 John Paul II’s Sollicitudo rei socialis (“On Social Concern” 1988), 30 and somewhat less extensively in Centesimus annus (“Hundredth Year” 1991), 31 and points out that authentic development consists of three points, according to Fr. Christiansen: “(1) the right of all people to the means for their full development as human beings; (2) the proposition that authentic human development consists of more than economic progress; and (3) the affirmation that the affluent nations of the world have an obligation to share the benefits of development with the poor, not just through aid, but also through structural economic changes such as equity in trade reform. The notion that ‘development is the new name for peace’ appears as a summary in Pope Paul VI’s Populorum Progressio.” 32 The third component of the Catholic idea of peace consists in solidarity. In Catholic social theology, solidarity is a very rich and complex concept. Fundamentally, says Father Christiansen, “it consists in active commitment to the belief that under God we belong to one human family. It has many applications in various contexts and for various classes of agents: for the poor, for workers, for affluent countries, between classes, and between nations. Within the church, solidarity has special reference

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to the ties that bind churches in one part of the world to churches and people in other regions and continents.” 33 Thus the church in Canada exercises solidarity when it lobbies its own government for special provisions for Christian refugees from Iraq. 34 The Second Vatican Council declared that the church served humanity in fostering the unity of the human community, a task that is fundamental to the church’s own selfidentity. Father Christiansen noted that “the fourth element in the Catholic vision consists in its teaching on world order, which focuses on issues of the breakdown of order. 35 Over the past 20 years, the church has condemned nuclear war-fighting and made the elimination of nuclear weapons a goal for an ethical military policy. In a dramatic shift the church has moved from simply praising the practitioners of non-violence to espousing non-violence as the fundamental Christian response to conflict.” 36 Reflecting on the events of 1989 in Eastern Europe, Blessed John Paul II wrote “I pray the example [of active non-violent resisters in Eastern Europe] will prevail in other places and in other circumstances. May people learn to fight for justice without violence, renouncing class struggle in their national disputes, and war in international ones.” 37 This embrace of non-violence has meant a movement away from a just-war analysis in Vatican pronouncements, though it still makes use of the just-war criteria in its scrutiny and criticism of acts of war, which the Holy See regards as immoral. Father Christiansen argues that “in principle, the church continues to admit of a limited just use of arms when nonviolence fails. In practice, however, it appears to regard ‘humanitarian intervention’ as the sole remaining ‘just cause,’ and even then is quite reserved about the means to be utilized in defense of the innocent.” 38 Finally, because of their troublesome effects on large civilian populations, as in Iraq and Cuba, the church has been highly critical of the use of sanctions as a method of coercive diplomacy and a supposed alternative to war. Father Christiansen remarked that “at a recent international Mennonite-Catholic dialogue near Karlsruhe, Germany, one of the three presentations addressing the theme ‘What is a Peace Church?’ came from a Mennonite pastor from Guatemala. The church that he described as a peace church was not the Mennonite Church in Guatemala, but the Catholic Church and especially its bishops’ conference.” 39 One of the structural changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council that has shaped Catholic peacemaking potential was the establishment of bishops’ conferences as forums for bishops of a particular country to consult and coordinate on matters of pastoral and social strategy. When bishops work in unity their conferences can be a steady force for peace, even in violent societies. For example, the bishops of Guatemala have promoted negotiations, defended human rights, and provided accompaniment for refugees during Guatemala’s thirty-six-year civil war. Sadly, the importance of

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their work was reinforced in 1998 with the murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi just after he had filed a report on human rights abuses during Guatemala’s civil war. 40 Catholic teaching and practice of peacemaking has been strong on peace building and weaker on conflict-related tasks. On the one hand, the modern Catholic social tradition emphasizes the positive content of peace, but on the other hand, the Catholic theory of conflict resolution remains relatively underdeveloped. CATHOLIC DISPUTE SOLUTION: THE METHOD OF THE COMMUNITY OF SANT ‘EGIDIO Dispute solution is an area where Catholics can learn from others, such as the Mennonites. There is, however, one example of a Catholic community that has served as a pioneer in conflict resolution and which has developed a distinctive method for doing this. The Community of Sant ’Egidio is an international Catholic organization recognized by the Holy See as a lay public association. 41 Founded in 1968 by an eighteen-year-old high school student in Rome, Sant ’Egidio communities are in more than 40 countries and enjoy a membership of 30,000. Although Sant ’Egidio has many elements of a religious organization, its members are lay people who do not take vows and who hold normal secular jobs as their means of support. The community was a key to the peaceful resolution of the civil war in Mozambique and has facilitated peace dialogues in Albania, Algeria, 42 Burundi, Guatemala, Kosovo, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The community’s philosophy and work are best captured, according to Dr. Andrea Bartoli, a vice president of the community and a faculty member at George Mason University in Washington, D.C., by four Latin words: communio, traditio, romanitas, and pietas. As a community (communio), the self-understanding of Sant ’Egidio is that of a large family that stretches around the world. In practical terms, the skills most valued by the community are careful listening, prompt response, commitment to relationships, being prepared to stop and change pace, and hospitality. The reality of community grows out of the three disciplines of prayer (both personal and communal), service to the poor and friendship. The peacemaking and conflict resolution of the community is a direct expression of these three disciplines. While the community sees itself as an integral component of Catholic tradition (traditio), it also sees itself as a good example of Catholic plasticity, that is, a Catholic ability to adapt, respond, and incorporate change, which was effectively reflected in the Second Vatican Council. Vatican II transformed the role not only of the laity, but also of the bishops and the Holy See.

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Although the community’s membership and activities are spread throughout the world, its headquarters are in Rome (Romanitas), and Sant ’Egidio takes delight in its location in the same sacred space where the Catholic Church is headquartered. It is piety (pietas) and love of the poor that is central to the community’s commitment to conflict resolution. The poor are the ones who suffer most from war and to serve the poor therefore means to be a peacemaker. The members of Sant ’Egidio have a strong sense of responsibility to those in pain and suffering. This caring attitude to those in need throughout the world expresses itself in person-to-person contact, which is central to its peacemaking philosophy. Beyond this commitment to personal relationships lies its conviction that peace comes through dialogue and understanding. The community does not take its various peacemaking success stories as any reason to rest on its laurels. It has a strong sense of its own weakness and is ready to seek assistance from other organizations in its peacemaking efforts. It is also prepared to risk failure in pursuit of peace. 43 The approach of the Sant ’Egidio community to conflict resolution is interactive and interpersonal. A good example of this modus operandi is their work leading to the Mozambican peace accord of 1992, which proved to be sustainable and led to the democratic and free elections of 1994. 44 A broad definition of the Interactive Conflict Resolution (ICR) methodology is facilitated face-to-face activities in communications and consultation. This is a long and complex process with an intense relational investment. These relationships need preparation time, and must be continued during negotiations as well as in their aftermath. 45 This way of making peace is non-threatening. The war in Mozambique between the national army of the Frelimo government and the rebels known as Renamo was bloody and seemingly intractable. Renamo established a horrific reputation as the “Khymer Rouge of Africa” through a series of atrocities perpetrated on the civilian population. The Marxist Frelimo government contributed to the alienation of ordinary people in Mozambique through its oppressive politics. Its economic policies did little to help the country, and Mozambique’s infrastructure and economy began to fall apart. For this reason Sant’ Egidio organized several humanitarian relief operations in the early 1980s. 46 However, their involvement in the eventual peace settlement went back to the mid-1970s. After more than 400 years of involvement in Mozambique by the Catholic Church in Portugal after Mozambiquan independence in 1975 the Holy See implemented changes mandated by Vatican II and selected new, native, and local bishops. One of these bishop-candidates, Jaime Gonçalves, had become a friend of a member of the Community of Sant ‘Egidio, Ambrogio Spreafico, while he (Gonçalves) was studying in

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Rome. At the time of Msgr. Gonçalves’ ordination the Community was a small, almost unknown youth group in Rome. After a few years in Mozambique Msgr Gonçalves revisited the community in 1982 and shared some of the difficulties he and the Catholic Church were encountering in the country. The Frelimo government was ideologically unsympathetic to organized religious contributions to public life. Because of its Marxist-Leninist commitments it viewed religion as a relic of the past and the Catholic Church as compromised by its alliance with the former colonial power of Portugal. When their old friend Jaime, now His Excellency Msgr. Gonçalves, visited the Community he did not have a clear plan in mind that would eventually lead Mozambique out of war sixteen years later. He was not asking his friends at Sant ‘Egidio for much other than willing ears that enabled him to share the burdens of his life. At the same time he was making his friends aware of the people in his corner of the world who were suffering. The Community perceived his sharing with an acute awareness of the linkage that through their friendship, through their common humanity, and through the ties of the Catholic Church they were linked to that suffering. The response was: “Let us help you to meet the Secretary General of the Italian Community Party, Mr. Enrico Berlinguer, to explore the possibility of an intervention from Italy toward the establishment of religious freedom in Mozambique.” 47

This was a creative and imaginative response on the part of the Community especially because there was no link between them and the Italian Community Party, and there was no personal connection with Mr. Berlinguer. If the response of Archbishop Gonçalves had been negative, nothing would have come of this idea. Positive feedback was essential when a party in the conflict is offered a new possibility, something he or she had not thought of. The responsibility of moving forward was that of Archbishop Gonçalves, not Sant ‘Egidio. The role of the third party is not to impose solutions, even those that seem to them to be rational and practical. Rather they must encourage the party in the conflict to imagine a new situation in which the conflict might be managed. Seeking feedback empowers the party in the conflict. While ‘production’ of alternatives belongs to the remit of third-party interveners, the feedback of the actor in the conflict is essential. A second reason for positive feedback is that the implementation of an idea of the magnitude of ‘Let’s meet Mr. Belinguer’ requires the active assistance of both parties and the third party intervener. 48 The meeting between Mr. Berlinguer and Msgr. Gonçalves went well. The communist leader listened carefully to the situation described by the bishop and responded very thoughtfully quoting Gramsci and his theory of hegemony which explains how in the project of national construction,

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an alliance of all positive forces is necessary. 49 The meeting between Msgr. Gonçalves and Mr. Belinguer was a turning point. Another was the subsequent visit by the rebel leader Mr. Afonso Dhlakama to Italy in the second half of the 1980s after the death of President Samora Machel. With this visit it became clear that the government of Mozambique was prepared to engage Renamo in a serious effort to end the war. The most important problem was the lack of communication channels between the Frelimo Government and the Renamo leadership. The policy of politically isolating Renamo from the wider world had become an obstacle to the peace process. Due to this and its perceived history of violence, Renamo was not officially welcome in Lisbon or Rome. Because of this the Community of Sant ‘Egidio proposed highlevel meetings at the Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry with Mr. Dhlakama and a luncheon at the Sant ‘Egidio headquarters. Both events happened, and this visit of Mr. Dhlakama became a significant turning point. Andrea Bartoli later wrote: “Mr. Dhlakama felt respected and able to present his political demands without being overwhelmed by objections. The transformation of a military commander into a political leader had begun.” 50 Once again, the nature of the intervention in the Community of Sant ‘Egidio was relational. It was an attempt to respond to positive possibilities by including them in a larger and more creative framework. Although the enmity was high due to differences in ideologies (Frelimo with its Marxist-Leninist vision versus Renamo with a pro-democracy outlook), the two parties did speak to members of the Community and later between themselves directly. In different ways the two parties established independent trust relationships with the Community of Sant ‘Egidio. These relationships were long-term, open and transparent. In August 1984 the founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio, Andrea Riccardi, and Don Maria Zuppi went to Mozambique for an official visit bringing two planeloads of humanitarian aid. Three Frelimo ministers received them. The visit was another turning point in the relationship between the Community and the Government. In January 1988, President Cissano, in a meeting with a group of Catholic bishops in Mozambique, asked them informally to seek contacts with Renamo. Using religious channels was an important departure from previous positions. The relationship between church and state was steadily improving with the elevation of the first native bishop of Maputo to the office of Cardinal. In July 1988 Riccardi spoke at the fifth Frelimo congress, and his speech was well received. Strongly encouraging a bold move in favor of peace he sensed a “pervasive desire for peace” not only among the people but also among the leaders at the congress. 51 Pope John Paul II repeated this message during his September 16–18, 1988 visit to Mozambique. With President Chissano the Pope spoke about peace and urged the “path of reconciliation and dialogue.”

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It was within this context that in April 1990 that the Community received a confidential request through a young minister of Frelimo, Aguiar Mazula, asking for secret talks with Renamo without preconditions. This was a breakthrough because previously Frelimo had demanded that Renamo stop the violence and accept to meet in Mozambique. Fearing for their safety Renamo had always refused. The response of the Community was welcoming but prudent. Minister Mazula was invited to meet Vatican officials and some Italian politicians. At the same time talks started with Don Zuppi regarding format and content of the talks. The blueprint was presented to President Chissano who accepted it. The Frelimo delegation of four came to Rome at the beginning of July 1990. Mazula was a member but not the leader of it. This was the beginning of the dialogue and negotiation process that would lead to the successful end of the war with the general agreement in Rome on October 4, 1992. In a similar way the relationship of the Community with Renamo was the result of the long-term commitment of the Community, in this case with Msgr. Gonçalves. As Archbishop of Beira he had imagined a possible political solution to the violence that was ravaging his country. He made contact with representatives of Renamo. In early 1986 the Archbishop had a series of meetings in Rome in early 1986. At this time the peace process was conceived. Gonçalves came to Rome with a dream and with interaction with the members of the Community this became a plan, a reality. Meetings were held with Giovanni Berlinguer and with Giulio Andreotti in May of 1986. Both of these Italian politicians, the first a Communist and the other a Christian Democrat, supported the idea of reaching out to Renamo and facilitating dialogue. In January of 1988 the Catholic bishops had an informal meeting with President Chissano. Another turning point was reached because the president moved from a priori condemnation and encouraged the Catholic bishops to seek contacts with Renamo in order to explore and clarify the thoughts of those who “started killing before talking.” 52 His language remained harsh and confrontational, but he expressed recognition that it was necessary to “understand” Renamo. At this point the objective of the Community was to explore and possibly facilitate direct negotiations between Renamo and Frelimo. What should be done when enemies meet? How is it possible to maximize positive results and minimize negative ones? What is the role of the victims and their memories when someone attempts to end a conflict that resulted in a million deaths and four million refugees? These were some of the questions that the members of the Community, led by Andrea Riccardi and co-ordinated by Matteo Zuppi, asked themselves as they prepared for the first direct talks with Frelimo and Renamo. 53 What could be the role of non-state actors in such a high stakes negotiation? During the two-year engagement some fundamental orientations emerged at the first set of negotiations in Rome in July, 1990. Among

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these were: (1) emphasis on the parties themselves; (2) active support of the international community; (3) effective secretariat function; (4) exploration of alternatives; (5) no closed time frame; and, (6) confidentiality of communication but transparency of results. 54 According to Andrea Bartoli, for his Community, this was a new initiative. While they had taken on many significant areas of service to the poor and areas of public concern, Sant ‘Egidio had never directly involved itself in political processes. Both negotiating parties had established trusting relationships with the Community but not between themselves. Sant ‘Egidio could provide a safe space for the encounter to happen. In terms of their approach, the fundamental orientation was summed up by the words of Blessed John XXIII that it is better “to seek what unites rather than what divides.” The members of the Community directly involved in the talks were two of the four observers: Andrea Riccardi and Matteo Zuppi. The other two observers were Mario Raffaelli, who served as chairman, and Archbishop Gonçalves. However, hundreds more were actively participating through an array of services. The arrival of a delegation was prepared in detail, making sure that the delegates were properly welcomed but also that their security was guaranteed. The reaction of Italian politicians was explained and the close but cool support of the Vatican was explained. Members of the Community embraced the delegates in a warm fashion and met their personal needs as they arose. This integrated approach proved indispensable to understand reactions more precisely, to counteract negative views and to assist in the growth of mutual understanding. One of the important roles of the facilitators was to explain one party to the other and at times to repeat, with accurate but different words, what the other side was saying. This was important because both parties had the tendency not to accept the other’s position as a legitimate starting point, and yet to welcome the same position if the neutral party presented it. This process happened not only in the formal talks but also in the many conversations that occurred at breakfast, lunch and dinner, while in the car or out shopping. The Community provided a communication space that revealed what was possible when the parties were committed to dialogue. The initial tension between the two delegations was palpable. The Mozambique government expected that Renamo should be grateful for the opportunity to meet directly, and therefore they should lower their demands and accept the Government’s offers. On the other hand, Renamo was committed to confront the representatives of the Government. To them, Frelimo had usurped the legitimate government of their country, and therefore no discussion of a cease-fire or a return to the pre-war status quo was possible. Furthermore, Renamo demanded that a credible African country serve as mediator-a proposal rejected by the Frelimo government.

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During the preliminary talks the distance between the two delegations regarding the issue of a cease-fire was great. For Frelimo, the cessation of hostilities was the first essential step; for Renamo it was the last step. However, the decision of the head of the Renamo delegation to address his counterpart with his title of “minister” assisted the dialogue. Another element that created the right environment was the introductory speech by Andrea Riccardi who said, among other things: We are aware that we have in front of us Mozambican patriots, truly Africans, without the presence of foreigners. Each of you has deep roots in the country. Your history is called Mozambique. Your future is called Mozambique. We ourselves are here as hosts of an event that we feel to be totally Mozambican. In this perspective, our presence intends to be forceful where friendship is concerned, but discreet and respectful. 55

The tone and content of Riccardi’s introduction is a summary of the spirit and form of Sant ‘Egidio’s contribution to peacemaking in this instance. Its presence was not formal or forceful. Their representatives did not intend to impose solutions. Rather, it was a committed web of relationships, lovingly cultivated for a long time through personal contacts. This led to a fragile but hopeful dialogue. The Mozambicans themselves owned the actual process. The observers were present only insofar as the parties requested it. In the event, the first direct talks went well. The second meeting focused on the agenda. With Frelimo wanting normalization and Renamo stressing democratization, the parties agreed to merge the two proposals into one draft and to work on a joint communiqué as suggested by the facilitators. The text that was produced captured the essence of subsequent negotiations. It is not easy to extract from the Mozambican experience, nor the role played in it by the Community of Sant ‘Egidio general “rules” for Catholic peacemaking that could be applied elsewhere. In all cases, peacemaking is constructed and shaped in specific circumstances. However, one general observation about the results in this case is that technique in peacemaking cannot substitute for personal relations with the parties. In the end, Catholic peacemaking is simply based on the dream that everyone can make peace with the help of God. NOTES 1. Pope Mourns for Nuncio Ambushed in Burundi. Archbishop Michael Courtney Dies after Attack on Car. Http://www.zenit.org/article-9046?=English, accessed 2/11/ 2008. 2. Lisa Lindsey, “Beagle Channel Settlement. Vatican Mediation resolves a century-old dispute,” HeinOnLine, 29 (1987): 435; Mark Laudy, “The Vatican Mediation of the Beagle Channel Dispute. Crisis Intervention and Forum Building,” The Economist,

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(July 21, 2007): 58. Retrieved from http://www.ics/si.edu/subsite/ccpdc/pubs/words/ 11.pdf. 3. Ibid, The Economist, p. 59. 4. Ibid, p. 59. 5. Ronald G. Musto, The Catholic Peace Tradition (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987). 6. Sister Donna Jean Kemmetmueller, PEACE: The Challenge of Living the Catholic Tradition. Retrieved from http://www.monitor.upeace.org/pdf/Peace_Catholicism.pdf. 7. Ulrich Mauser, The Gospel of Peace: A Scriptural Message for Today’s World. Studies in Peace and Scripture: Institute of Mennonite Studies, ed. Ben C. Ollenburger and Willard M. Swartley (Louisville, KY: Westminister/John Knox Press, 1992), vii. 8. Musto, The Catholic Peace Tradition, 49. 9. QH 4.44, 6.10; DCD 4.15, 19.7; cited in William R. Stevenson, Christian Love and Just War. Moral Paradox and Political Life in St. Augustine and His Modern Interpreters (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1988), 11. 10. Musto, The Catholic Peace Tradition, 63. 11. Ibid, 76. 12. Ibid, 81. 13. Ibid, 83. 14. Berthold Altaner, Die Dominikanermissionen des 13. Jahrhunderts (Hebelshwerdt: Franke, 1924), 26, cited in Thomas F. O’Meara, The Theology and Times of William of Tripoli, OP: A Different View of Islam, Theological Studies, 69, no. 1 (2008): 81. 15. Gaston Zananiri, L’Église et L’Islam (Paris: Spes, 1969), 195. 16. Musto, The Catholic Peace Tradition, 104. 17. Kemmetmueller, PEACE. 18. Musto, The Catholic Peace Tradition, 153. 19. Ibid., 155. 20. Drew Christiansen, “Pacem in terris to Centesimus annus,” in Catholic Contributions to International Peace, ed. David Smock. Accessed October 4, 2011, http://www. usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr69.pdf/html. 21. Ibid. 22. Avro Manhatten, The Vatican’s Holocaust (Springfield, MO: Ozark Books, 2001). http://www.reformation.org/holocaust#contents. Manhatten insists on the egregious nature of the slaughter of the Serbs in the short-lived Croat State by Ante Pavelic and other priests; see also Whitnall N. Perry, Review of The Silence of Pius XII by Carlo Falconi, Studies in Comparative Religions 4, no. 1, 59–62, accessed June 10, 2011, http:// www.studiesincomparativereligions.com. 23. Joseph Gremillion, The Gospel of Peace and Justice: Catholic Social Teaching since Pope John (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1976). 24. Christiansen, “From Pacem in terris to Centesimus annus.” 25. Ibid. 26. Ibid. 27. Ibid. 28. Austin Flannery, The Basic Sixteen Documents Vatican Council II Constitutions, Decrees, Declarations A Completely Revised Translation in Inclusive Language (Northport, NY: Costello Publishing, 1996), 163–282. 29. Claudia Carlen Ihm, The Papal Encyclicals 1958–1981 (Raleigh, NC: McGrath Publishing, 1981), 183–201. 30. J. Michael Miller, The Encyclicals of John Paul II (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 1996), 411–77. 31. Ibid. 588–650. 32. Ibid. 33. Ibid. 34. “CCCB asks Prime Minister Harper to Help Iraqi Christians,” last modified February 5, 2008, http://www.cccb.ca/site/eng/media-room/archives/media-releases/ 2008/2561–cccb-asks-prime-minister-harper-to-help-iraqi-christians.

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35. Christiansen, “From Pacem in terris to Centesimus annus.” 36. Ibid. 37. Pope John Paul II, Centesimus annus 1991, #23. 38. Christiansen, “From Pacem in terris to Centesimus annus.” 39. Ibid. 40. Francisco Goldman, The Art of Political Murder (New York: Grove Press, 2007); Christiansen, “From Pacem in terris to Centesimus annus.” 41. Andrea Poretti, “The Sant’Egidio Community and its Ecumenical Work in Buenos Aires,” The Ecumenical Review 59, no. 4, (2007): 480–82; Brian Cox and Daniel Philpott, “Faith-Based Diplomacy: An Ancient Idea Newly Emergent,” Brandywine Review of Faith & International Affairs 1, no. 2 (2003): 31–40; Tendaiwo Peter Maregre, “Religion: A Source of Conflict and a Resource for Peace,” Conflict Trends, no. 1 (2011): 17–23, accessed June 10, 2011, http://www.accord.org.za. 42. Milton Viorst, “Algeria’s Long Night,” Foreign Affairs 76, no. 6, (1997): 86–99. 43. Andrea Bartoli, “Catholic Peacemaking: The Experience of Sant’Egidio” (presention, US Institute of Peace workshop, Washington, D.C., February 5, 2001). 44. Graham Harrison, “Elections in Mozambique,” Review of African Political Economy 22, no. 63 (1995): 115–118; L.B. Serapião, “The Catholic Church and Conflict Resolution in Mozambique’s Post-Colonial Conflict 1977–1992,” Journal of Church and State 46, no. 21, (2004): 365–387, accessed June 10, 2011, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/ mi_hb3244/is_2–46/ai_n29105402. 45. Andrea Bartoli, “Learning from the Mozambique Peace Process. The Role of the Community of Sant’Egidio,” in Paving the Way. Contributions of Interactive Conflict Resolution to Peacemaking, ed. Ronald J. Fisher (Oxford: Lexington Books, 2005), 83. 46. “A Nonthreatening Approach to Peace. The Community of Sant’ Egidio in Mozambique,” accessed January 8, 2008, http://www.peoplebuildingpeace.org/thestories/ print.php?id=140&typ. 47. Bartoli, “Learning from the Mozambique Peace Process,” 87. 48. Ibid, 88. 49. Robert Cox, “Gramsci, Hegemony and International Relations: An Essay in Method,” in Gramsci, Hegemony and International Relations, ed. Stephen Gill, (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), 49. 50. Bartoli, “Learning from the Mozambique Peace Process,” 89. 51. Ibid., 92. 52. Ibid., 93. 53. Ibid., 95 54. Ibid., 96. 55. Ibid., 99. The full text of Andrea Riccardi’s introduction can be found in the archive of the Community of Sant’ Egidio.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Altaner, Berthold. Die Dominikanermissionen des 13. Jahrhunderts, Hebelshwerdt: Franke, 1924. Bartoli, Andrea. “Catholic Peacemaking: The Experience of San’Egidio.” Presentation at US Institute of Peace workshop, February 5, 2001. http://www.restorativ ejustice.org/10fulltext/bartoli. ———. “Learning from the Mozambique Peace Process. The Role of the Community of Sant’Egidio.” In Paving the Way: Contributions of Interactive Conflict Resolution to Peacemaking, edited by Ronald J. Fisher. Oxford: Lexington Books, 2005. ———. “A Nonthreatening Approach to Peace. The Community of Sant ‘Egidio in Mozambique.” In People Building Peace II: Successful Stories of Civil Society, edited by Paul Van Tongeren, Malin Brenk, Marte Hellema, and Juliette Verhoeven, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishing, 2005. http://www.peoplebuildingpeace.org/thestories/print.php?id=140&typ.

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Christiansen, Drew. “From Pacem in terris to Centesimus annus.” Paper presented at the US Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C., February 5, 2001. Cox, Brian, and Daniel Philpott. “Faith-Based Diplomacy: An Ancient Idea Newly Emergent,” Brandywine Review of Faith and International Affairs 1, no. 2 (2003): 31–40. Cox, Robert. “Hegemony and International Relations: An Essay in Method.” In Gramsci, Hegemony and International Relations, edited by Stephen Gill, 49–66. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Flannery, Austin. The Basic Sixteen Documents Vatican Council II Constitutions, Decrees, Declarations A Completely Revised Translation in Inclusive Language. Northport, NY: Costello Publishing, 1996. “God’s ambassadors,” The Economist, July 21, 2007, 58–59. Goldman, Francisco. The Art of Political Murder. New York: Grove Press, 2007. Gremillion, Joseph. The Gospel of Peace and Justice: Catholic Social Teaching since Pope John. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1976. Harrison, Graham. “Elections in Mozambique,” Review of African Political Economy 22, no. 63 (1995): 115–118. Ihm, Claudia Carlen. The Papal Encyclicals 1958–1981. Raleigh: McGrath Publishing, 1981. Kemmetmueller, Sister Donna Jean. “PEACE: The Challenge of Living the Catholic Tradition.” Peace and Conflict Monitor, Special Report (2005). Accessed May 8, 2008. http://www.monitor.upeace.org/archive.cfm?id_article=267. Laudy, Mark. “The Vatican Mediation of the Beagle Channel Dispute: Crisis Intervention and Forum Building.” In Words over War: Mediation and Arbitration to Prevent Deadly Conflict, edited by MC Greenberg, JH Barton, and ME McGuinness, 293–320. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. Lindsey, Lisa. “Beagle Channel Dispute Settlement. Vatican Mediation Resolves a Century-Old Dispute.” Journal of Church and State 29, no. 3 (1987): 435–454. Manhatten, Avro. The Vatican’s Holocaust. Springfield, MO: Ozark Books, 2001. Maregre, Tendaiwo Peter. “Religion: A Source of Conflict and a Resource for Peace,” Conflict Trends, no. 1 (2011), 17–23. Mauser, Ulrich. The Gospel of Peace: A Scriptural Message for Today’s World. Studies in Peace and Scripture: Institute of Mennonite Studies. Edited by Ben C. Ollenburger and Willard M. Swartley. Louisville, KY: Westminister/John Knox Press, 1992. Miller, J. Michael. The Encyclicals of John Paul II. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 1996. Musto, Ronald G. The Catholic Peace Tradition. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987. O’Meara, Thomas F. “The Theology and Times of William of Tripoli, OP: A Different View of Islam.” Theological Studies 69, no. 1 (2008). Perry, Whitnall N. “The Silence of Pius XII, by Carlo Falconi.” Studies in Comparative Religions 5, no. 1 (1971), 59–62. Poretti, Andrea. “The Sant ‘Egidio Community and its Ecumenical Work in Buenos Aires.” The Ecumenical Review 59, no. 4 (2007): 480–482. Serapião, L.B. “The Catholic Church and Conflict Resolution in Mozambique’s PostColonial Conflict 1977–1992.” Journal of Church and State 46, no. 21 (2004): 365–387. Stevenson, William R. Christian Love and Just War. Moral Paradox and Political Life in St. Augustine and His Modern Interpreters. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1988. Virost, Milton. “Algeria’s Long Night.” Foreign Affairs 76, no. 6 (1997): 86–99. Zananiri, Gaston. L’Eglise et L’Islam. Paris: Spes, 1969.

SIX Evangelical Women and Transformative Peacebuilding Kristen Lundquist, Hien Vu, and Chris Seiple

In the field of peacebuilding and security formation, perhaps the only thing less examined than the role of faith is the role of women of faith; and among them, perhaps least discussed of all, is the role of evangelical Protestant women. The role of these women and their present and future contributions to peace and security should, in our view, be brought into the mainstream of scholarship and practice. Our perspective on these issues is shaped not only by our familiarity with the relevant academic literature on the subject, but also by our experiences as evangelical practitioners of peacebuilding who work for the Institute for Global Engagement, a Christian nonprofit organization located in Washington, D.C. The participation of women of faith—including evangelical women—should come to be seen as a normal and necessary element in peace and security formation, from the smallest civil society and religious organizations to the White House and the U.S. Department of State. In this chapter, we briefly examine the scholarship and publications available on this issue in a global context (and unfortunately, there is not much to consider). We then lay out how we understand our own evangelical belief system, including those things that compel us to seek peace and reconciliation, along with how the Bible treats women. Next, we offer our conceptual perspective regarding characteristic tendencies of women in peacebuilding and reconciliation, followed by some practical observations and lessons based on the experiences of two of this chapter’s coauthors: Kristen Lunquist, writing on the Middle East, and Hien Vu,

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writing on Vietnam. We conclude by suggesting some areas in need of further research, as well as the next steps. THE GLOBAL CONTEXT On October 31, 2000, the United Nations Security Council passed a historic resolution regarding the role of women in peace and security. “Recognizing the urgent need to mainstream a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations,” UN Security Council Resolution 1325 urged the world “to ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict.” 1 (The U.S. has yet to ratify this resolution). Unfortunately, not much has changed since. Despite important contributions to the peace processes in Northern Ireland, Guatemala, and Liberia, it is nevertheless true that women “have represented fewer than three percent of mediators and eight percent of negotiators to major peace processes” since 1992. 2 In fact, of the “585 peace treaties drafted over the last two decades, only 16 percent contain specific reference to women.” 3 Women of religious faith have fared no better (and arguably even worse) than women in general when it comes to their meaningful inclusion in contemporary peace and security processes. For instance, while the White House’s recently released “National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security” (December 2011) reinforces UNSCR 1325, there is no mention of the role that religious women might play in peacebuilding. 4 Indeed, when asked, the interagency leaders largely responsible for this plan about the role of religious women in peacebuilding, they agreed that it was important but had not yet been addressed. 5 This pattern of neglect is all the more unfortunate in light of the 2010 White House recommendation that the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Aid “engage regional, national, and global interreligious women’s networks,” and that “capacity building and resourcing relevant to these partnerships should be a priority.” 6 Meanwhile, some simple logic remains: if, as global surveys show, 82% of the world regards religion as “important in their daily lives,” 7 then it stands to reason that roughly 40% of the women in the world take their faith seriously in its daily application. Sadly, there is no such proportional discussion in the scholarship and publications available regarding peacebuilding. In fact, the only specific, but still emerging, scholarship on the issue of religious women in peacebuilding is being done by Georgetown University’s Katherine Marshall. In cooperation with the U.S. Institute of Peace, she published a monograph on “Women in Religious Peacebuilding” in 2010, based on what has now become an annual symposium examining

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the intersection of women, religion, and peace. 8 While this effort calls attention to the important work of Maryann Cusimano Love, a professor at Catholic University, no attention is specifically given to the potential contributions of Protestant evangelical women. OUR BELIEF SYSTEM As evangelical Protestant Christians, we understand ourselves to be followers of Jesus. For many, Jesus was a moral teacher, even a prophet, who lived in first-century Palestine. But for us, as predicted by various Old Testament prophecies, Jesus was the Christ, the son of God. He paid the ultimate price for our sins, rose from the dead on Easter, reigns in heaven today, and will return again. As people who accept the label “evangelical”—rooted in the Greek word evangelion, meaning “Good News”—we believe that this good news about who Jesus was and is should be shared in two ways: by following the commands of Christ, and by sharing those commands with other people in a respectful manner (Matthew 28: 18–20). It is a belief system that requires thought and action. 9 The thought begins with understanding Christ’s purpose. Because God gave humans free choice, they often choose not to follow the commands of God, and do things that are wrong. Christ came to pay the price for that wrong—death—for all humanity, for all time. He came to restore the relationship between humanity and God. He came to reconcile. Reconciliation is therefore at the very heart of the good news about Jesus. If someone accepts Jesus, they accept his reconciling role, and are called to do the same. Part of that calling, especially for evangelicals, is the constant return to scripture to better know Jesus, and, as a result, better apply his teachings as reconciling agents. For the purposes of this chapter, it is important to understand that Isaiah prophesized that Jesus would be the “Prince of Peace . . . of the increase of government and peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:6–7). Further, he had been prophesized as riding a donkey, bringing “peace to the nations” (Zechariah 9:9–10). Yet, when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, just before Easter, he wept: “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:42). The Prince of Peace was greeted with palm branches, the symbol of Jewish nationalism, and the desire for a political-military king who would throw off the yoke of Roman rule. 10 The Kingdom of God that Jesus offered was not one related to land or Temple or rebellion, but a way of restored relationship to God that applied to all peoples. His was an inclusive invitation based on an exclusive claim. The Apostle Paul summarizes these basic premises in this way. First, he makes quite clear that “God was reconciling the world to himself in

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Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” As a result, God has “committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors” (Corinthians 5:19–20). Paul takes it a step further, however, affirming the intent of Jesus in a world ruled by Romans. In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul mocks the “peace and security” offered by the Romans, suggesting that such clichés are the shallow if not temporary promise of governments (1st Thessalonians 5:3). 11 Real peace and security, in other words, can only come from reconciliation through Christ. As evangelical Christians, we believe that true peace and security can be found the more closely we model the example of Christ himself, according to the “pattern” (John 13:15) of submission, service, and love that he established for His followers. That practical pattern is found in many examples, but perhaps most notably in the interaction Jesus had with women. Foremost is his interaction at a well with an oft-married Samaritan woman at midday (John 4). Not only was first-century Palestine a patriarchal society, it was one in which Jews did not associate with Samaritans, whom the Jews believed to be of corrupted blood and theology. To speak to a woman of this ethnically and theologically despised minority in the middle of the day for all to see was simply unthinkable. Yet Jesus engaged her with gracious honesty, setting the example of his unflinching and unfailing love. In doing so, Jesus makes his command clear: loving one’s neighbor means crossing all boundaries. Jesus taught in the Court of Women at the Temple, ensuring that women could hear his message (John 8:20). He included women in his private teachings to his disciples (in John 11:28, Mary and Martha call him “teacher”). He publicly demonstrates the faith of a woman who dared to believe and touch his cloak (Luke 8:48), telling her to go in peace. In Luke 13:16, he violates the religious norms of the day, putting his hands on a woman and healing her crooked back, on the Sabbath. And in John 8:8, Jesus literally “stoops” before an adulterous woman before asking her to sin no more. Most telling, Jesus appears first to a woman after his resurrection. If there is no human witness to Jesus rising from the dead, there is no good news. She discovers the empty tomb, tells the male disciples, and remains there after the male disciples leave. Only then does Jesus reveal himself (John 20: 10–18). In each of these examples, Jesus demonstrates that his neighbor includes those that his society did not. Only by living this inclusive example of reconciliation with those that society may not deem of importance can his followers claim the “peace” that he leaves behind for them (John 14:27). St. Paul came to the same conclusion. In closing his letter to the Romans, he specifically and equally commends the work of the women,

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alongside the men. In particular, he mentions the leadership role of Phoebe in the Church (Romans 16: 1–16). 12 In summary, we believe that women are equal before—and equally called as Ambassadors of Reconciliation by—Christ. If we Christians do not include women in this capacity, not only do we violate the commands of Christ, we radically diminish our capacity to be relevant. We lose our capacity to bring true peace and security. THE PARTICULAR ROLE OF WOMEN On the one hand, as Christians, we believe that all humans bear the image of God and should receive equal respect due to their inherent dignity. We also believe that all humans need to be reconciled to God, and therefore women are just as capable as men of doing good or bad. On the other hand, our own experience confirms what others have observed as well, which is that women often bring particular strengths to the real-world tables of negotiation and peacebuilding today. Without encouraging a gender stereotype, 13 we do want to name some of these tendencies in order to demonstrate the clear value of women in peacebuilding. In this regard, we find the 1995 observations of Deborah M. Kolb and Gloria G. Coolidge in “Her Place at the Table: A Consideration of Gender Issues in Negotiation” 14 instructive. While careful not to ascribe these characteristics to all women, they find that women, more often than men, frame and conduct negotiations according to four themes. The first is a “relational view of others” through which “self and other are not cast in opposition but rather in terms of mutual aid and support.” Second, women tend to have an “embedded view of agency” whereby the “boundaries between self and others and between the task and its surrounds are overlapping and blurred.” Third, women are inclined to seek “control” through the means of “mutual empowerment rather than competition.” Finally, women are likely to solve problems as an “active listener,” more apt to understand “conflict resolution as evolutionary and collaborative.” In sum, “if women are highly responsive to how what they do might impact their relationships, they may be reluctant to exploit what information they might acquire.” The above themes have been confirmed by later research. For example, a 2006 UCLA study on stress reaction in men and women found that women’s auto-reaction is “tend and befriend.” 15 Women often “develop a collectivist orientation” and “learn a morality of responsibility connected to relationships.” 16 Indeed, women have a propensity to “express anger less directly and propose compromises more often,” 17 demonstrating that their touchstone tendency is the preservation and building of relationships. 18

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RELIGION, RECONCILIATION, AND PEACEBUILDING The work and words of John Paul Lederach, a leader in the field of peacebuilding, best summarizes our own approach. Based on his experiences as a scholar-practitioner, Lederach believes that “transformative peacebuilding” requires the “construction of a vision and developing the design that guides the construction.” That construction is guided by two key ideas. First is the awareness that protracted conflict embodies itself in people and relationships. Second, understanding how to address “relational interdependence” requires a lifetime perspective of the “complexity and comprehensiveness” of the particular situation, and its narrative. This complexity must be engaged vertically and horizontally “across the levels of the society.” 19 Put differently, peacebuilding without transformation is merely conflict resolution. And the crux is reconciliation. As Lederach argues: I view reconciliation as the mission, the organizing purpose around which we understand and see God’s work in history . . . Our mission is to align ourselves with God, who is working to bring all things together, to reconcile all of creation and particularly a broken, estranged humanity. This is the “universal restoration” destined to bless all families of the earth (Acts 3:20–6, Colossians 1:20) . . . Holiness is carried out through people who embody the reconciling love of God and take up residence in real-life problems and relationships, with all the ambiguities they bring. 20

As evangelicals, our work in peacebuilding is shaped by our belief that God’s narrative for his creation is one of intentional restoration and reconciliation through Christ. We also believe that evangelical women, equally with evangelical men, are called to serve as ambassadors of reconciliation who understand God’s narrative, and the narrative of local conflict. Sustainable peacebuilding requires a long-term engagement of key relationships such that a shared narrative of the future becomes possible. Reconciled relationships are where change takes place, because hearts— not positions or interests—are changed and the “other” becomes essential to one’s own identity. And if women tend to bring particular relational skills and aptitudes with them into peacebuilding, then Christian women —especially evangelical women who constantly seek the scripture for guidance—should be uncommonly positioned for understanding and implementing reconciliation.

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PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AND LESSONS: KRISTEN LUNDQUIST IN THE MIDDLE EAST For a small town, Lutheran girl from Minnesota, my decision to move to the Middle East in 2005 was a shock. I was driven by a desire to explore the ancient past of the region, to see where Jesus walked and the disciples followed, yet, I found that the ancient past was intricately tied to present day struggles. While I dug through ancient history, I simultaneously met with people making history—from political and military giants, to refugees, to grassroots women and men peacemakers, to religious leadership, to those considered by many to be terrorists—and instead of coming away with clear answers regarding who was right and who was wrong, I came away with infinitely more questions, which served to both humble me and challenge my perceptions of the religious and cultural “other.” Never were there more challenging questions than when I interacted with strong women of faith working to create positive change on the ground—from Egypt, where I met with Christian and Muslim women who were making waves for women’s rights and social justice both in the Academy and the slums; to Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, where I met with Muslim and Christian women, including refugees, who had seen greater atrocities than most can imagine yet still worked together for peace; and finally to Israel-Palestine, where I met with Muslim, Jewish, and Christian women who were trying to preserve each other’s homes and protect their families. As I both observed and learned from these women, my preconceptions of who they were based on culture and religion fell away—their actions spoke louder than anything I had ever heard about their people through the newspapers or on TV. These Muslim, Jewish, and Christian women looked first-hand at what their scriptures said about their agency as women for peace, and they actualized it, day-by-day—working across cultural boundaries and coming to a strong understanding of the religious “other,” in order to “build back better” for the next generation. These were the matriarchs of faith who used their unique identity and location, overcoming challenge after challenge, to foster peace. In their identity I found my identity, as a daughter of Christ, and began to seek out Christ’s example in working with unlikely women, who made a large impact on their world. Seven years after my experience in the Middle East, I obtained an MA in World History that allowed me to explore the intricate narrative of multi—faith women in this region. I moved to Washington, D.C., and returned multiple times to the Middle East for research and relationship—building, and began work at the Institute for Global Engagement, a “think” and “do” tank that focuses on building respect, reconciliation, and religious freedom worldwide through local partnerships. A lot happened in those seven years, and those connections with the women I met

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during my first trip deepened into friendships and even family, and had begun to change both my heart and mind in positive ways. The women of faith I had come to know as sisters, both Christian and not, working for peace in the Middle East, emphasized the intrinsic worth of everyone made in the image of God. That is the key. We must begin to recognize God in one another, so that we can truly say “Your wellbeing is my joy; your harm is my loss,” even in the most dire of circumstances. Application In 2010, my research on women of faith’s involvement in peacebuilding and security formation through the Institute for Global Engagement took me to the Middle East, namely Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Syria, and Lebanon. During my time there, I saw and experienced the unique ways that evangelical women were working to build bridges across cultural and religious divides by responding to tangible need. In Syria, I saw evangelical women informally opening up their homes in hospitality to women of diverse culture and religion—a statement in and of itself—creating a safe space where women could unburden themselves psychologically, and where understanding and respect could be fostered. In Lebanon, I saw and experienced tangible programs of healthcare and entrepreneurship through organizations like the Forum for Development, Culture, and Dialogue run by evangelical women and men who had realized the need for physical, mental, and economic security not only for their families but also for their diverse neighbors. And in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, evangelical women were involved in programs (sometimes within larger organizations like the Holy Land Trust and the Lutheran World Federation, and often in partnership with Jewish-Israeli organizations) designed to ease the burden of barriers and border checks on Palestinian families. Many who are familiar with Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” recognize that what these evangelical women were doing makes sense. According to the “H Hierarchy,” and what many evangelical women in these countries strove to do, was to respond to the immediate physiological needs (e.g., water, food, sleep, etc.) of the people, progressively moving up the hierarchy to more complex issues, knowing that people are unlikely to address their more sophisticated needs (e.g., dialogue for reconciliation) if they are distressed about food, clothing, or shelter. The evangelical women I witnessed during my time in the region met the people, of any faith or culture, where they were at, entering into their space—a distinct characteristic of how Jesus approached His ministry. These women had unique access within their societies, due to the fact that they had typically been absent from more formal structures of leadership and power. This allowed them to cross cultural and religious bar-

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riers, even entering into the center of family life in the home where the ideological roots of extremism are often fostered, because they are viewed as non-threatening elements. This space presents an abundant opportunity to forge strong relationships built on trust, respect, and reconciliation. This unique access provided evangelical women with a keen understanding of the needs of their community, and how these needs are connected to potential instability and conflict. Evangelical women in the Middle East have been able to make a significant difference toward peacebuilding efforts by addressing the core underlying issues of conflict: poverty, governance, healthcare, underemployment, and education. However, for the most part, these efforts are fairly ad hoc and piecemeal, coming into play as the need arises. The importance of documenting these efforts and learning from the spiritual motivation of these women is key to informing how evangelicals can be involved and contribute to peace and security in current and future regions of conflict. Challenges One of the many challenges that exist is a need for documentation on what evangelical women are doing for peace and security in the Middle East, as they are essentially a minority within a shrinking minority in the region. Their participation in peacebuilding and security formation seems to be piecemeal and fades in and out of the “woodwork” as need arises. Yet their position as peacemakers has the potential to create tangible bridges of reconciliation between ethnic and religious communities that have lived in conflict for decades. Through documentation, their work can be recognized, kept in prayer, and consistently supported by the global evangelical Church. There is also a need for additional forums where evangelical women can have a voice and place at the table, building their credibility for larger national and international discussions. This space is vital to advancing evangelical women to places of significance in mainstream negotiations and dialogues. Evangelical women seeking peace in this region of conflict bring a unique perspective that in many ways marks the elements that are missing from the current peace process. Yet if ill-equipped for these forums, evangelical women will not gain the credibility to gain their seat and voice in these discussions. Hand-in-hand with this need is overcoming the limitations of dialogue within the academy, especially within evangelical colleges and universities. The discussion of gender and faith within a peacebuilding and security dialogue must be emphasized as much as diplomatic endeavors and military operations within curriculum presented at Christian colleges and universities. This emphasis will increase as the number of individuals demanding it increases. Therefore, it is also vital to recruit,

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mentor, and develop young evangelical women in fields of security formation, utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to give them the holistic knowledge that they need to be part of the conversation. There is a challenge in working to provide personal security for evangelical women and their counterparts (women and men of many faiths) participating in these peacebuilding dialogues in the Middle East. By building this security and literally offering safe spaces, it will encourage more participation, and intrinsically send a message that these conversations are vital, valuable, and worth protecting. Finally, we must first engage with local community and religious leaders to impart the importance of empowering women. With their support, doors open for increased educational programs for young girls, job placement, international exchange, support for women with families, and increase crackdown on acts of violence against women. This strategy is what the Institute for Global Engagement calls “top down” “bottom up” engagement: working top-down (with leadership) for bottom-up (grassroots) impact. Key Questions Here are some questions to ponder for Church leaders in the Middle East and around the world: • What does scripture say about the agency of women in building peace? How does their identity as women of faith impact their motivation and methods? What is the role of men in supporting them? • Why should the local Church support evangelical women and women of diverse faith in the Middle East? How does this support speak to Christian witness? • What is the detrimental effect of not empowering evangelical women in the Middle East to build peace? What is the potential benefit of supporting them in significant ways? • What can the global Church learn from evangelical women doing peacebuilding in the region? How can these lessons be applied to home congregations? PERSONAL OBSERATIONS AND LESSONS: HIEN VU IN VIETNAM “How do you feel as the only woman at the table?” This question was asked by a man who I needed to impress during a lunch meeting. He represented a grant-making organization that, at the time, funded my position and a project I managed at the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE).

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“Really? I did not even notice it,” I replied, but I immediately regretted that I was too quick to give my honest answer. I was worried that my donor might see me as too naïve or ignorant to my work environment. I looked around. Yes, I was the only woman among 30 Vietnamese and American men who were politicians, pastors, church workers, missionaries, philanthropy experts, etc. A few seconds past and another question came as I felt more nervous. “I think IGE’s work is in a man-dominated environment, right? How do you feel about working in this environment?” I responded, “I think it’s an advantage because women tend to be viewed as non-aggressive and non-threatening. It’s easier to build relationships and present IGE’s work constructively.” That day I was at a working lunch in Texas at an American megachurch. Also in attendance were a high-ranking Vietnamese official and a government delegation from Vietnam. The Vietnamese delegation visited the mega-church to understand more about how churches and NGOs operate. The majority of government officials in the delegation had their doubts about the authenticity of the work NGOs do for the community. Instead, they assumed that these organizations have politically-driven secrets influenced by “Western foreign ideology.” It was almost impossible for them to consider the possibility that churches and humanitarian NGOs might work purely for the spiritual needs of the Vietnamese. Besides, how could good Vietnamese put their faith in “Western religions” such as Catholicism and Protestantism, anyway? Yet, because of visits like this, the Vietnamese government has been more open to foreign and even faith-based NGOs, because of these NGOs’ expertise in poverty reduction (especially in rural areas). As they open up, government officials are also learning more about what motivates a faith-based NGO. I was born in northern Vietnam, near the UNESCO World Heritage site of Ha Long Bay. I felt called to do conflict reconciliation when I was in Hanoi during the late 1990s. I was disappointed with the way my church—and Vietnamese churches, in general—handled conflicts. Also during this time, I was trying to find ways to manage conflict as a staff member responsible for human resources at a global faith-based NGO in Hanoi. It bothered me that the Christians I encountered did not set a good example for living in peace with one another. Meanwhile, I had grown up witnessing and experiencing gender imbalances in my family, school, and neighborhood. I heard adults talking about unfairness and injustice at work. I was a justice fighter at home and was labeled as “aggressive” and “masculine.” My mother was worried and advised me to be less straightforward and more feminine—otherwise, I would scare men away and I might end up being an old maid! However, I also grew up believing that there would be a better way to deal with injustice in life, and that women should be treated equally to

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men. This belief was confirmed when I read the Bible and became a Christian. In fact, the Bible was the only guide I had for conflict resolution. Later my reading of scripture was augmented by my participation in the first-ever training courses on conflict resolution and mediation skills conducted in Hanoi in 2000 and 2001 by Mennonite professors from Fresno Pacific University (where I would gain my MA in peacebuilding in 2004). I never knew that faith was so relevant, personally and professionally, as well as to my country. Application Since then, I recently had the opportunity to do a conflict resolution seminar for men and women who belong to the evangelical church in the north of Vietnam (March 2012). First, however, some background is needed. On the surface, men seem to have significant authority over women in Vietnam. Confucian hierarchy—adopted by Vietnamese culture during the thousand-year domination by the Chinese—created a social norm for gender. Though fading, this norm is still influential, suggesting that women were created to serve men. The practical outcome of this philosophy historically has been that men give themselves “the right” to polygamy and aggressive/violent behavior towards women, even as women are expected to be loyal, gentle, and uncomplainingly obedient to men (especially the one husband women are allowed). Today, the gender imbalance has been reduced significantly, but women still have a code of conduct to observe in order to keep their femininity. Women in Vietnam normally do not explicitly fight for gender balance, but they do find ways to have informal power that helps them deal with men’s patriarchal and dominating thinking. Women take advantage of any available resources to consolidate their power including their children, family ties, motherhood, economic resources, face-saving concerns, etc. In fact, when it comes to decision making in their family and in social settings, women tend to have a more significant voice than in political settings. In this context, conflict resolution is “naturally” done by the elders, usually the father, uncle, older brother, or grandfather. Women are included in the process, but do not have equal power as men when it comes to resolving problems at home, at work, and by leaders of the relevant groups to which the conflicting parties belong. In other words, conflict resolution is often done by persons appointed to do so based on their position and the “weight of their voice” (usually the men), with the lesspowerful (usually the women) yielding to the more powerful. However, a women’s role in reconciliation is significantly recognized in the neighborhoods where representatives at the community level of the Women’s

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Union (one of the Communist party’s civil organizations) are invited to help neighbors in conflict reconcile and live in harmony. The leadership of the Protestant community in Vietnam is still very masculine. Most of the leadership positions are male. One of the most pressing issues for Vietnamese Protestants is this: How can churches, particularly male leaders, encourage and support women so women will maximize their God-given unique nature to do peacebuilding and reconciliation? Such a question takes place amidst the Vietnamese Protestants’ own reconciliation process with the government, which began in 2004 when restrictions on religious administration began to loosen. The number of Protestants in the country has grown by 900% during the last two decades (1.4 million people). 21 This swift increase of believers brings forth more opportunities for evangelism, but at the same time, these believers (long-term and new) have to deal with unique challenges and conflicts at different levels and within their communities and government. Against this backdrop, I presented in March 2012 what I understand to be the first conflict resolution training to the evangelical church of the north. It is based on a simple premise, as demonstrated in Figure 6.1 below: peace can only be built when one’s heart and mind long for peace. There is no doubt that Jesus’s followers (men and women) should be peace-builders and should have a vision for peace and act for peace in alignment with Jesus’s teachings and the message of the Cross to love God (vertically) and love others (horizontally). I tried to put this “Cross” message in two deeds for faithful peace-builders: 1. To glorify God: This will help keep faithful peace-builders in the right relationships and reconcile with God, tapping into the power and wisdom of the Prince of Peace. 2. To be better in relationships and be at peace with others: This will make faithful peace-builders be intentional and responsible for peace and reconciliation with the people around them and to promote peace locally, nationally, and globally. When Jesus’s followers let peace flow, peace runs well on earth with God’s power and comes back to them. Challenges While the above training is nascent, it also confirms some ongoing challenges that I have personally witnessed (including the cultural and gender challenges described above). These challenges have to be discussed if Vietnamese Protestants are to be capable of reconciliation amongst themselves, with other faith groups, and with their government. They include:

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Figure 6.1.

The Growing Diversity within Protestant Churches The Christian Missionary Alliance (CMA) started churches in Vietnam a century ago and most of the Protestant churches have adapted their faith practice from these CMA origins. Since then, however, several CMA church leaders have left for other denominations. Amidst the government’s restrictions on religion, various denominations have planted churches, and nondenominational / house churches have been established throughout the country during the last two decades. Longtime believers and new believers cannot help but get confused and disagree about the different ways of worship, church operation styles, pastoral ordinances, congregants moving to another denominations, etc. Lack of Well-Trained Leadership There is a tremendous need for church leadership training to administer churches, especially churches in the North of Vietnam. Due to the government’s restriction, there has been no official theological school in the North and there is only one official theological college in the South (as of April 2012). Official and systematic training is desperately needed, especially for ethnic minority Christians.

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No Law to Protect People of Faith (and No Faith) Despite the country’s constitution and a few decrees and ordinances on religious freedom in Vietnam, churches still experience many limitations on the practice of their faith. Churches have to register with the government, providing a list of congregants, along with their yearly program in order to operate “legally.” Churches often find the registration process complicated and confusing and have their applications rejected by the local government. Church leaders must ask for permission to hold religious events outside of church premises and to travel outside of their hometown to preach. Violent incidents between Christian leaders and local security officials (police) have been reported, especially in rural areas and concerning ethnic minority Christians. It is believed that the Communist Party sees that loyalty to a faith will be a threatening factor to the party’s power and the state. There are no laws guaranteeing a citizen’s religious freedom rights. However, to IGE’s knowledge, the government is working on law-making to improve its religious administration and ensure its citizen’s religious freedoms. Severe Clashes between Culture and Tradition Protestants, especially new believers, often face consequences in their home, school, workplace, and neighborhood. While trying to live out their faith and not worshipping idols—a widely accepted form of traditional worship practiced by the majority of Vietnamese—Christians are easily perceived as not respecting family ties, rejecting their community’s values, or betraying their ancestors, including their grandparents and parents, the living and the dead. Moreover, converts are sometimes blamed for all of the unlucky incidents by the immediate or extended family because the converted Christian is the “traitor” who upset their ancestors and/or Buddha (most Vietnamese worship and believe that their dead ancestors and Buddha will bless them if they dutifully keep feeding the dead souls and chanting to Buddha). There is no space for, nor scholarship of, peacebuilding work inside and outside of church circles. The only theological school in Vietnam does not have courses to equip students with specific peacebuilding or reconciliation skills. In the above context and its challenges, Vietnamese Protestants have been struggling to keep unity within their church and with other churches. There is a need to obtain short-term and long-term training for current and future pastors and church leaders, while gaining government recognition that they have “genuine faith” and a pure “spiritual need,” that is, if the current government registration restrictions are to be eased, granting more permission for religious activities.

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Finally, from a peacemaking perspective, there is ironically a huge need for Vietnamese Protestants to be equipped with peacebuilding and reconciliation skills and to be intentional about relationship-building, constructive dialogue, negotiating strategy, and, most of all, living out the image of God as his ambassador of reconciliation. That is love from the heart and mind. Indeed, I believe that living in peace with others in their own community is not enough for children of God. They should be pioneers in the work of preventing unnecessary and/or escalating conflicts, providing reconciliation where needed. Key Questions Here are some questions to ponder for church leaders of Protestant churches in Vietnam and around the world: • What should women (and men) of the same faith do to maximize women’s God-given talents to do peacebuilding? • What kind of collaboration should multi-faith groups do to bring women of faith together to do peacebuilding? • Does gender imbalance negatively affect the peacebuilding work of the church? • How does the church combine the culture of its context and advanced studies of peacebuilding to move scholarship forward nationally and internationally? • What initiative should evangelical leaders take to encourage, create space, and establish scholarship so that more evangelical Protestant women engage women of other faiths (and no faith) to do peacebuilding? CONCLUSION This chapter has sought to provide both a framework for and practical demonstration of evangelical women’s involvement in reconciliation and peacebuilding. The simple finding is this: although there is perhaps no group better positioned to do reconciliation—as women who are more predisposed toward, if not better at, relationships than men, and as Christians called to be ambassadors of reconciliation—there is no group less included in the process. While many factors explain this result—e.g., patriarchal cultures and a seemingly, at least according to the available literature, lack of interest by evangelical organizations in using women as peace-builders—it is nevertheless an exciting time to move forward, especially in terms of research opportunities. For example, here are some issues that certainly need research:

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• Are there other studies, on any issue, that look at the role of evangelical women? • What are churches and seminaries doing to intentionally prepare their members and graduates to become ambassadors of reconciliation? How is that education/training made available to women? How does it vary, if at all? • Are churches and seminaries—in the United States and globally— comparing notes about their training and/or best practices regarding evangelical women in peacebuilding? • Is there a danger of self-segregation of this issue in naming and approaching it as such? What lesser or broader concepts might also be used to discuss and enact the ideas presented in this chapter? One factor is clear, however, as the church moves forward it must seek out, engage and invite women of faith who are not necessarily ordained. As Timothy Sisk notes: “What makes someone a ‘religious leader’ is not necessarily their title of reverend or imam or mahanayeke, which would certainly limit the analysis to mostly men, but their influence and authority as a religiously driven civil society (or political-social) actor.” 22 These kinds of women, of all faiths, surround us. They possess tremendous influence and are having a great impact. But they remain largely invisible. These peace-builders are the ones we first need to learn from. NOTES 1. UN Security Council, Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) [on women and peace and security], 31 October 2000, S/RES/1325 (2000), available at: http://www.unhcr.org/ refworld/docid/3b00f4672e.html [accessed 8 May 2012]. 2. United States. 2011. United States National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security. Washington [D.C.]: The White House. http://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo16904. 3. Kathleen Kuehnast, “Why Women’s Involvement in Peacebuilding Matters,” Foreign Service Journal 88, no. 4 (2011): 18. 4. United States. 2011. “United States National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security.” Washington [D.C.]: The White House. http://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo16904. 5. Council on Foreign Relations Roundtable meeting on “Implementing the U.S. National Action Plan for Women, Peace, and Security,” 4 April 2012, Washington, D.C. 6. United States. 2010. A New Era of Partnerships Report of Recommendations to the President. [Washington, DC]: President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS123864. 7. Gallup Poll, “What Alabamians and Iranians Have in Common,” February 2009, http://www.gallup.com/poll/114211/Alabamians-Iranians-Common.aspx (accessed 7 May 2012). 8. Katherine Marshall, et al., Women in Religious Peacebuilding (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 2011), http://www.usip.org/publications/women-in-religious-peacebuilding. 9. We should note the obvious. We are not theologians. Nor do we speak for any evangelicals but ourselves. The following discussion, however, is our basis for understanding the Christian call to reconciliation, and the role of women therein.

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10. Please see: F.F. Bruce, The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1983). 258–60; D.A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1991), 431–34. 11. “Paul’s readers in Thessalonica, however, would take his words as an attack on claims of earlier Roman emperors to have established peace and security (pax et securitas) through the empire. Teaching like this one sounded subversive and may have aroused persecution against Christians (Acts 17:7).” Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary (Downer’s Grove, IL: IVP Press, 1993), 594. 12. See Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: 446–447, as well as Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1997), 95–128. 13. Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana and Meena Sharify-Funk, “Muslim Women Peacemakers as Agents of Change,” in Crescent and Dove : Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam, ed. Qamar-Ul Huda (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 2010), 180. 14. The following discussion based on their chapter of the same name in J. William Breslin and Jeffry Z. Rubin, eds., Negotiation Theory and Practice (Cambridge, MA: Program on Negotiation Books, 1991), 261–77. 15. Shelley E. Taylor, “Tend and Befriend: Bases of Affiliation Under Stress,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 15, no. 6 (2006): 273. 16. Susan Stall and Randy Stoecker, “Community Organizing or Organizing Community? Gender and the Crafts of Empowerment,” Gender & Society : Official Publications of Sociologists for Women in Society 12, no. 6 (1998): 739. 17. Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, Women Building Peace : What They Do, Why It Matters (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007), 81. 18. Herbert H. Blumbert, A. Paul Hare, and Anna Costin, Peace Psychology : A Comprehensive Introduction (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press), 40–41. 19. John Paul Lederach, “From Resolution to Transformative Peacebuilding,” in From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, ed. Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 48, 55. 20. The Journey Toward Reconciliation (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1999). 160, 62. 21. Reginald Reimer, Vietnam’s Christians: A Century of Growth in Adversity (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2011), 1. 22. Timothy D. Sisk, “Conclusion,” in Between Terror and Tolerance: Religious Leaders, Conflict, and Peacemaking, ed. Timothy D. Sisk (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2011), 233.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Anderlini, Sanam Naraghi. Women Building Peace: What They Do, Why It Matters. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007. Blumberg, Herbert H., A. Paul Hare, and Anna Costin. Peace Psychology: A Comprehensive Introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 2006 Breslin, J. William, and Jeffry Z. Rubin, eds. Negotiation Theory and Practice. Cambridge, MA: Program on Negotiation Books, 1991 Bruce, F.F. The Gospel of John. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1983. Carson, D.A. The Gospel According to John. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1991. Kadayifci-Orellana, Ayse, and Meena Sharify-Funk. “Muslim Women Peacemakers as Agents of Change.” In Crescent and Dove: Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam, edited by Qamar-Ul Huda. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 2010. Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary. Downer’s Grove, IL: IVP Press, 1993. Kuehnast, Kathleen. “Why Women’s Involvement in Peacebuilding Matters.” Foreign Service Journal 88, no. 4 (2011): 17-20.

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Lederach, John Paul. “From Resolution to Transformative Peacebuilding.” In From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, edited by Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. ———. The Journey toward Reconciliation. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1999. Marshall, Katherine, Susan Hayward, Claudia Zambra, Esther Breger, and Sarah Jackson. Women in Religious Peacebuilding. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 2011. http://www.usip.org/publications/women-in-religious-peacebuilding. Reimer, Reginald. Vietnam’s Christians: A Century of Growth in Adversity. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2011. Sisk, Timothy D. “Conclusion.” In Between Terror and Tolerance: Religious Leaders, Conflict, and Peacemaking, edited by Timothy D. Sisk. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2011. Stall, Susan, and Randy Stoecker. “Community Organizing or Organizing Community? Gender and the Crafts of Empowerment.” Gender & Society: Official Publications of Sociologists for Women in Society 12, no. 6 (1998): 729-56. Stark, Rodney. The Rise of Christianity. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1997. Taylor, Shelley E. “Tend and Befriend: Bases of Affiliation under Stress.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 15, no. 6 (2006): 273-77.

SEVEN Judaism and the Path to Peace Michael Lerner

Judaism is the 3,200 year struggle about what Judaism is. We do not follow a universally agreed upon decision maker, like Catholics follow the Pope, so fundamentally different readings of our holy texts and of our history characterize Jewish life and Jewish thought. The fact that this is possible, that the Jewish tradition holds space for contradictory views about itself and about every major issue is one of its most significant contributions to the possibility of peace on earth. When people can hold multiple possibilities and not vilify the dissenting opinions, we have one possible foundation for peace among religions and nations. The Talmud exemplifies this tolerance most clearly because it goes out of its way to preserve the minority opinions that did not become the official position in the practice of Jewish life. And very often a long and complicated argument on some matter of Jewish law or religious practice is concluded with the phrase teyku which means, “this complicated issue will be clarified when the Prophet Elijah returns” (his return traditionally understood to be the harbinger of the coming of the Messiah). Thus, the tradition allows for multiple interpretations and approaches, thereby eliminating the possibility of one approach becoming “the only right way.” This is the kind of respect for difference that is conducive to peace. Unfortunately, this commitment to tolerance of difference did not survive the centuries of Christian oppression of Jews. As Christian society developed a more comprehensive demonology of the Jews, the Jewish communities of Europe became increasingly fearful of “the Other.” Almost every year from the fourth century through the nineteenth, Jews were in danger of sporadic outbursts of anti-Semitism, particularly around Easter when the teaching of hate toward Jews reached a crescen105

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do with predictable regularity. That hatred created the popular racism against Jews which provided the backdrop to Hitler’s ability to mobilize popular anger against the Jews. So it comes as little surprise that Jewish communities became increasingly fearful, and that in turn created a powerful pull toward community “unity” with all its implied orthodoxies and repression of differences in the practice of Jewish communal life. No greater example of this tendency is remembered today than the reinterpretation of Jewish law from the super-tolerant Torah commands, “Thou shalt love the stranger” and “when you come into your land, do not oppress the stranger, remember that you were a stranger in the land of Egypt” to the far more restrictive transformation of the word ger (stranger) to mean “convert to Judaism,” hence weakening the challenge to love the Other and reducing it to being nice to people who joined the Jewish community voluntarily rather than being Jewish by birth. The result? Today, like every religious and secular tradition, contemporary variants of Judaism have within them sources and testimonials for the importance of peace, and contrary sources that bespeak a fear of the Other and a belief that the Other is dangerous and must be subdued or destroyed. Therefore, there is a struggle between two fundamentally different views of human reality, one that sees human beings as potentially destructive and hence believes that security can only come through “power over” the Other, and another view that sees human beings as potentially loving and hence affirms that security can come through generosity and love. This struggle permeates Jewish texts and Jewish history, and is being acutely fought out today in the State of Israel and in the Jewish community worldwide, as it is within every other religious and secular community. Moreover, and this is key to understanding the way politics operates, most people have both worldviews in their heads, and move towards one of these views at some points in their life, and towards the other at other points. Sometimes, these shifts in emphasis and direction happen within the same person over the course of a few days, sometimes even in the course of a few minutes. When social energy moves more toward fear, those voices within our heads validate the worldview of fear and domination; when the social energy moves more toward hope, the voices of hope inside of us seem more plausible and we tend to give them more credence. This conflict between these two different understandings of the nature of the world, human beings, and the possibilities of a world of peace do not necessarily, or at least not always, map in a one-to-one way onto theological fundamentalism versus theological liberalism. I’ve encountered the same kind of embrace of a strategy of domination among Reform and Renewal Jews or even among some in the Unitarian, United Church of Christ, Methodist and Presbyterian denominations, and explicit atheists as I’ve encountered in Orthodox Judaism and in Fundamentalist Christians and Muslims.

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One of the major reasons for the failures of the peace movements in the West and in Israel and Palestine, as well as one of the limits on the potential impact of Peace and Conflict Studies programs, is that they rarely address this fundamental worldview of fear and the consequent perceived need for domination as the only rational path to “homeland security.” Instead peace movements tend to focus solely on the horrors or political mistakes in the specific conflict that they are opposing. So, even when they convince a majority that, for instance, war in Vietnam or Iraq or Afghanistan is counter-productive, they have done so with arguments that do not undermine the ruling economic and political elites’ ability to utilize fear and domination to mobilize support for yet another war somewhere else on the planet (or eventually in outer planetary space). Once one recognizes that this internal movement of social energy, based in part on the psychological and spiritual dimensions of people’s own experiences, has a huge impact on how they interpret any particular development in politics and international relations and the likelihood of supporting the next military adventure proposed by ruling elites, the peace movements and peace studies would put far more emphasis on how to address the underlying psychological and spiritual struggles in which people are engaged in on a daily basis. The psycho-spiritual dynamics of daily life have a huge amount to do with people’s readiness to embrace one stance or another in relationship to foreign policy. Although out of the scope of this chapter, more information can be found in Surplus Powerlessness, 1 Spirit Matters, 2 and The Left Hand of God 3 where these dynamics are explored in considerable detail. A central research question for all who are engaged in Peace Studies or in peace movement activity is this: Why, if people genuinely desire peace, do they not give far greater political support to social movements and political candidates who explicitly support peace? One part of the answer has to do with the failure of peace movements and peace and conflict studies to develop a picture of what alternatives we envision instead of a world based on domination and power over others. It was precisely this failure on the part of both peace movements and of peace studies programs that made it so easy for the powerful and the media to reject the notion that the fall of communism in 1989 opened the possibility of dramatic reduction in military spending and the need for hundreds of military bases around the world. Peace movements are often perceived as knowing what they are against, but seeming to have no clue as to what they are for. They rarely promote, much less educate others to promote, a vision of a world based on peace. The Jewish tradition started to envision such a picture when its prophets talked of a world in which “They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not raise up sword against nation, they shall not teach war any more” (Isaiah 2:4). To those who say that human nature fundamentally leads us to war over

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and over again, the prophet is not afraid to explain that the parts of human and animal behavior that some see as fixed and unchangeable are actually able to fundamentally change when people decide to embrace God’s path of righteousness in our own lives. “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard lie down with the kid; the calf, the beast of prey and the fatling, together with a little boy to herd them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together, and the lion, like the ox shall eat straw. A babe shall play over a viper’s hole. And an infant shall pass his hand over an adder’s den. In all of my sacred mount nothing evil or vile shall be done, For the land shall be filled with devotion to the Lord” (Isaiah 11:6). These seemingly utopian themes are restated every day in the Jewish prayer Aleynu which reaffirms the hope for a tikkun olam, a fundamental healing and transformation of the world. Of course, this kind of a religious vision is rejected today as wildly unrealistic, and those who still take it seriously are often dismissed as dreamers, fantasizers, or adolescents who have not come to grips with “the real world.” Yet the religious tradition of Judaism has one strand within it, based on the prophets, that responds with equal force: being realistic is idolatry, and believing in God is believing that there is something in the universe (the Torah writes the four letters Yud Hey Vav Hey or YHVH, wildly mistakenly translated in the King James bible as though it were a proper name, as Jehovah) that makes possible the transformation from “that which is” to “that which can and ought to be.” To be stuck in “that which is” is to deny the existence of the Jewish God, the God who, when asked by Moses to provide a name that can be used to identify this god responds, “ehyeh asher ehyeh” (“I shall be whom I shall be,” NOT as the King James has it, “I am Who I am”). In other words, I am that which cannot be pinned down to any existing state of reality, but rather I am the force of freedom and transformation. As the Torah has already made clear, human beings are created in the image of this God, and always have the freedom to participate in the remaking of the world. So the appropriate response to the “realists” who challenge a transformative peace movement is to say the following: “We refuse to be realistic. To be realistic in the contemporary world is to accept the contours of its militarism, unfair distribution of wealth and power, insensitivity to the ethical needs of humanity, and the trampling of the world’s ecosystems in the name of growth and productivity. So we refuse to be realistic, and instead commit our lives to creating The Caring Society, Caring for Each Other and Caring for the Earth. And we believe that the way to get to such a society is a path of nonviolence, generosity, love, kindness, ethical and ecological sensitivity, recognizing others as embodiments of the sacred and responding with awe, wonder and radical amazement to the grandeur and mystery of the universe.” This is our New Bottom Line, and this is what it means to be a “spiritual progressive.” As you can see, one need not be religious or believe in God to be a spiritual progressive.

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Or, as I think of it, being a spiritual progressive in the sense defined in this paragraph is what it means to believe in God, and those who defacto do not believe in this do not actually believe in God (or at least not the God of the Abrahamic faiths) while those who say they do not believe in God but actually act to support this New Bottom Line really are defacto believing in God even as they deny it. So there are hundreds of millions of “believers” who are, in my view, “Hellenists in drag,” because they don’t really believe that there is a force in the universe that makes possible the transformation from the world of pain and cruelty and domination to the world of love, kindness and generosity, that they are created in the image of that force, and that their task on earth is to more fully embody the loving and generous and transformative power in their daily actions (in short, to participate in the tikkun-ing of the world). A peace movement with this kind of orientation, with an unequivocal commitment to the New Bottom Line and to a strategy of generosity, would be far more effective than the movements of the past fifty years have been, precisely because it would be willing, indeed anxious, to challenge the intellectual, psychological, theological, and spiritual limits that tie so many people to the world of warfare and power over others. For these reasons, Tikkun magazine together with Benedictine nun Sister Joan Chittister and Princeton (now Union Theological Seminary) scholar and professor Cornel West created the Network of Spiritual Progressives with the goal to bring into the political (not necessarily electoral) realm a group that could teach the peace forces a truth that had emerged in, perhaps even had been the forming impulse of, the world’s religious and spiritual traditions: that human beings have an overwhelming desire to be recognized by others for whom we really are—creatures that seek love, kindness, generosity, freedom, understanding, deeper levels of consciousness, play, forgiveness, and connection to the spirit of the universe, however conceived. This yearning for loving connection and community (let me call it, for short, the yearning), cannot be stamped out or repressed out of existence. It always pops back up, and that is why the 1 percent are like the lamb sleeping with the wolf, slightly uncomfortable, never fully trusting that their safety is assured or that the order they have created can be sustained. Why not? Because this same yearning exists in the 1 percent as in the 99 percent, only that they get better compensation than the rest of us for living in a world in which that yearning is constantly being suppressed, ridiculed and denied. The first step toward constituting a force for peace is to state in the broadest and most visionary terms the kind of world we seek, and to continually reassert that vision at every stage in the struggle. The second step, however, is to propose plans for partial victories that move us in the direction we seek but which can possibly be accomplished even without the full actualization of the fundamental spiritual revolution that this world so badly needs and which is the only lasting guarantor that peace

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can be maintained and grow into a permanently expanding reality of the human soul. Tikkun magazine developed such a plan, called the Global Marshall Plan. The key to this alternative is the commitment to cultivate trust and hope among the peoples of the world so that reflection might begin and act to effectively end world poverty in our lifetimes and save the global environment from almost certain destruction either from nuclear war or environmental insensitivity. This is called the Strategy of Generosity. An essential element in this strategy is to recognize that terrorism is generated by a global system that demeans the values and the lives of many on this planet. While we in the West tell ourselves that our globalized corporate culture, our sex- and money-crazed media, and our political domination of the world are bringing enlightenment and rationality to a “backward” world, many people experience it quite differently. They see the extreme individualism, materialism, and deterioration of families and religions in the West as a sickness that threatens to overpower through force or through media indoctrination the values and communities upon which they have built their own self-esteem. The demeaning of their cultures by the West, coupled with the imposition of global economic arrangements that continue to impoverish many in already economically underdeveloped areas, is experienced as a humiliation which threatens to destroy sources of meaning and higher purpose in life. This combination of poverty and humiliation drives many people into frenzies of rage and into reinterpreting their own religious or cultural traditions to emphasize the need to drive out the foreigners or the imposers of a form of secularism that threatens to engulf and destroy their last vestiges of self-esteem. The Global Marshall Plan provides an alternative which maintains a strong national defense but nevertheless reaches out to others and siphons off their rage and brings them into connection with a world of people who actually respect and care for them. A strategy that provides this kind of recognition of their humanity coupled with generous help to provide for economic well-being is a better alternative, than driving them mad through military, economic, political and cultural forms of humiliation. WHAT IS THE GLOBAL MARSHALL PLAN? The Global Marshall Plan is a plan for all the world’s people to work in solidarity to eliminate poverty once and for all and to heal the environmental crisis. The Global Marshall Plan takes its name from the post–World War II Marshall Plan, a massive and successful project to provide aid to Western European countries—including Germany, which had been our antagonist in the war. Historians have long debated how altruistic the plan truly was and some argue that a large part of the

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motivation for the original Marshall Plan was to strengthen capitalist economies in Europe to prevent them from becoming Communist. A similar motive to prevent the world from devolving into terrorist-generated chaos might inspire some who will join our efforts for today’s Global Marshall Plan. But other historians point to the strong strands of generosity that were tapped when Americans embraced rebuilding the devastated lives of the defeated nations against which they had just waged war. This was enlightened self-interest, and it can ally with strong altruistic tendencies that persist in Americans and many others around the world, this time mobilized to combat the suffering of humanity that leads to destructive wars, violence and ecological irresponsibility. Over the past twenty-five years, various ideas have emerged for a similar massive relief effort for developing nations. They are called “Marshall Plans” because there are tens of millions of Americans still alive today who remember with pride that moment in American history when our country acted generously to help others, and the program actually worked! Unlike subsequent “foreign aid” which was scant and given frequently in the form of military assistance to undemocratic elites and not for the purpose of ending poverty, the Marshall Plan, precisely because it was massive and aimed at the well-being of the majority of Europeans, has retained its favorable status in the memories of the American people and others around the world. The spirit of generosity that is needed for a Global Marshall Plan has fallen victim to the rise of fear and looking out for “number one” that has dominated American politics in the last thirty years. Today, while other wealthy countries do poorly enough by giving only 30 cents in aid per $100 of income in their countries, the United States does even worse: it gives only 17 cents per $100 of income. The Conservative Right has successfully convinced many Americans that we are giving a huge part of our budget to aid—but the facts are quite the opposite. Here are the essential elements of the plan as developed so far by the Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP): • Provide enough funding to eliminate domestic and global poverty, homelessness, hunger, inadequate education and inadequate health care, plus repair the global environment. The most modest estimates for this would be to dedicate 1–2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the world’s developed nations toward funding this goal each year for the next twenty years. We do not want to wait until all of the G-20 nations are involved in this project; we believe that the United States must lead by example, dedicating at least 1 percent to 2 percent of its GDP toward this goal starting as soon as the American people can get Congress to fund it. • Create an international, unbiased, nongovernmental agency for receiving the funds (from both foreign aid and alternative sources of

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financing) and distributing them in a way that is environmentally sensitive, respectful of native cultures, safeguarded against corruption, protected from manipulation to serve elite interests, and empowering of the people in each region. This agency or mechanism should be governed by a board of ethicists, religious leaders, artists, writers, social theorists, philosophers, economists, scientists, and social change activists, all of whom have demonstrated in the ways that they have lived their lives and conducted their public a airs that they give higher priority to the well-being of others than to the well-being of corporations or wealthy elites. Revise trade agreements in which the United States is currently involved so that they no longer privilege the most powerful and economically successful Western countries and the elites of other countries at the expense of the poor of the world. Global trade must be both multilateral and equitable. New agreements must provide support and encouragement for working people to organize, receive a living wage, and work in workplaces that provide adequate safety and health conditions and environmental safeguards. Trade agreements must also protect farmers, both at home and abroad, encouraging food prices that make it possible for farmers to make a living and poorer people to buy adequate food, and encourage land use that is environmentally sustainable. Ensure hands-on involvement from peoples of the world through an International Peace and Generosity Corps which would provide ways for people with useful skills to volunteer two years (at any age) toward the goals of the Global Marshall Plan. High school graduates would receive college tuition and room and board following their service, and older Americans would receive a yearly salary equivalent to their average salary for the past five years of work, as well as a guaranteed job after service is completed. Fund trained, unarmed, civilian peace teams such as the Nonviolent Peaceforce to intervene in areas of conflict. Retrain the armies of nations around the world to become experts in ecologically sensitive construction of those aspects of their own societies that need relief and reconstruction, including agriculture, health care, housing, infrastructure, education and computers, and other appropriate technology. Train everyone on the planet in techniques of nonviolent communication, respect for diversity, environmental sustainability, family and parental support, stress reduction, emergency health techniques, diet and exercise, and caring for others who are in need of help. Empower girls and women. A major focus of the NSP version of the GMP is the empowerment of girls through literacy, education and skills-training, plus opening up of work for young women. This

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process requires building support in the local villages and families for this kind of switch in the role of girls, so that too becomes part of the education process. Ensure that the local village communities feel empowered by the programs being introduced, that they have and experience “ownership” of the programs, and so feel a real stake in the success of the programs. The involvement of people on the local level is critical. At the same time, we will consciously take steps to make sure that government bureaucrats do not feel under-recognized or “dissed” by the programs we introduce. The goal must be to achieve ongoing “buy-in” and involvement by all the stake holders, rather than passivity and resentment. Empowerment is a central goal. We seek to promote active involvement of the recipients of support in developing their own skills to the point that they can enter and strengthen local economies. Vast improvement of healthcare systems globally, including: giving primacy to health promotion rather than only treating illness; dramatic reduction of the role of private insurance companies and health care profiteers in the delivery of health care; recognition of quality healthcare as a fundamental right to be provided without regard to the capacity of individuals to pay for such services; free availability globally of vaccines, antibiotics, food supplements, training in health care promotion and prevention in every school system and every village; and free medical school training. Health care is a form of caring and caring should shape every aspect of the way we deliver medical support. Recognize that the private sector, the public sector, NGOs, private foundations, academia, social change activists, and religious and spiritual communities all have important elements to contribute to our Global Marshall Plan. Each sector should be involved in providing their special capacities in the development and implementation of the Global Marshall Plan. The public sector can contribute monies to funding basic scientific research that will help in developing alternative energy sources, medical advances, and environmentally-friendly forms of production of goods and agriculture; the private sector can provide help in implementing programs and in providing funding; NGOs can help with finding the appropriate people to provide leadership in the conceptualization and implementation of local, regional and national plans; academia can support both the scientific research and graduate students with the skills and capacities (ethical, intellectual and emotional) to develop and sustain widespread support for a Strategy of Generosity and/or to participate in the hands-on work of an International Corps; and religious and spiritual communities can provide careful monitoring to ensure that the program does not become drowned in bureaucra-

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cy and spiritual deadness and hence capitulate to the ethos of looking out for “number one” or making unnecessary compromises in focus to accommodate the interests of economic and political elites, and they can join with social change activists both to ensure that the program does not lose its central ethical focus and spiritual goal to elicit in people of the world a new sense of caring for each other and to ensure that genuine involvement of the recipients becomes the hallmark of this program. • Environmental goals will be central for Global Marshall Plan funding. These must include ways to: slow or stop deforestation; reduce by 80 percent the carbon emissions from our factories, furnaces, automobiles and energy sources; achieve a global limit on overall greenhouse gas; adapt to the likely damage already done to the global environment (which will impact most disastrously on many countries that are already suffering from extreme poverty); secure safe drinking water and sanitation for all; reject privatization of water; increase water efficiency in agriculture; protect biodiversity; dramatically reduce the consumption of meat in order to shift croplands to more efficient food production; protect global fisheries from pollution and excess fishing; promote family planning and stabilize the world’s population. • Engage the loving life energies of the universe to re-instill hope and generosity in people involved in this program whether as donors, recipients, trainers or in any other capacity. We will judge our program successful to the degree that it makes people feel safe and cared for by others, less alone, more trusting and more willing to personally engage in acts of caring and generosity toward others and more capable of caring for the planet earth and responding to the majesty and mystery of the universe with awe, wonder and radical amazement at the grandeur of all that is. It is this spiritual outcome that is central to the success of this project. If done with this intention, we believe we can construct a set of programs that will nourish and excite the souls of everyone alive on the planet, so that they burn with passionate intensity for life, and embody a new level of inner calm and gentleness that can help repair the planet. We estimate that this program, if fully implemented, could cost as much as 3–5 percent of the GDP of the world. Our commitment is to start with the 1-2 percent of U.S. GDP and move from there. This plan is what the human race and the planet earth urgently need in order to survive the twenty-first century. Don’t ask what is possible since possibilities change as people’s awareness changes. Ask, instead, “What is necessary?”

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A GLOBAL MARSHALL PLAN FOR DOMESTIC NEEDS AS WELL Part of the NSP version of the Global Marshall Plan aims at eliminating poverty, inadequate education, inadequate health care and repairing the environment in the advanced industrial societies, particularly in the United States where wealth disparities are so extreme and environmental responsibility so underdeveloped. Some of these funds, then, will be used to finance social welfare programs for health, education, job training, alternative forms of energy and transportation, and support for our elders and for the unemployed. Caring for our own is not a first step but a simultaneous step with caring for others and has equal ethical validity. It has political wisdom as well. Unlearning racism and dismantling its economic, political, ideological and institutional manifestations is a critical need if the Global Marshall Plan is to succeed. The poor—of our own or another race, ethnicity or religion—are not “Other.” They are all “us.” Similarly, strengthened unions can play an important role in mobilizing support for both domestic and global aspects of the Global Marshall Plan if their leadership elites can think beyond the narrow forms of self-interest that have sometimes paralyzed the best instincts and deepest spiritual truths that undergird the imperative to organize and defend the interests of working people. The current economic woes facing the United States are in large part a product of the absence of the consciousness of mutual solidarity and generosity that the NSP version of the Global Marshall Plan seeks to develop. The dramatic increase in oil prices is not just a result of increased demand but of the desire on the part of speculators to make super-profits without regard to the social consequences of their greed. Similarly, the home mortgage crisis is largely generated by reckless encouragement of debt by the large banks and selling of those mortgages in a global banking system detached from concerns about providing affordable housing for middle income people. It is the lack of connectedness to human needs, which are being played with irresponsibly by our advertisers, speculators and financial institutions, which underlies our current economic tensions. Since funding for our plan does not involve new taxes on middle income people (we suggest funding it with a 1 percent Tobin tax on international transactions of over $1 million), the GMP will not add to our economic burden, while the values of solidarity and caring for others that it will foster are precisely what is needed to stabilize the world economy and purge it of the striking irrationality that happens when an economic system is ruled purely by a drive for profit and selfishness without the balance of generosity and caring for others and for the planet.

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A SPIRIT OF HUMILITY We offer this plan with a commitment to humility and a conviction that it cannot work unless it is understood as deriving from our own commitment to the well-being of everyone on the planet and not primarily as a self-interested plan to advance American or Western world power and influence. We must also insist that the plan be implemented with a clear message that although the West has superior technology and material success, we do not equate that with superior moral or cultural wisdom. On the contrary, our approach must reflect a deep humility and a spirit of repentance for the ways in which Western dominance of the planet has been accompanied by wars, environmental degradation, and a growing materialism and selfishness. We have much to learn from the peoples of the world, their cultures, their spiritual and intellectual heritages, and their ways of dealing with human relationships. That insight must guide the kind of Global Marshall Plan that the peace movements around the world support, so that this doesn’t end up being a new installment of “the Ugly American” pushing our agenda around the world. On the other hand, we will also avoid the manipulation that sometimes takes place when elites of the third world tell us that we in the West have no idea what their people need and that only they can represent their own people. We do know that people need an end to poverty, homelessness, hunger, inadequate education, inadequate health care and environmental degradation, and we want to work only with people who are truly dedicated to those goals. We are not going to be manipulated by those who demean as “a form of cultural imperialism” all ideas that come from the West, from whites, from men, or any other of the categories that are sometimes used to make people in the West feel guilty. We are all in this together, and people in the West have reason for humility, but not self-abnegation HOW OUR GLOBAL MARSHALL PLAN DIFFERS FROM OTHER “AID” PLANS Where aid has failed to work as expected, or hoped, it is not only because funds have often been siphoned off or misused, but primarily because they have not been part of a comprehensive plan to once and for all end both domestic and global poverty. Imagine that you wanted to end malaria, but instead of draining all the swamps in your area, you drained a few at a time, often with inadequate funds to even do that effectively. Then, after some time, people in your society said, “let’s stop draining the swamps—after all, that hasn’t had much of an impact on malaria, but

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meanwhile it’s costing us higher taxes.” They’d be right—the partial steps have not worked and will not work. I don’t mean to suggest that the NSP vision of the Global Marshall Plan should be seen as an alternative to other partial programs that are doing important work. We fully support the One Campaign, Oxfam, Bread for the World, Millenium goals, and dozens of other enterprises that are motivated by the same desire to end the suffering of people around the world. I believe that the campaign for a Global Marshall Plan is likely to bring even more people into support for these other campaigns On the other hand, a major reason that many people don’t want “big government programs” is because they have watched for decades as their taxes have risen to support programs for the poor that never ended poverty, but seemed to be sinking people’s hard-earned monies into a bottomless pit. This feeling is reasonable and not always a reflection of selfishness. So a comprehensive plan that can be seen to be viable in actually achieving the One Campaign’s great goal to “Make Poverty History” might generate more public support and more willingness to raise taxes than less comprehensive programs that—despite their good and sometimes amazing work—in sum only put bandages onto a world that is bleeding more heavily than the bandages can contain. People will be more willing to make sacrifices for a larger goal that would actually make a huge difference than for smaller goals that will only perpetuate the world as it is, with all its obvious pain and suffering. The Global Marshall Plan is an example of what the peace movements of the world could adopt that might change the public discourse in a powerful way and put those movements back into providing a significant new way of thinking that could lead people to feel that these movement organizations had a coherent vision about how to build the preconditions for global peace. Of course, those who advocate for peace and the GMP will face ridicule, distortions, and put-downs not only from the media, but also from liberal Democrats who have increasingly moved to the right by the need to raise monies from the elites of wealth and power in order to pay for expensive elections that require financial resources only available from the rich and super-rich. We will be told, falsely, that social engineering always fails because of unexpected consequences. Americans will be frightened into believing that the GMP will drive our country into immediate bankruptcy and hence should be avoided the plague. Yet, this goes with the territory of any attempt to counter the worldview of selfishness and materialism that we today call the globalization of capital. The reason that this approach will eventually overcome the media distortions and attacks by those liberals whom we considered our friends is this: it explicitly embraces and affirms the deep yearning people have to live in a different kind of world, a world in which love and generosity and caring for others shapes the daily realities of life. These values are embedded in

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Judaism, but also in the spiritual progressive tendencies in almost all religions and spiritual traditions that have survived in the past three thousand years. Yet one big obstacle remains, the unrelenting and self-destructive religiophobia that predominates both in academia and in many corners of the Left. While the vast majority of Americans still identify as religious, the intellectuals and the Liberal Left often treat religion as a psychic disease that needs to be cured, in my own research as a psychotherapist and principle investigator in an NIMH study of middle income working people in the United States, our research team discovered that one of the reasons that so many working people whose economic interests would have inclined them to support progressive causes did not do so for one major reason: they felt that the Left (liberals, progressives, and more generally what they described as “academics and intellectuals”) had contempt for them. When working people voted for the Right, they were told that the only possible reasons that might have happened is because they were racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, or stupid. One of the central areas in which this kind of sentiment was expressed was around the issue of religion. What these working people reported to my research team was this: that they had experienced a kind of prejudice against anyone who was religious or spiritual when they encountered people on anti-war marches, in discussions while they were attending colleges or universities, or even in activities of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. “These people,” we were told, “think that we who remain religious are intellectually challenged and psychologically underdeveloped. They want our participation in their marches or in their electoral campaigns, but basically they see us as retards who, maybe if we hang around with them long enough, would overcome our psychological need for a strong father figure or our unwillingness to view the world rationally and hence would progress beyond believing in any god. They were elitists.” Until the peace movement can get beyond this way of being, and can manifest an open attitude toward religions and spiritual paths, they set themselves up for the very effective charge of elitism that is used by the real elites to undermine the credibility and attractiveness of those whose politics are actually substantively more anti-elitist than those of the right. The Global Marshall Plan emerges from the sensibilities of the Jewish prophets and the Torah which commanded a redistribution of land every fifty years back to the initial rough equality that had been established at the beginning of the Israelite’s settlement of the Land of Israel. It is a more tame version of the radical demands of Torah to cancel all debts once every seven years and to build trust by not working at all every seventh year—so that the entire society should shut down on that seventh year and give priority to inner spiritual, psychological and intellectual development rather than to the frantic rush to produce more and

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more and more. Yet to many today, even the NSP version of the GMP will seem too radical for a society in which wars and inequalities of wealth and power and insensitivities to the way our global system is destroying the planet are all still the driving forces and are reflected in popular consciousness. Yet for all the reasons I’ve argued above, the way to global peace will necessarily involve a switch in paradigm from the contemporary belief that everyone is just out for themselves and that hence a rational person is one who protects herself or himself by seeking to get power over others before they get power over you, to a paradigm in which our own wellbeing is understood to be directly linked to the well-being of everyone else on the planet, and hence that peace and nonviolence is the only rational path ahead. What I hope I have made plausible to you is that thinking from within a spiritual paradigm may help even a secular peace movement to be much more effective. Even if I’ve failed to convince you of that, I am hoping that you might consider becoming an activist with our NSP campaign for a Global Marshall Plan. Here’s what you could do: 1. Join the Network of Spiritual Progressives at www.spiritualprogressives.org. Familiarize yourself with our worldview by reading the “Spiritual Covenant with America” at that website, or read my 2006 national best seller The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right. 2. Create a local campaign for the Global Marshall Plan. Invite friends, colleagues, and members of your political, intellectual, spiritual, or professional groups to join with you in creating a local committee. Let that committee approach elected officials on the local, state, and national levels to endorse the GMP. Also seek the endorsements of local political parties, unions, professional organizations, religious organizations, other nonprofits, and local community organizations. 3. Write letters to the media, both local and national, insisting that they provide opportunities for you and for the NSP to take the perspective articulated in this article and present it as an alternative to the war makers. This is not a slam dunk—it is a difficult road to walk. But it is likely to be far more impactful than the current non-strategies of the peace movements of the West which tend to be reactive rather than having a strategy. As Rabbi Tarfon of Talmudic times used to say, “It is not incumbent upon you that you finish the work, but neither are we free to stop trying.” Finally, a word of blessing: I want to bless you who have read this long article that in some way you become a deep embodiment of the values we seek to build into the larger world. May your own yearning for a world of love and generosity and peace be at least partially gratified by

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being part of a community of people who share with you the same dream and who refuse to see it as an impossible dream. NOTES 1. Michael Lerner, Surplus Powerlessness: The Psychodynamics of Everyday Life and the Psychology of Individual and Social Transformation (Amherst, NY: Humanity Books, 1991). 2. Michael Lerner, Spirit Matters (Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing, 2000). 3. Michael Lerner, The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 2006).

BIBLIOGRAPHY Lerner, Michael. Surplus Powerlessness: The Psychodynamics of Everyday Life and the Psychology of Individual and Social Transformation. Amherst, NY: Humanity Books, 1991. ———. Spirit Matters. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing, 2000. ———. The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right. San Francisco, CA: Harper, 2006.

EIGHT Islam and Peace and Conflict Studies

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Nathan C. Funk

In contemporary North American discussions of religion and peace, few themes are more discouraging to Muslims than the tendency of many newcomers to interfaith encounter to ask whether Islam supports peace, rather than how. The framing of the question not only puts an entire faith community on the defensive with respect to very basic matters of doctrine and belief, but also directs conversation away from contextual factors that have a profound bearing on the subject. Muslims, like followers of all religions, interpret religious peace teachings in relation to historical narratives and lived experiences. When these historical narratives and lived experiences become laden with identity conflict, protracted geopolitical rivalry, and a long history of disempowerment, peace teachings become less accessible and conditions become ripe for the instrumentalization of religion as an ideology of communal reassertion and self-defence. Under less polarizing circumstances, however, adherents of the same tradition are far more likely to discover within their tradition resources for mainstreaming reciprocity and faith-based mutuality. While religious adherents are always in principle capable of rising above immediate circumstances in ways that generate creative and inspired responses to conflict—responses that are at the center of academic inquiry into religious peacebuilding—conversations about how to tap the positive potential of religion need to take contextual realities into account. Too often, discussions of Islam and peace are subverted by the same sort of simplistic dichotomies that can prevent an illuminating discussion of religion and peace when the merits of religion are debated in a secularist milieu. Is religion a force for peace or for conflict? Is Islam a religion of peace or something else? Such questions generate limited insight, and 121

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reveal more about the context that generated the question than about the question’s primary referent. Asking better questions, then, is the first step toward a more illuminating discussion of Islam and its relation to conflict and peace. This chapter seeks to move the discussion of Islam and peace beyond both insider maxims (“Islam is peace”) and the hostile essentialism of some outsiders, by attending to Islamic peace teachings and to different ways in which Muslims have heard and practiced these teachings. Within a comparative context, Islamic peace ethics manifest distinctive keynote themes as well as striking commonalities with other traditions. Like its sister world religions, Islam provides both a rich textual basis for the affirmation of peace and a broad range of embodied practices, including a historically mainstream “just war” ethic that accommodates the limited use of military force. In relation to active peacemaking, the Islamic tradition is not so much “ambivalent” (to use Appleby’s term for the simultaneous presence of pro- and anti-peace positions within religions 2) as multivalent, containing within itself multiple peace positions and paradigms that can enrich ecumenical conversations about religion’s potential to enhance peace on Earth. BEYOND EXCEPTIONALISM: ISLAM IN A COMPARATIVE CONTEXT In a U.S. context, notions of “American exceptionalism” are almost invariably positive, suggesting a nation that is uniquely gifted with positive qualities and that plays an irreplaceable role in guiding the world toward a more democratic future. American and North American ideas about Islam, however, tend to manifest a very different variety of exceptionalism, according to which Islam is regarded as intrinsically different from other religious traditions in ways that bear a negative evaluation. Too often, passive consumers of mass media develop a habit of viewing Islam through the lens of its worst and most aggressively deviant practitioners. To a great extent, Islam remains a religion whose moral leaders have not yet become globally recognized figures of conscience such as the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, Gandhi, or Desmond Tutu. Without widely known exemplars of “the best” in the religion, unconscious as well as conscious assumptions about Islam tend to give disproportionate weight to those who manifest religious identity in adversarial or destructive ways. 3 Essentialist notions to the contrary, Islam shares much in common with other religions on matters of peace and conflict. While it is true that what is meant by “Islam” goes deeper than the narrowly cognitive, compartmentalized belief system presupposed in much modern discussion of religion, Islam is fundamentally similar to other traditional religiocultu-

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ral systems in several important respects. Like other religions, Islam frames peace as a desirable condition that correlates with multiple positive values. Islam also carries within its historical manifestations a plurality of ways for understanding and practicing peace within situations of conflict. Though conceived by most Muslims as a holistic way of life, Islam is articulated and applied within cultural contexts in light of collective experiences and needs, so the type of Islam that prevails in a given place and time tends to have as much to do with contextual circumstances and historical vectors as with core texts and precepts. Just as Christianity can be used and abused to either oppose or support Apartheid in South Africa, and just as Buddhism can be alternately enacted as a contemplative path of peace and tranquility or manipulated as an exclusive external identity as has occurred in the case of modern Sri Lanka, so too can Islam be lived in ways that are life-affirming and in ways that divide the world into hostile camps. As embodied practices and historical dynamics, religions are quite obviously implicated in both peacemaking and conflict behavior, and “religion” as such is self-evidently not just about one or the other. This holds true whether the religion in question is Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, or any other well-established faith tradition. It is not an overgeneralization to note that, at the level of theological precepts, all major religions favor peace—each conceiving of peace in a distinctive way, but always giving the concept a positive resonance and evaluation. 4 The more complicated matter, in Islam as in all traditions, is translating precept into practice. In any faith or ideological system, there is constant struggle to bridge the gap between precept and practice. While core precepts most definitely affirm peace, thinking about how to implement core precepts tends to be less consensual. The same axiomatic beliefs pass through multiple filters and are engaged by people in diverse social locations, making it possible for well-armed insurgents as well as nonviolent revolutionaries to proclaim their actions as mandated by Islam. As perceptive analysts recognize, religious peacemaking and conflict behaviors are not determined by theology alone. Ultimately, religion is understood and practiced contextually and in relation to competing historical strands of interpretation. In any established and enduring religious tradition, historical analysis reveals not one peace position but rather a spectrum of positions. While some of these positions distort or clearly deviate from core religious norms and affirmations, many positions can plausibly appeal for religious legitimacy. This “multivalence” of the sacred, evident in Islam as well as in other religious traditions, can be gainfully explored through an adaptation of the term, “paradigm,” made famous by the philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn. 5 Used in a relaxed manner to highlight human subjectivity and the development of multiple competing syntheses within any given tradi-

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tion of thought and inquiry, the term “paradigm” conveys the idea that practice is guided not only by explicit doctrines and precepts, abstractly conceived, but also by deep assumptions grounded in historical experiences and narratives. Different religious paradigms for peace and conflict exist simultaneously, providing believers with multiple options for manifesting their faith and belief. While religions offer guidance for seeking peace and navigating conflict, this guidance must always be interpreted in response to real-life problems. Interpretive choices and practical decisions are unavoidably contested among members of different religious subcultures, who unsurprisingly read the world and their sacred texts differently, selectively embracing those aspects of their multidimensional traditions that resonate most profoundly with circumstances, lived experiences, and collective moods. In relation to conflict and peacemaking, religious culture is better understood as a resource than as a static or monolithic set of forms and prescriptions. 6 Every religious heritage provides a complex set of practices, values, and precedents that can be applied in divergent (including peaceful as well as combative) ways. For example, members of a religious community are likely to discover multiple precedents for relations with outsiders within their common heritage, together with divergent perspectives on peacemaking and the management of collective decisionmaking. While a purely instrumentalist account of religious behavior fails to appreciate the ways in which practitioners experience spiritual life as a matter of faithfulness and obligation, awareness of religion as a resource heightens the potential relevance of faith systems to contemporary problems, and enables would-be peacemakers to dynamically “seek the best” within their heritage. Such awareness creates scope for empowerment through critical reappraisal of traditions, reappropriation of lifeaffirming values, and active participation in communal dialogue. 7 PEACE IN ISLAMIC PRECEPTS One of the first things a devout Muslim is likely to tell a non-Muslim about his or her religion’s understanding of peace is that “Islam is peace.” Though the assertion sharply contrasts with common “outsider” concerns about terrorism and political violence, this expression of faith has a theological and linguistic basis. As Muslims are quick to point out, both Islam and the Arabic term salam (“peace”) derive from the same trilateral root, sa-li-ma, “to be safe, secure, free from any evil or affliction.” As a noun derived from this root, salam denotes a condition of peace or safety while also connoting “freedom from faults and defects.” For Muslims the related term “Islam,” conventionally translated as “surrender or submission to the will of God,” suggests of a state of peace and security that

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comes through renunciation of egocentric willfulness and resignation to a higher power. For observant Muslims, the Qur’anic revelation is understood as a call to integration and wholeness through surrender to the Divine. Submission to God through following revealed guidance brings deeply grounded peace, security, and well-being not only to the individual believer but also to his or her community. The Islamic understanding of peace is displayed quite directly in the taslim or exchange of salutations (al-salam ‘alaykum, or “May safety and peace abide with you”) by which Muslims greet one another. In addition to affirming peace and extending goodwill, this greeting also provides an assurance of security and freedom from harm. Peace in the profoundest sense, however, is to be found with God alone, for according to the Qur’an God Himself is “al-Salam” (literally, “The Peace,” or “The Author of Peace, Safety, and Security”). In the Qur’an al-Salam is one of God’s Most Beautiful Names (59:23). God (Allah) 8 is the ultimate source of refuge and well-being, and is by His nature flawless and free from all imperfections. From a Muslim theological perspective, the ultimate objective of life’s struggles is peace. Whereas the fullest possible peace of the soul rests on spiritual discipline and remembrance of God, peace in the world is approached through the establishment of just relationships. From a spiritual standpoint peaceful relationships reflect higher realities, for peace is the greeting, language, and condition of Paradise. 9 God calls believers unto the abode of peace (dar al‑salam), 10 and the yearning for peace derives from the innermost nature, or fitra, of humankind. As the Qur’an constantly exhorts its readers to aspire toward virtuous conduct and knowledge, it also affirms a positive view of human nature, insisting that— despite tendencies toward forgetfulness and misdirection—the original human constitution is sound in character, and muslim in the sense of responsiveness to divine will. Many Muslims find it quite natural to consider Islam a path of peace and reconciliation that directs the believer toward a condition of wholeness, equilibrium, well-being, and safety from harm. 11 There is a clearly articulated preference in Islamic social ethics for nonviolence over violence, they note, and for forgiveness (afu) over retribution. While justice (‘adl) is a core Islamic value and is integral to Islamic notions of peace, the Qur’an frequently cautions people against going to excess in pursuing rights or correcting injustice. The Qur’an discourages unnecessary conflict, and condemns those who, blinded by egotism, bring destruction, oppression, and violence (fitna) down upon the rest of their fellows, “committing excesses on earth” (5:33). In traditional Islamic societies, the ideal of a harmonious social order was closely associated with the prescriptions of shari’a (Islamic normative and legal teachings). While there are many debates regarding the most fitting and proper manner to interpret and apply shari’a in the modern

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world, the objectives of shari’a are closely related to those of religious law in the Biblical tradition. These objectives include the maintenance of proper, just relationships between the individual and God, within the family and community, among Muslims, between religious groups, and ultimately between humanity and other created things. Law is expected to support and promote societal well-being by encouraging the fulfillment of lasting, deeply rooted human needs and discouraging or deterring the pursuit of false satisfiers. As Muslim jurists sought consensus about the rules of jurisprudence (fiqh) during the first several Islamic centuries, they responded not only to the religious sources and to a desire for authoritative guidance in all spheres of social and political life, but also to misuses of power by political authorities. Many shari’a provisions, including strict rules of evidence and limits to those areas of civilian life over which the sovereign had direct personal and legal authority, were understood to have a distinctly protective function. 12 However, insofar as it is a religious law with prescriptions for recommended and discouraged as well as required, neutral, and prohibited actions, the scope of Islamic law exceeds the domain of modern Western law, in ways that reflect differing social and cultural understandings of what is required for human well-being. From an Islamic perspective, peace signifies an ideal state—a state of inward as well as outward equilibrium and harmony. The natural order of existence expresses this harmony, communicating signs (ayat) of its own dependence on a higher order from which moral injunctions are received. Through actions rooted in religious precepts, peace is achievable. However, failure to embrace moral virtues and wisdom of divine provenance leads to disorder (fitna) and corruption (fasad). Peace is the reward and intent of moral striving against egotism, materialism, and social injustice. This basic understanding of peace and how it is attained differs substantially from modern secular understandings in which peace is viewed simply as an absence of violence and war, secured through rational problem-solving or deterrence. It should come as no surprise, then, that Muslim thinkers often find it more difficult to affirm common ground with Western secularist understandings of peace than with understandings of peace that claim a religious foundation. CONFLICT AND THE ROLE OF STRIVING This characterization of Islamic values is likely to appear unfamiliar to Westerners for whom militant calls for jihad constitute the primary frame of reference for thinking about Islam. While it is true that, in the politics of contemporary Islam, jihad has often been reduced to a call for religiously sanctioned armed struggle, the word itself has a much richer histo-

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ry and usage. Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti (highest religious authority) of Egypt, emphasizes the diversity of meanings encompassed by the term: Within Islam the term jihad refers to a large category of meanings. . . . For Muslims, jihad is much more than armed struggle against an enemy from the outside, for it includes constant struggles within both oneself and one’s own society. . . . Once, upon returning from a battle, the prophet Muhammad said to his companions, “We have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad; the jihad of the soul.” This is referred to as the greater jihad since people spend their entire lives struggling against the base desires within them. Jihad is also used to refer to the pilgrimage to Mecca. . . . The term jihad is also used to refer to speaking truth to those in power, so in Islam government oversight is a form of jihad. In addition to these meanings, the term jihad refers to the defense of a nation or a just cause. These characteristics . . . are summed up in the Koran, “Fight in the way of God against those who wage war against you, but do not commit aggression—for, verily, God does not love aggressors.” (2:190) . . . As for suicide bombing, Islam forbids suicide, it forbids the taking of one’s own life. Attacking civilians, women, children and the elderly by blowing oneself up is absolutely forbidden in Islam. 13

Linguistically, the most essential and basic meaning of jihad is not “holy war,” but rather “striving” or “struggle.” Although rendered by early Islamic jurists as a form of just war to defend or extend the “abode of Islam” (dar al-Islam, a non-Qur’anic term that could be rendered as “pax Islamica”), references to jihad in the Qur’an pertain to moral and spiritual exertion as well as to the struggle of the early Islamic community to survive in a hostile environment. According to Gomaa, terrorist acts represent an abasement of jihad, and contravene its fundamental principles. 14 Throughout history, mainstream Islamic tradition has upheld the distinction mentioned by Mufti Gomaa between the “greater jihad” (al‑jihad al‑akbar), the inner struggle to purify the self and behave in an exemplary manner, and the “lesser jihad” (al-jihad al-asghar) the outer, armed struggle to defend Muslim communities and values. 15 While self-sacrifice in defense of the community and sacred values is recognized as a noble act of great merit, esteem for the greater, or inner jihad derives from the understanding that it is necessary to bring peace and integrity to the soul and to the personality. As a struggle within the heart of each individual, it is both the most fundamental form of struggle and the ultimate basis for spreading virtue and justice within society. Calls for behaviors consistent with this inwardly focused, nonviolent struggle—that is, for individual and collective jihad to realize Islamic values and advance a worthy cause—are commonplace in Muslim social life. 16

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Though notions of “preemptive defense” against presumably hostile non-Muslim lands have indeed been considered by Muslim religious authorities, modern commentators on military jihad underscore its nonoffensive nature. 17 The comments of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah of Lebanon are broadly representative: [Military jihad] is the fighting movement that aims at preventing the enemy from forcing its hegemony over the land and the people by means of violence that confiscates freedom, kills the people, usurps the wealth and prevents the people’s rights in self-determination. Therefore, jihad is confronting violence by means of violence and force by force, which makes it of a defensive nature at times and a preventive one at others. . . . In the light of this, jihad is no different than any human and civilized concept of self-defense. It expresses the innate human nature of self-defense, or preventing the others from building the ability for a sudden aggression. There is also the case of defending the downtrodden who are prosecuted by the arrogant and who have no means of defending themselves. As for those suicidal bombers who kill innocent people, as well those who accuse others of unbelief, just because they differ with them in some sectarian views even within the same religion, or those who explode car bombs, killing women, children, elderly and youth who have nothing to do with any war of aggression. To those we say that their inhuman brutal actions have nothing to do with Islam whatsoever, and that what they are doing will lead to God’s wrath and not His satisfaction. 18

Fadlallah, like most Muslim religious scholars, argues firmly for a right of self-defense against armed aggression, while condemning acts of mayhem perpetrated in the name of religion. Based on the testimony that he and many other Muslim jurists offer about jihad, it is arguable that Western moral debates about just war differ far less from Muslim discussions about military jihad than is generally assumed. First, both traditions have clear—but not always respected—standards for “justice in war,” with an emphasis on safeguarding noncombatants. Second, both argue that war should be defensive in nature, while creating allowances for “humanitarian intervention” and “preemptive” action. Finally, though both traditions have at times become subject to political contestation and disturbing misappropriations, they are intended to impose limitations on who is theoretically entitled to declare war, placing this right firmly in the hands of those deemed “legitimate” on the basis of political and religious authority. The fact that Muslims and Westerners often differ so profoundly in their popular judgments about which struggles are “just” arguably has more to do with political differences and universal human tendencies toward ethnocentric partiality than with fundamental differences between Islamic and Western thought on the subject of justifiable warfare.

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A SPECTRUM OF PEACE POSITIONS Mainstream Islamic thought about war and peace, both in traditionally statist and progressive formulations, has strong scriptural reference points. A number of verses in the Qur’an identify ends deemed sufficiently valuable to warrant armed struggle, even going so far as to state that some forms of oppression are morally worse than the loss of life in armed struggle to affect change toward a more just state of affairs (Qur’an 2:217). Passages such as the following suggest that some things are worth fighting for, if necessary, by military means: And why should you not fight in the cause of God and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated—men, women, and children whose cry is, “Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors, and raise for us from You one who will help.” (Qur’an 4:75) [I]f God had not driven some people back by means of others, monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques, where God’s name is abundantly remembered, would have been pulled down and destroyed. (Qur’an 22:40)

As these verses imply, defense of the innocent and of religious sanctities is among the most acceptable Islamic arguments for social and, if need be, armed struggle. Though the ecumenical defense of monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques is far less central to contemporary Western thinking than action on behalf of afflicted civilian populations, the modern notion of a “responsibility to protect” resonates quite strongly with Muslim sensibilities. Other scriptural reference points spell out a right of self-defence in the face of aggression. “To those against whom war is made,” states the Qur’an, “permission is given [to fight], because they are wronged. [They are] those who have been expelled from their homes in defiance of right” (22:39–40). While such passages refer quite specifically to the circumstances of the first Muslim political community in Medina, which had been formed after a flight from oppression in Mecca, Muslim thought has most often generalized from such verses a right to respond proportionately to military aggression. Aggression itself, however, is highly stigmatized in Islamic thinking about war and peace, as is the notion of war without limits or restraints. The following verse is exemplary: “Fight in the way of God against those who wage war against you, but do not commit aggression—for, verily, God does not love aggressors” (Qur’an, 2:190). Consistently, scriptural passages which correlate with the period during which the first Muslim community faced a situation of asymmetrical armed conflict permit and even enjoin self-defence, while simultaneously admonishing against aggression and reminding believers that all their behaviours are known to God and subject to divine scrutiny. More-

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over, willingness of the adversary to enter into peace talks must be respected and appropriately tested: “But if the enemy inclines toward peace, do thou also incline towards peace—and trust in God, for He hears and knows all things” (Qur’an 8:61). Despite the overall coherence of these scriptural themes, Islamic thought about war and peace is by no means monolithic. Historically, jurists often afforded considerable scope to state prerogatives, particularly in the domain of jus ad bellum (the justice of going to war), yet war was also understood to be governed by firm rules of discrimination. Notions similar to “collateral damage” and “double effect” were not unknown, yet allowances were not made for indiscriminate political violence or categorical targeting of human beings solely on grounds of communal or national identity. Legal scholars used the Arabic term irhab to demarcate and delegitimize tactics that would in the current Anglophone context be defined as terrorism. Whatever the cause, such methods could not be sanctioned. Revolutionary violence was broadly condemned, yet speaking truth to power—“a word of truth in the face of a tyrant”—remained a virtuous undertaking. 19 In recent decades, some reformist thinkers have sought to reexamine traditional just war thinking in light of technological change and the increasingly indiscriminate consequences of modern warfare. Scholar-activists such as Chaiwat Satha-Anand and Jawdat Said, for example, have argued in favor of fighting oppression nonviolently as a preferred Islamic response to conflict, introducing concepts of “just war pacifism” (the idea that modern warfare renders traditional jus in bello criteria increasingly obsolete) and citizen-based nonviolent action to the debate on war and peace ethics. 20 In doing so, they have given greater focus and conceptual definition to practices that are not without precedent in traditional Islamic societies, and have provided enhanced options for proactive Muslim involvement in peacebuilding and nonviolent justice advocacy. Though expressing profound appreciation for another strand of the Islamic experience—a mystical and contemplative current that sometimes expressed itself in quietism and withdrawal from political life—thinkers such as Satha-Anand and Said have attempted to renew attention to actions of nonviolent communal solidarity against oppression that date to the earliest Islamic experiences, when the first community of Muslims found itself under tremendous pressure from their surrounding political and social order. In the process, they have sought to demonstrate the political relevance of Qur’anic teachings concerning the value of human life: “If someone kills another person—unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land—it is as if he had murdered all mankind. And if anyone gives life to another person, it is as if he had given life to all mankind” (Qur’an 5:32). While it is important to highlight the contours of mainstream Islamic thinking about war and peace, the actual continuum of thought and de-

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bate in contemporary Muslim contexts is broader. Although a strong majority of learned Islamic thinkers reject the extremism of those who believe patterns of political and religious victimization justify indiscriminate acts of violent retaliation (seemingly rendered more palatable by an embrace of martyrdom), this position does indeed demarcate one end of the continuum of articulated ethical stances. The actual spectrum, however, is much broader than many treatments of Islamic political ethics acknowledge. 21 Compelling Islamic arguments have been made not just for the well-known just war position, but also for the nonviolent steadfastness evident in much Arab Spring activism as well as for the contemplative quietism of those who regard the inner jihad of self-transcendence as vastly superior to external warfare. In Islamic as well as Western contexts the ethics of war and peace are most frequently invoked somewhat opportunistically and instrumentally, in ways that tend to work in favor of established political authority. Interpreted more rigorously, mainstream Islamic as well as Western ethical traditions invite efforts to subject state practices to critical scrutiny, while also opening a door to more cosmopolitan projects of human security in which solidarity across political and communal boundaries becomes conceivable. 22 Debates about when war is permissible, however, offer only limited insight into perspectives on and possibilities for “just peacemaking” within an Islamic framework. 23 ISLAMIC PEACE PARADIGMS Like all religions, Islam is one from the standpoint of the practitioner and many from the standpoint of the observer. Islamic peace vocabulary can be—and has been—employed in diverse ways, yielding different syntheses of precept and practice. Recognizing the diversity of Islamic peace paradigms can help move discussions beyond conventional framings of the “Islam and peace” topic, which postulate a simple dichotomy between “extremist” and “moderate” interpretations. In the more comprehensive spectrum of Islamic war and peace positions described above, the range of models for action is much richer. Although some thinkers are inclined to see the diversity of interpretations and practices as a liability, reflection on Islam’s internal pluralism provides insight into the manifold contexts within which conflict unfolds, and can yield valuable resources for peacemaking. Though any effort to delineate distinctive Islamic peace paradigms is bound to be in some sense a heuristic framework of ideal types, the application of peace research lenses to Islamic discourse and experience reveals meaningful patterns. What follows is a brief overview of a fiveparadigm framework for exploring the diversity of Islamic thought and action with respect to peace. Each paradigm conveys a distinctive Mus-

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lim response to foundational texts, to specific types of problems, and to historically accumulated experiences and precedents. These paradigms are “peace through coercion,” “peace through equity,” “peace through conciliation,” “peace through nonviolence,” and “peace through universalism.” 24 The paradigms often overlap and are not mutually exclusive, while still having distinguishing characteristics and privileging certain social positionalities and experiences of conflict. With the exception of “peace through conciliation,” these paradigms correspond to a considerable degree with points on the spectrum revealed by analysis of the Islamic ethics of war and peace, leaving aside the extremist position, which offers little promise as a meaningful category for thinking about constructive options for peacemaking. One of the first challenges of peacemaking, in secular as well as religious contexts, is to come to terms with ways in which established institutions of social and political power shape the dominant ways in which people think about conflict and peace, often instrumentalizing (to a greater or lesser degree) the symbols that correspond with a larger cultural worldview and system of ethics. 25 This pattern in human behavior, according to which powerful leaders and institutions seek legitimacy through a prevailing ideology or social code, cuts across cultures and can be found in Islamic milieus as well as in the West, to the extent that one can speak of an “Islamic political realism” or “peace through coercion” paradigm. According to this paradigm, peace is preeminently to be understood as an absence of war secured through power or force to compel and protect. Like related patterns of thought in Western political theory, this “peace through coercion” paradigm takes a relatively pessimistic reading of collective human behavior, positing perpetual competition, rivalry, and potential for war or insurrection. Accordingly, military virtues, disciplines, and leadership are highly respected sources of order and stability, and ultimately of moral community itself. Islamic political realism approaches peace from the standpoint of the cautious sovereign, invoking Islamic symbols and underscoring their linkage to a political authority that derives strength from and firmly upholds religious norms, while suppressing wayward or capricious human tendencies toward rebellion and civil disorder, or fitna. Placing a high premium on unity in the face of external as well as internal threats, the “peace through coercion” paradigm presents preparedness for war as the best guarantee of peace, and provides little scope for grassroots social action to challenge injustices and build peace from the bottom up. Many of those who object to this minimalist, state-centered approach to peace evoke a “peace through equity” paradigm, and emphasize broad-based demands for justice rather than the prerogatives of the state. Peace, this paradigm proposes, is above all a function of just relationships, and depends not only on a righteous sovereign but also on sound governance and citizen action or consent. Though sometimes formulated

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in more narrowly confessional terms that value Muslim unity but distrust more cosmopolitan solidarities, many contemporary advocates of an Islamic “peace through equity” paradigm link the aspiration toward peace to the advancement of a more just and genuinely cooperative world order. 26 While those who conceive of Islamic peacemaking in such terms continue to see relevance in the core principles of Islamic just war thinking, conceived above all as a framework for defending the innocent, they are also inclined to reject some traditional constructs, such as the medieval bifurcation of the world into an “abode of Islam” (dar al-Islam) and an “abode of war” (dar al-harb). 27 Insofar as Islam can inspire the pursuit of a progressively more just social order, classical syntheses in Muslim thought and culture can be updated in ways that more perfectly express core Islamic values and their applicability to present circumstances. Scope for citizen participation in the advancement of peace and justice can be expanded, underscoring the non-military potential of jihad as an inclusive struggle for justice, pursued by civil and political means. Where the “peace through coercion” paradigm highlights specifically military aspects of jihad, “peace through equity” lays claim to a broader section of the term’s semantic domain. Striving for peace can involve not just repelling adversaries, but also confronting injustice in one’s own social order, contributing proactively to the general welfare, and upholding Islamic values in public life. Peace becomes not just an absence of warfare, but also a presence of justice, human dignity, ecological balance, and coexistence among religions and cultures. Another peace paradigm, “peace through conciliation,” draws guidance for peacemaking from Islamic textual sources as well as from historically developed practices for resolving disputes and preserving communal equilibrium, particularly by means of mediation, arbitration, and community-based rituals of reconciliation. Contrary to the notion that Islamic conceptions of justice are limited to retribution and the establishment of an orderly and equitable society, those who approach peace from within this paradigm highlight a clearly articulated preference in Islam for restorative justice practices. 28 Passages from the Qur’an as well as the Hadith literature (the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) characterize non-retaliation and magnanimous forgiveness as the preferred moral response to wrongdoing, especially when there is an acceptance of responsibility and accountability on the part of the offending party. 29 For centuries, Muslims have sought to resolve violent conflicts between individuals, families, and tribal groups through carefully orchestrated rituals of reconciliation such as sulh and musalaha, within which those charged with restoring social peace seek to bring opposing groups back into harmonious relationship. This goal is pursued through a process that involves communal responsibility for healing a breach in relations, the payment of compensation to victims, and symbolically potent and public acts of forgiveness, such as handshakes and the sharing of a

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meal. 30 In recent years, global conversations on the subject of transitional justice have begun to inspire discussions of how Islamic restorative justice principles might be applied in contexts as diverse as Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon, Nigeria, Israel-Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Application of a “peace through conciliation” approach to such large-scale conflicts would require considerable adaptation of traditional processes, but with careful attention to the substantive content of key practices: the conduct of an authoritative inquiry into the harm suffered by opposing groups, acceptance of responsibility for past wrongs, the provision of reparations for victims of abuses, opportunities for all sides to maintain or recover a sense of dignity, and public calls for forgiveness as a means of transcending cyclical violence. Because Islam condemns both political oppression and the taking of innocent life, some Muslim activists find a “peace through nonviolence” paradigm most suitable for their efforts to engage in conflict constructively, in ways that advance social justice. Among practitioners of this paradigm, Islamic norms and values provide a powerful call to morally disciplined, collective solidarity in the face of injustice. Chaiwat Satha-Anand, a Thai Muslim academic and nonviolence advocate, has argued that core Islamic practices such as the “five pillars” (witness, ritual prayer, fasting, alms, and pilgrimage) offer a compelling template for maintaining cohesion, focus, discipline, and shared purpose, and can empower Muslim social movements to resist both the morally corrupting spiral of political violence and the temptations of passive resignation to coercive power. 31 Social movements led by the Pashtun reformer Abdul Ghaffar Khan (founder of a nonviolent army that opposed British colonialism) 32 and Pakistani humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi 33 amply demonstrate the availability of resources for sustained and constructive social mobilization within Islamic contexts, as do the examples nonviolence provided by moderate Islamic movements, by grassroots mobilizers of the first Intifada in Israel/Palestine, 34 and by Arab Spring activists in Tunisia, Egypt, and other countries. With greater attention to the principles and strategy of nonviolent conflict, suggest advocates of the “peace through nonviolence” paradigm, Muslims can more effectively live out traditional injunctions against both bloodshed and unjust rule, while also responding to contemporary demands for political participation, self-rule, and human dignity. The final Islamic peace paradigm, “peace through universalism,” seeks to draw upon spiritual traditions through which peace can be experienced as an all-encompassing harmony in which human beings participate when they correctly perceive their relations to Creator and creation, follow a path of personal spiritual development, and implement Islamic prescriptions for coexistence. Closely related to the mystical traditions of Sufism (tasawwuf in Arabic), “peace through universalism” is based most fundamentally on the Islamic principle of unity (tawhid), understood to

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embrace not only the ontological unity of God, but also the unity of humanity and the profound interconnectedness of all reality. Although at times associated with quietism and withdrawal from political and worldly pursuits, Sufism has more often been lived as a path of spiritual presence amidst worldly life, in which inward striving (al-jihad al-akbar) is conjoined with the cultivation of love, peace, justice, and other divine qualities in the personality. 35 Key textual reference points for this paradigm include passages in the Qur’an proclaiming the immanent presence of the Creator in His creation (“whithersoever you turn, there is God’s face,” 2:115) and affirming the divine generosity in sending spiritual guidance and wisdom to all peoples (“To every people was sent a messenger,” 10:47). Practitioners of “peace through universalism” call for harmony and understanding among the world’s religions and cultures, and uphold a view in which the diversity of humanity is itself a sign of God and a function of divine will. The following verses from the Qur’an express core ideas of this vision: And among His signs is the creation of the heavens and earth, and the diversity of your languages and colors; surely there are signs in this for those who know. (30:22) O mankind! We created you from a single pair of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes that you may come to know one another. (49:13) To each among you We have prescribed a law and an open way. If God had so willed, he would have made you a single people, but His plan is to test you in what He has given you, so strive as in a race in all virtues. (5:48)

From the standpoint of the “peace through universalism” paradigm, the advancement of peace depends most essentially on the spiritual development of each individual, and on the cultivation of harmonious encounter among diverse spiritual and religious traditions. In coming to know one another, the world’s peoples also have the opportunity to better know themselves, by piercing through false projections and conditioned perceptions to discover profound similarities and points of deep connection between self and other. These similarities and points of connection point to an underlying spiritual unity in which all participate, and from which comes the possibility of realizing and living peace amidst the world’s tensions and conflicts.

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CONCLUSION: MUSLIM CONTRIBUTIONS TO PEACEMAKING In exploring Islamic perspectives on peace and conflict, this chapter has sought to highlight keynote themes while also illuminating the diversity of ways in which Muslims can engage conflict to advance, textually and historically resonant understandings of peace and peacemaking. After dispensing with the notion that peace is somehow marginal to Islamic traditions and precepts, an attempt was made to clarify key theological concepts and textual sources that ground discussions of peace and conflict in Islam, with a particular focus on mainstream Islamic positions on the ethics of war and peace as well as on textual readings and practices that encourage nonviolent responses to conflict. Attention was then given to five different “Islamic peace paradigms” through which Muslims have understood their tradition’s bearing on conflict and potential application to active peacebuilding efforts. Although the Islamic peace paradigms presented here are not to be understood as collectively exhaustive or mutually exclusive—many individuals have, at one time or another, subscribed to views that incorporate aspects of more than one paradigm—categorization is useful to understand different orientations toward peace that derive their legitimacy from Islam and from the historical experiences of Muslims. While some pundits would question the Islamic credentials of one approach or another, each paradigm reflects understandings and practices that have been advocated by Muslims on the basis of religious precepts. All five paradigms represent ongoing conversations as well as areas of continuing experimentation, and reflect the multiple possibilities of interpretation present with Islamic sources. When studied in a comparative, interreligious context, Islamic perspectives on conflict and peace resonate with those of other religious traditions while also sounding distinctive keynote themes. Like other traditions, Islam is not monolithic. Its religious vocabulary and faith narratives are subject to a range of principled uses, as well as to misrepresentation and abuse. The way Islamic teachings are understood arguably has much to do with social location and personality as well as with historical experiences of Muslim communities and the contemporary vicissitudes of world politics. The same can be said for Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other traditions that have persisted long enough and under sufficiently varied circumstances to generate multiple syntheses and expressions. Nonetheless, listening carefully to Islam reveals peace motifs that manifest their own internal coherence and integrity, and which have the potential to constructively challenge, complement, or even enrich the ways in which followers of other traditions understand and experience peace. The existence of Muslim quietists and ascetics notwithstanding, the Islamic tradition as a whole affirms the importance of taking an active,

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socially engaged approach to peace that is deeply concerned with matters of social justice and with moral exertion to affect positive change. Peace in Islam is not merely an absence of war, but also the presence of a just social order within which human flourishing is possible. The idea of peace also evokes a larger harmony of creation and of the soul within which deep existential security and well-being can be found. In addition to themes of social justice and a holistic emphasis on harmonizing the spiritual and the material, Islam also brings restorative practices and a framework for divinely sanctioned religious pluralism to the interfaith peace table. When engaging the topic of religious difference and diversity, Muslim peacemakers have recourse to textual resources granting a positive status both to followers of other specific religious traditions (Christians, Jews, and Sabians, known collectively as “People of the Book”) and, more generically, to those who believe in God and a day of reckoning, and who engage in works of righteousness (Qur’an 2:62). In Islam as in other traditions active peacemaking is not a majority phenomenon, yet it is a form of faith-based engagement that has the potential to engage the core values and beliefs of a wide range of people. Given current reality of acute Islamic-Western identity conflict, which is itself a function not just of cultural differences but also of protracted geopolitical confrontations with roots in the colonial era, engagement with Islamic peace traditions has the potential to open new pathways of dialogue and cooperation. Learning about these traditions, then, is quite clearly an activity that has become meaningful not just for Muslims who wish to demonstrate the positive relevance of their faith, but also for nonMuslims who seek fresh ways of articulating respect for Islam, with an intent to foster new forms of partnership through which peoples with interdependent destinies can come to know one another. NOTES 1. Some passages in this paper have been adapted from Nathan C. Funk and Abdul Aziz Said, Islam and Peacemaking in the Middle East (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009). 2. R. S. Appleby, The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000). 3. A. Pal, “Islam” Means Peace: Understanding the Muslim Principle of Nonviolence Today (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011). 4. N. C. Funk and C. J. Woolner, “Religion and Peace and Conflict Studies,” in Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies, ed. T. Matyók, J. Senehi, and S. Byrne, 349–369 (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011). See also T. Nardin, ed., Ethics of War and Peace: Religious and Secular Perspectives (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994). 5. T. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). 6. K. B. Harpviken and H. E. Røislien, “Mapping the Terrain: The Role of Religion in Peacemaking” (Oslo, Norway: International Peace Research Institute, Oslo [PRIO], 2005).

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7. N. Funk and A. A. Said, “Localizing Peace: An Agenda for Sustainable Peacebuilding,” Peace and Conflict Studies, vol. 17, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 101–143. 8. The term “Allah” is used by Arab Christians as well as by Muslims, and has common Semitic roots with the Aramaic Alaha and the Hebrew Elohim. 9. Qur’an, 10:10, 14:23, 19:61–63, 36:58. 10. Qur’an, 10:25. 11. I. Kalin, “Islam and Peace: A Survey of the Sources of Peace in the Islamic Tradition,” in Crescent and Dove: Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam, ed. Q. Huda, 3–37 (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2010); M. F. Osman, “God Is the All-Peace, the All-Merciful,” in Beyond Violence: Religious Sources of Social Transformation in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, ed. J. L. Heft, 57–73 (New York: Fordham University Press, 2004). 12. B. G. Weiss, The Spirit of Islamic Law (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998), 182–183. 13. J. Meacham and S. Quinn, “The Many Meanings of Jihad to 2 Prominent Muslims,” The Washington Post, July 28, 2007, p. B09. 14. Meacham and Quinn, “The Many Meanings of Jihad.” 15. K. Kishtainy, “Violent and Nonviolent Struggle in Arab History,” in Arab Nonviolent Political Struggle in the Middle East, ed. R. E. Crow, P. Grant, and S. E. Ibrahim, 9–24 (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1990). 16. The core meanings of self-sacrifice and righteous struggle can be related to multiple contexts. A Western journalist, for example, should not be surprised to hear an Afghan de-miner describe his daily efforts to remove anti-personnel land mines as “a kind of jihad” (O. Moore, “Working to Rid Afghanistan of Land Mines a ‘Kind of Jihad,’” The Globe and Mail, April 1, 2008). 17. L. M. Safi, Peace and the Limits of War: Transcending the Classical Conception of Jihad, 2nd ed. (Herndon, VA: The International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2003). 18. Meacham and Quinn, “The Many Meanings of Jihad.” 19. S. A. Schleifer, “Jihad and Traditional Islamic Consciousness,” Islamic Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 4 (1983), 183. 20. J. Said, “Follow the Example of Adam’s Good Son,” manuscript available at www.jawdatsaid.net; C. Satha-Anand, “The Nonviolent Crescent: Eight Theses on Muslim Nonviolent Action,”in Arab Nonviolent Political Struggle in the Middle East, ed. R. E. Crow, P. Grant, and S. E. Ibrahim, (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1990) 25–41; C. Satha-Anand, “Muslim Communal Nonviolent Actions: Minority Coexistence in a Non-Muslim Society,” in Cultural Diversity and Islam, ed. A. A. Said and M. Sharify-Funk, (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2003) 195–207; C. SathaAnand, “Transforming Terrorism with Muslims’ Nonviolent Alternatives?” in Contemporary Islam: Dynamic Not Static, ed. A. A. Said, M. Abu-Nimer, and M. SharifyFunk, (New York: Routledge, 2006) 189–211; H. M. Legenhausen, “Islamic Just War Pacifism,” unpublished manuscript, February 16, 2008, accessed at http://www. academia.edu/2515478/_Islamic_Just_War_Pacifism_ . 21. S. A. Kadayifci-Orellana, “Religion, Violence and the Islamic Tradition of Nonviolence,” The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations 34 (2004): 23–62; S. A. Kadayifci-Orellana, Standing on an Isthmus: Islamic Narratives on Peace and War in Palestinian Territories (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007). 22. S. Hashmi, “Interpreting the Islamic Ethics of War and Peace,” in The Ethics of War and Peace, ed. T. Nardin, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996) pp. 144–166; S. Hashmi, ed., Islamic Political Ethics: Civil Society, Pluralism, and Conflict (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002); M. A. M. Khan, “Islam as an Ethical Tradition of International Relations,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 8, no. 2 (1997): 177–192. 23. S. B. Thistlewaite, ed., Interfaith Just Peacemaking: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives on the New Paradigm of Peace and War (Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

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24. For a fuller treatment of these paradigms, see N. C. Funk and A. A. Said, Islam and Peacemaking in the Middle East (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009); A. A. Said, N. C. Funk, and A. S. Kadayifci, eds., Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam: Precept and Practice (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2001). 25. Safi, Peace and the Limits of War. 26. R. Senturk, “Sociology of Rights: Inviolability of the Other in Islam between Universalism and Communalism,” in Contemporary Islam: Dynamic Not Static, ed. A. A. Said, M. Abu-Nimer, and M. Sharify-Funk, (New York: Routledge, 2006) 24–49. 27. Safi, Peace and the Limits of War. 28. N. H. Ammar, “Restorative Justice in Islamic Theory and Practice,” in The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice, ed. M. L. Hadley, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001) 161–180. 29. Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Nonviolence and Peacebuilding in Islam: Theory and Practice (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2003); D. L. Smith, “The Rewards of Allah,” Journal of Peace Research, vol. 26, no. 4 (1989): 385–98. 30. G. E. Irani and N. C. Funk, “Occasional Paper #19: Rituals of Reconciliation: Arab-Islamic Perspectives,” The Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, 2000. 31. C. Satha-Anand, “Core Values for Peacemaking in Islam: The Prophet’s Practice as Paradigm,” in Building Peace in the Middle East: Challenges for States and Civil Society, ed. Elise Boulding, (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1993) 295–303. 32. E. Easwaran, E, Nonviolent Soldier of Islam: Badshah Khan, a Man to Match His Mountains (Tomales, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1999); R. T. Harris, “Nonviolence in Islam: The Alternative Community Tradition,” in Subverting Hatred: The Challenge of Nonviolence in Religious Traditions, ed. D. L. Smith-Christopher, (Cambridge, MA: Boston Research Center for the 21st Century, 1998) 95–114. 33. A. S. Edhi, Abdul Sattar Edhi, an Autobiography: A Mirror to the Blind, ed. Tehmina Durrani (Lahore, Pakistan: National Bureau of Publications, 1996). 34. M. E. King, A Quiet Revolution: The First Intifada and Nonviolent Resistance (New York: Nation Books, 2007). 35. B. Muhaiyaddeen, Islam and World Peace: Explanations of a Sufi (Philadelphia, PA: The Fellowship Press, 2004); Kalin, “Islam and Peace: A Survey of the Sources of Peace in the Islamic Tradition.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY Abu-Nimer, M. Nonviolence and Peacebuilding in Islam: Theory and Practice. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2003. Ammar, N. H. “Restorative Justice in Islamic Theory and Practice.” In The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice, ed. M. L. Hadley, 161–180. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. Appleby, R. S. The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000. Easwaran, E. Nonviolent Soldier of Islam: Badshah Khan, a Man to Match His Mountains. Tomales, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1999. Edhi, Abdul Sattar. Abdul Sattar Edhi, an Autobiography: A Mirror to the Blind, ed. Tehmina Durrani. Lahore, Pakistan: National Bureau of Publications, 1996. Funk, N. C., and A. A. Said. Islam and Peacemaking in the Middle East. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009. ———. “Localizing Peace: An Agenda for Sustainable Peacebuilding.” Peace and Conflict Studies, vol. 17, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 101–143. Funk, N. C., and C. J. Woolner. “Religion and Peace and Conflict Studies.” Pp. 349–369. Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies, ed. T. Matyók, J. Senehi, and S. Byrne. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011.

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Harpviken, K. B., and H. E. Røislien. “Mapping the Terrain: The Role of Religion in Peacemaking.” Oslo, Norway: International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO), 2005. Harris, R. T. “Nonviolence in Islam: The Alternative Community Tradition.” In Subverting Hatred: The Challenge of Nonviolence in Religious Traditions, ed. D. L. SmithChristopher, 95–114. Cambridge, MA: Boston Research Center for the 21st Century, 1998. Hashmi, S. “Interpreting the Islamic Ethics of War and Peace.” In The Ethics of War and Peace, ed. T. Nardin, pp. 144–166. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996. ———. Islamic Political Ethics: Civil Society, Pluralism, and Conflict. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002. Irani, G. E., and N. C. Funk. “Occasional Paper #19: Rituals of Reconciliation: ArabIslamic Perspectives.” The Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, 2000. Kadayifci-Orellana, S. A. “Religion, Violence and the Islamic Tradition of Nonviolence,” The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations 34 (2004): 23–62. ———. Standing on an Isthmus: Islamic Narratives on Peace and War in Palestinian Territories. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007. Kalin, I. “Islam and Peace: A Survey of the Sources of Peace in the Islamic Tradition.” In Crescent and Dove: Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam, ed. Q. Huda, 3–37. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2010. Khan, M. A. M. “Islam as an Ethical Tradition of International Relations.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 8, no. 2 (1997): 177–192. King, M. E. A Quiet Revolution: The First Intifada and Nonviolent Resistance. New York: Nation Books, 2007. Kishtainy, K. “Violent and Nonviolent Struggle in Arab History.” In Arab Nonviolent Political Struggle in the Middle East, ed. R. E. Crow, P. Grant, and S. E. Ibrahim, 9–24. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1990. Kuhn, T. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Legenhausen, H. M. “Islamic Just War Pacifism.” Unpublished manuscript, February 16, 2008. Accessed at http://www.academia.edu/2515478/_Islamic_Just_War_ Pacifism_ on April 1, 2013. Meacham, J., and S. Quinn. “The Many Meanings of Jihad to 2 Prominent Muslims.” The Washington Post, July 28, 2007, B09. Moore, O. “Working to Rid Afghanistan of Land Mines a ‘Kind of Jihad.’” The Globe and Mail, April 1, 2008. Muhaiyaddeen, B. Islam and World Peace: Explanations of a Sufi. Philadelphia, PA: The Fellowship Press, 2004. Nardin, T., ed. Ethics of War and Peace: Religious and Secular Perspectives. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994. Osman, M. F. “God Is the All-Peace, the All-Merciful.” In Beyond Violence: Religious Sources of Social Transformation in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, ed. J. L. Heft, 57–73. New York: Fordham University Press, 2004. Pal, A. “Islam” Means Peace: Understanding the Muslim Principle of Nonviolence Today. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011. Safi, L. M. Peace and the Limits of War: Transcending the Classical Conception of Jihad, 2nd ed. Herndon, VA: The International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2003. Said, A. A., N. C. Funk, and A. S. Kadayifci, eds. Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam. Lanham, MD: The University Press of America, 2001. Said, J. “Follow the Example of Adam’s Good Son.” Manuscript, available at www. jawdatsaid.net, accessed 1 April 2013. Satha-Anand, C. “Core Values for Peacemaking in Islam: The Prophet’s Practice as Paradigm.” In Building Peace in the Middle East: Challenges for States and Civil Society, ed. Elise Boulding, 295–303. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1993.

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———. “The Nonviolent Crescent: Eight Theses on Muslim Nonviolent Action.” In Arab Nonviolent Political Struggle in the Middle East, ed. R. E. Crow, P. Grant, and S. E. Ibrahim, 25–41. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1990. ———. “Muslim Communal Nonviolent Actions: Minority Coexistence in a Non-Muslim Society.” In Cultural Diversity and Islam, ed. A. A. Said and M. Sharify-Funk, 195–207. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2003. ———. “Transforming Terrorism with Muslims’ Nonviolent Alternatives?” In Contemporary Islam: Dynamic Not Static, ed. A. A. Said, M. Abu-Nimer, and M. SharifyFunk, 189–211. New York: Routledge, 2006. Schleifer, S. A. “Jihad and Traditional Islamic Consciousness.” Islamic Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 4 (1983), 173–203. Senturk, R. “Sociology of Rights: Inviolability of the Other in Islam between Universalism and Communalism.” In Contemporary Islam: Dynamic Not Static, ed. A. A. Said, M. Abu-Nimer, and M. Sharify-Funk, 24–49. New York: Routledge, 2006. Smith, D. L. “The Rewards of Allah.” Journal of Peace Research, vol. 26, no. 4 (1989): 385–98. Thistlewaite, S. B., ed. Interfaith Just Peacemaking: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives on the New Paradigm of Peace and War. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Weiss, B. G. The Spirit of Islamic Law. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998.

NINE The Role of Indigenous African Religion in Peacemaking 1

Hamdesa Tuso

When my colleagues and I were contemplating producing a co-edited book on the subject relative to the role of religion in peacemaking, the initial consideration was in the usual pattern of conception regarding the subject of religion: the notion of religious thought and teaching is exclusively limited to the so called organized religions (e.g., Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc.). Since I have had direct experience with African Religion, I dared to suggest to my colleagues that perhaps a chapter on the role of indigenous religion should be considered for the volume. They were generous enough to allow me to work on such a chapter. Once I accepted the assignment, I thought that writing on the broader subject of indigenous religious would be too much and more complex; thus, I decided to limit my efforts to the role of African Religion in peacemaking. As I began writing the chapter on the role of indigenous African Religion in peacemaking, many important questions popped up in my mind. Also, I began remembering my early encounter with other religions, specifically, Christianity and Islam. When I was in high school during the 1960s, I was introduced to the feverish campaigns and rivalry between the two popular Semitic religions (Christianity and Islam) for African converts in the region. You see, I grew up in an Oromo home in the Rift Valley in Oromia (Oromia is located in the Ethiopian Empire), where indigenous African religion (Waqifatchaa) was still in practice. I vividly remember attending a series of meetings to listen to the debates between some Christian clergy and Muslim clergy, each side arguing that his religion is superior to that 143

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of the other, and that each African in the audience and in the region should accept his religion instead of the religion of the other. The central theme relative to the narrative of the Christian clergy was that if a person accepted Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as a personal savior, he/she would inherit the Kingdom of God. The Muslim clergy’s narrative (counter argument) was that God did not have a wife, therefore God did not have children and therefore God did not have a son, and one should believe in Allah, for him to be saved from hell. This line of exchange revealed to me, for the first time in my life, the underlying assumption relative to Africans and their culture—the notion that Africans do not have their own religion, therefore someone from outside has to bring his/her religion from outside to save them from going to hell when the end of the world comes. I would learn later on through academic studies, personal readings, and travel, that this had been the central thrust of the external world, which had contributed to sustained inhumane mistreatments— almost universal prejudice: colonization, slavery, etc.—against the African people. Thus, this chapter is concerned with the role of indigenous African Religion in peacemaking. The chapter has six major sections. The first section provides a theoretical frame of reference—a tool for analysis. More specifically, I will discuss some major theoretical concepts within the studies of culture, which situate religion within the realm of culture. Thus, in this work, religion is treated as a component of culture. Also, I will discuss theoretically the relationship between culture and conflict, and conflict resolution. In the second section I will discuss, though briefly, the historical and present day acts of othering Africans, which has had a tremendous negative impact on the image of Africans and their cultures globally, and the ways images created about Africans still continue to undermine the standing of Africa and Africans in the contemporary global system. In particular, I will point out how Africans were condemned through critical forces—Semitic religions, Western history, and Western science. I will use the concept of the othering to explain the demonization and marginalization of Africans throughout centuries both by the East and West. In section three, I will focus on the true nature of African religiosity and African Religion. Section four will show how African Religion survived against all odds, both among the Africans on the continent and among those in the diaspora, especially in the Americas. Section five will discuss new scholarship on indigenous religions, including African Religion. The final section will present eight elements in African Religion, which contribute to the cause of peacemaking. In the conclusion, I will highlight the implications of the findings in this chapter regarding the subject of religion and peacemaking.

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THEORETICAL ORIENTATION In this section, I will focus on some basic concepts about religion, the why and the what. Scholars have studied the phenomenon of religion from different theoretical lenses and it is evident that they do not agree on several points regarding the subject of religion. 2 For the purpose of this work, the most useful theoretical approach will place religion within the realm of the formation and function of culture. 3 At the present time there is no precise definition regarding the concept of culture. 4 For the purpose of this work, I will borrow the definition provided by George Murdock. He stated that every culture consists of learned or habitual pattern of thought and action current in a particular society, distributing among its members in accordance with the prevailing structure of social statues, transmitted with relatively modest modifications from each generation to the next. 5

Here, it is useful to note the significance of culture in human society. Ali Mazrui, a distinguished Kenyan scholar, suggests that culture has seven basic functions: (1) It helps to provide lenses of perception and cognition (how an individual views the world is shaped by his/her cultural paradigms). (2) Culture provides motives for human behavior (culture creates heroes—it motivates individuals and groups to undertake daring actions, even when such actions may threaten their own lives). (3) Culture provides criteria for evaluation (culture teaches a member of a community what is beautiful and what is ugly). (4) Culture provides a basis of identity (it is through culture that a person learns and establishes his/her identity with a particular community). (5) Culture creates a mode of communication (language is an example of this). (6) Culture creates a basis for stratification (the legacy of royal families, the caste system, etc. are all created by cultures). (7) Culture creates a system of production and consumption. 6 Mary E. Clark has suggested that every culture has three interrelated primary components. The first is material culture. This refers to a broad range of products (e.g., foods, furniture, artistic items, etc.). Material culture is based on the ecology within which a particular community finds itself. The second component is social culture. This refers to the ways human communities organize themselves (e.g., family groupings, kinship, economic arrangements, political organizations, etc.). The third component is ideological or sacred culture. 7 Since ideological culture, commonly referred to as religion, is more relevant to the focus of this chapter, more has to be said here about the subject of culture and religion. Human communities have manifested the desire to worship something above them—something supernatural— throughout history. 8 There is a desire to establish a link between one’s

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origin and some type of divine entity, something supernatural. 9 Karen Armstrong, a British historian and the author of a widely read book, A History of God, wrote the following regarding the human desire to create gods to worship them: Men and women started to worship gods as they became recognizably human; they created religions at the same time they created works of art. This is not simply because they wanted to propitiate powerful forces, these early faiths expressed the wonder and mystery that seem always to have been an essential component of human experience of this beautiful yet terrifying world. 10

Anthropologist, Jack David Eller, provides the following six basic functions of religion, as a cultural force, in society: (1) Religion provides comfort, hope, perhaps love. It provides a sense of control and relief from fear and despair. (2) Religion provides explanations regarding the origin of things and the causes of things. Most religions also create new cultural institutions such as marriage, language, politics. (3) Religion provides a charter for human behavior like rules, norms. (4) Religion functions as the ultimate sanction; it is a source of social control. (5) Religion provides solutions to immediate problems; for example, people pray to their god when they are sick; they pray for rain when there is drought. (6) Religion functions as a source of integration, the glue so to speak, that keeps a society together. 11 Before concluding this section, it is useful to address the connections between culture and social conflict. First, conflict is part of human experience—it takes place at all social levels: (a) the interpersonal level, (b) the intergroup level, (c) the organizational level, and (d) the international level. 12 Conflict also takes place in every culture with various levels of intensity, and even in cultures where more violent conflict tends to take place, human beings have demonstrated the desire to contain and manage the conflict. 13 In most traditional societies conflict resolution is mandatory—the parties in the conflict do not enjoy the luxury of pursing a particular conflict against the will of the community. 14 HISTORICAL CONTEXT: THE OTHERING OF AFRICANS Since there are so many misrepresentations and misconceptions about Africa and its culture, any effort to write about the role of indigenous African Religion in peacemaking will not be a meaningful scholarly endeavor without addressing some of the prevalent notions relative to African Religion. Even more seriously, the gross misrepresentation on the origins of Africans has to be addressed first and foremost. Thus, in this section, I will briefly, discuss the multi-faceted phenomenon of the othering of Africans. The concept of othering was first developed by a French Philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas, 15 and later became popularized by Ed-

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ward Said in his widely read book, Orientalism. 16 Briefly, othering refers to a situation where the more powerful group in a particular social universe castigates the weaker group as inferior and subhuman and then constructs a set of myths about the other to justify subjugation and control with the claim that such action is needed to protect the weaker group’s interests by the more powerful. More recently, a new generation of scholars, including Michel Foucault and other postmodernists, have argued that knowledge and power play a critical role in achieving a particular agenda in its goal of domination. 17 Indeed, Edward Said successfully used the concept of othering to describe the logic and practice of imperialism which had dominated the relationship between the West and the Middle East since the era of enlightenment. In my view, the concept of othering is even relevant in describing the negative experience imposed on Africans both by the West and the East. Thus, in this section I will briefly discuss the othering of Africans, both by the East and the West. The form of othering Africans presented itself in three major themes—it started in the East, and later on, became more popularized by the West. The first theme pertains to the claim that Africans were the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah, whom, according to the Bible, his father cursed due to the fact that Ham looked to the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers, Shem and Japheth. 18 Based on this text early Hebrews, and later on Christians and Muslims, taught their adherents the myths that Africans were descendants of Ham, and since he was cursed, Africans were appropriately (deservedly) subjected to slavery. 19 Slavery existed in Africa, in some form, like it had existed in other places in human history; however, when the Arabs came to the African continent some nine centuries ago, they made it a market economy. Europeans inherited this practice and expanded upon it, including the importation of millions of Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas. European imperial powers, with their missionary alliances propagated the notion that their adventure in Africa was to bring civilization to the cursed race. In the United States this practice took a much more severe twist, and included the legalization of racism, leading to the creation of segregated institutions, including church-based organizations, and segregated facilities within the same institution (e.g., the White House). This legacy lasted until the United States Supreme Court’s decision, in Brown vs. Board of Education at Topeka, Kansas (1954), declared that a segregated educational system was unequal and therefore unconstitutional, and with the passage of the Civil Rights legislation of 1965 by the American Congress, the doctrine of racially based segregation in the United States was essentially demolished. 20 Decolonization swept over the African continent beginning in the 1960s. With these dramatic events, it became socially and politically unacceptable to openly discriminate against black

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people, though the hidden form of discrimination still exists in some quarters. The second theme was that Africa had no history until the arrival of European civilization in the nineteenth century. 21 For example, Hegel, in his lecture relative to philosophy of history, advanced the view that [Africa] “is no historical part of the world: it has no movement or development to exhibit.” 22 Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper of Oxford University wrote this about [Africa] “This is . . . only the unrewarding gyrations of barbarous tribes in picturesque.” 23 Professor A. Newton, in his discussion regarding the history of the world to which Europeans had expanded, advanced a view that Africa had no historic past before her colonization by the Europeans. 24 With the emergence of African universities in post-colonial Africa and the presence of a new cadre of African scholars this thesis has been challenged. 25 The third theme on othering the Africans emerged during the nineteenth century. It was the notion that Africans were the last leg of human evolution. This thesis came out of European nineteenth century science, which primarily focused on the physical appearance of groups as a way of categorizing and determining the progress of human civilization. This approach started with the thesis that the Europeans represented a more developed race, and other groups were evaluated from that perspective. For example, a nineteenth century European anthropologist by the name of Carl Vogt, in his book titled Natural History of Man, concluded that [the Negro] resembles more the physical features of the ape than those of human beings. He wrote, [the Negro] reminds us “irresistibly of the ape; the short neck, the long, lean lips, the projecting, pendulous belly.” 26 Of course, this prejudicial assumption has been challenged, particularly following new archeological discoveries indicating that Africa may be the site the first human beings inhabited and that the descendants of the first human race dispersed out of Africa to other parts of the world through population growth and migration. 27 DOES AFRICA HAVE RELIGION? IS IT ONE RELIGION OR MULTIPLE RELIGIONS? In this section I will discuss the nature of African Religion. This is necessary due to the fact that there are so many claims, which have suggested that Africa, the Dark Continent, is an empty space occupied by a people who had no well developed intelligence to create a coherent system of traditions on its own—the people did not have any religion except for some primitive practices. It is on such claims that all three Semitic religions depicted the African belief system as unworthy to consider as a religion. For example, the Jews referred to Africans as gentiles, the Christians referred to Africans as pagans and the Muslims called Africans kafir

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(infidel, unbeliever). Of course, these negative labels were used in reference to all peoples who were not part of the Semitic belief systems. In the case of the Africans, these labels took much more severe forms of prejudice, mainly because of the erroneous claim that Africans were cursed, as has been discussed earlier in this work. As scholars recently began reevaluating African history and culture, challenging some of the old myths surrounding the very nature of African humanity, a new focus has emerged relative to the very notion of African religiosity, which has rejected ethnocentric based tradition regarding the conception of religion. Interestingly, among scholars who have argued to rethink the status of African religion in the world of ideas are African theologians. John S. Mbiti, a Kenyan theologian, who authored a highly cited book titled African Religions and Philosophy, published in 1969, was one such scholar. He began his book by stating: Africans are notoriously religious, and each person has its religious system with a set of belief systems and practices. Religion permeates into all the departments of life so fully that it is not easy or possible to isolate it. A study of these religious systems is, therefore, ultimately a study of the peoples themselves in all the complexities of both traditional and modern. 28

Harry Sawyer, another African clergy, who studied African Religion in West Africa, wrote the following: One cannot but be impressed by the fact that among all the tribes which have been studied, there is always some reference to God as the center of the supreme Authority which controls the world. God is, of course, ubiquitous and could be invoked to take active interest in men’s affairs. That is to say, God is thought of as man’s vindicator, the relative who is prepared to expose himself to any risk in order to protect a weaker member of his family. . . . It is therefore generally assumed that God created the world and rules it with his power; that He is a God of Justice. 29

Professor Mibiti rejects some of the labels used by outsiders (Western missionaries, scholars, etc.) in reference to African Religion. For example he rejects the claim that the African belief system is based on ancestral worships only; he argues that, while ancestral recognition in prayers may be common, the central themes in African religion is more than that. 30 He suggests that such activities are more of an effort to have a continued relationship between family members who are dead and the living. 31 In his view, reducing the African belief system to ancestral worship is a mistake. Another label against African religion is the claim that the African belief system is nothing more than magic. Mibiti also argues that magic and religion are interconnected. 32 What is African Religion then? A definition by J. O. Awolalu may be helpful here:

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Chapter 9 When we speak of African Traditional Religion we mean the indigenous religion of the Africans. It is the religion that has been handed down from generation to generation by the forebears of the present generation of Africans. It is not a fossil (a thing of the past), but a religion that Africans today have made theirs by living it and practicing it. 33

Julius Mutugi Gathogo provides another definition relative to African Indigenous Religion. He wrote the following regarding this subject: For our purposes African Religion refers to an indigenous system of belief and practices that are integrated into the culture and worldviews of the African peoples. As in other primal religions, one is born into it as a way of life with its cultural manifestations and religious implications. 34

Gathogo further provides the following basic ten functions of African indigenous religion: 1. [It] cultivates the whole person. African religion permeates all departments of life; 2. It provides people with a view of the world; 3. It answers some questions that nothing else can. 4. It provides humanity with moral value by which to live. 5. It provides food from spiritual hunger. 6. It has inspired great ideas. 7. It is a means of communication. 8. It pays attention to the key moments in the life of the individual. 9. It celebrates life. 10. It shows people their limitations. 35 IS IT AFRICAN RELIGION OR IS IT AFRICAN RELIGIONS? One of the major issues surrounding the debates regarding the notion of an African Religion has been whether it should be considered many religions or a religion. The early writers regarding the subject of an African belief system were European travelers, missionaries, colonial observers and academics—all these categories of writers came with ethnocentric views—presented the view that there is so much diversity in the African religious belief system that it could not qualify to be classified as a religion. Even the pioneers of a new approach to the study of African Religion, such as John Mbiti, felt that African belief systems had to be considered religions. Mbiti wrote to this effect the following observation: “We speak of African traditional religions in the plural because there are about a thousand African peoples (tribes), each has its own religious system.” 36 However, he did argue that while African Religions are expressed in different forms, the underpinning philosophical outlook is the same. 37

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More recently, however, the scholarship on this aspect of African Religion has shifted toward the thesis that there is indeed one African Religion. Professor Geoffrey Parrinder, a leading expert on comparative religious studies, an ex-missionary to West Africa, is one of the early theorists of religious studies who argued that there are so many common threads in African belief systems that it should be considered African Religion. He provided the following arguments to support his new thesis regarding homogeneity in African belief systems: First, the commonly held view that other organized religions (e.g., Christianity, Islam, Hinduism) are homogenous is much less real than apparent—he actually identified the diversity in these religions. Second, the concept of One Supreme Being is more universal among Africans despite ethnic differences. 38 Nokuzola Mndende, a South African scholar has argued more forcefully, advocating that African Religion should be considered as one religion, which could stand on its own. In advancing her view relative to this subject, she wrote, “No religion is monolithic but people speak of common features.” She added: We never hear people here talking about Chrisianities, Islams, Hindusims etc. We cannot for example, talk about Zulu Religion or Xhosa Religion—African Religion is one. While they are differences in some customs and objects used to perform rituals, the underlying principles remain the same. 39

THE SURVIVAL OF AFRICAN RELIGION Another inevitable question relative to the subject of African Religion is how can one talk about African Religion, when, in reality, the two most popular Semitic religions (Christianity and Islam) have penetrated the African society from corner to corner? Indeed, this is a legitimate question. As a matter of fact, some scholars have argued that these two Semitic religions have been on the continent for so long that there are no more alien religions—they should be considered indigenous African Religions. However, it is the case that when Africans accept the new religions, they do not renounce their indigenous African Religion. The African worldview regarding multiple belief systems in the life of an individual can be explained in this way: to an African, accepting a new religion is just adding a new layer of virtue to his/her already existing rich reservoir of virtues, which he/she had inherited from his/her primary faith. Also, it is a clear case of manifestation for tolerance and accommodation of other world-views in the soul of the same person. Thus, it is conceivable, indeed quite usual, to have in the same family a Christian clergy and a Muslim clergy and other members who adhere to indigenous African Religion, and remarkably the family gets along well—they share the celebration of holidays associated with the Semitic religions as well as the

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African festivals. How could this happen? How does indigenous African religion survive in the face of well organized attacks by Christian and Muslim preachers? More recently some scholars have begun to address this phenomenon. Chief Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria observed, in 1960, the survival of African Religion among Nigerians, who either follow the Christian faith or Islamic faith. To this effect, he wrote the following: Christian and Moslem beliefs and practices are, with many a Nigerian, nothing but veneers and social facades: at heart and in the privacy of their lives, most Nigerian Christian and Moslems are heathens and animists [sic]. 40

Two decades later Alward Shorter made a more expanded observation regarding the same phenomenon. He wrote: At baptism, the African Christian repudiates remarkable little of the former non-Christian outlook. He may be obliged to turn back on certain traditional practices, which rightly or wrongly, have been condemned by the Church, but he is not asked to a religious philosophy. Consequently, he returns to the forbidden practices on occasions with remarkable ease. Conversion to Christianity for him is a sheer gain, or an “extra” for which he has opted. It is an “overplay” on his original religious culture. Apart from the superficial condemnations, Christianity has really had little to say about African Traditional Religion in the way of serious judgments of value. Consequently the African Christian operates with two thought systems at once, and both of them are close to each other. Each is superficially modified by the other. 41

Here, I wish to add my own observation regarding the common practices with respect to religion among the Oromo society in the Horn of Africa. The Oromo constitute the single ethnic majority in the entire region. They were sandwiched between the expanding southward Christian kingdom and the aggressively challenging jihadist Islamic power led by Imam Ahmed Ibn Ibrahim El Gabzi during the sixteenth century. When both forces became severely weakened as a result of protracted conflicts, the Oromos, as the indigenous majority emerged—neutralized both forces through their philosophy of tolerance and accommodation of cultures. Those who resided in the North, bordering Abyssinians (Amharas and Tigreans), intermarried and accepted Orthodox Christianity, and those who lived in the East, bordering Somalia, also intermarried with Somalis and became Muslims. At the same time, they kept their African culture. Professor Donald Levine of the University of Chicago made the following observations regarding the nature of these three conflictual ethnic groups: The warfare between the Amhara Kingdom and Somali and Afar tribesmen under Gran was in some respects a clash between similar antagonists. Both were semitized Ethiopians, adherents of a Semitic religion and followers of political leaders who sought legitimacy

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through identification with Semitic ancestors. By contrast the expansion of the Oromo represents a novel element in the politics of the Empire—the assertion of a pagan, purely African force. 42

They were conquered and colonized by the Abyssinians during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. However, the Oromos retained their culture relatively intact. 43 For example, the leaders of the Matcha Tulama Association, the first Pan-Oromo organization, whose membership include Orthodox Christians, Protestant Christians, Muslims, and the adherents to Waqifachaa, met at the Dadhi River and made a new covenant based on Oromo cultural tradition. That event set the stage for a full-fledged Oromo national movement for liberation of Oromia in the early 1970s. 44 Currently, the survival of an Oromo belief system manifests itself in a variety of ways. First, Waqifachaa, Oromo religion, has emerged as a revitalized social force in the Oromo national movement. Second, among Christian Oromos, typically, there are two wedding ceremonies—one in a church and the second in the homes of the bride and bridegroom, where the wedding ceremonies are performed in accordance with Oromo cultural tradition. Also, the strength of African Religion is revealed through its survival in the diaspora communities, who are the descendants of slaves, in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. A few examples will illustrate this observation. In the Island of Haiti, Vodou religion has survived slavery and the sustained prejudice by the Catholic elite, a successive dictatorship, and has fought its way to the status of national holiday, holding equal status with the Catholic Church. 45 Santa Maria is a significant religious force in countries like Cuba and Colombia. In Brazil, where the largest population of African descent resides, outside the African continent, African Religion is a vibrant cultural force. 46 HOW DOES AFRICAN RELIGION CONTRIBUTE TO THE CAUSE OF PEACEMAKING? Thus far in this work, I have discussed the complicated history of African people and its religion. Also, I have illustrated from available literature and personal experience that African Religion has survived against all odds—it has survived colonialism, slavery, and demonization by the preachers of Semitic religions. Also, I have discussed, though briefly, the newly emerging scholarly orientation toward African Religion by scholars of theology and religious studies. In the remaining section of this chapter, I will focus on the peacemaking aspects of African Religion. African Religion contributes to the cause of peacemaking in various ways. Here I wish to focus on eight critical elements where African Religion influences and shapes the activities of peacemaking. My presentation

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on these eight elements is based on reviewed literature for this work and personal experience. 1. God is the Supreme Being: As discussed earlier, in the African world view, God is the Supreme Being, the Creator of all things—human beings, animals and nature. According to this concept, it is His will that all creatures have successful lives and coexist in peace. Thus, religious leaders, community members, and elders know that they have a special responsibility to resolve conflicts and maintain peace among His creatures. Indeed, this is a significant religious thought among Africans across the board. The existence of such universally held world-view among an average African society generates positive responses toward the cause and mission of peacemaking. Thus, for an average African, the cause of peacemaking is a paramount mission in life. 2. Harmony between the Creator and His creatures: The African Religion subscribes to a holistic approach to life. It advocates harmony among God, the Supreme Being, and all his creatures—harmony among humans, harmony between humans and nature, and harmony between the Divine and his creatures. The underpinning philosophical orientation regarding the urge for harmony stems from the strong belief that conflict generates poison between the Creator and his creatures—humans and nature. Thus, an average African is uncomfortable when there is a conflict either in the family or community; such feeling, based on his/her belief urges him/ her to seek peace to end the conflict so that harmony can be restored in the family and community. As a matter of fact, the overarching goal in peacemaking is not to find out who is at fault for the purpose of exacting punishment, although such issues are typically considered, it is to restore the damaged relationships as a result of conflict, so that harmony can be achieved once again. 3. Tolerance and Co-existence: In African religion tolerance and co-existence is advocated among community members. This tendency to practice tolerance stems from the fact that Africans believe that every person and nature are the creation of God, and God has some purpose for creating them; therefore, one has to tolerate them and allow them to exist side by side. As a matter of fact, it seems that, in part, this is the reason why many Africans accepted Semitic religions, and those who did not accept them tolerated their relatives, friends, and members of their community who had accepted these new religions. In this sense, African religion embraces the idea that everyone should have a fair share in life. This dimension of the African religion directly and indirectly promotes peace and harmony in the society.

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4. God of Justice will punish the wrong doers: In the African world-view, the Supreme Being is a God of justice. In this concept is contained the notion that there is right and wrong. Wrong acts by a member of a community create conflict, leading to disharmony. God does not like disharmony among his creatures. Also, He is a God of justice; therefore he will punish the wrong doers. This world-view promotes the ultimate form of sanctions against wrong and unjust acts. Thus, every child is socialized to be conscious of this worldview in life; he/she learns to adjust his/her actions and expectations in life according to this principle. 5. Inter-connectedness: In the African world-view, a person is a corporate being—a social being. He/she does not exist separate from his/ her group. Professor Mbiti successfully captured this significant dimension of African religiosity. He stated: Whatever happens to the individual happens to the whole group; whatever happens to the whole group happens to the individual. The individual can only say: ‘I am, because we are; and since we are, therefore, I am’. This is a cardinal point in understanding the African view of man. 47

This critical principle in African religion contributes to the cause of peacemaking in several ways. Two are critical. First, because a person has been socialized in his/her world view that his/her life has no meaning without the welfare of the group, the concerned person will tend not to create conflict, and if a conflict is created, he/she will seek to resolve the conflict as fast as possible. Second, the observers will also ensure that the conflict is resolved because, if not resolved quickly, they fear that the conflict will escalate and affect the interest of the entire group negatively. 6. Confession and Forgiveness: In African society, confession and forgiveness are prerequisites for peacemaking. These acts are part of the religious belief system in the African society. They are influenced and shaped by the overarching philosophical thrust in African society, which instructs its members to tell the truth about a given conflict, advocating that the heart is cleansed by telling the whole truth. This is done so that the process of healing can begin. Also, forgiveness is required so that a new relationship can begin. These twin acts will lead to the successful resolution of a given conflict, thus the harmonious relations in the community will be restored. 7. Religious Rituals and Symbols: Among the common features found in African indigenous processes of peacemaking is the use of rituals and religious symbols. Rituals are symbolic acts to communicate some important messages in human interactions. In the case of peacemaking, rituals have a religious dimension. They are used to

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remind the actors in the conflicts and the community in which conflict takes place about their connections with the Creator, and the rich heritage which binds them all; it reinforces the importance of interconnectedness. Rituals are also used to sooth the pain and loss of the aggrieved party in the conflict. They are also used to communicate a new covenant that the wrong, which had been committed against their member(s) will not happen again. Finally, rituals are used to communicate a message that the entire community shares the loss, the pain, as a result of the conflict, and also share the hopes and aspirations for a peaceful future. 48 8. Prayers, seeking the ultimate endorsement from the Supreme Being: At the end of a peace process, the elders seek blessings from the Supreme Being. With this purpose in mind, the peace ceremony is organized, full of rich rituals. The most important element of such ceremony is the prayer offered to the Supreme Being. This is demonstrated in an Oromo prayer for peace and reconciliation, which is offered at the end of a peace process. Let the country be reconciled; Let the big, senior, powerful be reconciled; Let the little, junior, weak be reconciled; Let the cattle be reconciled; Let us be reconciled; Let us be at peace; Like us be thick like yogurt [Give us solidarity in peace]. 49

In African Religion, the members of a particular community also pray for sustainable peace. Below is a prayer offered by Kikuyu elders at public assemblies: Say the Elder may have wisdom and speak one voice. 50 Praise Ngai, Peace with us. Say the country may have tranquility, and the people may continue to increase. Praise Ngai, Peace be with us. Say that the people and the flocks and the herds may prosper and be free from the illness. Praise Ngai, Peace be with us. Say the fields may bear much fruit, and the land may continue to be fertile. Praise Ngai, Peace be with us. 51 In African Religion there is also a prayer of purification—peace for personal internal tranquility. Such a prayer is offered by an individual whose soul has been tormented due to some negative experience in his/ her life, and in such a case an individual turns to his creator for purifica-

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tion. An Igbo prayer is an example of such communication with his Creator: Lord, King, Creator! If I killed any person, If I took another man’s property, If I bore false witness, If I dug up another’s yam, If I committed adultery, or Abducted another’s wife, Ezechhitoke! Take away my Life today. 52

CONCLUSION The goal of this chapter was to explore the role of indigenous African Religion in peacemaking. I used a set of concepts from the studies of culture to situate religion within the realm of culture. Also, I discussed the connection between culture and conflict, and conflict resolution. The chapter also addressed some of the major misconceptions about Africans—their humanity, their culture, particularly the religious aspect of their culture. By using a comparative approach, I established that, indeed, Africans do have a strong culture, which has been heavily influenced by their moral philosophy. More significantly, I have established that Africans have had a strong religious tradition, which is anchored on the concept of a universal God, the Supreme Being, and the Creator of all things. Finally, I discussed eight specific elements in the African Religion, which contribute to the cause of peacemaking. Implications: In my view, these findings, as presented in this essay, have implications for theory, practice, and pedagogy. First, if we place the consideration relative to the formation and functions of religion within the realm of human culture, I believe we will be able to overcome the notion, which has been in action during the last several centuries, that there is one superior religion, which needs to spread across the world through all means. Indeed, it is this preoccupation with the idea that one’s religion is superior to other beliefs, which has led to gross misconceptions, prejudice about cultures of other peoples and their belief system, bloody wars, conquests, and occupation. Africans do not proselytize their religion beyond their borders, and yet, they have received the brunt of negative treatments specifically, by the promoters of the three Semitic religions. Second, I believe others can learn from African Religion, which advocates, both at the philosophical level and the practical level, that no one person or a single group, among human community has more access to the Divine so much that such entities are entitled to consider themselves

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as the chosen people. The relevant point here is that African Religion manifests a great deal of tolerance for the claims of others to have connections with the Supreme Being. African religion puts supreme premium on peace and harmony among God’s creatures rather than establishing the superiority of a particular world-view over others. It advocates confession (cleansing one’s conscience) and reconciliation as opposed to the pursuit of revenge and exacting punishment for a particular wrong doing by a member or a group. Furthermore, it defers the ultimate judgment regarding an infraction (perceived or real) committed by a community member/members against the laws of the Supreme Being to Him only, as opposed to pursuing and persecuting [by a religious body] the perceived wrong-doer against the will of the Divine. Third, religious life is part of human experience (part of human needs, if you will); thus, in my view, it is neither useful nor practical to dismiss religion as irrelevant in human affairs. However, in my view, the way we teach a particular religious doctrine can make a difference in reference to promoting peace in a society and, indeed, in the world. As part of human culture, religion is a product of teaching in a formal and informal ways. And also, in my view, the redeeming dimension of human capacity is that people can learn new ways of thinking—this includes in the realm of religion. Through such processes, people are capable of reinterpreting and revising previously held concepts and religious doctrines. They are capable of rejecting the old prejudices informed by a particular set of religious teachings, toward other groups. The best example of such transformation can be illustrated by the recent dramatic and positive event with respect to race relations in the Southern Baptist Denomination in the United States, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. It will be recalled that slavery flourished in the American South, and after the declaration of emancipation, the American South became the bastion of the Jim Crow doctrine and hateful practices, where African Americans were grossly mistreated because of their racial identity. The Southern Baptist Denomination, also known as The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), supported slavery, segregation, and tolerated the ugly practices of Jim Crow. However, the same denomination elected Rev. Fred Luter, Jr., as its first African American President during its annual convention, which took place in June 2012. 53 That denomination has also apologized to African Americans for its support of slavery and racial segregation. 54 Similar events have taken place regarding race relations in some other Christian denominations. For example, Pope Benedict XVI has apologized to the indigenous communities in Canada for the role the Catholic Church played in the colonial enterprise and the misguided polices relative to the Residential Schools in Canada. 55 In 2008, The Episcopal Church, during its 75th General Convention, apologized for its participation, and justification of slavery. 56

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Fourth, the discussion in this work also has direct relevance to the contemporary African condition. Africa, after five decades of independence, still faces many violent conflicts. The model of the modern state, which has been inherited from colonial legacy, has created many intractable problems for Africans. Just two such problems will be mentioned here. First, the Westphalia state model, which has been transplanted in Africa, has been found to be alien to African culture. 57 This model bestowed too much power on the state institution. The modern African elite have engaged in a feverish struggle to capture state power and control it. This crippling power struggle has manifested itself in various forms (e.g., frequent coup d’etats, fraudulent elections, human rights abuses—in some cases genocide—nepotism, etc.). 58 The second major problem has been the fact that the Westphalia model entitles state power holders to ensure state security—there is no provision in this model related to human security. Thus, the African elite obtained weapons in the name of state security, but used them against their political opponents and also against those individuals and groups which demanded simple justice in the respective societies. More recently, a new Cold War—war on terrorism versus war on the infidel—has engulfed the continent (e.g., The Horn of Africa, Nigeria, Somalia, Mali). 59 This new phenomenon is in contradiction with long-standing African religious thought (as discussed in this chapter). Now, that the West has embraced conflict resolution as a worthy professional pursuit, it is time for the African ruling class to go back to their cultural roots and rediscover the conception of peace, harmony, interconnectedness, forgiveness and reconciliation as enshrined in the African religious philosophy. Fifth, related to the above stated point, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) has landed in the African continent. As stated above, while such events should be welcomed, I have a concern that the new knowledge of ADR (theory and practice) is not being connected to the African culture and reality. In my view, the dream of revitalizing the culture of peace in Africa in the context of the new social dynamics has to start with school curriculum, which incorporates the values found in African religious philosophy. 60 NOTES 1. I wish to acknowledge the significant contributions of Marion Kiprop, my Graduate Assistant, in the development of this chapter. She checked out the relevant books from the library and also did the search for some useful information relative to the subject of the paper on the Internet. Also, she read the final draft of the chapter and made useful comments. I thank her for all these valuable contributions. 2. See Geoffrey Parrinder, ed., World Religions: From Ancient History to the Present (New York: Facts on File Publications, 1984), 9–21.

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3. I benefited from reading Jack D. Eller’s treatment of this subject. See the preface to his book, Jack D. Eller, Introducing Anthropology of Religion (New York: Routledge, 2007), xii-xv. 4. Kevin Avruch, Culture and Conflict Resolution (Washington, D.C.: USIP Press, 1998), 6–21. 5. G. S. Murdoch, Culture and Society (Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press, 1965), 147–148. 6. Ali Mazrui, Cultural Forces in World Politics (Oxford: James Curry, 1990), 7, 8. 7. Mary E. Clark, Ariadne’s Thread: The Search for New Modes of Thinking (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989), 157. 8. Parrinder, World Religions, 9. 9. Ibid. 10. Karen Armstrong, A History of God: The 4,000–Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994), xix. 11. Eller, Introducing Anthropology of Religion: Culture to the Ultimate. 12. See Tillet Maquarrie University File. 13. Leslie E. Sponsel and Thomas Gregor, eds., The Anthropology of Peace and Nonviolence (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998), xv. 14. Hamdesa Tuso, “Indigenous Processes of Conflict Resolution: Neglected Methods of Peacemaking by the New Field of Conflict Resolution,” in Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies, eds., Thomas Matyok, Jessica Senehi, and Sean Byrne (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011), 245–270; Douglas Fry, Human Potential for Peace: An Anthropological Challenge to Assumptions About War and Violence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). 15. Adriaan T. Peperzak and Emmanuel Levinas, To the Other: An Introduction of the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas (Purdue: University of Purdue Press, 1993). 16. Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1994). 17. “Other,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Other&action =history (accessed Jul. 4, 2012). 18. See Genesis 9: 18–25 (RSV). 19. David. M. Goldenberg, The Curse of Ham: Race Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003). 20. Richard Kluger, Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality (New York: Vintage Books, 1975). 21. J. D. Fage, ed., Africa Discovers Her Past (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970), 21. 22. As in David T. Adamo, Africa and the Africans in the Old Testament (London: Christian University Press, 1998), 2. 23. Ibid. 24. Fage, Africa Discovers Her Past, 1. 25. Geoffrey Parrinder, African Traditional Religion (Westport: Greenwood Publishers, 1976), 9–10. 26. As in James L. Cox, From Primitive to Indigenous (Burlington: Ashgate Press, 2007), 11. 27. Ali Mazrui, The Africans: A Triple Heritage (Boston: Little and Brown Company, 1986), 41–61. 28. John S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy (Portsmouth: Heinneman, 1990), 1. 29. Harry Sawyer, God, Ancestor or Creator? Aspects of Traditional Belief in Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone (London: Longman, 1970), 3–5. 30. Mbiti, African Religion, 8–9. 31. Ibid. 32. Ibid. 33. J. Omosade Awolalu, “Sin and Its Removal in the African Traditional Religion.” Journal of the America Academy of Religion 44, no. 2 (1976): 275, http://jstor.org/stable/ 1462340.

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34. Julius M. Gathogo, “The Reason for Studying African Religion in Post Colonial Africa.” Currents in Theology and Mission 36, no. 2 (2009): 108. 35. Ibid, 109. 36. Mbiti, African Religion, 1. 37. Ibid. 38. Parrinder, African Traditional, 10–11. 39. Gathogo, “The Reason for Studying African Religion in Post Colonial Africa,” 13. 40. As in Laurenti Magesa, African Religion: The Moral Traditions of Abundant Life (New York: Oribis Books, 1997), 7, 8. 41. Ibid, 8. 42. Donald N. Levine, Greater Ethiopia: The Evolution of a Multi-Ethnic Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), 78. 43. See Abbas H. Gnamo, “Islam, the Orthodox Church and Oromo Nationalism (Ethiopia).” Cashiers d’Etudes Africaines XLII-I, no.165 (2002): 98–120. 44. See Hamdesa Tuso, “Oromo Problem and the United States Foreign Policy” in Arrested Development in Ethiopia, eds., Seyoum Hameso and Mohammed Hassen (Trenton: Red Sea Press, 2006), 149–199. 45. Margaret M. Armand, “Healing in the Homeland: Haitian Vodou Tradition” (PhD diss., Nova Southeastern University, 2011), 85–128. 46. Roger Bastide, The African Religions of Brazil: Toward a Sociology of the Interpenetration of Civilizations (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University, 2007); Nei Lopes, “African Religions in Brazil, Negotiation, and Resistance: A Look From Within.” Journal of Black Studies 34, no. 6 (2004): 838–860. 47. Mbiti, African Religion, 106. 48. Lisa Schirch, Ritual and Symbol in Peacebuilding (Bloomfield, Kumarion Press, 2005). 49. Jon Hinnant, “The Gujis of Ethiopia” (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1972). 50. The number 1 in this prayer denotes the lines spoken by an elder, while the number 2 indicates the responses by an assembly. Ngai in Kikuyu language means the Creator and the giver of life. 51. Jomo Kenyatta, “Kikuyu Religion, Ancestor-Worship and Sacrificial Practices.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 10, no. 3 (1937). 52. Emefie Ikenga-Metuh, “Content, Context, and Spirituality of Igbo Prayer.” Research in African Literatures 16, no. 3 (1885): 338 53. Jena McGregor, “Southern Baptist Convention Elects Fred Luter as First Black President: What this Leadership Moment Means,” The Washington Post, last modified June 19, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-leadership/post/southernbaptist-convention-elects-fred-luter-as-first-black-president-what-this-leadership-moment-means/2012/06/19/gJQA3xqXoV_blog.html. 54. Michael Allen, “Southern Baptist Convention Elects First Black President, Fred Luter, Jr., but Opposes Gay Rights,” Opposing Views, last modified Jone 20, 2012, http:// www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/christianity/southern-baptist-convention-electsfirst-black-president-fred-luter-jr. 55. “Pope Expresses ‘Sorrow’ for Abuse at Residential Schools,” CBC News, last modified April 29, 2009, http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2009/04/29/pope-firstnations042909.html. 56. Conflict, Culture, and Memory Lab, “Episcopal Church Apology for Slavery,” Church Apologies Database, last modified 2010, http://ccmlab.uwaterloo.ca/pad/ church.html#. 57. Basil Davidson, a prominent British intellectual, a veteran of African studies, wrote significant books on African liberation movements. (He was also an advocate of the African liberation cause.) In 1992, he wrote a book titled The Black Man’s Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State, in which he concluded, “The post colonial nation-state has become a shackle on progress.” According to his insightful analysis, the reason is due to the nature of the alien institution. See his work, Basil Davidson,

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The Black Man’s Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State (New York: Times Books, 1992). 58. For representative literature on this assessment see Geoffrey Ayittey, Africa Betrayed (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992); Pierre Englebert, Africa: Unity, Sovereignty and Sorrow (Boulder: Lynne Rienners, 2009); Eghosa Osaghae, Nigeria since Independence: The Crippled Giant (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998). 59. I have borrowed the concept of the New Cold War from the seminal work of Mark Juergensmeyer, The New Cold War: Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 2. 60. Some clarifications: In this chapter, I have attempted to show that Africans do have a religion and there are elements in their religion that support the cause of peacemaking. However, I need to clarify that, like any other religion, it is a creation of beings, thus, it is imperfect. Africans, like any other group, have not been consistent. However, it is my position that the subject of African Religion has been neglected and more significantly misrepresented for many centuries.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Adamo, David T. Africa and the Africans in the Old Testament. London: Christian University Press, 1998. Allen, Michael. “Southern Baptist Convnetion Elects Frist Black President, Fred Luter, Jr., but Opposes Gay Rights.” Opposing Views. June 20, 2012. http:// www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/christianity/southern-baptistconventionelects-first-black-president-fred-luter-jr. Armand, Margaret M. “Healing in the Homeland: Haitian Vodou Tradition.” PhD diss., Nova Southeatern University, 2011. Armstrong, Karen. A History of God: The 4,000 Year Quest of Judaism. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994. Avruch, Kevin. Culture and Conflict Resolution. Washington, D.C.: USIP Press, 1998. Awolalu, J. Omosade. “Sin and its Removal in the African Traditional Religion.” Journal of the America Academy of Religion 44, no. 2 (1976): 275–287. Ayittey, Geoffrey. Africa Betrayed. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. Bastide, Roger. The African Religions of Brazil: Toward a Sociology of the Reinterpenetration of Civilizations. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University, 2007. CBC News. “Pope Expresses ‘Sorrow’ for Abuse at Residential Schools.” CBC News. April 29, 2012. http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2009/04/29/popefirst-nations042909.html. Conflict, Culture, and Memory Lab. “Episcopal Church Apology for Slavery.” Church Apologies Database. Last modified 2010. http://ccmlab.uwaterloo.ca/pad/ church.html#epislav. Clark, Mary E. Ariadne’s Thread: The Search for New Modes of Thinking. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989. Cox, James L. From Primitive to Indigenous. Burlington: Ashgate Press, 2007. Davidson, Basil. The Black Man’s Burden: Africa and Curse of the Nation-State. New York: Times Books, 1992. Eller, Jack D. Introducing Anthropology of Religion: Culture to the Ultimate. New York: Routledge, 2007. Englebert, Pierre. Africa: Unity, Sovereighnty and Sorrow. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009. Fage, J. D., ed. Africa Discovers Her Past. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970. Fry, Douglas. Human Potential for Peace: An Anthropological Challenge to Assumptions about War and Violence. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Gathogo, Julius M. “The Reason for Studying African Religion in Post Colonial Africa.” Currents in Theology Mision 36, no. 2 (2009): 108–117.

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Gnamo, Abbas H. “Islam, the Orthodox Church and Oromo Nationalism.” Cashiers d’Etudes Africaines XLII-I, no. 164 (2002): 98–120. Goldenberg, David M. The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. Hinnant, John. “The Gada System of the Guji of Southern Ethiopia.” PhD diss., The University of Chicago, 1977. Ikenga-Methu, Emefie. “Content, Context, and Spirituality of Igbo Prayers.” Research in African Literatures, 1985: 219–348. Juergensmeyer, Mark. The New Cold War: Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State. Berkeley: University of Carlifornia Press, 1993. Kenyatta, Jomo. “Kikuyu Religion, Ancestor-Worship and Sacrificial Practices.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 10, no. 3 (1937): 308–328. Kluger, Richard. Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equality. New York: Vintage Books, 1975. Levine, Donald L. Greater Ethiopia: The Evolution of a Mutli-Ethnic Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974. Lopes, Nei. “African Religions in Brazil, Negotiation, and Resistance: A Look from Within.” Journal of Black Studies, 2004: 838–860. Magesa, Laurenti. African Religion: The Moral Traditions of Abundant Life. New York: Oribis Books, 1997. Mazrui, Ali. Cultural Forces in World Politics. Oxford: Heinneman, 1990. ———. The Africans: A Triple Heritage. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1986. Mbiti, John S. African Religions and Philosphy. Portsmouth: Heinneman, 1990. McGregor, Jena. “Southern Baptist Convention elects Fred Luter as First Black President: What this Leadership Moment Means.” The Washington Post. June 19, 2012. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-leadership/post/southern-baptist-convention-elects-fred-luter-as-first-black-president-what-this-leadership-momentmeans/2012/06/19/gJQA3xqXoV_blog.html. Murdoch, G. S. Culture and Society. Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press, 1965. Osaghae, Eghosa. Nigeria Since Independence: The Crippled Giant. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998. Parrinder, Geoffrey. African Traditional Religion. Westport: Greenwood Publishers, 1976. Parrinder, Geoffrey, ed. World Religions: From Ancient History to the Present. New York: Facts on File Publications, 1984. Peperzak, Adriaan T., and Emmanuel Levinas. To the Other: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. Purdue: Purdue University Press, 1993. Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. Sawyer, Harry. God, Ancestor or Creator? Aspects of Traditional Belief in Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. London: Longman, 1970. Schirch, Lisa. Ritual and Symbol in Peacebuilding. Bloomfield: Kumarion Press, 2005. Sponsel, Leslie E., and Gregor Thomas, eds. The Anthropology of Peace and Non-Violence. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998. Tuso, Hamdesa. “Indigenous Processes of Conflict Resolution: Neglected Methods of Peacemaking by the New Field of Conflict Resolution.” In Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies, edited by Thomas Matyok, Jessica Senehi, and Sean Byrne, 245–270. Boulder: Lexington Books, 2011. Tuso, Hamdesa. “Oromo Problem and the U.S. Foreign Policy.” In Arrested Development in Ethiopia, edited by Seyoum Hameso and Mohammed Hassen, 149–199. Trenton: Red Sea Press, 2006. Wikipedia. Other. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Other&action=history. Accessed July 4, 2012.

TEN Aboriginal Peoples in Canada and the Role of Religion in Conflict The Ever Elusive Peace Paul Nicolas Cormier

I have been fortunate in my life to live and work in a number of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities across Canada. These experiences have allowed me to see aspects of rural and isolated community life that the vast majority of Canadians (and the rest of world) do not see. In those travels I have also met many individuals who shared stories with me, narratives with the power to unite and divide society. Often, these narratives are reflected in the natural and constructed physical environment. 1 As you travel the country visiting the physical space of communities, you begin to see patterns. Patterns that represent the history of a colonial country where early settlers and explorers came and re-made our Aboriginal home land, what we call mother earth, in the likeness of the worlds they left behind. In that process, they strategically employed the tools of state—law, science, education, and religion, to gain access to the vast natural resources of this country for economic exploitation. 2 They labelled us savage, herded us to reserve lands (what we call Ishkonigan— ”something that’s left behind, that nobody wants”) and attempted to assimilate us into their empire. 3 The physical presence of organized religion in the form of church is undeniable on the landscape of Canada. Flying to isolated communities accessible only by air, you begin to grasp the pervasiveness of the church and the overzealous nature of various religions as they raced to save the savages from devil worship and certain damnation. Meaning to save Ab165

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original people by introducing them to the Christian idea of God, the good intentions of these early settlers created a path littered with pain and tears. Journeying up and down the rivers and lakes of the country, they wrote the history of Canada taught in schools. Slowly converting communities, they celebrated the last remnants of Aboriginal spiritual ceremony and gatherings describing to their supervisors in journals and letters the loss of Aboriginal culture. 4 As they gathered small children, some five years old or younger, for relocation to residential schools hundreds or thousands of miles away from parents and the safety of community, they documented the pain and suffering of the children as necessary for the saving of the people. Many children suffered a terrifying lonely death in these places of education away from family and the security of their mothers’ arms. 5 Administration of Indian matters became a silent war against First Nations; it’s objective to pacify, dominate, and repress those nations. I often wonder, if church representatives knew how their intentions would hurt a people and destroy cultures, would they have continued with their mission, would they have allowed the violence to continue if they understood their role in the settlement of Canada? While these questions may seem rhetorical, they are critical for the field of Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS). In Canada, there is no constitutional separation of church and state, and despite claims of religious pluralism, there exists a clear Christian hegemony. 6 Historically it is difficult to find separation between the church and state. In fact, often times it was the church that mediated between local Aboriginal groups and colonial governments, administering many state run programs on behalf of the government. Thus, the popular ideology of the time—Christianity and enlightenment, and the narratives associated with those ideologies instigated, drove, and continue to perpetrate violence on Aboriginal peoples; a violence so intense that some authors have presented compelling cases defining the continuing settlement process as genocide. 7 Does this approach differ from modern forms of peace building? Are contemporary world ideological movements like environmentalism, human rights, democratization, or neoliberal peace any different from the driving ideologies of the past? Largely forgotten in world conflicts and the resulting peace processes, Indigenous peoples have been, and continue to be, most negatively affected by modern nation states of the world and the ideological movements they instigate. How do we, as the discipline of Peace and Conflict Studies, ensure we do not perpetrate violence on Indigenous peoples as we actively travel the world bringing our largely Western ideological messages of peace and hope?

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LAND AND NARRATIVE—THE NEXUS OF HISTORY AND CULTURE In the book Landscapes of Origin in the Americas: Creation Narratives Linking Ancient Places and Present Communities, Joyce Christie compiles a number of stories from Indigenous peoples in North America, Central America and South America that identify the meaning local people bestow on their cultural and physical surroundings and how the beginnings of a society or a particular social group is closely related to those memories. 8 Similarly, Oakes and Riewe explore the sanctity of the environment by illustrating the connection between landscapes and mindscapes through four perspectives of Sacred Landscapes: i) sanctity of resources, ii) the meaning of ancient sites and ceremonies today, iii) theoretical examination of landscapes and mindscapes and, iv) examples of protecting the sacred. 9 Lischke and McNab also suggest that “our knowledge comes from places, through our own experiences, and those of our cultural frameworks—essentially our creation stories.” 10 This frame links people, environment, and worldview through historical narratives related to land. These intangible meanings ascribed to land reach beyond creation or origin stories to many aspects of Aboriginal culture including day-to-day relationships among living things and the mores of specific societies; 11 peacemaking, restitution, compensation, and land exclusive use; 12 culturally restorative child welfare practice and social identity formation; 13 and health. 14 Indigenous peoples’ existence as societies or distinct cultural groups is dependent upon continued access to healthy lands providing continuity between the past, present, and future. Moreover, Davidson-Hunt suggests that the way a person views linkages among society, environment, and resources is often based upon the cultural perceptions, values, and political interests of the person’s society. Thus, “The cultural landscape of one society is not always visible to members of another society due to differing perceptions, values and political interests.” 15 These various perspectives on cultural landscape or land provide a point of focus for analysis at what Brown called organizational interfaces: “The definition of interface depends on the shared goals and interdependencies that press parties to continue to interact; the parties may be interdependent on one or several dimensions.” 16 In Indigenous/Aboriginal contexts, land and the cultural meanings associated with land provide a nexus for the discussion of history and culture through narrative. Narratives can be used to create or destroy culture. This can be achieved through the re-telling or reinterpretation of narratives associated with key historical events. In the case of Indigenous peoples, evidence suggests a deep-rooted attachment to land 17 due to the timeless reference point landscapes provide to cultures. This reference point permits succeeding generations of individuals to renew the ancestral past and trans-

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form it by adjusting to present day circumstances through learning about the land. 18 Land also provides a nexus for the critical analysis of culture in Indigenous contexts. Within the meanings associated with land there is a clear convergence of differing worldviews and interdependence where the colonizer and colonized must directly interact. This interaction, as in the example of treaty negotiations and their historical legacy, 19 has often resulted in misunderstanding and conflict. 20 Treaties were meant to provide an orderly mechanism where governments acquired Aboriginal lands and resources for incoming whites without resorting to military force. 21 Documenting the history of the powerful and how they became powerful so they can continue to dominate others 22 lives in narratives associated with the settlement or claiming of Indigenous lands. As in the case of historical treaties, there remain differing opinions about the intent and meanings of those documents. The meanings Aboriginal people ascribe to land and its use in religion or spiritual practices is clearly another area where misunderstanding has, and continues to have, a profound impact on relationships. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, RELIGION, AND CONFLICT Indigenous peoples are traditional people with attachments to land, cultures, and ways of life that have survived since time immemorial. An alien and dominant culture occupies the traditional land of the descendants of the original inhabitants that they conquered. 23 Aboriginal people are the Indigenous peoples of Canada. Although grouped legally by the Canadian Constitution Act of 1982 as Indian, Inuit, and Metis, 24 Aboriginal peoples are extremely diverse. According to the most recent census data of 2006, Canada’s Aboriginal population is over one million people and they accounted for 3.8 percent of the total Canadian population. 25 Over half the Aboriginal population were children and youth and 34 percent had not completed high school; on reserve, this completion rate jumps to just 50 percent. Life expectancy for Aboriginal men is seven years shorter than for non-Aboriginal men and suicide is two to three times more common among Aboriginal people than non-Aboriginal people, and 52.1 percent of Aboriginal children live in poverty compared to 23.4 percent of the general population. 26 Aboriginal people comprise 70 percent of sentence admissions to federal or provincial custody. 27 On average, Aboriginal people face poverty and disparity more than any other population in Canada, and the links among education level attainment, poverty, and violence, and among poverty, crime and victimization is no more evident than in the Aboriginal community. 28

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The most recent data gathered during the 2001 Census on organized religion and Aboriginal peoples identified 1,359,010 respondents as Aboriginal and 2.0 percent claimed Aboriginal spirituality as their religion. In contrast, 42.5 percent claimed to be Catholic, 22.1 percent claimed to be Protestant, and 28.2 percent said they participate in no religion. When focussed on people living on reserve, 4.0 percent claimed Aboriginal spirituality. By far the vast majority of respondents on reserve claimed Catholicism at 44.2 percent; the remaining 31.7 percent claim Protestant and 16.1 percent no religion. 29 The vast majority of Aboriginal people in Canada identify themselves as Christian and consider their traditional spirituality paganism or devil worship. Take for example one experience I had in an Aboriginal community where a group of community members tried to revitalize ceremony by having a traditionalist conduct a ‘sweat lodge’ ceremony. During a community meeting, one person in the audience suggested that having the lodge by the village was “scaring the kids,” that they were all “scared to go near that thing.” He described it as “a spook shack” and demanded that it be removed. In one conversation I had with a member of the same community, it was suggested that university was the reason why her children stopped going to church and questioned the usefulness of education because of the impact it had on their perception of the church and religion, saying she blamed university for driving her children from the church. In more than one community I have visited in Canada, I have heard people defend church-run residential schools saying that they actually had a positive experience at school and credited the school for their success in life. This despite the fact that they were torn from their families at a very young age and were painfully aware of the types of physical and sexual abuses many Aboriginal children faced at State/Church schools. These brief examples speak to the kind of tension religion can create among community members and its role in the creation and escalation of conflict in Aboriginal contexts. Adding to the complexity, many communities might have more than one Christian religion within its boundaries. For example, one isolated community on Hudson’s Bay had eight churches, all different denominations, in a community of approximately fifteen hundred people. This creates conflict among various church parishioners and between traditionalists and Christian believers. A social worker who worked in the community explained to me that many clients struggled with guilt and fear originating with Christian beliefs of right and wrong, and heaven and hell as a driver in their self-destructive behaviors. Clearly, colonists were very effective at converting the Canadian Indigenous population creating what Johan Galtung would call ‘cultural violence’ that becomes embedded in the norms of society. Direct violence, he suggests, is an event; structural violence is a process. Cultural

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violence is an invariant, a permanence remaining the same for long periods. 30 Perhaps what is more significant for peace-building is the objective of intervention and the subsequent design of intervention strategies to meet those objectives. Fisher asserted that the way in which conflict is defined, perceived, responded to, and managed is culturally embedded or that there is a “culture of conflict.” 31 Similarly, in each society there is also a culture of peace. Thus, peace is defined, perceived, responded to, and managed within a society. In the context of Aboriginal peoples in Canada, colonial narratives associated with organized religion contributed to the ontological violence of Westernization 32 that continues to negatively impact the lives of resident Indigenous peoples and perpetuate a culture of violence. 33 This process has contributed to the loss of a peace culture within Aboriginal communities in Canada that practiced balance and harmony among people and the natural and spiritual worlds. 34 LAND AND ABORIGINAL SPIRITUALITY History and narratives like the civilized/savage dichotomy 35 all relate to the spread of culture or the use of culture as a tool for conquest. Critical in the approach was the use of Christian ideology and organizational structure by the Canadian State to justify the legal theft of Aboriginal lands. The trauma inflicted on Indigenous peoples resulting from the spread of European thought and the refining and elevating elements of European culture has as much to do with gaining access to lands and resources for exploitation as it does with nation building. Land not only provides sustenance for physical survival but it also provides a sacred relationship forming the basis of Aboriginal spirituality, identity, and culture centered on the environment in which Aboriginal people live. 36 Wilson suggests, therefore, that “The distance between ourselves and the environment is sacred, and so you do ceremonies to bridge that space or distance.” 37 Land has a cultural context based on the norms of specific societies embedded in narratives that use the environment as symbolic references for the transference of culture related to conflict and peace. Narratives in Aboriginal contexts allow the separation from fact and fiction: The “Cree clearly differentiates achimoowin (‘fact’) from atowkehwin (‘fiction’).” 38 For societies like Indigenous peoples that traditionally or continue to live close to the land, these symbolic references found in narratives are particularly salient for cultural continuity and identity formation. They act as the guideposts of ceremonial practices necessary for the retention and movement of distinct cultures through time. 39 To illustrate I provide the two following examples from distinct Aboriginal groups in Canada.

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A Siksika Elder from Western Canada explained to me the importance of ‘medicine bundles’ for Siksika culture. He shared that medicine bundles are like icons in a computer. If you click on an icon, up pops another window and you will receive information related to the symbol. For the Siksika, each component of a medicine bundle acts as symbolic representation of an aspect of their history, and as a way to ensure that their cultural narratives were passed from one generation to the next. With the coming of ethnographers and archaeologists who placed icons from medicine bundles or entire bundles in museum collections, so passed the stories associated with those symbols. The result is a permanent gap in Siksika history and a loss of cultural continuity. “Bundles ensure the survival and well-being of the community, bands, extended families, and individuals. They also emphasize a person’s status, have particular functions, and are a physical and abstract manifestation of the traditional Blackfoot belief and social system.” 40 Similarly, in Anishinabe culture, birch bark scrolls were used to document and pass along ceremonial practices, histories, and legends. 41 “The Anishnawbe painted birch bark scrolls with red ochre to record songs using mystical representation of sounds.” 42 Many of these scrolls now rest in museums or personal collections, and in some instances the stories associated with the symbols have been permanently lost to their Indigenous custodians. Dewdney provides a comprehensive inventory and interpretation of Ojibway scrolls including “early charts” described by La Pointe in 1850, origin scrolls, migration charts, master scrolls, ghost lodge charts, sky degrees, ritual charts, deviant scrolls, and enigmatic scrolls. In some cases, birch bark scrolls ensured the continuity of culture by the passing of their symbolic knowledge teachings through ceremonial practices. However, with colonization “the young people, actively—sometimes brutally—discouraged from speaking their own language on the school premises, began to lose their childhood fluency, and along with that their sense of social and personal identity.” 43 The book is a compilation of Ojibway scrolls, it also includes the narrative of his key informant James Redsky, his desire to continue to learn the ways of the Midéwegun (a traditional Aboriginal religion), and the loss of traditional ceremony. These examples emphasize the importance of both ceremony and symbols in the transference of knowledge related to Aboriginal culture 44 and the assertion that if cultural symbols are lost, so is culture. The symbols associated with each narrative and their related teachings originate from the land. These connections among people, land, nature, symbols, and cultural identity is clearly articulated in the words of Alanis identifying Aboriginal pain as part of the land suggesting that we don’t carry just our everyday pain. We’re carrying the pain of our fathers, our mothers, our grandfathers, our grandmothers . . . it’s part of the land. 45 Conversely, symbols can be a powerful force in healing. The existence of the Creator and spiritual forces are integral for symbolic healing. We should not

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waste time debating whether they are real or not. Within the Aboriginal worldview, they are, and this is all that matters 46 since these assumptions guide interpretation of laws, rules, customs, and actions. 47 This fact suggests a peace nested within the Aboriginal worldview of which Aboriginal people’s access to healthy traditional land is essential. THE ROOTS OF VIOLENCE Religion is used by elites as a political instrument to demonize the other serving to further divide communities and escalate tensions in protracted ethnoterritorial conflicts. 48 In Canada, this process transformed society into a culture of violence. The process by which discussion and debate transform into cultural violence is complicated. However, the following provides a glimpse into historical examples of how these concepts of the civilized/savage dichotomy, the natural and progressive nature of colonialism, and the use of religion translated into violent action towards Aboriginal peoples. Henderson 49 asserts that the idea of the colonial state was built on violence towards Indigenous others; on cruelty, destruction, and genocide. Imagination controls the intellectual justification of violence in the context of cognitive and cultural imperialism. There are four historical examples that contribute to the argument that “empire and colonialism are both ‘natural and progressive’ rather than unjust and oppressive.” 50 They are: i) The negotiation of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 that invented not only modern international law but also the natural rights of individuals in national law; ii) The great Christian debates about natural law conducted by the conquistador elite in Spain at the beginning of colonization 1530–1550; iii) Thomas Hobbes’s 1651 discussion of Indians in the state of nature that created the international otherness of Indigenous Nations and tribes; and, iv) The culmination of the ongoing cultural otherness with the Congress of Vienna 1814–1815 where European states and statesmen rejected natural law, developing instead a Eurocentric, positivist view of international law. 51 Critical in all these discussions was the assertion that in order to be human and have the same rights as Europeans, one must be Christian. The role government agents played in the tyranny that deprived Aboriginal people of virtually all of their autonomy was often driven by religious views. Early Indian policy in Upper Canada in the 1830s was designed to inculcate British values and habits into First Nations people. Responsibility for this task was divided between Christian missionaries and Indian agents. Rivalries between Anglican and Roman Catholic churches caused destructive tensions sowing hatred among formerly friendly groups. 52 Their role as regulators of Aboriginal women’s sexuality was an implicit part of their responsibility and was based on a Chris-

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tian concept of morality. 53 Often times, Indian agents had the right to regulate Aboriginal women’s sexuality and enforce obedience to EuroCanadian models of correct gender expression. “The ideological position of an individual Indian agent powerfully shaped his response to the Aboriginal predicament of the period, and thus the nature of his impact on his clients.” 54 Similarly, in Hunters and Bureaucrats: Power, Knowledge, and AboriginalState Relations in the Southwest Yukon, Paul Nadasdy 55 discusses the role of Church and State in the Kluane Region. He asserts that church and state can be viewed as a single monolithic institution. Often, they cooperated with one another in systematic efforts to alter First Nations peoples’ way of life. Furthermore, Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches vied with one another for access to Aboriginal populations and government funding. 56 In Enough to Keep Them Alive: Indian Welfare in Canada, 1873–1965, Shewell 57 details the evolution of social assistance in Aboriginal communities. He asserts that policy was administered mainly by the church, which dominated Indian education, and by the Department of Indian Affairs. 58 These three books provide detailed accounts of how the nation state of Canada used religious ideology in an attempt to civilize and assimilate through the veil of protection. 59 The reserve system, of which Indian agents were the final authority, was conceived of as a social laboratory where the Indian could be prepared for coping with the European. Eradicating old Indian values through education, religion, new economic and political systems, and a new concept of property was, 60 and continues to be, the primary goal of Canada’s Indian policy. Thus, the church, state, and Aboriginal peoples have been intimately engaged in a colonial project that continues in contemporary times. The recent Indian Residential Schools Settlement and the resulting truth and reconciliation process provide examples of the desire of Aboriginal peoples to have input or control over state policies that affect them. Canada’s desire is to claim that some are included and thereby retain political power by presenting a narrative of inclusion that accomplishes nothing more than retention of hegemonic power within the Christian majority of colonialists and supporting structural violence. 61 It seems that the influence of Indian Department agents dedicated to social engineering, and God himself represented by Methodist, Baptist, and Anglican Missionaries 62 remains alive in modern Canada. CONCLUSION This discussion began with an introduction to the historical patterns of physical space and geography in Canada. The dominant ideology of early colonists in the form of Christianity and enlightenment had, and contin-

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ues to have, a profound impact on the landscape of the country—both physically and socio-psychologically. I posed a critical question for the field of PACS, how do we ensure we do not perpetrate violence on Indigenous peoples as we actively travel the world bringing our largely Western ideological messages of peace and hope? In asking this question I compared contemporary world ideological movements like environmentalism, human rights, democratization, or neoliberal peace and asked if they are any different than the driving forces behind early colonialism. Early settlers came to North America for various reasons. Clearly, a primary driver was the promise of a better life predicated on access to and ownership of land. Driven by a resource need for economic exploitation, European elites created the myth of wild unsettled lands to justify violence against Indigenous peoples to allow the removal of families from resource-rich geography. Indians would have to be controlled and subjugated, so that their lands could be secured for immigration and railway building. 63 Upon arrival, colonists made connections among our sacred view of the land, our culture, and the intimate connection between the two. They quickly learned that in order to access the vast natural resources of our land for economic exploitation, they would have to sever that sacred connection. The physical natural environment for Aboriginal people is sacred, and this is reflected in the ways our ceremonial practices interact with the environment. In Aboriginal contexts religion and land are synonymous. Many parts of our culture and organized society pay respect to the natural world understanding that in order to ensure survival we must balance use, share with one another, and ensure a healthy connection to land. This concept is a key consideration in our worldview and is referred to as holism. Peace in Aboriginal contexts is nested in the paradigm of holism. Peace is never described as an end state or an objective to be achieved as in the classic Kurt Lewin model for change. 64 It is a neverending life long process that embraces good relationships—not simply with other people, but with all of creation—both animate and inanimate. The emphasis of Western ideals within popular forms of peacebuilding undermines the cultural traditions of local communities and promotes modern versions of the civilized/savage dichotomy. Similar to historic examples of the colonial project, in order to justify access to lands and resources for economic gain, local Indigenous populations and their cultural practices must be promoted as backwards, ineffective, or lacking modern functionality. 65 Key in convincing world populations that war and subsequent peacebuilding projects are justified is the popular narrative that Indigenous peoples require assistance from the enlightened West. 66 Despite their survival as populations for thousands of years, they cannot take care of themselves and thus require Western education and experts to show them how to survive. 67 A primary tool in this plan was

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the use of organized religion, typically Christian based, and predominantly Catholic. This historical loss of peace culture not only contributed to the violence among many Aboriginal peoples, but the ongoing active recruitment, conversion, and fight to retain Aboriginal peoples in organized religion continues to be a prominent driving force behind violence in Aboriginal communities. “Religion, like language, constitutes one of the main cultural drivers of a society; it is deeply implicated in establishing and maintaining a culture’s worldview, identity, and continuity.” 68 The lessons for PACS are clear; in developing approaches to peacebuilding activities, localized community based definitions of peace grounded in traditional spirituality (as opposed to religion) must be the first consideration. In Aboriginal contexts, this means a rediscovery of traditional peace processes with recognition of the role organized religion continues to play in perpetuating structural violence in many communities undermining subsequent peacebuilding activities. NOTES 1. Robin Jarvis Brownlie, A Fatherly Eye: Indian Agents, Government Power, and Aboriginal Resistance in Ontario, 1918–1939 (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2003), 3. 2. Brownlie, A Fatherly Eye, xvi; John L. Tobias, “Protection, Civilization, Assimilation: An Outline History of Canada’s Indian Policy,” in As Long As the Sun Shines and the Water Flows: A Reader in Canadian Native Studies, ed. Ian L. Getty and Antoine S. Lussier (Vancouver, BC.: UBC Press, 1983), 145–154. 3. Antonia Mills, Eagle Down is Our Law: Witsuwit’en Law, Feasts, and Land Claims (Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 1994) 4. Brownlie, A Fatherly Eye, 134. 5. Hugh Shewell, Enough to Keep Them Alive: Indian Welfare in Canada, 1873—1965 (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2004), 9. 6. Lori G. Beaman, “Aboriginal Spirituality and the Legal Construction of Freedom or Religion,” Journal of Church and State 44, no. 1 (2002): 135–149. 7. Ward Churchill, A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas 1492 to Present (San Francisco, CA.: City Lights Books, 1997); James P. Howley, The Beothuks or Red Indians: The Aboriginal Inhabitants of Newfoundland (Toronto, ON: Coles Publishing Company Limited, 1915); Andrea Smith, Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide (Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2005). 8. Jessica Joyce Christie, Landscapes of Origin in the Americas: Creation Narratives Linking Ancient Places and Present Communities (Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2009), xi. 9. Jill Oakes, Rick Riewe, Rachel ten Bruggencate and Ainslie Cogswell, Sacred Landscapes (Winnipeg, MB: Aboriginal Issues Press, University of Manitoba, 2009). 10. Ute Lischke and David T. McNab, “Introduction to Sacred Landscapes,” in Sacred Landscapes ed. Jill Oakes, Rick Riewe, Rachel ten Bruggencate and Ainslie Cogswell, (Winnipeg, MB: Aboriginal Issues Press University of Manitoba, 2009), vii–viii. 11. Eugene Richard Atleo, A Nuu-chah-nulth Worldview: Tswalk (Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2004). 12. Mills, Eagle Down.

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13. Estelle Simard, “Culturally Restorative Child Welfare Practice—A Special Emphasis on Cultural Attachment Theory,” First Peoples Child & Family Review 4, no. 2, (2009): 44–61. 14. Naomi Adelson, “Re-imagining Aboriginality: An Indigenous Peoples’ Response to Social Suffering,” Transcultural Psychiatry, 37, no. 1 (2000): 11–34. 15. Ian Davidson-Hunt, “Indigenous Lands Management, Cultural Landscapes and Anishinaabe People of Shoal Lake, Northwestern Ontario, Canada.” Environments 31, no. 1 (2003): 21–41, 22. 16. Dave L. Brown, Managing Conflict at Organizational Interfaces (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1983), 22. 17. Leo McAvoy, Dan McDonald and Mark Carlson, “American Indian/First Nation Place Attachment to Park Lands: The Case of the Nuu-chah-nulth of British Columbia,” Journal of Park and Recreation Administration 21, no. 2 (2003): 84–104. 18. Christie, Landscapes of Origin. 19. Alexander Morris, The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories including Negotiations on Which They Were Based (Calgary, AB: Fifth House Publishers, 1991). 20. D.J. Hall, “A Serene Atmosphere? Treaty 1 Revisited,” The Canadian Journal of Native Studies 4, no. 2 (1984): 321–358. 21. Brownlie, A Fatherly Eye, 2. 22. Linda Tuhai-Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples (New York: Zed Books Limited, 1999), 34. 23. Robert J. Burrowes, The Strategy of Nonviolent Defense: A Gandhian Approach (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996). 24. Shin Imai, Katharine Logan, and Gary Stein, Aboriginal Law Handbook (Scarborough, ON: Carswell—Thomson Professional Publishing, 1993), 5. 25. “2006 Census: Aboriginal Peoples in Canada 2006: Inuit, Metis and First Nations, 2006 Census: Findings.” Statistics Canada last modified September 22, 2009, http:/ /www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/as-sa/97 – 558/index-eng.cfm. 26. Lawrence Deane, Dennis C. Bracken, and Larry Morrissette, “Desistance Within An Urban Aboriginal Gang,” Probation Journal: The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice 54, no. 2 (2007): 125–141. 27. Ibid., 127. 28. Paul Nicolas Cormier, “Indigenous Youth Conflict Intervention: The Transformation of Butterflies,” First Peoples Child & Family Review 29, no. 2 (Winter 2010): 23–33. 29. Marc Fonda, “Towards Cultural Well-being: Implications of Revitalising Traditional Aboriginal Religion,” Canadian Issues (Winter 2009): 73–78. 30. Johan Galtung, “Cultural Violence,” Journal of Peace Research 27, no. 3 (Aug. 1990): 291–305, 294–295. 31. Ronald J. Fisher, “Methods of Third-Party Intervention,” Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation 18, (2001): http://www.berghof-handbook.net/documents/publications/fisher_hb.pdf . 32. Polly O. Walker, “Decolonizing Conflict Resolution Addressing the Ontological Violence of Westernization,” The American Indian Quarterly 28, no. 3 and 4, (Summer/ Fall, 2004): 527–549. 33. Johan Galtung, “Violence, Peace, and Peace Research,” Journal of Peace Research 6, no. 3 (Sept. 1969): 167–191. 34. Brian Rice, Seeing the World With Aboriginal Eyes (Winnipeg, MB: Aboriginal Issues Press, 2005). 35. Emma Larocque, When the Other Is Me: Native Resistance Discourse 1850–1990 (Winnipeg, MB: University of Manitoba Press, 2010). 36. James Youngblood Henderson, “Postcolonial Ghost Dancing: Diagnosing European Colonialism,” in Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision, ed. Marie Battiste (Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2009), 57–76.

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37. Shawn Wilson, Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods (Black Point, NS: Fernwood Publishing, 2008), 87. 38. Larocque, When the Other Is Me, 29. 39. Christie, Landscapes of Origin; Oakes, Riewe, Bruggencate and Cogswell, Sacred Landscapes; Carlson, The Power of Place. 40. Reg Crowshoe and Sybille Manneschmidt, Akak’stiman: A Framework for Decision-Making and Mediation Processes (Calgary, AB: University of Calgary Press, 2002), 19. 41. Edward Benton-Benai, The Mishomis Book: The Voice of the Ojibway (Hayward, WI: Indian Country Communications Inc., 1988). 42. Rice, Seeing the World With, 21. 43. Selwyn Dewdney, The Sacred Scrolls of the Southern Ojibway (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 1975). 44. James B. Waldram, The Way of the Pipe: Aboriginal Spirituality and Symbolic Healing in Canadian Prisons (Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 1997). 45. Larocque, When the Other Is Me, 32. 46. Waldram, The Way of the Pipe, 78. 47. Leroy Little Bear, “Jagged Worldviews Colliding,” in Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision, ed. Marie Battiste (Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2009), 77–85. 48. Sean Byrne and Amos Nadan, “The Social Cube Analytical Model and Protracted Ethnopolitical Conflicts,” in Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies, ed. Thomas Matyók, Jessica Senehi and Sean Byrne (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2012), 199–215. 49. James Youngblood Henderson, “The Context of the State of Nature,” in Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision, ed. Marie Battiste (Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2009), 11–38. 50. James Youngblood Henderson, Indigenous Diplomacy and the Rights of Peoples: Achieving UN Recognition (Saskatoon, SK: Purich Publishing Ltd, 2008), 15. 51. Henderson, Indigenous Diplomacy; Henderson, “The Context of the State of Nature,” 11–38. 52. Brownlie, A Fatherly Eye, 15–30. 53. Brownlie, A Fatherly Eye, 142–143. 54. Brownlie, A Fatherly Eye, ii. 55. Paul Nadasdy, Hunters and Bureaucrats: Power, Knowledge, and Aboriginal State Relations in the Southwest Yukon, (Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2003). 56. Ibid., 38. 57. Shewell, Enough to Keep Them Alive: Indian Welfare in Canada, 1873—1965. 58. Ibid., 24. 59. Tobias, “Protection, Civilization, Assimilation: An Outline History of Canada’s Indian Policy,” 145–154. 60. Ibid., 132. 61. Byrne and Nadan, “The Social Cube,” 67. 62. John S. Milloy, “The Early Indian Acts: Developmental Strategy and Constitutional Change,” in As Long As the Sun Shines and the Water Flows: A Reader in Canadian Native Studies, ed. Ian L. Getty and Antoine S. Lussier, (Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 1983), 145–154. 63. Shewell, Enough to Keep, 13. 64. Lewin, Kurt, “Frontiers in Group Dynamics: Concept, Method and Reality in Social Science; Social Equilibria and Social Change,” Human Relations, 1: 5–41 65. Henderson, Postcolonial Ghost Dancing. 66. Henderson, Indigenous Diplomacy. 67. Erica-Irene Daes, “Prologue: The Experience of Colonization Around the World,” in Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision, ed. Marie Battiste (Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2009), 3–8. 68. Fonda, “Towards Cultural Well-being: Implications of Revitalising Traditional Aboriginal Religion.”

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BIBLIOGRAPHY “2006 Census: Aboriginal Peoples in Canada 2006: Inuit, Metis and First Nations, 2006 Census: Findings.” Statistics Canada. Last modified September 22, 2009. http:// www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/as-sa/97–558/index-eng.cfm. Adelson, Naomi. “Re-imagining Aboriginality: An Indigenous Peoples’ Response to Social Suffering.” Transcultural Psychiatry, 37, no. 1 (March 2000): 11–34. Alfred, Taiaiake. Peace, Power, Righteousness. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 1999. Atleo, Eugene Richard. A Nuu-chah-nulth Worldview: Tswalk. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2004. Beaman, Lori G. “Aboriginal Spirituality and the Legal Construction of Freedom or Religion.” Journal of Church and State 44, no. 1 (Winter 2002): 135–149. Benton-Benai, Edward. The Mishomis Book: The Voice of the Ojibway. Hayward, WI: Indian Country Communications Inc., 1988. Brown, Dave L. Managing Conflict at Organizational Interfaces. Reading, MA: AddisonWesley Publishing Company, 1983. Brownlie, Robin Jarvis. A Fatherly Eye: Indian Agents, Government Power, and Aboriginal Resistance in Ontario, 1918–1939. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2003. Burrowes, Robert J. The Strategy of Nonviolent Defense: A Gandhian Approach. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996. Byrne, Sean, and Amos Nadan. “The Social Cube Analytical Model and Protracted Ethnopolitical Conflicts.” In Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies, edited by Thomas Matyók, Jessica Senehi, and Sean Byrne, 199–215. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2012. Carlson, Keith Thor. The Power of Place: The Problem of Time: Aboriginal Identity and Historical Consciousness in the Cauldron of Colonialism. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2010. Christie, Jessica Joyce. Landscapes of Origin in the Americas: Creation Narratives Linking Ancient Places and Present Communities. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2009. Churchill, Ward. A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas 1492 to Present. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1997. Cormier, Paul Nicolas. “Indigenous Youth Conflict Intervention: The Transformation of Butterflies.” First Peoples Child & Family Review 29, no. 2 (Winter 2010): 23–33. Crowshoe, Reg, and Sybille Manneschmidt. Akak’stiman: A Framework for DecisionMaking and Mediation Processes. Calgary, AB: University of Calgary Press, 2002. Daes, Erica-Irene. “Prologue: The Experience of Colonization Around the World.” In Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision, edited by Marie Battiste, 3–8. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2009. Davidson-Hunt, Ian. “Indigenous Lands Management, Cultural Landscapes and Anishinaabe People of Shoal Lake, Northwestern Ontario, Canada.” Environments 31, no. 1 (2003): 21–41. Deane, Lawrence, Dennis C. Bracken, and Larry Morrissette. “Desistance Within an Urban Aboriginal Gang.” Probation Journal: The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice 54, no. 2, (June 2007): 125–141. Dewdney, Selwyn. The Sacred Scrolls of the Southern Ojibway. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 1975. Fisher, Ronald, J. “Methods of Third-Party Intervention.” Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation 18, (2001). http://www.berghof-handbook.net/documents/publications/fisher_hb.pdf . Fonda, Marc. “Towards Cultural Well-being: Implications of Revitalising Traditional Aboriginal Religion.” Canadian Issues (Winter 2009): 73–78. Galtung, Johan. “Cultural Violence.” Journal of Peace Research 27, no. 3 (Aug. 1990): 291–305.

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———. “Violence, Peace, and Peace Research.” Journal of Peace Research 6, no. 3 (Sept. 1969): 167–191. Hall, D.J. “A Serene Atmosphere? Treaty 1 Revisited.” The Canadian Journal of Native Studies 4, no. 2 (1984): 321–358. Henderson, James Youngblood. Indigenous Diplomacy and the Rights of Peoples: Achieving UN Recognition. Saskatoon, SK: Purich Publishing Ltd, 2008. ———. “Postcolonial Ghost Dancing: Diagnosing European Colonialism.” In Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision, edited by Marie Battiste, 57–76. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2009. ———. “The Context of the State of Nature.” In Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision, edited by Marie Battiste, 11–38. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2009. Howley, James P. The Beothuks or Red Indians: The Aboriginal Inhabitants of Newfoundland. Toronto, ON: Coles Publishing Company Limited, 1915. Imai, Shin, Katharine Logan, and Gary Stein. Aboriginal Law Handbook. Scarborough, ON: Carswell-Thomson Professional Publishing, 1993. Larocque, Emma. When the Other Is Me: Native Resistance Discourse 1850–1990. Winnipeg, MB: University of Manitoba Press, 2010. Lewin, Kurt. “Frontiers in Group Dynamics: Concept, Method and Reality in Social Science; Social Equilibria and Social Change.” Human Relations, 1 (1947): 5–41. Lischke, Ute, and David T. Mcnab. “Introduction to Sacred Landscapes.” In Sacred Landscapes edited by Jill Oakes, Rick Riewe, Rachel ten Bruggencate, and Ainslie Cogswell, vii-viii. Winnipeg, MB: Aboriginal Issues Press University of Manitoba, 2009. Little Bear, Leroy. “Jagged Worldviews Colliding.” In Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision, edited by Marie Battiste, 77–85. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2009. McAvoy, Leo, Dan McDonald, and Mark Carlson. “American Indian/First Nation Place Attachment to Park Lands: The Case of the Nuu-chah-nulth of British Columbia.” Journal of Park and Recreation Administration 21, no. 2, (2003): 84–104. Milloy, John S. “The Early Indian Acts: Developmental Strategy and Constitutional Change.” In As Long As the Sun Shines and the Water Flows: A Reader in Canadian Native Studies, edited by Ian L. Getty and Antoine S. Lussier, 145–154. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 1983. Mills, Antonia. Eagle Down is Our Law: Witsuwit’en Law, Feasts, and Land Claims. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 1994. Morris, Alexander. The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories including Negotiations on Which They Were Based. Calgary, AB: Fifth House Publishers, 1991. Nadasdy, Paul. Hunters and Bureaucrats: Power, Knowledge, and Aboriginal State Relations in the Southwest Yukon. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2003. Oakes, Jill, Rick Riewe, Rachel ten Bruggencate and Ainslie Cogswell. Sacred Landscapes. Winnipeg, MB: Aboriginal Issues Press University of Manitoba, 2009. Rice, Brian. Seeing the World With Aboriginal Eyes. Winnipeg, MB: Aboriginal Issues Press, 2005. Said, Edward, W. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. Shewell, Hugh. Enough to Keep Them Alive: Indian Welfare in Canada, 1873—1965. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2004. Simard, Estelle. “Culturally Restorative Child Welfare Practice—A Special Emphasis on Cultural Attachment Theory.” First Peoples Child & Family Review 4, no. 2, (Winter 2009): 44–61. Smith, Andrea. Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2005. Tobias, John L. “Protection, Civilization, Assimilation: An Outline History of Canada’s Indian Policy.” In As Long As the Sun Shines and the Water Flows: A Reader in Canadian Native Studies, edited by Ian L. Getty and Antoine S. Lussier, 145–154. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 1983.

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Tuhai-Smith, Linda. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. New York: Zed Books Limited, 1999. Waldram, James B. The Way of the Pipe: Aboriginal Spirituality and Symbolic Healing in Canadian Prisons. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 1997. Walker, Polly O. “Decolonizing Conflict Resolution Addressing the Ontological Violence of Westernization.” The American Indian Quarterly, 28 nos. 3 and 4, (Summer/ Fall, 2004): 527–549. Wilson, Shawn. Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods. Black Point, NS: Fernwood Publishing, 2008.

ELEVEN Mennonite International Peacebuilding and Local Ownership Chuck Thiessen

The leaders of international governmental and nongovernmental peacebuilding organizations are faced with difficult programming decisions as they venture into contexts devastated by violence. A subset of exceptionally difficult decisions lie within the international-domestic inter-relationship and, in particular, revolve around the necessity of increased local ownership of peacebuilding decision-making and the implementation of peacebuilding activities. Difficulties arise since peacebuilding leaders in conflict-affected contexts are asked to make these sorts of decisions with virtually no empirical evidence regarding practices leading to increased local ownership. 1 As a result, instances of concrete local ownership of peacebuilding activities remain rare and internationally led peacebuilding ventures often remain controlled by outsiders for the entire lifespan of project-work. 2 Thus, many international peacebuilding activities ultimately fail to contribute to sustainable peace and development in their local context. 3 This chapter aims to close the gap between the good intentions of international organizations and the actual on-the-ground peacebuilding practice that has, thus far, struggled to grant local individuals and groups control over project design and project implementation. To this end, the proceeding discussion highlights the small-scale, but well-recognized, peacebuilding work of a group of North American Mennonite organizations and individuals that has quietly been wrestling with the idea of increased local ownership for over fifty years. 4 Thus, this chapter holds 181

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up select practices that have incubated inside of Mennonite peacebuilding initiatives around the globe as both examples worth emulating and as evidence of the benefits to increased local ownership of peacebuilding work. To achieve this outcome, this chapter’s discussion will include: (1) a survey of the local ownership problematic; (2) a brief summary of the development of peacebuilding practice within the Mennonite community; (3) a discussion of several thematic areas emerging from Mennonite peacebuilding practice that allows for local ownership; (4) a brief discussion of dilemmas that arise with Mennonite peacebuilding; and (4) a consideration of whether “local ownership” success in Mennonite experiences can be reproduced by larger and/or upper-level and/or governmental organizations. THE “LOCAL OWNERSHIP” PROBLEM The theme of local ownership is increasingly evident in peacebuilding rhetoric emerging from war-torn contexts, and has been legitimated by international donor policies such as the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. 5 The recent spotlight on inadequate local ownership coincides with (and is perhaps intensified by) recent critiques of prominent international peacebuilding methodologies that prop up liberal democratization and neo-liberal marketization as panaceas for war-torn contexts. 6 In response, a body of emerging “emancipatory” peacebuilding theory 7 is pushing beyond the currently accepted status quo and is exploring alternative peacebuilding paradigms that are much less coercive and more in tune with local voices. As such, emancipatory peacebuilding expands upon the current fixation with top-down state-building projects and, rather, holistically re-conceptualizes peacebuilding as a bottom-up activity that allows local conditions and capacities to determine what type of peace will emerge in a particular context. 8 Emancipatory peacebuilding theory requires a fundamental shift in both voice and strategy in order to ensure increased local ownership of international interventions. Peacebuilders must eschew internationalcentered language 9 and make room for comprehensive solutions that ensure space for indigenous and/or traditional peace-making processes. 10 Unfortunately this sort of theorizing about alternative and emancipatory peacebuilding processes has not translated into revised peacebuilding practice inside of major international peacebuilding interventions due to a variety of barriers and dilemmas. First, at a basic level the meaning of “local ownership” remains convoluted and unclear. Despite holding a sort of commonsense wisdom that people generally care for and protect the things that they own, the meaning of local ownership is vastly complicated by its intensely political nature. For example, governmental actors and intervening foreign militaries have often perceived local owner-

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ship as simply local “buy-in,” which pushes for local adoption of an externally designed initiative. Second, the international-local power relationship in many war-torn contexts is hindered by local dependency on international experts and funding. Insisting on locally led project designs and control is certainly difficult when someone else is holding the purse strings. International groups are also, understandably, unwilling to relinquish control over their resources and personnel in order to remain accountable to home constituents. Third, international peacebuilding organizations are struggling to identify appropriate local actors with whom they can work towards increased local ownership. For example, should civil society or government actors be the primary focus, and should informal, traditional (and often undemocratic) organizations be given precedence over formal, democratic institutions? 11 Fourth, granting ownership and increased authority to government and civil society counterparts that are known to be corrupt and/or lacking the necessary capacity puts international peacebuilders into an obvious predicament. And fifth, can international peacebuilders grant domestic government and civil society institutions increased control when local human rights reform falls short of international human rights standards (e.g., religious freedom, gender rights, child labour, etc.)? These barriers and dilemmas pose a serious challenge for international peacebuilding actors. However, this chapter proposes that Mennonite peacebuilding organizations have not necessarily been held captive by these barriers and dilemmas, and have been able to push forward with initiatives that permit local authority and control. Thus, Mennonite peacebuilding experiences provide lessons that are instructive for transforming international-local relations to facilitate the journey towards local ownership of peacebuilding. Before these lessons are explored, it is first necessary to briefly survey the development of international peacebuilding practice and ethics inside of the North American Mennonite community. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MENNONITE INTERNATIONAL PEACEBUILDING The development of a peacebuilding practice and ethic within the Mennonite faith community is a relatively recent phenomenon, and has largely occurred in the post-WWII period. Two streams of inquiry are necessary to investigate this developmental journey. One stream surveys Mennonite spirituality as it relates to peacebuilding, and the other summarizes Mennonite religious and social history and the emergence of an internationalized peacemaking program from within a traditionally passive, non-resistant, and separated ethnic group. However, it should be noted that Mennonite spirituality and society is widely varied, and this

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section will simply present generalizations that will not necessarily align with the reality of some Mennonite groups. Mennonite (Anabaptist) Christian spirituality is intensely focused on the life and teachings of Jesus and, as such, elevates the teachings of the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) of the New Testament as the primary guide for spirituality. Jesus’s teachings in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5—7) and, in particular, his exhortation to love one’s enemy and to “not resist an evil person” (Matthew 5:39), along with Paul’s teaching about “overcoming evil with good” (Romans 12:14) have become central texts guiding the Mennonite Christian community. As a result, peace is viewed as close to the heart of the Christian gospel, and faithful followers of Jesus should be fundamentally concerned with peacemaking and creating a “holy space” where individuals (and even nations) can meet together to work out their problems. John Paul Lederach, a pioneering Mennonite peacebuilder, described this sort of peacebuilding space as the point where Truth, Mercy, Peace, and Justice meet in the restoration of damaged relationships. 12 Thus, pacifism has become a basic component to Mennonite belief, and has traditionally led to an avoidance of military service, a distinct separation of church and state, and a focus on peacemaking in the outreach of the Mennonite church. Underlying Mennonite spirituality is a distinct sense of community in the context of the local church. Mennonites tend to believe that the church community is the forum in which the Bible is read and interpreted, as well as the inspiration for a Jesus-centered ethic for personal living. The church community is viewed as the clearest expression of God’s kingdom on earth, and should be a sustaining and caring structure for its members. Mennonite theology emphasizes the “priesthood” of all Christians, and thus tends to be wary of authority structures, which ensures that church leadership and decision-making structures are quite “flat” in nature. Mennonite spirituality is quite aware that religion and its organizational structures have often been associated with power, status, and wealth. 13 This awareness has perhaps inspired the growing involvement of Mennonites in the lives of the poor, the powerless, and the oppressed through their peacebuilding activities. Thus, addressing violence, poverty, and injustice is viewed as an intensely spiritual activity that recognizes each person (despite their identity) as a carrier of God’s image and a revelation of God. Therefore, Mennonite peacebuilding will often side with the poor, and with those staring down the barrel of the oppressor’s gun. Another result has been the intentional linking of spirituality and economics. The spirituality-economics link has led some Mennonite groups to counter the individualistic-consumerist tendencies of North American culture with a simple lifestyle, generous giving, and economic justice/equality work. 14

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There are many other important aspects to Mennonite spirituality, but the preceding introduction should reveal a bit of the spiritual motivation for the growing emphasis on international peacebuilding amongst Mennonites. The discussion will now turn to the social and strategic adjustments that have been made within the Mennonite community in North America in the post-WWII period that have resulted in an active Mennonite peacebuilding program in several conflict-affected nations around the globe. In their book, Mennonite Peacemaking: From Quietism to Activism, Driedger and Kraybill 15 note that North American Mennonites have traditionally lived in rural communities separated from the cultural mainstream. 16 Perhaps forged by the extreme persecution Mennonites suffered in Europe, Mennonites have developed a clear sense of dualism between the church and the world. They have often separated themselves from public life, and have emphasized the moral necessity of living a quiet and simple life. As a result, many Mennonites have withdrawn from the larger world and wider social order. Prior to WWII a social theology of “nonresistance” was deeply engrained, and became intertwined with many other beliefs and practices. Nonresistance implied not fighting back against an enemy or opponent. Nonresistance extended far beyond the avoidance of military involvement and bearing arms, and governed everyday interactions in the home, business, and community. For example, Mennonites were often willing to suffer wrongdoing as opposed to using violence in conflict, often refrained from litigation and the public legal system in disputes, and attempted to live peaceably with all people on all occasions. 17 Further, the central focus on nonresistance limited Mennonite public peacemaking to a refusal to participate in war. For example, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Peace Section was initially created to respond to the threat of the military draft in WWII and for communal protection against conscription in the United States. 18 However, the 1950s and 1960s witnessed a rapid peacemaking paradigm transformation amongst North American Mennonites as the forces of modernization eroded the hold of “nonresistance,” and made way for more active forms of civic engagement. 19 While perhaps building upon their limited connection to the outside world through church mission initiatives, Mennonites were inspired by the activism of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and joined both the racial struggle in urban centers such as Chicago and the resistance against the Vietnam War. In this way, Mennonites began to embrace the use of strategic action and nonviolent resistance to affect change in the political realm. By the 1980s a concern for justice and the language of peacemaking entered the Mennonite communal narrative, and Mennonite theologians legitimated mediation initiatives, reconciliation work, and community work that addressed injustice. 20 A belief evolved within the Mennonite community that propelled it to actively move outward to cross over ethnic, rural-urban, and interna-

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tional borders, and engage with a violent world without abandoning its peace-centered heritage. For example, Mennonite conflict scholars and practitioners developed a peacebuilding practice that moved beyond picking up the pieces after war and proposed that the roots of conflict must be addressed in conjunction with the provision of aid and development assistance. The public face of Mennonite peacebuilding includes numerous Mennonite individuals conducting peacebuilding work around the globe (e.g., John Paul Lederach and Ron Kraybill, amongst many others), and also includes a number of organizations, namely MCC, Mennonite Conciliation Service (MCS), International Conciliation Service (ICS), Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), and the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). 21 This chapter does not summarize the work of these individuals and organizations since this is done elsewhere. For example, a comprehensive treatment of Mennonite peacebuilding practice is contained in the book From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, which provides a case-study analysis of several Mennonite individuals and organizations in contexts such as Columbia, Haiti, Israel/Palestine, Liberia, Nicaragua, Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Somalia. 22 LOCAL OWNERSHIP IN MENNONITE INTERNATIONAL PEACEBUILDING PRACTICE North American Mennonite individuals and peacebuilding organizations have made significant contributions to the theory and practice of ensuring local ownership of peacebuilding activities in conflict-affected contexts. In particular, five themes are salient in Mennonite peacebuilding practice: (1) standing with the oppressed; (2) lengthened peacebuilding timeframes; (3) inclusion of the grassroots and marginalized; (4) relinquishing control and local empowerment; and (5) reliance upon local voices and knowledge. Once again, it is important to note that generalizations are necessary to succinctly discuss these themes here, and that a wide variety of practice exists on the ground inside of Mennonite-led peacebuilding project work. Also, these themes are neither exclusive nor unique to Mennonite peacebuilding actors. The numerous case studies in From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding 23 served as a valuable source of evidence for this section. In addition to this, evidence was gathered from informal research on Mennonite peacebuilding activities and organizations, from personal observations of Mennonite-led peacebuilding work, and from interactions with Mennonite peacebuilders.

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Standing with the Oppressed and Impoverished The practice of being physically present amongst suffering populations is a fundamental peacebuilding practice for Mennonite peacebuilders. 24 Physical presence often becomes a political act as peacebuilders avoid hiding inside of plush hotel rooms or behind security walls in conflict zones. Putting themselves “out there” requires sacrifice on the part of peacebuilders as they walk beside those who suffer and perhaps even shoulder some of the suffering. However, the inherent protection of holding international citizenship and the ability to leave in the face of danger does separate Mennonite peacebuilders from their hosts. The act of being present together with suffering populations is strategic in several respects. North American Mennonites carry multiple identities, one of which is holding either United States or Canadian citizenship. Because the U.S. and Canada are wealthy, influential, and militarily powerful, United States or Canadian citizenship can serve to protect local populations from violence. Perhaps the clearest expression of this is with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) peacebuilding work. CPT members enter contexts of insecurity and violence to stand between vulnerable individuals and populations and the guns of their oppressors. While in most instances CPT members have not been physically attacked by these oppressors, they have effectively used their citizenship identity to draw international attention to local violence. 25 Information regarding the local conflict can be quickly disseminated internationally through the networks of the CPT member. Physical presence can also serve to educate violent parties in a conflict zone. By quietly standing in the way of violence as opposed to physically attacking the oppressor, peacebuilders can legitimate the cause of the oppressed in the eyes of the oppressor, and perhaps motivate transformation in oppressor-oppressed relations. In addition to this, the presence of Mennonite peacebuilders may allow nonviolent methodologies of resisting oppression to be considered and utilized. So how does the theme of “presence” relate to local ownership? It is vital that local ownership be multi-level, multi-sectoral, and comprehensive in nature. Thus, the voices of all sub-groupings in the conflict-affected context become instrumental and instructive for peacebuilding project design, coordination, and implementation. If one or more groups are excluded and barred from any power, their voice will not be heard in the key peacebuilding forums and peace processes. Consequently, these groups may resort to direct violence and killing to force the necessary changes in power dynamics and have their voice heard. Instead, peacebuilders that are present in a conflict can model nonviolent methodologies for local groups to ensure their voice is heard. Local ownership of peacebuilding is not possible without having a voice.

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Lengthened Timeframes Mennonite peacebuilding has generally eschewed quick and shortterm initiatives and has engaged with local populations for significant amounts of time. This willingness to work slowly and patiently over long periods of time is legitimated by the institutional culture inside of Mennonite organizations, as well as by the wider Mennonite church community from which significant funding is procured. The willingness to incorporate longer peacebuilding timeframes allows for increased local ownership of peacebuilding in several ways. First, it is difficult to imagine deep peacebuilding and reconciliation being achieved in the short term. Instead, peacebuilding and reconciliation will require work throughout several generations in many cases. 26 Rushed timelines can only address superficial concerns, while lengthened timelines can better allow local populations to uncover and heal deep wounds. Second, by lengthening timelines Mennonite peacebuilding practitioners can adopt a participatory project planning strategy that allows local knowledge to guide the design of sustainable peacebuilding activities. This sort of approach stands in contrast to currently popular peacebuilding strategies that rely almost solely on international expert consultants to quickly design and implement peacebuilding activities in a flurry of activity that must bewilder local populations. Third, avoiding rushed peacebuilding strategies allows Mennonite peacebuilding organizations to focus on building community at the local level. Community building is prerequisite to local ownership of peacebuilding and allows local groups to define for themselves what sorts of peacebuilding activities are truly needed in their context. Community building responds to the fact that communal decision-making and conflict resolution structures have been sidelined by international intervention strategies. These strategies often rely upon technical experts and private contractors who sell their knowledge and skills for a period of weeks, or perhaps months. In contrast, most Mennonite organizations and practitioners bring with them a deep understanding of working in the context of community and, thus, take the time to build strong and inclusive local communities. Focusing on Grassroots Inclusion in Comprehensive Solutions A central question in the local ownership debate is: “Who should own peacebuilding activities—grassroots communities or upper-level groups?” A strong case has been built for the efficacy of simultaneously ensuring ownership by both groups. 27 However, Mennonite peacebuilding initiatives have taken a decided stance on the issue and have focused their efforts at the grassroots level. For Mennonites, local ownership often

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implies empowering grassroots individuals and groups. While other “peace church” groups, such as the Quakers, have been more comfortable working at upper-levels, Mennonites have often chosen a route to peace that bypasses government officials and top-down negotiations. 28 By aiming squarely at grassroots communities and individuals, Mennonite peacebuilding is making the bold statement that peace can be built from the bottom-up by working with local populations. This instinctive bottom-up stance has also allowed Mennonite peacebuilders to dive into asymmetric conflicts within independent states where one adversary (often the central government) has the ability to inflict injustice and severe suffering on a minority ethnic group. 29 Embracing a bottom-up stance in a context of direct violence is central to the work of CPT in locations such as Columbia, Iraq, and Palestine, and has undergirded peace work by MCC in Somalia. 30 It should be clarified that by embracing a bottom-up approach, Mennonite peacebuilders do not reject the necessity of upper-level peacebuilding processes, but rather ensure that grassroots and civil society voices are not excluded in post-conflict rebuilding and reconciliation activities. Yet, this bottom-up bias is likely not based strictly on intervention effectiveness but, rather, stems from a communal history of distanced relationships with national governments and their military and police enforcers. However, some Mennonite peacebuilding practitioners have reconsidered their bottom-up bias, and recognize that their work must also address the disempowering lack of ownership by elite actors and governments, even if they are violent and oppressive. Sustainable peace requires that neither side in a conflict is demonized and excluded from peacemaking work. For example, Lederach has legitimated upper-level peace work by proposing a multi-level peacebuilding strategy that connects elite actors to grassroots populations through mid-level leaders. 31 In likewise fashion, another Mennonite scholar, Lisa Schirch, has re-affirmed the necessity of top-level peacebuilding success in her call for a comprehensive peace process in Afghanistan. 32 Relinquishing Control and Local Empowerment Foreign organizations must relinquish control over their peacebuilding work and empower local leaders in order to ensure a sense of local ownership. Foreign control of both bottom-up and top-down peace processes will likely block success, and is perhaps not even possible. For example, Lederach shares how his support work for the complex Nicaraguan peace processes during the 1980s led him to drop all references to foreign conflict “management,” and stated that “I felt like a conflict chaser more than a manager—like the proverbial dog that barks at the car that

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just went by.” 33 Foreign control in any peace process is probably largely illusionary. Yet, relinquishing control has been difficult for many peacebuilding organizations for many reasons including deficient local capacity, local corruption, sub-par human rights insurances inside project work, and strict accountability requirements to home funding constituencies. However, Mennonite peacebuilding groups have often taken a lead in modelling a commitment to leaving control in the hands of local actors. 34 Their leadership has been based on a willingness to partner with local individuals and organizations and conduct capacity building work as opposed to just training. For example, a leading Mennonite scholar and practitioner, Ron Kraybill, has described the importance of capacity building: “Finally, I learned that the most effective trainers are those who encourage students to find their own Grail. . . . In the end, teachers who imply they have found the Holy Grail disempower their students.” 35 Cross-cultural training is inherently awkward and inefficient, but building the capacity of local leaders can bypass cultural barriers and ensure that peacebuilding momentum is maintained long after foreign peacebuilders leave the country. Other barriers to relinquishing foreign control and ensuring local empowerment are more personal. Kraybill has sensitized the broader conflict resolution training community to the dangers of being motivated by personal gain, power advancement, and other self-interests. 36 He notes that the professionalization of peace work has allowed peace workers to empower themselves as opposed to their local recipients, and that the peace worker’s self-interests often overshadow any commitment to the needs of local people. In other instances, the drive for “success” (e.g., number of recipients, number of trainings, etc.) can blind foreign workers from considering whether local human resources already exist to perform similar work. Reliance on Local Voices and Knowledge Foreign peacebuilders are naturally limited in what they can comprehend about a conflict-affected context. One Mennonite conflict analyst working in Liberia commented: “After being here for two months, I was sure I understood this conflict. Two years later, I’m much less certain.” 37 Thus, Mennonite peacebuilders are often careful to rely on local knowledge and guidance in the journey towards local ownership of peacebuilding activities. Interestingly, a reliance on local knowledge is necessary even before project work in conflict-affected zones begins. As prime examples, both MCC and CPT wait for invitations from local partners before venturing out. 38 Waiting for an invitation allows local groups to determine what sort of aid is necessary in their context and who can best meet their needs,

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as opposed to foreign organizations determining for themselves in which local context they can best apply their skills. Tuning into local voices requires an elicitive stance on the part of Mennonite peacebuilders. An elicitive peacebuilding methodology is careful to allow local peacebuilding models to emerge from the local resources in the conflict-affected context. 39 An elicitive approach requires the foreign peacebuilder to carefully consider his or her stance towards local counterparts. In Lederach’s words, the foreign peacebuilder must redefine his or her “role away from expert-in-content and toward accompaniment-in-discovery.” 40 This sort of stance structures the foreign-local relationship so that local conflict dynamics can transform in a locally appropriate manner, as opposed to applying foreign prescriptions that may run counter to local culture and sensibilities. 41 As an example in practice, MCC has a long tradition of requiring its staff to purposely connect with the communities in which they work, and to carefully wait and listen for local direction and advice on which projects are considered important. 42 As another example, MCC workers in Liberia enacted a cyclical project design methodology that ensured that local feedback and analysis fundamentally shaped intervention activities. 43 DILEMMAS FACED BY MENNONITE PEACEBUILDERS Despite the apparent success with which Mennonite organizations such as MCC have engaged with processes leading to local ownership of peacebuilding, Mennonite peacebuilding initiatives face several significant dilemmas that must be continually wrestled with. However, these dilemmas are not necessarily exclusive to Mennonite peacebuilding organizations and individuals. The first dilemma concerns the status, influence, power, and role of Mennonite foreigners living in developing and/or conflict-affected contexts across the globe. There are certainly convincing justifications for Mennonites to venture into areas affected by violence and war. By witnessing local atrocities and reporting them through the world media, Mennonites have suppressed local violence in some cases. In this way, a foreign presence provides protection for local peacebuilders as they conduct their work. The injection of foreigners into a local context may also shock an intractable system into reform and change, and can provide an impetus for transformation as local populations become aware of new patterns of thinking and peacebuilding strategies. Yet, at the end of the day, local groups will struggle to achieve literal and meaningful ownership of peacebuilding as long as they rely on foreign funding and foreign leaders. Local peacebuilders must be enabled to acknowledge and build upon their own culture in a manner that leads to sustainable peace. Peacebuilding methodologies that connect

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with local conceptions of decision-making, conflict resolution, and reconciliation are more likely to take root. In the Mennonite peacebuilding arena this status-power dilemma is evident in a couple of ways. As mentioned earlier, North American Mennonites convey a socio-political identity as citizens of powerful, Western nations and cart with them significant social capital. Many international peacebuilders carry advanced university degrees at the Master’s or Ph.D. level, are often white, and are usually firmly established within the wealthy, North American middle class. Thus, Mennonites move amongst local groups as conspicuous outsiders, which is cause for concern since foreign-local relationships can quickly exhibit debilitating dependency. Despite the fact that Mennonite peacebuilding organizations have been hesitant to introduce too much into the local context, they still introduce and transfer in more than they probably realize. This natural transfer of foreign knowledge and practice must be continually examined and restrained to encourage local communal ownership of peacebuilding initiatives. In addition, Mennonites carry with them a religious identity as Christians in many cases. Even though Mennonites have often separated their evangelism and peacebuilding activities, it must be remembered that Mennonite theology holds up peacebuilding as a spiritual activity, and thus a clear distinction cannot be easily made. The boundaries of peacebuilding and missionary work cannot be easily defined, which can create confusion for the recipients of local programming. It should be noted that, in some cases, peacebuilding work runs parallel to or builds upon the work of Mennonite missionaries. 44 However, Mennonite peacebuilders often claim that they have been careful to avoid proselytizing and seeking converts to Christianity. Again, this is cause for reflection since many Mennonite peacebuilding ventures are occurring in contexts where populations adhere to non-Christian religions. Thus, Mennonite faithbased organizations will inherently struggle with maintaining a sense of personal and public integrity and avoiding hidden motivations as they engage with local groups in a culturally sensitive manner. A second dilemma concerns the relationship of Mennonite peacebuilding actors with international and local military forces. This dilemma has several dimensions. It should be obvious from the preceding discussion of Mennonite history, theology, and ethics that Mennonite peacebuilding organizations will inherently remain dissonant with military-led peacebuilding work. But yet, security work has become a central component to most large-scale peacebuilding interventions. Military-backed security initiatives are believed to be essential for creating a safe space for peacebuilding work in other sectors, as well as preventing the outbreak of widespread fighting or civil war in locales such as Afghanistan or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Thus, Mennonite peacebuilding groups that work in war-torn contexts apparently enjoy greater success

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due to reduced security risks that allows project staff to travel and conduct their work freely. International military forces can also provide a modicum of protection for local voices that are critical of national governments and militaries. Yet, research has shown that a strong international military influence in intervention planning and coordination structures can potentially derail local efforts to gain ownership over peacebuilding. 45 Military influence prevents significant local influence over project design and implementation due to its rigid, hierarchical, decision-making structures, its achievement-oriented organizational culture, its need to shorten timeframes to reduce casualties, and its inability to grant ownership to its “enemy.” Thus, Mennonite peacebuilders must reflect on their relationship with government and military actors in their peacebuilding networks. They must move beyond debating the issues and ethics of relying on military power and violence to achieve peacebuilding success, and rather become leaders in proposing nonviolent alternatives that better accommodate the necessity of local ownership. For example, there is significant potential to develop effective strategies for nonviolent disarmament and peacekeeping. However, much creativity will be required to ensure local ownership of nonviolent strategies in contexts experiencing active insurgencies such as Afghanistan and Iraq. ARE MENNONITE PEACEBUILDING METHODOLOGIES TRANSFERABLE TO OTHER ORGANIZATIONS? Because the broader peacebuilding community has only recently embraced the local ownership debate, the experiences of Mennonite peacebuilders may prove to be instructive. Mennonite peacebuilding is a small enterprise, and has its hands in a limited set of conflict-affected settings, albeit in a deep way in most cases. The limited number of case studies makes it difficult to predict the efficacy of transferring the philosophy of Mennonite peacebuilders to other types of organizations, be they fellow NGOs, the United Nations agencies, governmental organizations, regional organizations, international donors, or the international military. Many larger peacebuilding organizations have embraced a vision of allowing increased local ownership over peacebuilding, but are struggling to undergo the deep institutional cultural transformation required for a variety of reasons. Governmental organizations (including governmental donors and the international military) are inherently resistant to local ownership in many cases due to their national self-interests and concerns. Governmental actors likely do operate with a modicum of altruism, but at the end of the day they will ensure that their government’s needs and self-interests are met, despite the effect on local populations.

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As evident in Afghanistan and Iraq, addressing self-interests has required that peacebuilding and development activities become increasingly militarized and politicized in recent years. Thus, national self-interests will often be at odds with local efforts to own peacebuilding activities. To make matters worse, governmental actors often invest massive amounts of money (sometimes billions of dollars) in war-torn contexts, and are accountable for effective expenditures to their home constituencies. Thus, relinquishing control and avoiding the use of violent coercion through international military forces appears unlikely. In contrast, Mennonite peacebuilders often claim to operate inside an ethical framework that values vulnerability, accepting personal suffering and cost, faith in the protection and guidance of God, and faith in humanity. Further, their pacifist ethos has opened up new ways of peacebuilding and working towards the transformation of ‘enemy’ groups. Governmental power politics and national interests will quickly suppress this sort of framework and stance towards peacebuilding work. Organizations that rely upon international donor funding (both governmental and nongovernmental) will inherently struggle to ensure local ownership of peacebuilding. International donors typically have narrow program requirements and stringent timelines that are carefully enforced. To quickly get a project up and running, donors will rely upon foreign consultants and commercial contracting companies to design projects and lead implementation. In this way, international peacebuilding has become ultra-professionalized, and local experts are understandably not able to compete with the imported foreign experts in their area of specialty. While these initiatives may be heavily staffed with local employees, there is little sense of local control or ownership over the process. In some cases such as Afghanistan, international donors have achieved a powerful stature in relation to local groups, and have created a strong dependency on international monies. 46 Mennonite peacebuilding, on the other hand, has relied upon funding from within the North American Mennonite community, which has granted it the freedom to conduct its activities while remaining faithful to the aim of local ownership. However, this is changing in some cases. For example, MCC Canada has grown much more reliant on Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funding which may be of concern in this matter. Regarding timelines, MCC has built into its institutional methodology an expectation that peacebuilding project work will be a long-term affair, which provides additional incentive to attain local ownership of peacebuilding activities. Based on this discussion, it appears that larger and/or international government-supported organizations will inherently struggle to adopt the stance taken by Mennonite organizations in ensuring local ownership of peacebuilding. Adopting a stance similar to Mennonite organizations would require major institutional culture changes, which seems unlikely

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and difficult given the donor requirements that resist increased local control and the apparent necessity of taking care of national self-interests. However, there is hope. Smaller-scale peacebuilding actors and a majority of the NGO community can more easily make significant advances to ensure increased local ownership of peacebuilding. Advances in this area may require the NGO community to clarify its peacebuilding roles as clearly separate from international governmental activities by reducing its reliance upon international government funding. Further, the NGO community must be committed to standing firmly behind the principles of comprehensive peacebuilding processes that are inclusive of grassroots voices and encourage local voice and control. However, even government and military actors can make small, but effective, reforms that will lead to increased local ownership of peacebuilding. The Mennonite example would suggest that reforms would require peacebuilding actors to creatively design peacebuilding solutions that rely less upon combative roles for international peacebuilding troops, and incorporate nonviolent solutions that are led by local populations. Political leaders must assert the will to extend peacebuilding timelines, and exhibit patience as the difficult peacebuilding road is travelled. Extended timelines will require home constituencies to catch a vision of the long-term nature of sustainable peacebuilding, and carefully maintain its gaze upon particular war-torn contexts for extended periods of time. Last, political leaders must be forthright in regards to its self-interests and motivations for intervening in conflict-affected contexts. CONCLUSION The theme of local ownership is widely recognized in the peacebuilding community as an important policy objective, but international organizations are struggling to ensure meaningful local control and ownership on the ground in their peacebuilding project work. This chapter responds to this dilemma by highlighting the efforts of Mennonite peacebuilding organizations. Based upon a rich and unique socio-religious ethic, Mennonite peacebuilding organizations have learnt to carry themselves and conduct their work in a manner that is conducive to reducing or avoiding dependency on foreign human resources and funding, is increasingly sustainable, and contributes to the local push for ownership of peacebuilding activities. This has led Mennonite peacebuilders to shun neutrality and stand with the oppressed and impoverished, lengthen their project timelines, ensure inclusion of grassroots voices, and relinquish control as they empower local leaders and rely upon local knowledge. The difficult lessons learned from Mennonite practice are valuable and instructive for other peacebuilding organizations, even if difficult to transfer.

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NOTES 1. Simon Chesterman, “Ownership in Theory and in Practice: Transfer of Authority in UN Statebuilding Operations,” Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 1, no. 1 (2007): 3–26; Laurie Nathan, “The Challenge of Local Ownership of SSR: From Donor Rhetoric to Practice,” in Local Ownership and Security Sector Reform, ed. Timothy Donais (Berlin: Lit Verlag for the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), 2008), 19–35; Hannah Reich, “‘Local Ownership’ In Conflict Transformation Projects” (Berlin: Berghoff Research Center, 2006). 2. Timothy Donais, “Empowerment or Imposition? Dilemmas of Local Ownership in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding Processes,” Peace & Change 34, no. 1 (2009): 3–26; Jonathan Goodhand and Mark Sedra, “Who Owns the Peace? Aid, Reconstruction, and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan,” Disasters 34, no. 1 (2010): 78–102. 3. Chuck Thiessen, “Shouldering Responsibility for Sustainable Peace: Exploring Afghan Ownership of Peacebuilding Activities in Afghanistan” (PhD thesis, University of Manitoba, 2012), 141–168. 4. Very little has been written on the peacebuilding work of non-North American Mennonites. This is a major area requiring investigation since North America contained only about 35 percent of the world’s population of Mennonites in 2003. 5. OECD, “Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness: Ownership, Harmonization, Alignment, Results and Mutual Accountability,” (Paris: OECD, 2005). In this document the OECD proposes that war-torn and/or developing countries should lead and manage the majority of peacebuilding work within their borders. 6. Mark Duffield, Development, Security and Unending War: Governing the World of Peoples (Malden, MA: Polity, 2007); Roger MacGinty, “Indigenous Peace-Making Versus the Liberal Peace,” Cooperation and Conflict 43, no. 2 (2008): 139–63; Roland Paris, At War’s End: Building Peace after Civil Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004); Oliver Richmond, “A Post-Liberal Peace: Eirenism and the Everyday,” Review of International Studies 35, no. 03 (2009): 557–80. 7. Chuck Thiessen, “Emancipatory Peacebuilding: Critical Responses to (Neo)Liberal Trends,” in Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies, eds. Tom Matyók, Jessica Senehi, and Sean Byrne (New York, NY: Lexington Books, 2011), 115–140. 8. Kristoffer Lidèn, “Building Peace between Global and Local Politics: The Cosmopolitical Ethics of Liberal Peacebuilding,” International Peacekeeping 16, no. 5 (2009): 621. 9. John G. Cockell, “Conceptualising Peacebuilding: Human Security and Sustainable Peace,” in Regeneration of War-Torn Societies, ed. Michael Pugh (New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), 15–34; John Paul Lederach, Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation across Cultures (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1995), 63–70. 10. Lidèn, “Building Peace between Global and Local Politics”; MacGinty, “Indigenous Peace-Making.” 11. Thiessen, “Exploring Afghan Ownership,” 237–240. 12. John Paul Lederach, “Civil Society and Reconciliation,” in Turbulent Peace: The Challenges of Managing International Conflict, eds. Chester Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2001), 847–853. 13. Stuart Murray, The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith (Milton Keynes, UK: Paternoster, 2011), 24. 14. Murray, The Naked Anabaptist, 25. 15. Leo Driedger and Donald B. Kraybill, Mennonite Peacemaking: From Quietism to Activism (Herald Press, 1994). 16. Ibid., 13. 17. Ibid., 32. 18. Ron Kraybill, “Reflections on Twenty Years in Peacebuilding,” in From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, eds. Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 31.

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19. Driedger and Kraybill, Mennonite Peacemaking, 58–59. 20. Ibid., 158. 21. Loramy Conradi Gerstbauer, “The Whole Story of NGO Mandate Change: The Peacebuilding Work of World Vision, Catholic Relief Services, and Mennonite Central Committee,” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 39, no. 5 (2010): 844–65; John A. Lapp, “The Peace Mission of the Mennonite Central Committee,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 44, no. 3 (1970): 281–97; Joseph S. Miller, “A History of the Mennonite Conciliation Service, International Conciliation Service, and Christian Peacemaker Teams,” in From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, eds. Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 3–29. 22. Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach, eds., From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). 23. Ibid. 24. Sally Engle Merry, “Mennonite Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation: A Cultural Analysis,” in From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 206. 25. Kathleen Kern, “From Haiti to Hebron with a Brief Stop in Washington, D.C.: The CPT Experiment,” in From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, eds. Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 183–200; Merry, “Mennonite Peacebuilding,” 215. 26. Thiessen, “Shouldering Responsibility for Sustainable Peace,” 337–339. This sort of generational thinking stands in contrast to current donor expectations that requires project work to be framed in terms of months, or perhaps years. 27. Ibid., 237–238. 28. Merry, “Mennonite Peacebuilding,” 211. 29. Christopher Mitchell, “Mennonite Approaches to Peace and Conflict Resolution,” in From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, eds. Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 225–226. 30. Bonnie Bergey, “The ‘Bottom-Up’ Alternative in Somali Peacebuilding,” in From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, eds. Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 160–163. 31. John Paul Lederach, Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997), 38–43. 32. Lisa Schirch, “Designing a Comprehensive Peace Process for Afghanistan,” (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 2011). 33. John Paul Lederach, “Journey from Resolution to Transformative Peacebuilding,” in From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, eds. Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 49. 34. Merry, “Mennonite Peacebuilding,” 203. 35. Ron Kraybill, “Looking for the Holy Grail,” Conciliation Quarterly 7, no. 3 (1988): 5. 36. Kraybill, “Reflections on Twenty Years in Peacebuilding,” 39–40. 37. Barry Hart, “Trauma-Healing and Reconciliation Workshops During Liberia’s Civil Crisis,” in From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, eds. Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 165–82. 38. Kern, “From Haiti to Hebron,” 198–199; Miller, “A History of the Mennonite Conciliation Service,” 21. 39. Lederach, Preparing for Peace, 55. 40. Lederach, “Resolution to Transformative Peacebuilding,” 47. 41. Ibid. 42. Miller, “A History of the Mennonite Conciliation Service,” 16. 43. Hart, “Trauma-Healing,” 173. 44. Merry, “Mennonite Peacebuilding,” 215.

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45. Thiessen, “Shouldering Responsibility for Sustainable Peace,” 332. 46. Ibid., 183.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bergey, Bonnie. “The ‘Bottom-Up’ Alternative in Somali Peacebuilding.” in From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, Edited by Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach, 149–164. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Chesterman, Simon. “Ownership in Theory and in Practice: Transfer of Authority in UN Statebuilding Operations.” Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 1, no. 1 (2007): 3–26. Cockell, John G. “Conceptualising Peacebuilding: Human Security and Sustainable Peace.” In Regeneration of War-Torn Societies, edited by Michael Pugh, 15–34. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Donais, Timothy. “Empowerment or Imposition? Dilemmas of Local Ownership in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding Processes.” Peace & Change 34, no. 1 (2009): 3–26. Driedger, Leo and Donald B. Kraybill. Mennonite Peacemaking: From Quietism to Activism. Herald Press, 1994. Duffield, Mark. Development, Security and Unending War: Governing the World of Peoples. Malden, MA: Polity, 2007. Gerstbauer, Loramy Conradi. “The Whole Story of NGO Mandate Change: The Peacebuilding Work of World Vision, Catholic Relief Services, and Mennonite Central Committee.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 39, no. 5 (2010): 844–865. Goodhand, Jonathan and Mark Sedra. “Who Owns the Peace? Aid, Reconstruction, and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan.” Disasters 34, no. 1 (2010): 78–102. Hart, Barry. “Trauma-Healing and Reconciliation Workshops During Liberia’s Civil Crisis.” In From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, edited by Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach, 165–182. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Kern, Kathleen. “From Haiti to Hebron with a Brief Stop in Washington, D.C.: The CPT Experiment.” In From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding. Edited by Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach, 183–200. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Kraybill, Ron. “Looking for the Holy Grail.” Conciliation Quarterly 7, no. 3 (1988): 5. ———. “Reflections on Twenty Years in Peacebuilding.” In From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, edited by Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Lapp, John A. “The Peace Mission of the Mennonite Central Committee.” Mennonite Quarterly Review 44, no. 3 (1970): 281–297. Lederach, John Paul. Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation across Cultures. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1995. ———. Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997. ———. “Journey from Resolution to Transformative Peacebuilding.” In From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, edited by Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach, 45–55. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. ———. “Civil Society and Reconciliation.” In Turbulent Peace: The Challenges of Managing International Conflict, edited by Chester Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall, 841–54. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2001. Lidèn, Kristoffer. “Building Peace between Global and Local Politics: The Cosmopolitical Ethics of Liberal Peacebuilding.” International Peacekeeping 16, no. 5 (2009): 616–634. MacGinty, Roger. “Indigenous Peace-Making Versus the Liberal Peace.” Cooperation and Conflict 43, no. 2 (2008): 139–163.

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Merry, Sally Engle. “Mennonite Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation: A Cultural Analysis.” In From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, edited by Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach, 203–217. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Miller, Joseph S. “A History of the Mennonite Conciliation Service, International Conciliation Service, and Christian Peacemaker Teams.” In From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, edited by Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach, 3–29. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Mitchell, Christopher. “Mennonite Approaches to Peace and Conflict Resolution.” In From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding. Edited by Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach, 218–232. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Murray, Stuart. The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith. Milton Keynes, UK: Paternoster, 2011. Nathan, Laurie. “The Challenge of Local Ownership of SSR: From Donor Rhetoric to Practice.” In Local Ownership and Security Sector Reform, edited by Timothy Donais, 19–35. Berlin: Lit Verlag for the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), 2008. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness: Ownership, Harmonization, Alignment, Results and Mutual Accountability. Paris: OECD Publishing, 2005. Reich, Hannah. “‘Local Ownership’ in Conflict Transformation Projects.” Berghof Occasional Paper no. 27 (2006). Richmond, Oliver. “A Post-Liberal Peace: Eirenism and the Everyday.” Review of International Studies 35, no. 03 (2009): 557–80. Sampson, Cynthia and John Paul Lederach, eds. From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Schirch, Lisa. Designing a Comprehensive Peace Process for Afghanistan. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 2011. Thiessen, Chuck. “Emancipatory Peacebuilding: Critical Responses to (Neo)Liberal Trends.” In Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies, edited by Tom Matyók, Jessica Senehi, and Sean Byrne, 115–141. New York, NY: Lexington Books, 2011. ———. “Shouldering Responsibility for Sustainable Peace: Exploring Afghan Ownership of Peacebuilding Activities in Afghanistan.” PhD thesis, University of Manitoba, 2012.

TWELVE Let Us See What Love Can Do Quaker Contributions to Peacebuilding Vernie Davis

A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil that good may come of it. . . . Let us then try what Love will do; for if men did once see we love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but Love gains; and he that forgives first, wins the laurel. 1

Quaker 2 beliefs and practices are inextricably intertwined with peacebuilding and conflict transformation. All groups create and share socially constructed meaning to understand the world and to guide how to live and act. This universal trait of the human experience, which we can identify as culture, is true not only of religious groups, but of all groups— including scholars, peacebuilders, and conflict interveners. This exploration of Quaker beliefs and their impact on peacebuilding follows the approach of anthropologist Clifford Geertz, who examined religion as a cultural system that provides its members a shared meaning system— what Geertz says might be viewed as “plans, recipes, rules, instructions . . . for the governing of behavior.” 3 Using the definition of culture as socially acquired knowledge used to interpret the world and to generate behavior, 4 this chapter will examine Quaker beliefs by looking at what Quakers tell themselves about who they are and how to live in the world. Because Quaker identity and spirituality is deeply connected to peace work, this chapter cannot identify, let alone evaluate, all examples of Quaker activity. “The Friends World Committee for Consultation lists fourteen Quaker international mission and service organizations exclud201

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ing itself.” 5 The more well-known organizations in the United States are the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO), and Quaker House. Similar organizations exist in Britain and elsewhere. Additionally, most Monthly Meetings of the Religious Society of Friends have some version of a Peace and Social Concerns Committee that engages members of their meetings in peace and social justice work at the local level. Quakers also often work in collaboration with other peace and service organizations. Quakers see themselves as providing the yeast which, though a small part of the mix, can have impact on others. Michael Yarrow in his book Quaker Experiences in International Conciliation 6 has said, Evaluation of the effectiveness of one element—Quaker efforts—in a complicated series of historical processes is difficult if not impossible. It is like asking for the effectiveness of one thread in a mainsail halyard of many filaments. Quakers tend to avoid the issue of objective measurement by affirming that a person is led to an action because of its intrinsic value; the concerned person does what he does because it is right, whether his work is crowned with external success or not. 7

This chapter seeks to examine the major values and beliefs that are widely shared by Quakers and to explore the ways these beliefs have guided Quaker approaches to peacebuilding and conflict transformation. KEY BELIEFS AND PRACTICES Perhaps the first noteworthy observation of Quaker beliefs is that they are not uniform. Given the absence among Quakers of creeds, doctrines, or clear ecclesiastical authority, describing Quaker beliefs and principles presents a greater challenge than for some faith traditions. While it is true that Quakers can and do vary in their interpretations of meaning, there are some underlying shared beliefs that allow for these differences, and these beliefs are often called upon to help Friends work together in unity in the midst of diversity. While Quakers do not have creeds, most Yearly Meetings adopt a book of “faith and practice” which present excerpts from writings of noted Quakers, “testimonies,” and “queries.” Testimonies are statements of truth as widely perceived by Friends. Queries are framed as questions challenging individuals and Quaker organizations to examine whether their lives truly reflect the testimonies and value. Testimonies and queries do not exist in a rigid and necessarily uniform way among all Quakers and across all yearly meetings, and they change through time. The core belief of Quakers, and one which forms the basis for many other principles and values, is belief in the presence of “That of God” in every person which allows for direct communion with the Divine and for

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continuing revelation. This concept, for which Friends use a variety of terms (Inner Light, Divine Light, Inner Guide, Seed of God), forms the basis of traditional Quaker worship in which members sit together in silent waiting, open to be led by the workings of the Inner Light. It also has led to a web of interconnected beliefs that affect Quaker contributions to peace: the peace testimony, the belief in the equality and sacredness of each person, humility and openness to new understandings offered by others, integrity, and an optimistic view of human nature. Quakers are perhaps best known for their peace testimony—which in addition to refusing to participate in war includes promoting social justice and positive peace to eliminate the causes of war. More important is the spirit behind the testimony, which guides the ways the peace testimony is understood and applied by Friends. As children of God, all humans are endowed with infinite worth and dignity and should have the opportunity to develop their full human potential. Not only is it viewed as wrong to take the life of another human being, but, as Howard Brinton states, “The evil results of war—hatred, brutality, callousness to suffering and deceit—are spiritual and moral rather than material.” 8 Equality and religious democracy spring from the core belief that the Spirit is present in everyone, and “the Spirit might use anyone as its vehicle to speak words of truth to his or her fellows.” 9 Howard Brinton notes that equality was the first Quaker social testimony. The principle of equality has played a significant role for Quakers both in generating conflict and promoting peace. The value placed on equality created conflict for Quakers in the class-stratified-system of seventeenth-century England. Friends refused the use of honorary titles that imply superiority of one person to another and refused to take off their hats to those recognized by others as higher rank. As will be noted later, the consequence for Quaker nonconformity was very severe. However, Quaker commitment to treating all others as equally worthy of respect and love has had positive implications for peacebuilding and conflict transformation both among Quakers and in Quaker peace work in the wider world. As Brinton points out, “Within the meeting equality appears in the equal opportunity for all to take part, regardless of age, sex or ability. No persons enjoy special privilege.” 10 Cross cultural studies of peaceful societies 11 confirm that peaceful societies are those where there is equality and where no persons enjoy special privilege. At a practical level this manifests itself in the principle of respect for all others as children of God and for the Truth that may be manifest from the Spirit within them. Respect for others and understanding others’ perspectives has been an important Quaker principle that flows from the emphasis on equality. Equality and lack of hierarchical authority has led Quakers to a unique form of reaching unity (commonly referred to as consensus) on issues of difference that will be explored later.

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Belief in the presence of That of God in everyone has led Quakers to a recognition that Truth may emerge through any person, and that it is important to be open to new understandings. Given the belief that God still speaks to each of us today, there is a belief in continuing revelation and a continual unfolding of the truth that leads to deeper understanding. As noted in Faith and Practice of London Yearly Meeting regarding the Society’s corporate testimonies, “They all spring from a growing understanding of the will of God; their character has developed, and they are not necessarily accepted to-day in the form in which they were originally expressed. The development of the Peace Testimony can be traced through the years, taking different shape under changing conditions.” 12 Friends in mid 1600s did not recognize slavery as wrong, for example. The recognition of the wars caused by capturing slaves and the social injustice of slave-holding became a concern in the abolition movement among Quakers of the eighteenth century. Similarly in the early twentieth century, Friends became concerned about the relationship of unjust social order and war. No doubt it is because of the belief in progressive evolution of our conception of God that Friends have been hesitant to develop a creed. They have . . . avoided crystallizing their thought into a creed, which they feel would be as likely to impede, as to promote, living Christian experience or enlightened interpretation of it. Instead, therefore, of requiring its members to assent to a formal creed, the Society has preferred to invite them to consider whether they are spiritually alert, and responsive to the spirit of God: ‘Do you cherish that of God within you, that his power growing in you may rule your life: Do you seek to follow Jesus who shows us the Father and teaches us the Way? 13

Religious dogma and creeds have been avoided by Quakers for fear they would limit the expansion of understanding of truth. “A religion based on truth must be progressive. Truth being so much greater than our conception of it, we should ever be making fresh discoveries.” 14 What is known today is different from what was known yesterday, and from what will be known tomorrow. Human understanding of truth is always subject to growth. This basic principle also underlies the development of the organizations and institutions through which the spirit of Christianity is made operative in life. . . . God, who spoke through the prophets, and supremely in Jesus Christ, still speaks through men and women who have become new Creatures in Christ, being transformed by the renewing of their minds and, therefore, able and willing to receive fresh revelations of truth. 15

A spirit of humility is, therefore, required when stating one’s understanding of truth, and one must be open to hearing the truth as understood by others.

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Spiritual growth was often described by Friends as a process of becoming more ‘tender.’ The word ‘sensitive’ did not then bear its modern connotation. One object of the meeting for worship was to make the conscience more tender, or sensitive. As the measure of Light in the conscience increases, we are, in Fox’s words, ‘guided up to God.’ We become more and more able to see Truth with the eyes of God. 16

At the practical level, this humility has served Quakers in conflict and peacebuilding in key ways. Douglas Steere notes that “participative humility in the assembled members is certainly required in the Quaker decision-making process for it to be able to operate effectively.” 17 An example of the peacebuilding contribution of respect, humility, and openness can be found in the interactions of many Quakers with Indians and may account for the seventy-year period of peace with Indians in the Pennsylvania Colony during which time other colonies were fighting Indian wars. In meetings with the Indians Quakers recognized the Divine was also present in the Indians, respected them, and realized that they could learn from the Indians. The Quaker testimony on integrity, based on a commitment to live one’s life as a witness to the inward experience of the Divine, forms a key Quaker belief that contributes to peacebuilding and conflict transformation. Quakers have placed heavy emphasis on how one’s life is lived not just what one believes. Hence, “Friends strive to make the social, economic, political, and environmental aspects of our lives consistent with our spiritual values and Quaker heritage.” 18 Much attention is placed on “engagement with the world” rather than withdrawal from the world. Not only does the value of integrity require Quakers to constantly ask themselves through their queries whether they are living lives consistent with their beliefs and values in a way that is true in their relationship with God, but also in a way that is completely honest, clear, and forthright in our relationship with others. For example, the belief in integrity led to the Quaker testimony against swearing oaths on the grounds that it established a double standard indicating that one did not always speak the truth. While the testimony against oath-taking led to considerable conflict with the state, the characteristic of integrity turned out to be an asset to Quaker business owners who were trusted for their integrity and pioneered the practice of establishing fixed prices rather than the more common practice at the time of presenting a higher price as a starting point to bargain. The testimony on integrity has contributed to peacebuilding and conflict transformation by encouraging Quakers to examine and seek ways to reduce their indirect and inadvertent participation in causes of war and violent structures, and it has compelled Quakers to find ways to confront oppressors in a clear, yet loving way—what Friends refer to as ‘speaking truth to power.’ One other noteworthy belief of Quakers that affects their approaches to peacebuilding and conflict work is a positive view of human potential

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in contrast to a view of humanity as depraved. Quakers developed what Howard Brinton has called “ an optimistic view of human life and a high opinion of man as akin to God.” 19 This doesn’t mean Quakers are naïve about the violence humans are capable of inflicting on one another—they have certainly experienced this first hand as will be explored in the section on Quakers and Conflict. Howard Brinton articulates this belief well when he states, “The object of the Christian religion is to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth, not by the power of men, but by the power of God working through men. This can be done only by methods which are compatible with the code of behavior described by Christ as characteristic of God’s Kingdom.” 20 This optimistic view of humanity provided the foundation or the principles of democracy designed by Quakers in what was referred to as the ‘Holy Experiment’ in Pennsylvania Commonwealth. Douglas Steere notes, “As a Quaker, William Penn saw man not as a depraved sinner but as a child of God with the Seed of the Spirit within him to be drawn out and nurtured.” 21 Each of these Quaker beliefs—the optimistic view of humanity with the capacity to bring about the peaceable kingdom on earth, the commitment to integrity to live lives that witness to their beliefs, the respect for the equality of others along with openness to the truth that may emerge through them, the humility about one’s current understanding and openness to new understandings to emerge—all relate back to the core belief in That of God in every person. These beliefs have led Quakers to devote considerable attention to peace work to create the Peaceable Kingdom on earth. QUAKERS AND CONFLICT Freedom of thought is the greatest triumph over tyranny that brave men have ever won. . . . We owe to their heroic devotion the most priceless of our treasures, our perfect liberty of thought and speech, and all who love our county’s freedom may well reverence the memory of those martyred Quakers by whose death and agony the battle of New England has been won. 22

Many of the same beliefs and characteristics of Quakers that have contributed to peacebuilding and conflict transformation have also been responsible for embroiling Quakers in conflict. Throughout their history, their key beliefs have led Quakers to question many social assumptions, and their practice of living lives of integrity has often put them at odds with the state or the established social order. Many of these conflicts have led to positive social change that is widely accepted today though they met with apathy or vigorous opposition at the time: equality of women, abolition of slavery, prison reform, prevention of exploitive child labor, assistance to the poor, humanitarian aid to civilians during war. Quakers

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struggled at great cost and sacrifice for religious freedom both in England and in Colonial America. Actions of civil disobedience to the state have certainly been part of Quaker history. While this experience fits with one of the premises of conflict transformation studies that conflict can lead to positive social change, Quakers engaged in these conflicts over religious freedom nonviolently, openly, with willingness to take the consequences, and with a spirit of love toward those who disagreed with them. The value on the Inner Light, equality, and integrity has not only led Quakers to take stands that are often at odds with the state or the established social order, it has also led to theological differences and conflicts within the Society of Friends. Certainly the Quaker contribution to religious freedom has been significant, and acceptance of religious freedom we now take for granted in Great Britain and the United States did not occur without struggle. “Quakers were persecuted with almost unimaginable ferocity in both Old England and New England.” 23 Quakers held to several beliefs and practices that put them at direct odds with the established order and led to their extensive persecution. Chief among them, the belief that “every man was enlightened by the divine light of Christ” completely challenged the hierarchy of the clergy of the Established Church, made the church no more holy than any other space, and threw into question the basis for paying tithes. Hence the Church of England, Presbyterian Church, and Catholic Church, whichever was in power at the time, all felt threatened by the Quaker movement and persecuted them under laws limiting religious freedom. Some of these laws were specifically designed to target Quakers. Scottish Quakers were automatically excommunicated during the 1650s; an order of the Glasgow synod forbade Presbyterians to trade, employ, or indeed associate in any way with a Quaker. . . . In New England it was enough for him to be disenfranchised, or for him and his female co-religionist to be fined, whipped, branded, mutilated, vanished or executed. 24

The Act of Uniformity 1662 prescribed the form of public prayers and rites of the Established Church of England. The Quaker Act of 1662 made it illegal to refuse to take the oath of allegiance to the King and country. This act was specifically designed knowing that Quakers would refuse to take any oaths based on their conviction that one should always speak the truth and that oath taking set a double standard. As William Penn put it “People swear to the end they may speak the truth; Christ would have them speak truth to the end they might not swear.” 25 Noncompliance resulted in fines or jail. Quakers believed that integrity required them to stay true to true beliefs to not take oaths, and they accepted punishment nonviolently as a way to testify to the strength of their convictions.

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Chapter 12 With their unflinching witness against swearing an oath either in a court of law or in any contractual situation, they were always at the mercy of the court, which could at any moment put to them an oath of loyalty to the ruling power and know that after its inevitable refusal they could, if inclined, impose almost any sentence they chose or could seize their property through the praemunire process. 26

Many Quakers lost their property and spent years in prison, some even dying in prison, for their refusal to take oaths. It also had legal consequences that barred Quakers from holding public office or protecting their property in a legal dispute such as title to property. The Conventicle Acts of 1664 and 1670, designed to discourage nonconformists and to strengthen the Church of England, was an Act of the Parliament of England under Charles II that forbade religious assemblies of more than five people outside the auspices of the Church of England. Many sects worshipped in secret, but because Quakers felt compelled by their value of integrity to resist this law openly, they bore the brunt of this persecution. Because of their refusal to go underground and meet secretly, Quakers brought the conflict to the open and played a part leading to the Toleration Act in 1689. “About 21,000 Friends suffered fines and imprisonment in England, many of them more than once. About 450 died in prison. At one time there were as many as 4,200 in prison.” 27 “During the first generation of its existence, George Fox 28 himself suffered eight arrests and spent, in all, some six years in different English prisons.” 29 “When George Fox was released from his three years’ imprisonment at Lancaster and Scarborough in 1666, he found the Quakers suffering severely because of the Conventicle Act which forbade attendance at any assembly for worship other than those of the Established Church. . . . Nearly all the leading Friends were in prison.” 30 William Penn, who became a Quaker in 1667, played a role that helped lead to the right of trial by jury. The son of an admiral and one who was respected by both Charles II and James II, William Penn spent a period of imprisonment (1668–1669) on a charge of blasphemy and was arrested again in 1670 for preaching in an outdoor Quaker meeting for worship. At his trial in 1670, he succeeded in getting released by a jury verdict, which the furious judge sought to quash by imprisoning the jury without food until they altered their verdict. When the jury refused to budge, the judge had to back down and the Penn-Meade case became a landmark in British legal history, vindicating the civil rights of the common man to a fair jury trial and to the carrying out of their verdict. 31

The American Colonies did not embrace religious freedom without a struggle either. The Puritans of Massachusetts were particularly harsh to Quakers who kept returning to Massachusetts to share their revelations about the universality of the Divine Light. To prevent the spread of such

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unorthodoxy Massachusetts passed a series of harsher and harsher laws. In 1657, two Quakers were arrested in Salem for attempting to speak to the congregation after the Sunday service. They were thrown into prison for nine weeks, whipped twice a week until each man had received over 350 lashes with a “three-cord knotted whip.” A new law was created stating that anyone responsible for bringing a Quaker into the Colony would be fined and that “any Quaker rash enough to return to the Colony after being whipped and imprisoned was to have one ear cut off for each of the next two transgressions, and his tongue bored through with a hot iron for the third.” 32 After Quakers resisted this law, losing an ear each, the General Court approved a law making it a capital offense for a banished Quaker to return to Massachusetts. Between 1659 and 1661, four Quakers were hanged in Boston Common. Public reaction was so negative, a new law reduced the penalty such that “any person manifesting himself to be a Quaker was to be stripped to the waist, tied to a cart’s tail, and whipped from one town to the next, to the farthest border of the Colony.” 33 In the end, Quaker persistence, coupled with their commitment to nonviolence, gained support of the non-Quaker population and led to acceptance of religious diversity in New England as it did in England. As with any group, Quakers have had conflicts among themselves. Given the belief in That of God in every person, the belief in equality, and the absence of hierarchy of organization, Quakers have not been able to appeal to a centralized authority to resolve conflict, but have had to develop a collaborative, egalitarian method for dealing with conflict, which will be described below as a contribution to peacebuilding and conflict transformation. At times differences took considerable time to work through, and in the meantime, Quakers split into groups following different paths. The 1800s particularly were a period of divisions. Quakers in Philadelphia and New York differed on whether to maintain “the traditional ‘unprogrammed’ meeting, where each member simply ‘waited upon the Lord’ in silence, and stood up to speak his mind whenever he wanted to share an insight with his neighbors” 34 or whether to change with more popular practices of other denominations to hire “a pastor to conduct Sunday services that were enlivened with hymn-singing and responsive reading.” 35 Further differences included the extent to which the Inward Light or the life and teachings of Christ were to be emphasized as the basis of faith. “The chasm between the two Quaker groups grew steadily wider until in 1827 a separation took place in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, followed by similar separations in Baltimore, New York, Ohio and Indiana. Later in the century there were further separations.” 36 Although this separation led to different yearly meetings covering the same geographical area, through time some of these yearly meetings have reunited. Key to the groups reuniting was the presence of common ground (Jonas, for example, cites “the underlying challenge of Quaker-

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ism—a call to remain in the world and practice what Christ preached” 37 and the cross-connections of individual Quakers across the groups, particularly the Young Friends Movement and the shared work for service and social justice through the American Friends Service Committee. 38 One cannot help but note the importance of multiplex relations in ameliorating conflict between groups, fitting Elise Boulding’s 39 analysis of the importance of interpersonal connections through INGOs (international nongovernmental organizations) and other associations that cut across national identities. Two other factors that have helped bridge these differences among Friends are the acceptance of diversity and patience in the search for truth. For the most part, The Society of Friends is tolerant of varied judgments amongst its members. It does not expect acceptance of a precise definition of its faith. . . . It leaves its members wide freedom in working out the application of its testimonies. Throughout the Society’s history there have been tensions, but in practice these have proved to be fruitful, and the result has been a continuing and developing unity in both faith and practice. 40

Although different bodies of Friends issue statements “expressing their religious or social views at a particular time, [there is] . . . always the reservation that the Spirit of Truth may lead to further insight,” 41 and Friends have not required its members to assent to a particular creed. While one body of Friends may have reached unity on a particular statement at a particular time, the statement is not imposed on other Friends. “Differences within the group on the particular application of general principles are tolerated, provided they are being actively explored in a spirit of friendship and in a continued search for truth. Such differences are often of great value in helping new aspects of truth to emerge.” 42 Patience in a spirit of tenderness is another trait that has helped bridge differences through time. In 1719, for example, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting declared: It is the advice of this meeting that in speaking to our dealing with any, it be done in a Christian spirit of love and tenderness, laboring in meekness, by laying the evil before them, to bring such persons to a sense of it in themselves, that they may be restored if possible. And although such as transgress or lose their hold on Truth are apt to be testy, while they are in that condition, yet we ought patiently and meekly to instruct and advise them, that so we may not only have a testimony of peace within ourselves, but that it may likewise so affect the spirit of the Friend spoken to, that he may be sensible we have performed a truly Christian duty and an office of brotherly love toward him. 43

Some points of difference, such as the separation of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting cited above, have taken more than a century for Friends to re-

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solve. Another was the toleration of slavery among Friends. “Had a vote been taken as early as 1700 slavery would probably have been voted out, but a substantial minority could not have concurred. The subject was brought up again and again, progress was made slowly until in 1776 the Society was united in refusing membership to persons who held slaves.” 44 Current tensions among Friends leading to a recent split in Indiana Yearly Meeting have developed over acceptance of the diversity of sexual orientation. Some monthly meetings have decided to affirm and celebrate marriages of same-sex-couples. Others not only reject homosexuality as morally unacceptable, but feel the need to sanction or disassociate from monthly meetings accepting same-sex-couples. The schism among Friends in Indiana regarding homosexuality relates in part to different views on Yearly Meeting authority and theology “between those who held that “yearly meeting should be a final sovereign authority with the power to direct and discipline subordinate meetings” and those who believe monthly meetings are autonomous” 45 While all Friends would agree that they seek God’s will about whether we should view same sex partners as a sin or as one form of a loving relationship, the different views on this largely break down along the lines of the more fundamentalist, evangelical Friends, on the one hand, who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible and more authority in the yearly meeting and, on the other hand, those Friends who put greater focus on God continually speaking to us in the current day and less hierarchy and more egalitarian role of monthly meetings. Douglas Bennett compares the current schism to that of eighteenth century Quakers over slave holding: We have been in this situation before: facing a major social issue and trying to see clearly what God asks of us. Many American Friends were comfortable with slavery in the eighteenth century when John Woolman began his ministry. Friends and other Christians could point to dozens (dozens!) of Bible passages that show comfort with slavery and none (none!) that declare it sinful. 46

Yet, as Bennett points out, Woolman, in “Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes” draws frequently on the Bible to seek a deeper understanding of the teachings of Jesus. Quakers did reach substantial unity on seeing slavery as sinful and many Friends freed their slaves and others went on to play a central role in the underground railway and other abolitionist activities. While there may be a split among Quakers over the acceptance and affirmation of GLBT that strains the ability to remain in the same yearly meeting structure, each is still Quaker and the differences between them may be resolved with time.

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QUAKER CONTRIBUTIONS TO PEACEBUILDING AND CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION Having examined key beliefs of The Religious Society of Friends that relate to conflict and peace work, this section will identify the specific approaches and contributions of Quaker work. Since one of the primary principles of Quakers is to strive to make the social, political, and economic aspects of their lives consistent with their beliefs and understanding of truth, Quaker activities are too numerous for a comprehensive presentation here. The work of any one Quaker peace organization such as FCNL, AFSC, or QUNO would require larger examination. Therefore this section will highlight primary categories of Quaker work and link them both to Quaker belief and current practice in the fields of peace studies and conflict transformation. Opposition to War Quakers are probably best known as one of the historic “Peace Churches” who are conscientious objectors to war. The first Quaker declarations against participating in war occurred during the early decades of Quakerism. George Fox records in his journal that when asked by the Commonwealth to take up arms against Charles Stuart in 1651, he refused: “I told [the Commonwealth Commissioners] that I lived in the virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion of all wars.” 47 In 1661, Friends declared to Charles II: “We utterly deny all outward wars and strife, and fighting with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretense whatsoever; this is our testimony to the whole world.” 48 The Quaker opposition to war flows directly from the belief that all persons are imbued with a Divine Spark as Children of God. The Quaker testimony concerning war . . . is based ultimately on the conception of ‘that of God in every man’ to which the Christian in the presence of evil is called on to make appeal, following out a line of thought and conduct which, involving suffering as it may do, is, in the long run, the most likely to reach to the inward witness and so change the evil mind into the right mind. The result is not achieved by war. 49

Since Quaker leaders first made the public announcement of pacifism and refusal to fight in 1661, “No regularly constituted body of the Society of Friends has ever made a declaration contrary to the strict pacifist position, but in every war some members have, as individuals, supported the war or taken part in it.” 50 Although the majority of Quakers adhere firmly to the peace testimony against participation in war, some individual Friends have followed their own conscience in a different direction. Continuing support for the peace testimony is presented in books on Faith

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and Practice from different yearly meetings. North Carolina Yearly Meeting, for example, includes the following: We condemn war as the greatest violation of the sacredness of human life, and re-affirm our faith that all war is absolutely contradictory to the plain precepts of Christ, and the whole spirit of His gospel. We hold that no argument of necessity or policy, however urgent or peculiar, can avail to release individuals or nations from obedience to the teachings of Him who said, ‘Love your enemies.’ It is our purpose to live in that spirit that takes away the occasion for war, and to suffer violence if necessary, as did our Lord, but never return evil for evil. 51

In addition to personal refusal to participate in war and violence, Quakers have a long pattern of participating in vigils as personal witness against war, supporting non-Quakers who become conscientiously opposed to war (a primary focus of Quaker House in Fayetteville, NC), lobbying congressional representatives (one of the concerns of FCNL), and finding creative ways to educate the public against war (recent examples of which are the FCNL “War Is Not the Answer” nationwide campaign and the AFSC exhibit on “The Cost of War” to dramatically illustrate the loss of lives in the recent Iraq war with an exhibit of boots of US soldiers and shoes of Iraqi casualties of the war). The Quaker approach to ending war is based on an appeal to individual conscience—to that Divine Spark in each person—rather than use of any form of coercion. The recognition that “Peace and security can be achieved only by peaceful means” 52 has led Friends to address the causes of war. Addressing the Causes of War and Structural Violence Perhaps the greatest contribution of Quakers to peacebuilding is their contribution to social justice, what is known as “Positive Peace” in the field of Peace Studies. 53 Quakers have been ahead of their times in their attempts to remove social injustices which they saw as the ‘causes of war,’ pioneering many movements for social justice and equality. Friends have led the way paving the road to religious freedom in England and the United States, the right to peaceful assembly, the right to affirm one is telling the truth all the time rather than to swear under oath in certain circumstances, the women’s movement (four of the five women who organized the first women’s convention in Seneca Falls, NY, were Quaker), women’s right to vote, the abolition of slavery, and the underground railroad. 54 Quaker concerns for social justice for all emerge in large part from the Quaker conviction that all human beings, irrespective of race, gender, nationality, or social class are equal before God. George Fox felt a deep concern for justice in social and economic relationships. He visited magistrates to urge that fair wages be fixed for laborers; he wrote to Parliament urging the redistribution of wealth so

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According to Howard Brinton, Quakers in Germantown Pennsylvania in 1688 made the first protest in America against slavery. “Philadelphia Yearly Meeting advised against the slave trade in 1696, and antislavery sentiment grew slowly until 1758, when John Woolman 56 made a moving plea for the liberty of the slaves and began his great work on their behalf.” 57 Although Quakers in England were more successful than in the United States in abolishing slavery nonviolently, Quakers in the United States remained committed to a nonviolent approach in the United States Nonviolence and absence of any form of coercion has been an important principle in all Quaker work for peace and justice. “By force men are degraded to a subhuman level; by friendship they are uplifted to the divine.” 58 Even when advocating for the victims of oppression, whether for their own rights in the seventeenth century or other oppressed groups, Quakers have maintained love and concern for the oppressors and their needs, all the while maintaining a goal of reaching a deeper understanding of truth together. John Woolman was particularly visionary in recognizing the causes of war as social inequality and greed resulting in what we now term structural violence. 59 Woolman’s concerns included the plight of the poor, slavery, and causes of the Indian wars. He consistently admonished others to become aware of how our economic relationships with others (including those with whom we are only indirectly connected) provide the seeds of war unless changed to promote a more humane, socially just, and more peaceful world. O that we who declare against wars, and acknowledge our trust to be in God only, may walk in the light, and therein examine our foundation and motives in holding great estates! May we look upon our treasures, the furniture of our houses, and our garments, and try whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these our possessions. 60

He recognized that slavery as an institution depended not just on the slave owners yet all who benefited by the fruits of slave labor, hence he refused, as a merchant, to sell products of slave labor, and he changed his dress from the popular fashion of the day which made use of indigo dye produced on slave plantations. Woolman’s plea has had a lasting effect on Quakers who have continued the concern for social injustice as a form of indirect or structural violence and as a cause of direct violence, leading Quakers to reduce participation in indirect violence as well as the direct violence of war. Since our peace testimony is not only opposition to active participation in war but a positive affirmation of the power of good to overcome evil, we must all seriously consider the implications of our employment, our investments, our payment of taxes, and our manner of living as they

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relate to violence. We must become sensitive to the covert as well as the overt violence inherent in some of our long-established social practices and institutions, and we must attempt to change those elements which violate that of God in everyone. 61

Quakers played a significant role in “The Free Produce Association,” a group that refused to buy the products produced by slaves. 62 After the start of World War I (1914–1918), London Yearly Meeting, drew on the words of John Woolman to develop a list of ideals for a socially just order that would reduce the cause of war: • The opportunity of full development, physical, moral and spiritual, should be assured to every member of the community, man, woman and child. The development of man’s full personality should not be hampered by unjust conditions nor crushed by economic pressure. • Our rejection of the methods of outward domination, and of the appeal to force, applies not only to international affairs, but to the whole problem of industrial control. • Mutual service should be the principle upon which life is organized. Service, not private gain, should be the motive of all work. • The ownership of material things, such as land and capital, should be so regulated as best to minister to the need and development of man. 63 A full chapter could easily be devoted to the historical and continuing contributions of Quakers to recognize and seek to address the causes of structural violence both through individual efforts and to Quaker organizations such as FCNL and AFSC. Indeed this aspect of the peace testimony is given much attention by Quakers. Our peace testimony is much more than our special attitude to world affairs; it expresses our vision of the whole Christian way of life; it is our way of living in this world, of looking at this world and of changing this world. Only when the seeds of war—pride, prestige, and the lust for power and possessions—have been purged from our personal and corporate ways of living; only when we can meet all men as friends in a spirit of sharing and caring, can we call upon others to tread the same path. 64

Quaker analysis on the causes of war is similar to work on positive peace in the field of peace studies. This area of the field of peace studies needs substantially more attention. I have made the case elsewhere that the Quaker approach, as exemplified by Woolman, to address structural violence is a worthy model to be given more attention in the field of peace studies. 65

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Prevention of War and Reconciliation Effective peace work addresses more than the crisis stage of conflict; it includes intervention in the early stages of latent conflict and conflict escalation, and it involves working in the post crisis stages of rebuilding and reconciliation. Quaker beliefs have contributed to their activities in both pre-crisis and post-crisis conflicts. Based on the spirit of universal love and respect for all, Quakers have promoted and led efforts for international treaties and participated in unofficial diplomacy (what is known as Track II Diplomacy in the field of Peace Studies). In their efforts to prevent or end wars, Quakers are known for not taking sides, for treating all parties in a spirit of love, and for providing relief to the ‘enemies’ as well as the ‘allies.’ This commitment has had an important role in Quaker activities to prevent and address violent conflict; at times it has been cause for creating conflict with non-Quaker fellow citizens who see them as traitors during times of extreme nationalism or intense attacks on others. Examples include a delegation of British Friends to Russia to try to avert the Crimean War, visits to the Indians by John Woolman and others during conflicts with Indians on the frontier, AFSC relief to North Vietnamese as well as South Vietnamese, Quakers meeting with Yasser Arafat when there was no official contact with him by Israel or the United States, meetings with liberation groups in Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) and South Africa, work with both sides in Northern Ireland, and more recently meeting with religious and political leaders in Iran. Beyond such intentional activities to promote increased understanding across polarized groups, Quakers have encouraged social interaction across groups more generally to build social ties and deepen our connections with others. Quaker and peace scholar Elise Boulding has written on the importance of nongovernmental interaction as a way to build a more peaceful global civic culture. 66 To promote the structures for peaceful resolution of international conflict, Quakers have supported official international organizations such as the League of Nations and the United Nations, and Quakers Sam and Miriam Levering played a central role in shepherding the Law of the Sea Treaty. International agreements by which differences between nations can be settled by arbitration have been a concern of Friends from the beginning. William Penn’s Essay toward the Present and Future Peace of Europe (1693) and John Beller’s Some Reasons for a European State proposed to the Powers of Europe (1710) offered plans for an organization not unlike the present United Nations. 67

QUNO, the Quaker United Nations Office, has helped bring together representatives between countries unable to meet more officially because of policies of their countries to not recognize the other. As with mediators

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and conflict interveners in the field of conflict transformation, Quakers, who have been trusted for their principles of universal love and respect for all parties, have arranged “conferences, seminars, discussions, private meetings between diplomats” 68 in the Middle East, England/Ireland, East and West in the Cold War era, Southern Africa, South Asia, and West Africa. Because of principles of universal love and concern for all persons to meet their full potential, Quakers have given considerable attention to relief work both during conflict and post conflict to help meet human need and to assist rebuilding and reconciliation. Quakers began organizing to provide relief for fellow Quakers suffering religious persecution. Relief work outside the Quaker society first occurred when Friends supplied food and clothing to prisoners of war in the Irish war in 1690. Since then Friends have actively supplied food, medicine, and other supplies to help meet human needs to all parties on any side of a conflict, including those seen as the enemy of their country, during war and to help reconstruction after. These have included Finns, who suffered from the British fleets which decimated the coast of Finland during the Crimean War, Boer families during the Boer War in 1900, World Wars I and II (including feeding over a million children in Germany), both sides in the Spanish Civil War, and both sides in the Vietnamese War. The primary motivation of this relief work is humanitarianism, the removal of suffering and the repair of destruction. Secondarily, it is a form of preaching through action. War creates ill will which is the seed of more war. Relief work creates good will which is a seed of peace. 69

The American Friends Service Committee was organized in 1917 to make possible the participation of American Quakers in the European relief work. Collaborative Decision-Making and Conflict Transformation Some mention must be made of Quaker decision-making process and its connections to best practice in the field of conflict transformation. Although there is little space to fully describe Quaker meeting for business, books on this subject abound. The process includes equality and respect for all persons, tenderness to listen carefully to and tend to each person, attention to expressing one’s own opinions “humbly and tentatively in the realization that no one person sees the whole truth and that the whole meeting can see more of Truth than any part of it,” 70 and reaching decisions through a form of consensus rather than majority vote. The specific approaches are based on the underlying Quaker beliefs in equality and the presence of the Divine Light in each person, including those with whom we may vehemently disagree, and therefore the need to

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treat others with love and to listen for that truth we have to learn from them. At best, the Quaker method does not result in a compromise. A compromise is not likely to satisfy anyone completely. The objective of the Quaker method is to discover Truth which will satisfy everyone more fully than did any position previously held. Each and all can then say, ‘That is what I really wanted, but I did not realize it.’ To discover what we really want as compared to what at first we think we want, we must go below the surface of self-centered desires to the deeper level where the real Self resides. The deepest Self of all is that Self which we share with all others. 71

CONCLUSION As those of us in the fields of peace and conflict studies strive to gain a fuller understanding of truth regarding effective approaches to peacebuilding and conflict transformation, we need to consider the contributions from religious groups such as the Quakers who have drawn on a spiritual foundation. The Quaker experience supports the perspective that effective peacebuilding and conflict transformation work requires more than a list of techniques and strategies; it requires vision and purpose that brings heart and soul into the work. Far from dividing us and leading to violence, spirituality can provide us with a more optimistic view of human potential and can serve to call ourselves and others to a higher sense of self, to provide us with the humility to recognize we only see partial truths, to open our hearts and minds to the appreciation of others, to help us appeal to the other to transform our relationship to a partnership, and to sustain us through difficult times. Faith is crucial in peacebuilding and conflict work. While history records the dramatic evidence of war and violence, there can be no such record of the conflicts deescalated or resolved quietly and peacefully or of wars avoided due to peaceful intervention. We will never know how many wars were prevented by international treaties such as the Law of the Sea Treaty, work to address structural violence, genuine listening to all parties, or the other myriad activities of peacebuilders. As one Friend noted, we can count the seeds in the apple, but we cannot count the apples in the seed. NOTES 1. William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims (London: Headley Brothers, 1905). 2. The term Quaker is used interchangeably with Religious Society of Friends or simply Friends. 3. Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Culture (New York: Basic Books, Inc. Publishers, 1973), 44.

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4. James Spradley, Participant Observation (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980). 5. Adam Curle, The Basis for Quaker Work for Peace & Service (London: Quaker Peace and Service, 1980), 5. 6. C.H. Mike Yarrow, Quaker Experiences in International Conciliation (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1978). 7. Ibid., 4. 8. Howard H. Brinton, Friends for 300 Years: The History and Beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox Started the Quaker Movement (Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill Publications, 1965), 164. 9. Douglas Steere, ed. Quaker Spirituality: Selected Writings (New York: Paulist Press, 1984), 14. 10. Brinton, Friends for 300 Years: The History and Beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox Started the Quaker Movement, 132. 11. William Ury, The Third Side: Why We Fight and How We Can Stop (New York: Penguin Books, 1999); Douglas Fry, The Human Potential for Peace (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006). 12. London Yearly Meeting, “Introduction,” (1920). 13. Ibid. 14. London Yearly Meeting (1920), cited in NC Yearly Meeting, “Introduction.” 15. NC Yearly Meeting, Introduction. 16. Brinton, Friends for 300 Years: The History and Beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox Started the Quaker Movement, 35. 17. Steere, Quaker Spirituality, 15 18. FCNL (Friends Committee on National Legislation) Policy Statement (2003). http://fcnl.org/about/govern/policy/. 19. Brinton, Friends for 300 Years: The History and Beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox Started the Quaker Movement, viii. 20. Ibid., 162. 21. Steere, Quaker Spirituality, 49. 22. Brooks Adams cited in: Brinton, Friends for 300 Years: The History and Beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox Started the Quaker Movement: 159. 23. Gerald Jonas, On Doing Good (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971), 11. 24. Barry Reay, The Quakers and the English Revolution (London: Temple Smith, 1985), 49. 25. Brinton, Friends for 300 Years: The History and Beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox Started the Quaker Movement, 141. 26. Steere, Quaker Spirituality, 48. 27. Brinton, Friends for 300 Years: The History and Beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox Started the Quaker Movement, 157. 28. George Fox was one of the key founders of The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). 29. Steere, Quaker Spirituality, 18. 30. Brinton, Friends for 300 Years: The History and Beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox Started the Quaker Movement, 101. 31. Steere, Quaker Spirituality, 48. 32. Jonas, On Doing Good, 19. 33. Ibid., 20. 34. Ibid., 12. 35. Ibid., 13. 36. Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Faith and Practice (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1990). 37. Jonas, On Doing Good, 13. 38. Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Faith and Practice, 5-6. 39. Elise Boulding, Building a Global Civic Culture (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1990).

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40. London Yearly Meeting, “Introduction,” (1920). 41. Brinton, Friends for 300 Years: The History and Beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox Started the Quaker Movement, 114. 42. Ibid. 43. Ibid., 126. 44. Ibid., 107. 45. Hamm, Thomas, “Thomas Hamm on Division in Indiana.” (2013). http:// www.friendsjournal.org/thomas-hamm-on-division-in-indiana/. 46. Bennett, Douglas, “Homosexuality: A Plea To Read the Bible Together,” (2012). http://www.friendsjournal.org/homosexuality-a-plea-to-read-the-bible-together/ . 47. London Yearly Meeting (1920), 613. 48. Ibid. 49. Brayshaw, 1921 cited in: London Yearly Meeting (1920), 606. 50. Brinton, Friends for 300 Years: The History and Beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox Started the Quaker Movement, 160. 51. North Carolina Yearly Meeting. 52. FCNL (Friends Committee on National Legislation) Policy Statement (2003), 2. http://fcnl.org/assets/policy/novdec03revised.pdf. 53. Johan Galtung, “Violence, Peace, and Peace Research,” Journal of Peace Research 6, no. 3 (1969). 54. Raleigh Friends Meeting, “Some Issues that Friends (Quakers) Led On Or Heavily Contributed Leadership To.” (http://rtpnet.org/friends/Issues_Led_By_Friends.p df). 55. North Carolina Yearly Meeting. 56. John Woolman was an eighteenth century American Quaker active in getting the remaining Quaker slave-holders to free their slaves. 57. Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Faith and Practice, 3. 58. Brinton, Friends for 300 Years: The History and Beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox Started the Quaker Movement, 151. 59. Galtung, “Violence, Peace, and Peace Research,”; Vernie Davis, “John Woolman and Structural Violence: Model for Analysis and Structural Change,” in The Tendering Presence: Essays on John Woolman, ed. Mike Heller (Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill Publications, 2003). 60. John Woolman, The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, ed. Phillips P. Moulton. (Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 1989). 61. Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Faith and Practice, 35. 62. Brinton, Friends for 300 Years: The History and Beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox Started the Quaker Movement, 147. 63. London Yearly Meeting (1920), 540. 64. Friends World Conference, 1952 cited in: London Yearly Meeting (1920), 624. 65. Davis, “John Woolman and Structural Violence: Model for Analysis and Structural Change.” 66. Boulding, Building a Global Civic Culture. 67. Brinton, Friends for 300 Years: The History and Beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox Started the Quaker Movement, 169. 68. Curle, The Basis for Quaker Work for Peace & Service, 7. 69. Brinton, Friends for 300 Years: The History and Beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox Started the Quaker Movement, 172. 70. Ibid., 108. 71. Ibid., 109.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Boulding, Elise. Building a Global Civic Culture. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1990. 1988.

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Brinton, Howard H. Friends for 300 Years: The History and Beliefs of the Society of Friends since George Fox Started the Quaker Movement. Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill Publications, 1965. 1952. Curle, Adam. The Basis for Quaker Work for Peace & Service. London: Quaker Peace and Service, 1980. Davis, Vernie. “John Woolman and Structural Violence: Model for Analysis and Structural Change.” In The Tendering Presence: Essays on John Woolman, edited by Mike Heller. 243–60. Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill Publications, 2003. Fry, Douglas. The Human Potential for Peace. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Galtung, Johan. “Violence, Peace, and Peace Research.” Journal of Peace Research 6, no. 3 (1969): 167–91. Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Culture. New York: Basic Books, Inc. Publishers, 1973. Jonas, Gerald. On Doing Good. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971. Penn, William. Some Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims. London: Headley Brothers, 1905. Reay, Barry. The Quakers and the English Revolution. London: Temple Smith, 1985. Spradley, James. Participant Observation. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. Steere, Douglas, ed. Quaker Spirituality: Selected Writings. New York: Paulist Press, 1984. Ury, William. The Third Side: Why We Fight and How We Can Stop. New York: Penguin Books, 1999. Woolman, John. The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman. edited by Phillips P. Moulton. Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 1989. 1971. Yarrow, C.H. Mike. Quaker Experiences in International Conciliation. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1978). Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Faith and Practice. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1990.

THIRTEEN Haïtian Vodou Peace Begins Within Margaret Mitchell Armand

Religion is part of the migration process. Sometimes migrations are peaceful, as people bring with them the tools necessary for their survival in a different environment. However, historically, migratory practices have usually taken the form of conquest and invasion. The spread of Islam and Christianity, for example, has created conflicts in Africa while enslaving countless numbers of people. The ancestors of the Haïtian people are the Taínos; furthermore African people were brought by force during the transatlantic slave trade; a few also descended from European colonizers. The Africans who came to Haïti were part of the largest forced and dehumanizing migration system at any time in the history of the world, resulting in millions of Africans being transported from their native lands to the shores of the “New World” by Euro-Christian powers. This forced migration took place in conjunction with the mostly voluntary European migration to the Americas, albeit for different purposes. To truly understand the Haïtian Vodou religion, it is essential to see it in the context of these migrations and the forces that drove them, particularly the rise of the Christian Euro-United States control of the New World. It is equally important to dispense with much of the literature that has been published about Vodou (and Haïti as a whole) over the years, since it has been poisoned by myopic racism and ignorance of the powers that have shaped Haïti’s history. During this period, the Haïtian people have made extraordinary efforts to sustain their religious tradition and 223

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culture in spite of ongoing conflicts inside Haïti and the rest of the world opposition to their sovereignty. Many historians, Haïtians and foreigners alike, have attempted to write the history of the tradition of the Haïtian people. But as Bellegarde 1 notes, “Haïtian historians and foreign historians have committed a grave error in trying to deal with the history of Haïti apart from the history of the world, and in doing so have failed to reinsert men and events within the context of the time, which has prevented them from reaching a sober and sound judgment.” Scholarship is not immune to the racism that accompanied the conquest of Africa and the colonization of Haïti. Some authors, even indigenous ones, have embodied within their work a sense of European cultural White supremacy, if for no other reason than to placate public sentiment in the markets in which their books circulate. Studies on the Haïtian Vodou religion have tried to interpret it as a result of history, as a mixture to be accounted for in terms of reinterpretation and assimilation of Catholic beliefs by an African mentality. 2 Thus the dominance of Catholicism has led to misinterpretations of the Haïtian Vodou religion. 3 We have not yet seen enough work by indigenous scholars on the effects of the historical conditions in which Africans survived within a system of chattel slavery and how the Haïtian Vodou tradition helped African slaves resist the dehumanizing effects of colonialism, and ultimately to fight and win their independence in 1804. Any perspective that suggests Vodou owes anything to the Catholic religion devalues the freedom that formerly enslaved people fought for, and fails to sufficiently take into account their ability to survive and transform their own world. This perspective also diminishes the ideals and spiritual tradition of the Taínos and the Africans which live on in Haïti making Haïti a crucial site in the geography of world religion. After suffering through lives filled with terror, the Africans in Haïti rose up in the 1791 revolution, which led to their Independence of 1804. Mintz 4 points out, “what makes Haïti unique is that no other nation in world history has ever been created by slaves who wrested their weapons from the hands of their masters and then threw the masters out. What Spartacus did not achieve, the Haïtian people did. Haïti’s uniqueness inheres in that historical experience.” Haïtians liberated themselves from the revolting cruelty of the invaders/terrorists of the island, the ChristianEuropean oppressors. In the face of the degrading conditions of racebased slavery, Africans on the plantations and the Maroon communities (Taínos and Africans) fought for freedom, aided by liberating forces of the Vodou Religious Revolution in Haïti. A union of African people from multiple regions of Africa and their nanshons, (family grouping) where they resided before the transatlantic slave trade resulted in a call for freedom. This unique, collaborative fight for freedom that became known as the Haïtian Revolution aimed to end the slave system. The island of Haïti, with its forced immigrants on slave

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plantations, became the first land in the world in which oppressed people succeeded in freeing themselves from a European and American colonial slave system that was then still widespread in the Americas and other parts of the world. Evidence suggests the importance of unification as a tool against an oppressive system. 5 The union of the Africans within their “religious habitus”—a term coined by Bourdieu 6—created the ground for unity and survival. It also created means to achieve peace and healing in the aftermath of this grueling fight for freedom. Religious habitus became the unifying force against oppression, which provided a means of collective transformation. Yet, both the tragic genocide of the Taínos and the African people in Haïti that took place through institutionalized race-based slavery as well as the unprecedented success of the independence movement in 1804 continue to require further study; their inherent values are still not acknowledged by their former oppressors religious belief’s system. However, they contain important lessons for students of peace and conflict in the twenty-first century and religious-political decision makers. Moreover, the Haïtian oral tradition remains almost completely absent from scholarship, an omission that I want to begin to correct here. The Haïtian Vodou tradition is a way of life that takes shape around orally transmitted stories, through invocations, songs, rituals, vèvès, and the everyday lives of Vodouists in the lakou—traditional living arrangement- and in the family circle. This oral culture maintains the tradition of Haïtian Vodou, and serves as an educational tool. Haïtian Vodou is a holistic concept that includes the spiritual, the cosmological, the philosophical, the ideological, the educational, the medicinal, the familial, the communal, and the religious, as well as economic development initiatives. It contributes to the development of national knowledge through agricultural farming methods, healing methods, and navigation methods that are based on the positions of planets and stars and other scientific insights. Wilcken 7 has asserted that the texts of Vodou songs are a kind of encyclopedia of the spirits and of Vodou cosmology. Because the spirits (Lwas) represent the ancestors and are experienced in human affairs, the subject matter of Vodou texts expresses human feelings and concerns, sometimes with human speech and sometimes as the messages of the Lwas. As pedagogy, the songs reveal characteristics of the Lwas, of people and the environment—both terrestrial and cosmic. Haïtian Vodou also has its own ancient vocabulary, langai is a communication tool derived from languages spoken in areas in Africa. Hilliard 8 asserts, “Our people did not come here devoid of intelligence, history, or culture, rather we had already built the foundation of world civilization. To look at the remnants of African culture after two thousand seasons of invasion and colonization and to judge a people from that is either ignorant or malicious, sometimes both. But it is dysfunctional for our people to

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feel shame over our cultural heritage, when we should feel immense pride.” Inherent within the Haïtian Vodou tradition is the value of self-determination for freedom; it was already present in the Taíno people who resided in Haïti before the European Christian invasion, in the Africans in the slave ships, destined for plantations on the island of Haïti or elsewhere, and in the Maroon revolutionary communities. Taking charge of their destiny, people able to think for themselves, was the basis for the revolution, and it continues to be the desire of each person today. As Daes 9 acknowledges, “it is fundamentally human to desire freedom. Moreover, our spiritual side motivates us to pursue freedom, not our physical nature, our intellect, or our culture. A unique spirit within each of us strives to express itself, to be recognized, to have a name and a destiny.” The desire to fight against oppression, a desire forged in the misery and humiliation of African people, created the setting of the Haïtian Revolution, an uprising against the inhumane Euro-colonial slave system that had relentlessly dominated the island’s population during the course of three hundred years. The Africans in the dehumanizing slave system joined forces during the Vodou meetings. Some of the enslaved Africans had previously fought Christian European invaders and Muslims in Africa, and faced Christians again in Haïti. The enslaved Haïtians affirmed their freedom and sovereignty through a “collective tradition” that, as Gaynes 10 argues, “extends back to the early development of an ancient African (Egypt) moral and ethical code known as Maat. Moreover, it embodies the conceptual ideology that there is a harmonious force that everyone strives to attain; in essence, it is perceived as a spiritual dimension of life. It postulates that the following exist in the universe: justice, harmony, balance, order and reciprocity.” This is a cosmic order that every one of us can reach; we only need to know that this knowledge and force is here within us and we can do it. The sounds emitted through the Lanbi (conch shell), called the gathering, synchronized with the Tam Tam of the Vodou drums whose beat provided the location of the meeting, the topic, the time, and the location of the sender of that message; revolution was summoned, and the uprising began. The Haïtian Revolution was a collaborative and collective uprising. During the traditional meetings held at night in secret, after their forced labor life conditions, the Africans organized the revolution in partnership with the escaped Africans and remaining Taínos living in Maroon guerilla communities. Women, children, and men alike gathered in different areas of the island and created the master plan for the revolution. The participants were African civilians, a collective of enslaved families and their children. The unification made possible by the Haïtian Vodou tradition led to the defeat of the Christian colonial system, which was based on foment-

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ing dissent and taking resources which continues today by leading a conversion campaign toward other religious belief systems on other people’s land. Bennett 11 states that “in the Roman Catholic colonies, African religious practices and other elements of African culture were not as vigorously opposed as they were in the Protestant colonies. The Protestant colonies, with an instinct for the jugular vein, rode hard on tomstoms and joyful noises for the Lord.” On the island of Haïti, a Roman Catholic colony, the Haïtian Vodouists used the images of Catholic saints as props for communicating with their Vodou Lwas, which kept at bay the Catholic colonial masters while augmenting the forces of unification that led to revolution. This pattern of using pictures of Catholic saints in the Haïtian Vodou religion is still in practice today. 12 However, in enslaved African colonies under Protestant control, the Africans had no such choice of covert representations and therefore found it harder to unite around their African heritage and the power it contained in order to fight for freedom. Beauvoir 13 asserts that on August 14, 1791, at a location called Bwa Kayiman, in the north of Haïti, during a major Vodou traditional meeting immersed in African ideological knowledge and manipulation of natural elements and forces within the energetical concept of Vodou Lwas, the uprising was led by Boukman, an enslaved African Hougan and an escapee from the English colony slave system in Jamaica. According to oral and written accounts, African Vodou leaders including Manbos, Hougans, the Maroon guerillas, and civilians who escaped from the slave plantations were the creators, actors, coordinators, facilitators, unifiers, and healing forces that led to the defeat of slavery in Haïti. Faith may help one survive atrocity, but now, for the Africans, it was “Liberty or Death.” During the meeting at Bwa Kayiman, the Vodou ceremonial council aimed at gathering all Africans to bring forth their traditional knowledge and skills used in customary warfare in Africa. We know that the Bwa Kayiman rituals included the Petwo of Keptro 14 rituals. This Haïtian Vodou traditional gathering included natural and spiritual elements that energetically mutated from the needs of the people to transform into the soul of liberty, and which continue to speak of self-determination and liberation in Haïtian Vodou gatherings and invocations. Métraux 15 affirms that the “Bwa Kayiman ceremony was similar to those of Dahomey when Dahomeans were engaged in perilous activities and they bonded with their partners. This resulted in: the spirit of solidarity, a trusting relationship, and the need for secrecy.” Scott 16 notes that “if the social location par excellence of the public transcript is to be found in the public assemblies of subordinates summoned by elites, it follows that the social location par excellence for the hidden transcripts lies in the unauthorized and unmonitored secret assemblies of subordinates.”

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Boukman’s call to action, commonly referred to as Prayer Boukman 17 calls forth a sharing of needs and dreams connected to ancestral knowledge and guidance, to strengthen the members of the African gathering to rise fearlessly to fight the battles that would defeat Napoleon’s army. The invocation affirms a call to action: The God, who created the earth, who created the sun that gives us light. The God who holds up the ocean, who makes the thunder roar. Our God who has ears to hear. You who are hidden in the clouds, who watch us from where you are. You see all that the White has made us suffer. The White men’s god asks him to commit crimes. But the God within us wants to do good. Our God, who is so good, so just. He orders us to avenge our wrongs. It’s He who will direct our arms and bring us the victory. It’s He who will assist us. We all should throw away the image of the White men’s god who is so pitiless. Listen to the voice for liberty that speaks in all our hearts. 18

The Bwa Kayiman traditional council, the marker of African freedom in Haïti, was the only way out of a slave system that had blighted the island for over three hundred years. No negotiation, mediation, collaborative peacemaking, or peacebuilding effort based on mutual respect could have provided freedom for the enslaved Africans in Haïti. No methods of conflict resolution would have worked with the colonizers. The economic stakes were too high, and the Christian greed and lust for power under the pretense of superior Christian faith while looting the natural resources of the island in the interests of capitalism, were too strong. On the other hand, the Africans practiced collaboration, consensus, unity, partnership, and collective organizational planning. Some historians have attributed the success of the Haïtian Revolution only to colonial factors, such as the 1791 French Revolution and/or the yellow fever epidemic that debilitated the French troops in Haïti (Saint-Domingue). 19 However, as historian Noël 20 notes, this is another example of the dominator’s imposing logic that denies the oppressed the credit for their liberation. As Noël states, “The logic is double-edged, supplying the victim the weapons and the oppressor with pride in having produced them. For example, some Westerners have boasted of having taught Africans and Asians the principles of a revolutionary and liberal heritage after these were involved to launch their own decolonization.” Now, over two hundred years later, Haïtian people on their free land are still dealing with issues of colonization. Well-known Haïtian Vodouist Azor, 21 internationally known roots singer, acclaimed for his “Boukman Experience” songs, calls on Boukman and the Lwas to re-kindle the fire of the Haïtian Vodou revolution. Boukman o o nan Bwa Kayiman Nou lonmen non w nou pa detounen w

Boukman o in Bwa Kayiman We call your name trusting not to interrupt

Haïtian Vodou: Peace Begins Within

Nan Bwa Kayiman Adje nou lonmen non w papa Nou pa deranje w nan Bwa Kayiman Papa Boukman o nou gen ase ase ase o Peyi nou divize lafanmi dozado Nou pate fè Bwa Kayiman pou n sèvi etranje Nou pate fè Bwa kayiman la a pou n sèvi etranje

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In Bwa kayiman With pride we call on you papa We are not bothering you in Bwa Kayiman Papa Boukman we have enough enough Our nation is divided, our family is divided. We did not organize in Bwa Kayiman to be the pawn of the colonizer We did not meet in Bwa Kayiman to be Once again colonized We are calling on our powerful ancestors . . .

Bwa Kayiman is forever present in our beings. This freedom was not gained in vain. Although Haïtians are experiencing conflicts in their homeland, we are tired of the current situation; we did not gain our freedom simply to be dominated by new colonizers. That was not the idea of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the founding father and first president of Haïti, in this powerful Haïtian Vodou song: Depi m soti nan Ginen moun yo ap sonde mwen Se mwen menm Gwo Wòch O Depi m soti nan Ginen moun yo ap sonde mwen Se mwen menm rasin O M soti anba dlo m vole nan lè zè Kou yo kwè yo pran mwen mwen tounen la fimen o Se mwen menm Gwo Wòch O Lè yo konnen ki moun mwen ye latè va tranble Se mwen menm rasin o se mwen menm Gwo Wòch o

Since I left Africa I am under fire I am the Great Rock Since I left Africa I am under fire I am the root I vanish under water And evaporate into thin air When they think to catch me I fade away into smoke I am the great Rock When I show my power The earth will tremble I am a Great Rock I am the Root

Jean-Jacques Dessalines’s constitution provided the basis for a new nation shaped by Haïtian Vodou religious philosophy and ideology. It included important provisions such as holidays on January 1 known as Independence Day, followed on January 2 by Ancestors Day, a Vodou

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tradition of honoring the ancestors. The Constitution of 1804 reflected Haïtian Vodou core values, including the abolition of slavery, respect for all religious practices, protection of children, emphasis on qualities required to be a good father, respect for agriculture, marriage as a civil choice and not a religious one, equality of all people, and the requirement that each person have a mechanical art—a vocational trade. 22 Furthermore, Dessalines gratefully addressed the Polish army serving France in Saint-Domingue (Haïti), which had opted to side and fight with the Africans during the African Vodou Revolution in Haïti. Dessalines included a special provision in the Haïtian Constitution that provided Haïtian citizenship to all people who wished to remain on the island and a special recognition of the Polish people as children of the island for their assistance during the revolution. 23 Their descendants reside today in Haïti in a town called Cazale. The constitution of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, based on Vodou ideology, addressed the historic divisions of the past and the injustices within living memory of its founders. It dismantled colonial laws, confronted retributive justice issues, promoted national sovereignty, made demands for international recognition and self-indigenous governance, mandated respect for the Haïtian Vodou tradition, created power-sharing structures, and promoted civil dialogue and finding common ground, based on the Haïtian Vodou value that human equality is fundamental to a just society. It also promoted mutual respect and peace. The Haïtian Revolution established a new world order that was opposed to the slave system. Africans created the new nation of Haïti and the Haïtian Vodou religion. After independence, the Haïtian masses erected many Vodou Peristyle (gathering traditional site) throughout the nation. Some of these are in the city of Gonaives, the town of the Proclamation of Independence by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Gwo Wòch. Other communities include lakou Souvenance, lakou Soukri, and lakou Badjo, where they reproduced the mystical kingdom of Dahomey. The rituals enacted the lives of Africans in Dahomey in lakou Souvenance, lakou Soukri, and lakou Badgio 24 among many other places throughout the island that still exist are functioning today is spite of struggling against assault from Christian conversion machinery. The victory of the Haïtian independence movement exists in the psyche of all Haïtians as an important symbol and “a chosen glory.” In contrast, slavery is considered a “chosen trauma,” meaning a trauma that remains in the psyche of those who have inherited the transgenerational transmission of the painful memory of their dehumanization. 25 The celebration of the Freedom Movement—of Haïtian independence—is the healing place where all Haïtians come together and class, color, religious beliefs, and economic differences are transcended and peace attained, albeit temporarily.

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Western scholarship has tended to disregard African cultural, historical, social, scientific, and spiritual contributions to world culture and thought. 26 Like Haïti, formerly colonized African nations have suffered centuries of decline due to Christian oppression, colonization, and illegal and immoral appropriation of human resources for a slave system in the West and natural resources to enrich Europe and the Americas. They have suffered as well misrepresentations of their religious systems justified by their divisive myth of the Bible. As Malhotra 27 explains, “The Hamitic myth of the Bible, in which the descendants of Noah’s son Ham were cursed, was used by slave traders and slave owners to justify slavery. Hamitic linguistic groups were identified and separated from the rest of Africans. African civilization’s contributions were explained as the work of an imaginary sub-race of Whites invading and civilizing Africa. Western classification of traditional African communities into races led to bitter rivalries, including genocide, as in Rwanda.” Belief systems such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Druidism originated from African spirituality. Haïtian Vodou spiritual concepts are found in Hoodoo or Vodou in the United States; Macumba, Umbanba and Candomblé in Brazil; Santería in Cuba; Obea and Pocomanes in Jamaica; and Mayomberos in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, as well as Kimbwaseurs in Martinique and Guadeloupe, Wentes in Trinidad and Tobago, and Maroons in Guyana. Whether it is Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Eastern philosophy, Wicca, Confucianism, Hinduism, or European paganism, African Professor Ben-Jochannan 28 states that, “Africans have been the founders of said religions and their teaching along with the Asians hundreds of years, in some cases thousands of years before they were known to the peoples of Europe. The fact that within the past two to four hundred years the role of the indigenous Africans in these major religions has been carefully and purposefully denied, suppressed, and in most cases, omitted will not stop the truth about their indigenous African origins from coming to the surface.” For this reason, it is necessary that the field of Peace Studies recognize the value of African religious philosophy and ideology in the peacemaking process. And part of the value of the Haïtian Vodou religious tradition lies in the way in which, as the vessel of African and Taíno knowledge, it remains faithful to its spiritual history. Haïtian authors such as Philippe Sterlin, in his Vèvè Vodou Series I and II, Alfred Metraux, in his ethnological fieldwork in the north of Haïti, and Milo Rigaud, in his ethnographic research, have found over 400 Haïtian Vodou Vèvè designs, while Odette Menensson Rigaud’s field notes on Vodou ceremonies also contain rich detail. 29 Further, Louis Maximilien, Milo Marcelin, Melville Herskovitz, Elsie Clew Parsons, Lorimer Denis, François Duvalier, Harold Courlander, Jean Fouchard, Emile Nau, Lila Desquiron, and Leslie Desmangles among others, 30 have

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also contributed to Haïtian Vodou research. It is important to note that those works emerged in response to the humiliation of the Americanspearheaded inquisition against Vodouists in their Peristyle that took place during the American Occupation of 1915–1934. 31 Some Haïtians from the bourgeois/elite, touched by this humiliating experience, took it upon themselves to look at Haïtian Vodou in their research and writings. However, the impact of the Catholic inquisition and the massacre of Haïtian Vodouists during the American Occupation of 1915–1934, as well as the disastrous impact of the Vodou Dechoukay of 1986, remain largely unremarked in mainstream religious oppression studies; moreover, studies that do exist tend to be tainted by a Christian bias. After independence in 1804, Haïtian masses created many Vodou communities throughout the nation dedicated exclusively to the Haïtian Vodou Lwas of their original family and nanshon from Africa. At the same time, the Affranchi descendants, the bourgeois elite, were erecting Catholic churches, setting themselves apart from their démanbré 32 but many of them chose to maintain secret their ties to their Vodou ancestral tradition just in case. Because of the smaller number of Affranchi/bourgeois/elite in Haïti, the Vodou Peristyle outnumbered the Catholic churches, but the economic power of the dominating forces remained that of Christianity. While in the surrounding area of Gonaives, Africans from Dahomey erected Vodou traditional family communities such as lakou Souvenance, the lakou Kongo of Soukri, and the Nago lakou Badjio. On these sacred grounds were the duplicates of the mystical kingdom of Dahomey, where the people reproduced in their own way the legacies of the kingdom of Africa. Those rituals, as seen by the West, stemmed from the collective memory of the African homeland as it is lived in Haïti. 33 The following Haïtian Vodou incantation during a sèvis in lakou Souvenance affirms the symbolic return to Africa and the psychological healing process of this ritual. The song belongs to the oral repertoire of the sacred texts of Vodou in the Fon language of the Dahomeans. It begins: KPomi Kpomi poda Nikpode Zamholi Kpomi Kopmi Poda

We ask and we seek the road to Zandoli We ask to return home

Zandoli was the last district of Africa, the location of the Tree of No Return, which the subjugated Africans were forced to circumambulate many times before being loaded like cattle onto the slave ship. It was a ritual forced on the Africans in an attempt to erase the memory of their past. However, in the Haïtian Vodou gathering of Souvenance, the rituals that take place around the sacred Mapou 34 tree are a reversal of the process of forgetting, and a healing return to the collective memory of the ancestors. They constitute a process of healing through a symbolic return to the African ways; they reverse the Middle Passage, and go back to

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Africa. The region of Lavil O Kan in the north of Haïti also serves as a healing return to the knowledge of Ginen, Africa. Haïtian Vodou sèvis are temporal manifestation of energetic forces. They are a universal tradition that encompasses the spiritual knowledge of humanity, the energetic movement that makes life on earth possible, in all its natural manifestations. In contrast to the dissonance of other religious ideology, McCarthy Brown 35 writes, “Vodou is a religion of energy and life, a coherent, complex religion with theological wisdom, human insight, and artistic flavor that can only be called meaningful.” It is a therapeutic environment where the universal laws of the cosmos are put in practice. It stems from the African spiritual lineage. Haïti and Vodou are one, and being Vodou and being human are one as well. The challenges are to accommodate, absorb, change and re-create self and transform as the need arises within energy of healing, love, and peacemaking. This energy is part of the universally unlimited source that is within our physical sanctuary, a place to heal. Haïtian author, Manbo Dwoti Desir 36 points out that “Haïtian Vodou is practiced as a healing art, which sutures the ongoing social, political, economic, and epistemological ruptures made by the Middle Passage, but Manbo and Hougan also assist in the rehabilitation of the spirit and the physical body.” They assist us with the teachings of the traditions through the oral history of prayers and invocations that relate to our interpretation of our place in the world. They are a process of reversal of the Middle Passage. McCarthy Brown 37 states that, “the moral vision of Vodou does not assume a dichotomy between good and evil. Moral discernment is focused on the health and liveliness of fluid relationships, not on the essence of persons or their acts. It is fair to say that all Vodou is about healing and all healing work is aimed at the relations between people as well as those between the living and the spirit.” Haïtian Vodouists do not convert people nor aspire to conquer lands and resources that do not belong to them. In Haïtian Vodou, there is afterlife neither in paradise nor in hell. We are to create our own paradise or hell in this world. We are free to make that choice. Haïtian Vodou recognizes a God as it is called in the Western practice that is the supreme force that encompasses all the energies in the universe, and is found through many forms. Vodouists also recognize their ancestors from the nanshons (ancestral families) and classify them as Rada, Ibo, Nago, Bawon Gede, Kongo, Petwo, Zanpo, Shampwel, and Bizango among others. Under each nanshon there are the names of African heroes known as Lwas; for example, the Lwa Ogou is found from the Nago nanshon. The concept of the Lwa in Haïtian Vodou is taken from the collective memory of the home where African families lived before they were taken into slavery and eventually arrived in Haïti, and from the energies in nature that surround us. The Lwas can be the heroes of the past and also prominent figures in Africa today. They are the ancestors. The Lwas can

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be also elements of nature. Senehi 38 comments, “Particular locations figure prominently in religious, national, and historical narratives. Narratives also encode cultural norms regarding the relationships between humans and their natural environment.” People may refer to themselves as a tree, a stone, wind and thunder, a river, a lake, the ocean, a star, or a planet. Vodouists understand the force of energies as described by Linda Hogan, 39 a Chickasaw, Native American in the stories of her own indigenous culture: “There are tales of trees singing, and of corn called by the Mayans ‘the grace’ telling stories of inner earth. . . . [W]hen we examine myths, we find that they are a high form of truth. They are the deepest, innermost cultural stories of our human journeys toward spiritual and psychological growth. An essential part of the myth is that it allows for our return to the creation, to a mystical time. It allows us to hear the world new again.” It allows us to be whole again without the conflicts of an imposed religious system. The Lwas of Haïtian Vodou guide us through the challenges of life. One such powerful example of a Lwa is Ogou, from the region of Nigeria, formerly Yoruba, that belongs to the Rada and Nago nanshons. A family with Yoruba ancestry may recognize the energies, attributes, and qualities of the Lwa Ogou as the most prominent Lwa in the family. A person may also attend to other Lwas of the family spiritual realms because of nanshon family groupings and multiple ancestral lineages. A person mounted by the energy of a Lwa may recognize that Lwa as the Lwa Ogou due to the attribute displayed. The Vodou concept of mounting exists also in the Hindu religion, where Shiva or other historical ancestors mount the devotees. 40 Through the person who is mounted, the Lwa speaks the truth about what is happening in a given conflict, bringing out in the open personal and family conflicts and helping to work out a peaceful solution. If there is an illness in the family, the Lwa that comes through offers a healing plan with medicinal plants. A Lwa may also ask for reparation to be made to a person harmed in a conflict, enabling healing to begin. After the mounting, the individual may or may not remember what happened during the mounting process. However, it is a healing process for the individual mounted, family members, and the community when the mounting is done in a sèvis. Recognition, empowerment, reparation, justice and reconciliation are fundamental to healing and Peace. The Lwas live within us. They are part of our DNA, our family heritance. They are us and we are them. In Haïtian Vodou, the mounting process is referred to as chwal—horse. The Lwa Ogou is the one most often mounting a person. He is known to be a commanding Lwa who handles the complexities of social negotiations. Ogou is known as the defender, demanding justice, fair play, and integrity from the people he interacts with and mandating that the outcome of negotiations be just and fair. He is also especially tolerant and protective of the poor and the

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dispossessed. He is associated with the metal iron, represented as a sword or a machete, with the color red, and with the military. He is the driving force that breaks new ground and makes the unachievable possible. The story of Ogou in Africa is similar to the story of Ogou in Haïti, with the difference that in Haïti he reflects the oppressive sociocultural, political, and economic conflicts facing Haïtian Vodouists. Ogou is important in the daily life of the Haïtian people, and the symbolic image of Ogou can cross cultures in order to transform conflicts to peacebuilding in any setting because all humans have the same needs and desires, and all experience conflicts. 41 The meaning of the Lwas as ancestors, and their origin in Africa and in their nanshons, is, in Haïtian Vodou, the foundation of Haïtian identity and the making of peace. An analysis of a Lwa’s role in resolving conflict can be explained for each of the 401 Lwas that are generally known in Haïtian Vodou tradition. For example, the Lwa Legba is the mediator that maintains the relationships between the visible world and the world of the Lwas; he is the peacemaker and the guardian of the gateways. His counterpart is the Lwa Ti Jan Petwo, who keeps enemies at bay. The Lwa Grann Ayizan Velekete who holds the virtue of righteousness is the purifier and healer. She is represented by a palm tree or a palm frond. The Lwa Azaka Médé is known as the Minister of Agriculture because of the importance of nature and agriculture, which he watches over. He considers that people who do not give importance to agriculture are lazy and dependent on others. The Lwa Ezili is the spirit of Love in all its forms. Ezili is the loving “mother,” creator, the womb of the world, with the many characteristics of the power of love. She is the lover, the wife, the authority figure, the child bearer, the fierce protective mother, the activist, the defender of truth, the worker, the teacher, the healer, the collaborator, the magician, the old wise woman, the protector, and the mediator, the peacemaker, and many more things that Love can make happen. Ezili Freda is the Lwa of love and abundance; Ezili Dantò is the fierce protective mother, healer and warrior; and Ezili La Flanbo transforms those around her through her innate fire of rebirth. Ezili Je Wouj mediates the trouble at hand; Grann Ezili is the old wise woman. Ezili Dan Petwo brings with her the magic that makes it work. They are many more Ezili, as Ezili is the infinite power of love in all its forces, as struggle, passion, and victory. Therefore, the Lwas are the force in Haïtian Vodou, and the concept of the Lwa is also a powerful reminder that you had a home and you belonged to a family and a tradition before being forced into the dehumanizing slave system. As love created this world through its supreme manifestations, Ezili is the most important Lwa in Haïtian Vodou The Lwas Danbala and Ayida Wedo symbolize the virtue of wisdom and knowledge. They are a reminder that we are an energetic force that is interconnected with a supreme universal energetic force, our source, our

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spinal cord, the DNA of our origin. The cosmic, universal, religious, and spiritual aspects of Haïtian Vodou are represented in the art form of the Vèvès of Haïtian Vodou. The Vèvè that symbolizes the Lwas Danbala and Ayida Wedo represents two snakes intertwined, which signify our connection to the invisible world, a return to the source, and our healing. Being able to feel our energetic source and recall our history and tell others that our ancestors were free people, reconnecting with the past and dealing with the conflicts of the present, are also part of the uniqueness of Haïtian Vodou religious practice. The Priyè Djo and the Priyè Ginen 42 serve this purpose, helping us to remember and honor the place we came from before the slave system, and to tell our stories. They tell the story of the Lwas, the ancestors, those that came before us. They also narrate the story of the Haïtian people from the perspective of those who lived it, telling of their struggles’ their desires; and their successes, past and present and the conflicts they experience. They provide Haïtians with the strength to manage conflicts and stand up for what is right. They are the account of history, education, societal organization, ethics, and values, healing methods, ways of life, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding. They recognize that death is a transformation to another energetic form in order to go to Ginen. The symbolic place of Ginen is a sacred ancestral force, a sacred place as Haïtians proudly locate themselves when they acknowledge “Mwen se vrè Ginen”—I am grounded in the knowledge of the ancestors. It is also a physical place, as Ginen refers to Africa, Benin, and Dahomey, and to a place where we are welcomed by the energies that created us, and to which we may return when we cross to the world of pure energy. The personal need to go back home is a concept that promotes personal freedom. Haïtian Vodou is both a modern religion with twenty-first century adepts and a way of life. It is as dynamic as any religious organizations and anyone who believes in the existence of a supreme force whatever they named it, the spirits –Lwas- and their ancestors. The Haïtian Vodou tradition is healing to people because it respects others’ desire or freedom to practice the religion of their choice as they please. Accepting people’s differences means that there is no need for religious wars, and instead it shows respect. For Haïtian Vodouists, life is a continuum of spiritual, physical, historical, and Universal bonds where all the energies of the Lwas assemble. The Lwas are a continuous spiral of energies, transforming and renewing themselves, and therefore renewing Haïtians as well. All those energies reside in the spiritual realms and are interconnected with our physical world until the time of our departure on earth. The Lwas of Haïtian Vodou harmonize and reinstate balance and peace in the visible world and provide an explanation for the social conditions of oppressed people of Haïti and a solution to those conflicts and the healing that follows, but only if we wish to pay attention. Vodouists acknowledge those forces as

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part of being in the world, and all humans originated from them and are part of them. McCarthy Brown 43 states that “the transformative potential of the Haïtian Vodou does not reside in the capacity of the spirits (Lwas) to model morally appropriate behavior, but rather in the capacity of the spirits (Lwas) to keep the full range of the possibilities latent in any way of being-in-the-world before the eyes of the believer.” The Lwas are heroes of the past; they are the blueprint of the values, the ideas, and the healing that are personalized as the ancestors, and they provide lessons of justice and addresses injustices. They allow people to anchor their ideas of what is right for humanity. The Lwas serve the purpose of a protocol to live by which allows people to state that the way they live their lives today is the way the ancestors would have wanted. In making new laws we like to demonstrate that those laws are rooted in the ideas of our Lwas, our ancestors. Likewise, the Haïtian people, by addressing the common issues in their lives, are working toward solutions guided by their ancestors; their Lwas help them to abide by ancestral ethics and values. That is one of the reasons that the Lwas offer peace—because they provide guidance and solutions for peace and peacebuilding. Haïtian Vodou, rooted in African-Taíno traditional knowledge, has safeguarded the Haïtian historical narrative through invocation, rituals, songs, and mythology, as well as through a way of life. And these liberating forces have defeated oppression using ancestral knowledge and the spiritual values of peace, healing, social justice, and reconciliation. Although on a national level, the Haïtian people have, for many and complex reasons, not yet fully achieved all of their goals and dreams, they are—thanks to their Haïtian Vodou Religious Tradition—fundamentally aware that peace begins within. NOTES 1. Dantès Bellegarde, Histoire du people Haïtien (Paris: Nouvelles editions Latines, 1953). 183. 2. Melville Herskovitz, The Myth of the Negro past (Boston: Beacon Press, 1941); Serge Larose, “The Meaning of Africa in Haïtian Vodou,” in Symbols and Sentiments: Cross Cultural Studies in Symbolism, ed. I. M. Lewis (London: Academic Press, 1977), 85–116; Marie Jose Alcide Saint-Lot, Vodou a Sacred Theater: The African Heritage in Haïti (Fort Lauderdale: Educavision Press, 2003); Leslie Gérald Desmangles, The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haïti (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992). 3. Larose, “The Meaning of Africa in Haïtian Vodou,” 85–116. 4. Sidney W. Mintz, “Can Haïti Change?” Foreign Affairs 74, no. 1 (1995): 73. 5. Tanka Bahadur Subba, Politics of Culture: A Study of Three Kirata Communities in the Eastern Himalaya (Chennai, India: Orient Longman, 1999). 6. Pierre Bourdieu, “The Production of Belief: Contribution to an Economy of Symbolic Goods.” Media, Culture and Society 2, no. 3 (1980): 261–293. 7. Lois Wilcken, The Drums of Vodou (Tempe, AZ: White Cliffs Media Company, 1992), 93.

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8. Asa G. Hilliard, The Maroon Within Us: Selected Essays on African American Community Socialization (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1995), 114. 9. Erica-Irene Daes, “The Experience of Colonization around the World,” in Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision, ed. Marie Battiste (Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press, 2002), 5. 10. Joseph H. Gaines, “The Talking Drum: Moving Toward a Psychology of Literacy Transformation.” Journal of Black Psychology 22, no. 2 (1996): 206. 11. Lerone Bennett, Jr., Before the Mayflower. A History of the Negro in America 1619–1964 (Revised Edition). (Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company, 1973), 43. 12. Leslie Gérald Desmangles, The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haïti. 13. Max Beauvoir, Le Grand Recueil Sacré: Ou Repertoire des Chansons du Vodou Haïtien (Port-au-Prince: Presses National d’Haïti, 2008). 14. Keptro is a Dahomean fire ritual where the knowledge of warfare is shared. 15. Alfred Metraux, "Histoire du Vodou depuis la guerre d’Independence jusqu’à nos Jours." Presence Africaine 16 (1957): 138. 16. James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990), 121. 17. Boukman is one of the most mentioned leaders of the African Vodou Revolution in Saint-Domingue (Haïti). As explained by Margaret Mitchell Armand, Healing in the Homeland –Haïtian Vodou Tradition (Lexington Books, 2013). 18. Margaret Mitchell Armand, "Marie-Jeanne Lamartinierre," in Revolutionary Freedoms: A History of Strength, Survival and Imagination in Haïti, ed. Cécile Accilien, Jessica Adams, and Elmide Méléance (Fort Lauderdale: Caribbean Studies Press, 2006). 19. James Graham Leyburn, The Haïtian People (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998); Thomas Madiou, Histoire d’Haïti (Port-au-Prince, Haïti: Editions Henry Deschamps, 1990). 20. Lise Noël, Intolerance, trans. Arnold Bennett. (Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queen University Press, 1994), 249. 21. Azor CD from 2004. 22. Louis Joseph Janvier, Les Constitutions d’Haïti (Paris: C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1886), 42. 23. Jan Pachonski, and Reuel K. Wilson, Poland’s Caribbean Tragedy: A Study of Polish Legions in the Haitian War of Independence, 1802–1803 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986). 24. Marie José Alcide Saint-Lot, Vodou: A Sacred Theater. The African Heritage in Haïti. 25. Vamik Volkan, Bloodlines: From Ethnic Pride to Ethnic Terrorism (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997). 26. Cheikh Anta Diop, The African origin of civilization (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1989); Muata Ashby, The African origins of civilization, religion, yoga, mysticism, spirituality, ethics, philosophy and a history of Egyptian yoga (Sema Institute, 2005); Runoko Rashidi and Ivan Van Sertima, African Presence in Early Asia (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2004); Molefi Kete Asante, The Afrocentricity Idea (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998); Hilliard, The Maroon Within Us: Selected Essays on African American Community Socialization; Basil Davidson, Africa in History (New York: Touchstone Books, 1995). 27. Rajiv Malhotra and Arvindan Neelakandan, Breaking India. Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines (New Delhi: Amarillys Press, 2011), 10. 28. Yosef A. A. Ben-Jochannan, African Origins of the Major “Western Religions” (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1991), xx. 29. Phillipe Sterlin, Vodou Serie I, Serie II (Port-Au-Prince, Haïti: Editions Philippe Sterlin, 1952); Alfred Metraux, “Histoire du Vodou depuis la guerre d’Independence jusqu’à nos Jours,” 138; Milo Rigaud, Secrets of Voodoo (New York: Arco, 1969); Odette Mennesson Rigaud, "The Feasting of the Gods in Haytian Vodu," Primitive Man 19, no. 1–2 (1946).

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30. Louis Maximilien, Le Vodou Haïtien Rite Rada Canzo (3rd Ed.). (Haïti: Imprimerie Henry Deschamps, 1985); Milo Marcelin, Mythologie Vodou: Rite Arada I Rite Arada II (Petion-Ville, Haïti: Editions Canapé Vert, 1950); Melville Herskovitz, Life in a Haïtian Valley (New York: Knopf, 1937); François Duvalier, Oeuvres Essentielles, Vol. I and II (Port-au-Prince, Haïti: Bibliothèque National d’Haïti, 1966); Harold Courlander, The Drum and the Hoe: Life and Lore of the Haitian People (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1973); Jean Fouchard, Les Marrons de La Liberté (Paris, France: Editions de L’Ecole, 1972); Emile Nau, Histoire Des Caciques D’Haïti (Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Collection Patrimoine, 2003); Lilas Desquiron, Les Racines du Vodou (Port-au-Prince, Haïti: Imprimerie Henry Deschamps, 1990); Leslie Gérald Desmangles, The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haïti. 31. A Peristyle is a Haïtian Vodou place of gathering. 32. Démanbré are ancestral plantations where family members lived and were buried. 33. Marie José Alcide Saint-Lot, Vodou: A Sacred Theater. The African Heritage in Haïti. 34. The Mapou is a Ceiba tree dedicated to the Lwa Loko Atissou, the tree of knowledge. 35. Karen McCarthy Brown, "The Vèvè of Haïtian Vodou: A Structural Analysis of Visual Imagery" (Ph.D. Dissertation, Temple University, 1975), viii. 36. Dowoti Desir, "Vodou: A Sacred Multidimensional, Plurastic Space." Teaching Theology and Religion 9, no. 2 (2006): 91. 37. Karen McCarthy Brown, “Systematic Remembering, Systematic Forgetting: Ogou in Haïti,” in Africa's Ogun: Old World and New, ed. Sandra Barnes. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989), 226. 38. Jessica Joy Senehi, “Constructive Storytelling: A Peace Building Process.” Peace and Conflict Studies 9, no. 2 (2002): 55. 39. Linda Hogan, “A Different Yield,” in Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision, ed. Marie Battiste. (Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press, 2002), 117. 40. Tarun Kanti Basu, Varanasi, the Luminous City (Varanasi: Ishita Printek, 2008). 41. Sandra T. Barnes and Paula Girshick Ben-Amos, "Ogoun, the Empire Builder," in Africa's Ogun: Old World and New, ed. Sandra Barnes (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997); Karin Barber, “Review of Africa Ogun.” Journal of Religion in Africa 20, no. 3 (1990): 289–291; McCarthy Brown, “Systematic Remembering, Systematic Forgetting: Ogou in Haïti,” 65–89. 42. Max Beauvoir, Priyè Ginen (Fort Lauderdale: Caribbean Studies Press, 2006). 43. McCarthy Brown, “Systematic Remembering, Systematic Forgetting: Ogou in Haïti,” 86.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Armand, Margaret Mitchell. Healing in the Homeland—Haïtian Vodou Tradition. Lexington Books, 2013. ———. "Marie-Jeanne Lamartinierre." In Revolutionary Freedoms: A History of Strength, Survival and Imagination in Haïti, edited by Cécile Accilien, Jessica Adams and Elmide Méléance. 85–90. Fort Lauderdale: Caribbean Studies Press, 2006. Asante, Molefi Kete. The Afrocentricity Idea. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998. Ashby, Muata. The African Origins of Civilization, Religion, Yoga, Mysticism, Spirituality, Ethics, Philosophy and a History of Egyptian Yoga. Sema Institute, 2005. Barber, Karin. “Review of Africa Ogun.” Journal of Religion in Africa 20, no. 3 (1990): 289–291. Barnes, Sandra T., and Paula Girshick Ben-Amos. “Ogoun, the Empire Builder.” In Africa's Ogun: Old World and New edited by Sandra Barnes, 40–61. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997. Basu, Tarun Kanti. Varanasi, the Luminous City. Varanasi: Ishita Printek, 2008.

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Beauvoir, Max. Le Grand Recueil Sacré: Ou Repertoire des Chansons du Vodou Haïtien. Port-au-Prince: Presses National d’Haïti, 2008. ———. Priyè Ginen. Fort Lauderdale: Caribbean Studies Press, 2006. Bellegarde, Dantès. Histoire Du People Haïtien. Paris: Nouvelles editions Latines, 1953. Ben-Jochannan, Yosef A. A. African Origins of the Major “Western Religions.” Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1991. Bennett, Jr., Lerone. Before the Mayflower. A History of the Negro in America 1619–1964 (Revised Edition). Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company, 1973. Bourdieu, Pierre. “The Production of Belief: Contribution to an Economy of Symbolic Goods.” Media, Culture and Society 2, no. 3 (1980): 261–293. Courlander, Harold. The Drum and the Hoe: Life and Lore of the Haitian People. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1973. Daes, Erica-Irene. “The Experience of Colonization around the World.” In Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision edited by Marie Battiste, 3–10. Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press, 2002. Davidson, Basil. Africa in History. New York: Touchstone Books, 1995. Desir, Dowoti. "Vodou: A Sacred Multidimensional, Plurastic Space." Teaching Theology and Religion 9, no. 2 (2006): 91–96. Desmangles, Leslie Gérald. The Faces of the Gods: Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haïti. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992. Desquiron, Lilas. Les Racines du Vodou. Port-au-Prince, Haïti: Imprimerie Henry Deschamps, 1990. Diop, Cheikh Anta. The African Origin of Civilization. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1989. Duvalier, François. Oeuvres Essentielles, Vol. I and II. Port-au-Prince, Haïti: Bibliothèque National d’Haïti, 1966. Fouchard, Jean. Les Marrons de La Liberté. Paris, France: Editions de L’Ecole, 1972. Gaines, Joseph H. “The Talking Drum: Moving Toward a Psychology of Literacy Transformation.” Journal of Black Psychology 22, no. 2 (1996): 202–222. Herskovitz, Melville. Life in a Haïtian Valley. New York: Knopf, 1937. ———. The Myth of the Negro Past. Boston: Beacon Press, 1941. 1990. Hilliard, Asa G. The Maroon Within Us: Selected Essays on African American Community Socialization. Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1995. Hogan, Linda. "A Different Yield." In Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision edited by Marie Battiste, 115–123. Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press, 2002. Janvier, Louis Joseph. Les Constitutions d’Haïti. Paris: C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1886. Larose, Serge. “The Meaning of Africa in Haïtian Vodou.” In Symbols and Sentiments: Cross Cultural Studies in Symbolism edited by I. M. Lewis, 85–116. London: Academic Press, 1977. Leyburn, James Graham. The Haïtian People. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. Madiou, Thomas. Histoire d’Haïti. Port-au-Prince, Haïti: Editions Henry Deschamps, 1990. Malhotra, Rajiv, and Arvindan Neelakandan. Breaking India. Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines. New Delhi: Amarillys Press, 2011. Marcelin, Milo. Mythologie Vodou: Rite Arada I Rite Arada II. Petion-Ville, Haïti: Editions Canapé Vert, 1950. Maximilien, Louis. Le Vodou Haïtien Rite Rada Canzo (3rd Ed.). Haïti: Imprimerie Henry Deschamps, 1985. McCarthy Brown, Karen. “Systematic Remembering, Systematic Forgetting: Ogou in Haïti.” In Africa's Ogun: Old World and New edited by Sandra Barnes, 65–89. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989. ———. "The Vèvè of Haïtian Vodou: A Structural Analysis of Visual Imagery." Ph.D. Dissertation, Temple University, 1975.

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Metraux, Alfred. "Histoire du Vodou depuis la guerre d’Independence jusqu’à nos Jours." Presence Africaine 16 (1957): 135–150. Mintz, Sidney W. “Can Haïti Change?” Foreign Affairs 74, no. 1 (1995): 73–86. Nau, Emile. Histoire Des Caciques D’haïti. Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Collection Patrimoine, 2003. Noël, Lise. Intolerance. Translated by Arnold Bennett. Montreal, Canada: McGillQueen University Press, 1994. Pachonski, Jan, and Reuel K. Wilson. Poland’s Caribbean Tragedy: A Study of Polish Legions in the Haitian War of Independence, 1802–1803. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986. Rashidi, Runoko, and Ivan Van Sertima. African Presence in Early Asia. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2004. Rigaud, Milo. Secrets of Voodoo. New York: Arco, 1969. Rigaud, Odette Mennesson. "The Feasting of the Gods in Haytian Vodu." Primitive Man 19, no. 1–2 (1946): 1–58. Saint-Lot, Marie José Alcide. Vodou: A Sacred Theater. The African Heritage in Haïti. Fort Lauderdale, FL: EducaVision Press, 2003. Scott, James C. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990. Senehi, Jessica Joy. “Constructive Storytelling: A Peace Building Process.” Peace and Conflict Studies 9, no. 2 (2002): 41–63. Sterlin, Phillipe. Vodou Serie I, Serie II. Port-Au-Prince, Haïti: Editions Philippe Sterlin, 1952. Subba, Tanka Bahadur. Politics of Culture: A Study of Three Kirata Communities in the Eastern Himalaya. Chennai, India: Orient Longman, 1999. Wilcken, Lois. The Drums of Vodou. Tempe, AZ: White Cliffs Media Company, 1992. Volkan, Vamik. Bloodlines: From Ethnic Pride to Ethnic Terrorism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997.

FOURTEEN Eastern Orthodox Christianity Provocations and Challenges for a Just Peace in an Era of Conflict and Global Transitions Harry Anastasiou

INTRODUCTION As with most religions embodying centuries of tradition, the historical position and role of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in matters pertaining to war and peace present a complex and nuanced admixture. Its approaches have historically ranged from the accommodation of war, to a critical understanding of war as an unqualified evil, to the central idea of “just peace” as the spiritual normative order of human existence. In analyzing and assessing Eastern Orthodoxy’s position and understanding of peace and conflict in the world, as well as in exploring its possible contribution to the field of Peace and Conflict Studies, it is imperative to examine the range of each of the above mentioned approaches by focusing on both the historical conditions and the doctrinal perspectives that contextualized them. PERSPECTIVES ON WAR: EASTERN AND WESTERN CHRISTIANITY One way of bringing to sharp focus Eastern Orthodox Christianity’s perspective on war and peace is by comparing and contrasting it to that of Western Christianity. A pivotal point for such an approach centers on the question of whether or not war can ever be morally justified. The manner in which Eastern and Western Christianity have responded to this ques243

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tion, doctrinally as well as existentially, marks a crucial point of divergence in how these two great traditions approach critical issues of war and peace. Just War Doctrine The Just War Doctrine (JWD) represents the most prevalent position and approach to war throughout much of the history of Western Christendom. While rooted in Catholicism, and its idea of natural law, it represents the most generally accepted perspective in Western Christendom to date, purporting to offer a morally based elaboration in approaching war. So prevalent has JWD been among Christian traditions in the West, that it has been also generally adopted by Western secular thinking, including various aspects of international law. In its secular context it is referred to as the Just War Theory. 1 The essence of the JWD is grounded on the fundamental assumption that wars can be clearly differentiated into unjust wars, which are presumably immoral, and in which people of the faith ought not to participate, and just wars, which are presumably moral, and in which people of faith are permitted and even expected to participate. The JWD was developed in embryonic form by St. Augustine (354–430 CE), bishop of Hippo in North Africa. While he retained the prevailing idea of his era that persons of faith are barred from using deadly violence in individual selfdefense, he nevertheless put forward the idea that in regard to the selfdefense on one’s community the moral requirement is to deploy violence in order to protect the innocent from harm. Simultaneously, St. Augustine maintained that under all circumstances, people of faith must love their enemies. St. Augustine, however, failed to address the central spiritual question, or better, the central spiritual dilemma, of how one is to love his/her enemy when, under the JWD, one is morally obliged to kill the enemy. This is an issue that Eastern Orthodox thinkers have raised and have struggled with. 2 In fact Orthodoxy sees the “justified” killing of the enemy as a moral contradiction. During the Middle Ages, the JWD was elaborated beyond some of the restraints present in St. Augustine’s approach regarding individual selfdefense, and was further developed into its more or less final form by St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621). In the latter’s words: Just as natural law permits an individual to return, even by violent means, an unjust aggression against his life, his fortune, or his honor, for a stronger reason the same is permitted to a nation, which constitutes a political body, and forms a moral and public person. The head of this nation not only has the right but also the duty to use this means for the interest of the common good, for which he is responsible. This

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right and duty extends not only to the strictly defensive war, but also to the offensive war, when it is necessary . . . . [in face of] a real danger. 3

The above mentioned theologians further developed the JWD by establishing specific criteria for what constitutes a just war, in which people of faith could participate. For a war to be just, it must be declared by a legitimate authority of the state, and not by any other agency or organization; it must have a just cause and a right intention, not merely pride or economic and territorial gain; its means and weapons must not produce more harm and chaos than the evil it intends to eliminate; it must protect the lives of the innocent and the noncombatants; it must have a reasonable chance of success in prevailing over the evil it is to combat; it must be the last resort after all nonviolent means have been exhausted; and finally, the burden of guilt must be clearly on one side. 4 The evolution of JWD since St. Augustine’s version coincided with the historical identification of Christianity and the state, and the development of increasingly elaborate criteria for determining a just war. While JWD acknowledges that there are wars which are unjust and immoral, it simultaneously creates a category by which, under certain conditions, war can be just and moral. The implications of this configuration is that insofar as it meets the aforementioned criteria war can be fought with a moral conscience, with moral clarity, and indeed as a moral duty. Hence in confronting the prospect of a war, the first order of inquiry and discernment is whether the pending war is just or unjust—not whether war is alienating, injurious and destructive of societies, and erosive or corruptive of the human spirit. In the perspective of JWD, if the argument can be made that a particular war meets the criteria of a just war, then under this category war remains not only a viable option but also a moral option. Unjust War Doctrine versus Just Peace Doctrine In contrast to its Western counterpart, Eastern Orthodox Christianity never developed a JWD or any other doctrine that offers a perspective by which to differentiate just from unjust wars. In fact Orthodox Christianity rejects any idea of a just war. Jim Forest, a former US officer who was discharged as a conscientious objector, and now an accomplished current author on Orthodox Christianity, emphatically asserted that, The Orthodox Church never saw war as something which could, even in the case of warding off invaders, be regarded as just or good. Even in situations where there seemed no viable alternative to war, war was regarded as an evil, albeit a lesser evil, but still evil, as inevitably war involves killing and the commission of other grave sins. 5

In this context, as in other Orthodox writings on the issue of war, the references to evil and to sin are not merely theological concepts, or abstract intellectual definition. Rather, the first order of the meaning of evil

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and sin is existential, referring to human actions and conditions that destroy the lives of human beings and of society. In this perspective, placing war in the category of evil, even when extraordinary circumstances of life make it necessary, precludes the possibility of sanitizing, moralizing or justifying war. According to Orthodox thinking, war “may serve a just cause, but war itself is unjust by nature. The Orthodox Church therefore has never elaborated a theory of ‘just war.’ For Orthodox Christians, ‘just war’ is a contradiction in terms.” 6 What is notable about the Orthodox perspective, however, is that, while it sees war as an unqualified evil, it does not adhere to an unqualified pacifism. While in its teaching and practice Orthodoxy purports to promote peace as a priority, it acknowledges that under certain conditions, people of the faith are compelled to engage in war. Such circumstances prevail in purely defensive wars, where one is confronted with the requirement to defend and guard the lives of the weak and the innocent in the face of unprovoked unilateral attack by an aggressor. This differentiation can best be understood in reference to the concepts of “akreivia” and “economia” in Orthodox ethics and canon law. “‘Akreivia’ represents the strict application of the gospel principles embodied in canon law. ‘Economia’ is a dispensation from this strict requirement in view of human weakness and the compromising circumstances of life in a fallen world.” 7 This distinction underscores the difference between the normative order of life as it is spiritually intended and divinely ordained on the one hand, and the contingencies, constraints and entrapments of difficult life circumstances in a spiritually imperfect world on the other. While just peace is the normative order of “akreivia,” the compulsion to engage in warfare resulting from the necessities of an imperfect world and human weaknesses falls under the condition of “economia.” What is crucial to reemphasize in reference to resorting to war under the dispensation of “economia” is that for Orthodoxy, even when war becomes unavoidable and necessity, it is still devoid of all moral and ethical justification. In his study of war in patristic and Byzantine writings, Fr. Stanley Harakas, professor of Orthodox Theology at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Massachusetts, noted: I found an amazing consistency in the almost totally negative moral assessment of war coupled with an admission that war may be necessary under certain circumstances to protect the innocent and to limit even greater evils. In this framework, war may be an unavoidable alternative, but it nevertheless remains an evil. Virtually absent in the tradition is any mention of a “just” war, much less a “good’ war. The tradition also precludes the possibility of a crusade. For the Eastern Orthodox tradition . . . war can be seen only as a “necessary evil,” with all the difficulty and imprecision such a designation carries. 8

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Here again, the Orthodox position is that even when war is necessary to defend the innocent, even when it is a lesser evil, it still lacks any moral ground for justification. Moreover, in the modern nuclear era, Orthodoxy moved its position even beyond the idea of a necessary or a lesser evil, as it acknowledged the crucial fact that any potential or actual nuclear exchange, the qualifier for a war as a “necessary evil” or as a “lesser evil” becomes totally meaningless and nihilistic. 9 In all the above senses, and contrary to Western Christianity’s JWD, Orthodoxy opts for what may be termed Unjust War Doctrine, acknowledging that by its very nature no war can be just or moral. It is therefore not surprising the history of Orthodoxy is also marked by a long tradition of conscientious objectors. 10 More significant, however, is Orthodoxy’s perspective emanating from its Just Peace Doctrine (JPD). According to the latter, peace and peacemaking is a central element of faith and of the mission of the church. Peace is viewed as a divine gift to families, communities and nations. Moreover, peace is understood in the perspective of the unity of humankind, affirming the intrinsic dignity of all human beings before God. In a similar light, Orthodoxy views all living things and natural resources as integral to the goodness of creation and must be treated accordingly in the interest of people and peace. According to JPD, the peaceable vocation of the Orthodox Church must be undertaken in collaboration with other Christian churches and faith communities. In the face of the ambivalences of violence in today’s world, the church is called upon to live and practice the patristic theology of peace, while simultaneously analyzing and understanding the nature and causes of conflict by taking into consideration the insights of peace practitioners and social scientists. Finally, a cornerstone of JPD is that peace and justice are inextricably intertwined. Promoting justice is thus an integral part of promoting peace. This in short is Orthodoxy’s up-to-date expression, in principle, of its JPD. 11 Nationalism and Religion: Accommodating and Justifying War and Violence? While Orthodoxy never developed a JWD, opting instead for JPD, the advent of nationalism as a central feature of modernity, stretching from the nineteenth century to the present, created historical sociopolitical conditions that induced Orthodox populations in various countries to not only deviate, in practice and in belief, from Orthodoxy’s spiritual perspective on war but to actually incorporate a JWD approach to war by adopting the prevalent nationalist world view, with its derivative nationalist constructs of nationhood, identity, community, and history, including a key place that is assigned to the deployment of deadly force/violence in the name of the nation. 12 Historically, the tendency of Orthodox populations to fuse Orthodoxy with ethnocentric nationalism has been

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prevalent among Russians, Romanians, Serbians, Bulgarians, and Greeks. 13 Elsewhere, 14 we have noted that historically, one of the unique features of nationalism has been its extraordinary capacity to construct a collective narrative that uncritically combines elaborate, noble moral references and the right to employ deadly force or violence. The construction of supreme noble causes that presumably morally justify war and violence are rooted in the historical origins of European nationalisms, which coincided with the rise of nation-states. Essentially, the world view of nationalism, and its accompanying conditioning of political action, attitudes and behavior, originated in two transformative historical phenomena in Europe: the French Revolution launched in 1789, and the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century. 15 The French Revolution furnished the initial formulations and ideational template of nationalism, particularly the idea that violent revolution and the use of deadly force for achieving and maintaining national freedom and sovereignty was a “human right,” while the Industrial Revolution furnished the conditions of rapid and unprecedented social changes, social dislocation, crises, the rise of urban mass society, the “politicization of the masses,” fierce economic competition, rising intra-national and international conflicts, expansion and intensification of colonization. All of the above rendered the nationalist narrative and world view widely believable and populist in its appeal, as it provided an antidote to the decline and crisis of the old belief systems and as it induced collective mobilization for ethnonational aggressive/defensive assertiveness and segregation. 16 The combined impact of the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution had hitherto transformed the morphology of societies, ushering in the era of modernity, the engine of which was the revolutionary narrative of the nationalist world view that had spread like fire all over Europe and eventually to the rest of the world, and the rising and proliferating industrially based nation-state in its numerous variations. The historical trends and the anarchic world that emerged from these developments is precisely what drove Europe and the world into the two world wars of the twentieth century, the most devastating in history. 17 In the context of these dynamic historical changes, of sociopolitical and economic upheaval, of crises, of violent revolutions and warfare, of rapid social changes, and of eroding pre-modern belief systems, the nationalist master narrative provided an alternative world view. The latter designated the nation and its institutionalization in the nation-state, as a sacred entity. The narrative presented the nation as the ultimate collective value, as the ground of meaning and purpose, and of collective identity, all embedded in and embellished with myths about the nation’s special mission, historical destiny, superiority, election, narcissistic grandiosity and glory, highlighted by its revolutions, wars and accompanying

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legacies of heroics, legitimizing the sacrificing and the taking of human life in the name of the nation. 18 In this perspective, Nationalism may thus be understood as a powerful historical phenomenon that is defined by the unprecedented moral absolutization of the nation, its freedom, its interest, its community, its identity, and its power, in combination with the derivative presumption that its supreme moral status furnishes thereby “the right” to employ all means, including adversarial and lethal means, in the nation’s defense, sustenance, advancement, expanding powers, and alleged “destined” historical realization. Acknowledging such a linkage may help explain the frequently perplexing question why nationalism has been so appealing and ennobling and simultaneously incredibly dangerous and violent. 19

It also points to the central fact that, the most problematic aspect of nationalism at both the national and international levels has been its extraordinary capacity to link moral reasoning and the use of force or violence. In a unique manner, nationalism has historically grounded the right to use force or violence in the moral rationale that the nation is the ultimate collective value and the imperative basis for community, identity, security, and well-being. 20 This configuration of belief and action has made nationalism the greatest legitimizer of the use of force or violence throughout modern and much of post-modern history. 21 The moralistic component of nationalism is precisely what wooed and engulfed traditional Orthodoxy into the nationalist world view and consequently into the legitimization of deadly force or violence in the name of the nation. While this trend carried huge implications for both the configuration of religion into modernity (and post-modernity) and the linking of religion to nationalism, it was not unique to Eastern Orthodoxy. Rather, this trend was as broad as modernity itself, and impacted similarly all the major traditional religions in the West, the Islamic world and beyond. For example, in America, pre-modern Protestantism became integrated into American nationalism with its familiar doctrine of manifest destiny and American exceptionalism; pre-modern Judaism was transposed and absorbed into Zionism as the constructed master narrative of modernist Israeli nationalism, which identifies Israel as a Jewish state and the Jews as an exceptional, elected people; and pre-modern Islam, became reconfigured and integrated as an element of different nationalisms, starting with the Iranian nationalism of post-Shah Iran, which established Iran as an Islamic state, to Hezbollah Lebanese nationalism, to Palestinian Hamas nationalism. In one way or another, all of the above mentioned examples of religious nationalism identify their respective nation as sanctioned, set apart, and commissioned by God with a special historical mission, morally bound to serve and pursue God’s presumed will by any means, including

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the deployment of force and violence. (In the contemporary context, a new kind of linkage between religion and violence must also be acknowledged, namely, Al Qaeda-like militant Jihad, which elevated the religious justification for violence to the transnational, global level where the presumed axis of conflict is between civilizations rather than national identity groups, and where God is on the side of Islam.) A key consequence of the collusion between religion and nationalism was the strengthening of nationalism by the transposition of religious identity to a component of exclusivist ethno-national identity, in which the presumed sacredness of the nation “obliges” even God to serve the nation and be on the side of the nation unconditionally, especially when the nation is at war or in any form of violent conflict. More significantly, as nationalism appropriated religion, it rendered it immanent, thus eroding and destroying any of its trans-ethnic/trans-national, transcendent spiritual dimensions. This historical linkage of religion to nationalism has in effect transformed religious populations around the world that hitherto operated on the devout sentiment, into nationalists that henceforth operated on the fundamentalist sentiment, as an integral part of their respective nationalism. Eastern Orthodoxy was simply one of many traditional religions that underwent this kind of metamorphosis by its historical contact with nationalism. Nationalist Religiosity and Religious Nationalism The uncritical accommodation of nationalism by Orthodox populations such as Greeks, Serbians, Russians, Romanians and others has not only skewed Orthodoxy’s spiritual perspective on war but it also added a religious endorsement to nationalism’s central presumption that the nation is sacred, as well as to all that nationalism represents as a world view, including its historical capacity to morally justify the use of lethal force/violence. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the nationalist absorption of Orthodox Christianity, and the latter’s reconfiguration to fit the framework of nationalism, including its presumption to carry moral legitimacy in employing violence, is not unique to Orthodoxy, but to nearly all Western brands of Christianity (as well as to modern forms of Judaism and Islam). The incorporation of religion into the nationalist narrative, which in turn added further moral legitimacy to nationalism and its associated presumption of the supreme and sacred value of the nation-state, was already present at the historical inception of nationalism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Known as the fathers of nationalism, Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), a German philosopher and theologian, and Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872), an Italian revolutionary imbued with a messianic vision

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for an Italian nation-state, saw nationalism as a divinely ordained, historical force of liberation, destined to lead humanity to universal justice and global peace. 22 Reflecting the vision of the French Revolution, nationalists in Europe widely believed that the justice and peace that nationalism would bring about was destined to pass through a tunnel of deadly violence. In this configuration, nationalism absorbed religion as an additional legitimizer of its postulation of the nation as sacred, presented itself as a moral force of freedom and liberation form oppression, and simultaneously endorsed deadly force and violence as a moral imperative decreed by the nation. Nation-states that adopted a religious nationalism perceived the essence of the nation, its struggles, it wars, its achievements and its aspirations in a grandiose, sacrosanct and narcissistic mode under the banner of “God and people,” or “God and country.” These ideas persist to the present day and furnish the foundation and fundamental assumptions in numerous nationalist master narratives. Contemporary analysts such as Antony Smith, a longtime expert, but also apologist of nationalism, speaks of the nationalist view of the nation in quasi-religious terms. Nationalism’s attribution of sacred status to the nation is precisely what Smith reflects in his uncritical understanding of the phenomenon. He explicitly states that in modern times, the idea of the nation became a “religion surrogate,” a kind of substitute for what the church used to be, providing community, unity, common worship, meaning and purpose, a sense of providential election and transcendent destiny. 23 In the context of the nationalist presumption that the nation is sacred, it becomes relatively easy to transpose traditional religion to an element of the nationalist narrative. Here, the symbols of traditional religion are reframed to primarily reference the sacredness and glory of the nation, rather than the spiritual role of the church, or simply the devout life of the believers. The above mentioned dynamic is often disclosed in the way narratives of heroics typical of every brand of nationalism adopt religious imagery, utilizing religious terminology. For example, in the history of Christianity, the word “martyr” originally referred to people of faith who have been put to death by the powers that be for confessing their faith in a nonviolent spirit. In nationalism, the idea of a martyr has been fused and equated with images of warrior heroes who have fallen in battle, killing and fighting in the name of the nation. In Greek Orthodoxy for instance, national heroes are often referred to as ethno-martyrs, that is, martyrs of the nation. In this context, the original Greek meaning of the word martyr, which simply meant to bear witness in faith in the spirit of peace (i.e., nonviolently), came to be equated with death through militant heroic action. In this nationalist configuration, that spans from the nineteenth century to the twentieth century and beyond, heroics assume a quasireligious dimension, transforming religion into an enhancer of national-

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ism and into the latter’s familiar unconditional demand for sacrificing human life on the altar of the nation. We see this pattern reflected, for example, in Prince Alexander Ypsilantis’s impassioned declaration of the Greek war of independence of 1821, in which religion is fused with the nation, where the crucified Christ is identified with the sacralized idea of the nation, and where the resurrection is identified with violent uprising of revolutionary Risorgimento nationalism. The same declaration was also used by Greeks of Cyprus in the 1950s in launching their anti-colonial insurgency against the British. Among other things, it stated: There, under the never-dying light which lit the icon of the Holy Virgin and the crucifix, the Priest-Teacher whispers in the ear of the enslaved Greek child that there were times when Greece, his Motherland, was Queen of Nations, even though now her forehead bled from a crown of thorns. And the Priest of the enslaved village exclaimed while carrying the Crucifix “We bow before your suffering O Christ, show to us also Your glorious Resurrection,” then, there appeared before his soul and before the souls of his flock, not only the Cross of Golgotha, but also Hellenism crucified, before whose suffering he wept. And when afterwards, he transmitted to the faithful the light of Resurrection, the Resurrection of the Race was also symbolized in his patriotic heart. So, was ritualized in the soul of the nation the inseparable Bond of Motherland and Religion, which led to National Risorgimento. 24

Another example of how religion is integrated into a de facto nationalist militancy is reflected in the oath that Greeks of Cyprus were expected to take when joining the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters, which launched an anti-colonial insurgency against the British in the 1950s. It started with a religious qualifier requiring each fighter to assert: “I swear in the name of the Holy Trinity that: I shall work with all my power for the liberation of Cyprus from the British yoke, sacrificing for this even my life.” The oath continued with all the binding obligations to the organization and ended with the fighters’ absolute declaration: “If I disobey this oath I shall be worthy of every punishment as a traitor, and may eternal contempt cover me.” 25 The uncritical fusion of nationalism and Orthodoxy has also been achieved by transposing church saints from being living references to faith and peace to being exemplary references to nationalist heroics and militancy. A case in point is that of Russian Orthodox saint Alexander Nevsky. After abandoning his military career, Nevsky, a prince of Novgorod, became a successful diplomat promoting and establishing peace between Russia and its enemies. As a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church, Nevsky’s legacy centered on his peaceable image that resulted from his faith. However, with the advent of nationalism, his peaceable image was lost and replaced with an image of Saint Nevsky as a fierce and invincible national warrior. 26 Similarly, in Greek Orthodoxy, nation-

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alism has redefined the role of saints, turning them into patrons of the military. Saint George became the patron of the infantry, Saint Nicolas of the navy, and Saint Barbara of the artillery. Thus, saints become national symbols, and direct participants in all of the nation’s wars. The blessing of the nation’s weapons by the church reflects yet another instance of nationalism incorporating religion into its narrative. The Orthodox churches of Romania, Russia, Bulgaria, and Serbia have long exhibited and institutionalized this practice. 27 From the perspective of ethnocentric nationalism one can understand why in its thematic report, the International Consultation on Orthodox Peace, “noted that in countries where the Orthodox Church is a minority group, the tendency is to be more pacifist in nature (Western Europe, North America, Middle East, India), whereas in countries where the Orthodox Church represents the major group, the tendency is to be more approving of States’ use of coercion, usually due to State’s pressure or cooptation (Russia, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece).” 28 The spiritual ambiguities and antinomies that the fusion of nationalism and religion created are evident in the historical role and participation of Orthodoxy in Risorgimento nationalism. Contrary to Orthodoxy’s more spiritual teachings, numerous Orthodox populations throughout modernity and post-modernity accommodated revolutionary violence as a means of liberation and of overthrowing of oppression. In his article entitle “The Orthodox Church and Peace,” Olivier Clément gives a praiseworthy exposition of the teaching of the Orthodox Church on the primacy of just peace, and of war as inherently evil, regardless of circumstance. However, when he starts addressing the historical rise of nationalism, particularly Risorgimento nationalism, within the Christian Orthodox world, he states the following: The Orthodox Church has become intimately linked to every people among whom she has taken root, to whom she has given a script, whose language she has blessed by using it for her Liturgy, whose culture she has safeguarded, and whose Christian ways she has upheld during periods of foreign domination (e.g., of the Ottomans in South East Europe and of the Mongols in Russia). She has thus been totally involved in movements of resistance and wars of liberation. To limit oneself to Greece (although analogous examples could be found in the history of Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria), the banner of insurrection during the terrible war of independence was raised by the Archbishop of Patras. Half the Athonites left the Holy Mountain, monks though they were, to fight the Ottomans (oppressors and, I shall return to the point, Muslims). One should not forget that under Turkish domination (the ‘Turkokratia’) the bishops were regarded, in the Islamic conception of the occupying power, as religious and civil leaders, without distinction, of the milet, namely of the Christian ‘people.’ This explains the role assumed by Arch-

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bishop Makarios as virtual ‘ethnarch,’ (i.e., ‘leader of the people’) during the liberation of Cyprus! 29 In the above quote, Clément nearly endorses revolutionary nationalism. In effect, he comes very close to endorsing religious nationalism in condoning the use of revolutionary violence when deployed in the service of the national cause. Yet, immediately following the above statement, he remarks: However the Orthodox Church has never elaborated a doctrine of the ‘just war’ as the Christian West did following St Ambrose and St Augustine. The latter, let us not forget, designated as Manichean heresy— and he was a past master in the field!—the affirmation that war is intrinsically evil and contrary to the Christian understanding of love. 30

Here he returns to the original patristic Orthodox position on war as intrinsically evil, even when necessary. Clément’s analysis here is rather abstract and a-historical, as he fails to assess how the Orthodox populations and countries he refers to have integrated these wars and revolutions into their national culture and national historical memory. What is crucial to note is that to this day, the blood stained historical periods and events Clément refers to, in which the Orthodox Church became embroiled, are not remembered as phenomena of necessary evil by either the church or the state of the respective Orthodox people he mentions. Rather, to this day, they are remembered and commemorated as straight forward, glorious, heroic national events, devoid of any historical or human contradictions, moral dilemmas or ambiguities. They are viewed as epochs of ethno-national grandeur and supreme heroic virtue. In the history of Orthodox peoples from the nineteenth century to nearly the present, nationalism has almost always trumped the spiritual position of the Orthodox Church. As a person who was raised in the Christian Orthodox tradition, I can attest to the fact that throughout my upbringing in Greek education and culture, I was never taught the central doctrine of Orthodoxy on war as intrinsically evil, even when necessary. On the contrary, socialization in the mainstream culture entailed the glorification and aggrandizement of all the wars and revolutions of the nation, with heroes of wars presented and venerated as exemplary patriots, worthy of a quasi-religious adoration. Historically, the Orthodox Church has been a champion of this nationalist narrative and played a leading role in sustaining and enhancing it in undifferentiated partnership with the state. 31 As for Cyprus, where I was raised, the adoption of Risorgimento nationalism by the Greek Orthodox Church, and the hyper nationalism it maintains to this day, has played a major role in catalyzing the protracted conflict against the counter, yet mirror imaging, nationalism of the Turkish Cypriots and of Turkey. 32 Along with an array of conflict enhancing factors emanating from Turkish nationalism, the adoption of religious

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nationalism by the Orthodox Church in both Cyprus and Greece has contributed historically to the entrenchment of conflict in the region. Whereas, had the Orthodox Church remained aligned with Orthodoxy’s spiritual teachings, it would have naturally oriented its efforts and strategies toward the de-escalation of the conflict and to interethnic reconciliation. A pertinent question that may be posed that brings the tradition of religious nationalism to sharp focus, is why in master narratives of nationalism there is a complete absence of any references to peace or heroes of peace. This question became central in many peace dialogues that took place throughout the 1990s in the buffer zone of ethnically divided Cyprus between Greeks and Turks who labored for peace in their country. 33 Returning to Clément and his analysis of Orthodoxy and Risorgimento nationalism, we may now conclude that, when it comes to modern history, Clément vacillates between religious nationalism and the Orthodox doctrine of unjust war. Because of this, he in effect fails to directly explore nonviolent approaches to liberation and overthrowing oppression, which would certainly be more aligned with Orthodoxy’s patristic, spiritual approach. On the other hand, Jim Forest, secretary of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship, is far more astute in seeing the impact of nationalism on Orthodox populations, whereby the spiritual identity of church is reconfigured to fit the ethnocentric nationalist identity of the modern nation-state. In critical mode, he asserts that: it becomes still harder when the Church, within a nation’s borders, seems to promote nationalism or leave it unchallenged. Orthodox Christians have a tendency to be passionately nationalistic and in too many cases are not welcoming when people of another nationality enter their churches. It’s a long-running Russian Orthodox joke that one is first of all Russian and afterward Orthodox, but not necessarily Christian. Change the national label and it can easily be made into a Greek, Serbian, Romanian or Georgian joke. 34

The central issue here is that contrary to Orthodox teaching, spiritual identity is forfeited for an absolutist and exclusivist notion of national identity. 35 Religious Nationalism versus Orthodox Spirituality: Two Competing Views on War and Peace The contribution of spiritual Orthodoxy to Peace and Conflict Studies lies, foremost, in its radical demythologization of war, which in turn stands in tension with the nationalist appropriation of Orthodoxy. The preceding analysis suggests that since the advent of modernity, two competing perspectives emerged within the tradition of Eastern Orthodox

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Christianity. These may be broadly identified as the perspective of religious nationalism historically rooted in the rise of the nation-state, and that of Orthodox spirituality historically rooted in the original doctrinal beliefs of Orthodoxy. The specific differences between these two perspectives within Orthodoxy are substantive and far reaching in regard to issues of war and peace. Moreover, they tend to appear in the often unaddressed tensions and divergences that at times emerge between the perspective of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, which is more rooted in Orthodoxy’s spiritual tradition, and that of the national orthodox churches, which are more conditioned by their country’s nationalism. The cornerstone of the differences in the modern era lies in the respective views of the spiritual meaning and status of nation. While the religious nationalist perspective views the ethnocentric nation as sacred, as the supreme reference of meaning, purpose, collective value and exclusive identity, the Orthodox spiritual perspective sees nationalism’s view of the nation as idolatrous, in that nationalism ascribes erroneously sacred and transcendent value to an entity that is human made. It is noteworthy that in the 2009 report of the International Consultation on Orthodox Peace it was recalled that the “Nationalism was condemned as a heresy at a council in Constantinople in 1872, when the Ecumenical Patriarchate sent distressing theological messages as an attempt to safeguard the universalistic nature of the Orthodox Church.” 36 The Patriarchate’s rejection of nationalism as an idolatrous and conflict prone world view is maintained to this day, and it is reflected in the widely recognized conciliatory, post-nationalist agendas and actions of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. In line with this tradition, it has been noted that “the Greek Orthodox Church is currently making attempts to counter nationalistic tendencies of the Greeks, recommending a more pastoral and gentle attitude towards non-Greeks.” 37 It ought to be stressed that religious as well as secular nationalism is grounded on the presumption that the nation, being sacred, is eternal, infallible and omnipotent—features that are reflected in nationalist historiographies that present the nation in a transcendent, glorious and grandiose light, as the supreme and moral protagonist of history, the highlights of which are the nation’s victorious and long-suffering revolutions, battles, wars, and consolidation and extension of its power. 38 In this sense, the master narrative of nationalism places the nation outside the sphere of spiritual or moral accountability (including democratic accountability), while under belligerent conditions it elaborates a demand for human sacrifices, of the nation’s own citizens and of the nation’s enemies, in an unqualified and unproblematic manner. 39 The Orthodox spiritual perspective, on the other hand, views the nation, and nation-state in general, not as an absolute and transcendent entity as nationalism assumes, but as an immanent and relative historical

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human construction, carrying no more and no less value than any of the other human made social organizations or institutions. As such the nation is as fallible, relative and as accountable as all other social entities and institutions. Thereby, unlike, the nationalist perspective, the spiritual perspective does not accept absolute and unconditional loyalty to the nation. The spiritual argument is that by erroneously designating the nation as sacred, the world view of nationalism, whether religious or secular, compromises human freedom and even human life with respect to the nation. In contrast to religious nationalism, the perspective of spiritual Orthodoxy, discloses nationalism as a modern type of human made idol that demands human sacrifices, often in greater masses than the more ritualized sacrifices of ancient cults. For spiritual Orthodoxy, the value of human life is in its very essence higher than the value of the nation, and in fact higher than the value of any other human made entity on earth. Nothing is higher than the sanctity of human life. In light of the above, another significant difference between religious nationalism and spiritual Orthodoxy centers on their respective understanding and approach regarding the meaning and role of lethal force and violence. According to nationalism, there are two categories of violence and deadly force: “good” violence and “bad” violence. The violence deployed in the name of the nation and by the nation is deemed good violence, even moral violence as it is presumed to serve a higher moral end. Whereas violence against the nation or national cause is seen as evil violence that ought to be dealt with at all cost. For spiritual Orthodoxy, on the other hand, the taking of human life, for whatever cause and under any circumstance, constitutes an ultimate form of idolatry in which man presumes to become God, as the arbiter of life and death, as one who has the presumed omnipotent power to end the life of another human being. It is thus not surprising that Orthodox spirituality identifies war as sin against God and neighbor. 40 Religious nationalism, in line with the above analysis, accepts the use of force or violence in the name of the nation as a way of defending and promoting moral and religious values. Orthodox spirituality on the other hand rejects the use of lethal means as a way of defending moral and religious values. In principle and in practice, moral values cannot be defended, enforced or secured through life-violating means, not even in the name of God, let alone in the name of the nation. This perspective follows form Orthodoxy’s unjust war doctrine which sees all wars as evil, even when they are unavoidable and imposed—especially when wars are unavoidable, that is when circumstances destroy the freedom to choose. 41 To accept the use of lethal violence for moral ends, as religious nationalism does, would amount to actions that erode and negate not only the moral values the actions are intended to defend, but also the human spirit and dignity they intend to protect and uphold. More significantly, however, from a spiritual perspective, is that to accept the use of lethal vio-

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lence for moral ends in the name of “God and country” amounts to rendering the divine into an accomplice of the murderous actions of peoples in their nationalist zealotry. In this configuration God becomes a murderer, and is likened unto a kind of warlord that joins, endorses, demands and even leads people to war and violence. In this, humans cease to reflect the image of God, but rather God takes on the image of man—in effect, the worst image of man, of man as killer of his neighbor. By contrast, for Orthodox spirituality defending and/or promoting moral values is in essence pursued and accomplished not through defending moral values but through incarnating them in relationship to others, be they, other social groups, other religious groups, other ethnic groups, other nations or other civilizations. For spiritual Orthodoxy, the essence of the moral and ethical challenge does not lie in the professed values but rather in the lived values, as these come to shape human relationships at all levels, interpersonal, societal, institutional, national and global. As the fundamental premise of spirituality, loving God and neighbor, is not an ideology that needs to be defended by violence or any other means, but rather a spiritual directive that is activated and realized in the practice of humanizing the multitude of human relationships within and between societies, cultures, religions, nations, and peoples. From the above mentioned perspective it follows that for Orthodox spirituality there is no such thing as a just war, let alone a Holy War. By contrast, religious nationalism, and, as of late, transnational religious fundamentalism, views warfare as a struggle between good and evil, between those who defend God and religious values and those who are against God and religious values, between the faithful and God on one side and the unbelieving infidels and dark demonic forces on the other. Under conditions of deadly conflict, and the extremities thereof, the religious nationalist and religious fundamentalist perspective on war assumes ultimate dimensions, as warfare is perceived as a battle between good and evil. In this pattern of belief, warfare comes to be seen as Armageddon, as apocalyptic in nature, as Holy War, in which the cosmic forces of good are fighting against the cosmic forces of evil. This type of logic flows directly out of the central nationalist presumption that the nation is sacred, and that since it is sacred, God and religion are by default on the nation’s side in all of the nation’s conflicts. Furthermore, by implication, those who are deemed the enemies of the nation and those who are engaged in war against the nation are by definition also carrying out war against God and religion. From this vantage point it “naturally” follows that in killing the enemy of the nation, one is killing the enemy of God and religion, as killing the enemy of God and country is tantamount to killing evil and its representatives. In this, killing the enemy becomes a “moral” action in that it presumes to rid the world of evil. Moreover, to seek peace with the enemy becomes unthinkable and even a cardinal sin, since it would be equivalent to negotiating and mak-

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ing peace with evil. Consequently, not to destroy and kill the enemy is tantamount to an immoral choice and action, since it implies tolerance and compromise with dark forces. Within such a framework the prospect of peace is therefore precluded a priori. It is at this terrible juncture that under conflict conditions, religious nationalism fuses with secular nationalism in incubating and carrying out ethnic cleansing. In its essence, the phenomenon of ethnic cleansing amounts to the quintessential nationalist theme of redemption through the shedding of blood. The deeper, spiritually sinister meaning of ethnic cleansing is rooted in the dark belief that an ethnic group may purify itself and its nation by annihilating the other ethnic identity groups, viewing them as national anomalies and impurities that have no place within the nation’s territory. This, most tragic of phenomena, constitutes the highpoint of the spiritual banality of ethnic nationalism, namely that, in massacring one’s neighbor, in drenching oneself in the blood of the neighbor, one’s ethno-national community is presumed to be redeemed, and one’s nation is presumed to be purified. This banality was fully disclosed in the mutual ethnic cleansing between Serbians, Muslims and Croats during the terrible Balkan wars of the 1990s. Religious nationalism was very much part of the phenomenon. In sharp contrast to religious nationalism, and transnational religious militancy, spiritual Orthodoxy views lethal violence and warfare of any kind as the most abominable human condition, as the worst of all possible states of being in which human groups may enter at different historical times. Far from being viewed as a struggle between the forces of good and the forces of evil, as religious nationalism and fundamentalism see it, warfare according to spiritual Orthodoxy is in essence the apogee of human alienation and the ultimate failure of human nature. It discloses the lowest level that humans can fall in their relationships to each other, be they engaged in ethnic conflict, inter-religious conflict, international or inter-civilizational conflict. From this perspective, it is warfare itself, as a human phenomenon, which constitutes the greatest of evils. What accompanies and bears witness to this crucial existential fact is that warfare places human beings under conditions where freedom and moral choice disappear. This is disclosed by the fact in the heart of war all of life-enhancing options are eradicated, as the sole choice one has is to either kill or be killed. In this sense, the human condition under warfare eradicates choices and the freedom to choose from a range of options, as only one is accessible under the circumstance of war—the most tragic, to kill or be killed. As such, it is in its very essence not a choice at all, but rather the alienating and overwhelming force of a fateful necessity, arising from the crucial fact that under conditions of warfare what prevails is the tyranny of circumstances and not the transcendence of the human spirit. In fact, the condition and circumstance of warfare constricts and amputates the transcendent dimension of the human spirit, rendering

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warring people and their relationship subservient to the contingencies of worldly immanence and circumstance. In this regard, warfare reveals the ultimate enslavement of the human spirit and the ultimate alienation of one group of human beings from another. Striving to spiritually understand the nature of war for what it actually is and how it in fact functions in the human world, reveals a further reality of war. Namely that, the wastefulness and destructiveness of war in its impact on the human world always supersedes and eclipses the original ends that are assigned to war, no matter how noble or moral these ends are claimed to be. In this regard, Greek Orthodox cleric Filotheos Faros accurately reflected the perspective of Orthodox spirituality when he asserted on Greek national television that warfare is the most irrational of human actions. 42 Ultimately, spiritual Orthodoxy views war as the human condition that is the furthest away from the divine, as the most alienated from the divine, and consequently as the most distant from humanity, and from redemption. War is, in fact, hell. It therefore follows that the real battle to be waged is not between one side presumed to be the “all good” and an enemy side presumed to be the “all evil.” Rather the essential battle to be waged is between the evil of War and the grace of Peace. NOTES 1. David P. Barash and Charles P. Webel, Peace and Conflict Studies (London: SAGE, 2008). 2. Jim Forest, “Orthodox Christians and Conscientious Objection,” Communion, last modified September 12, 2008, http://www.incommunion.org/2005/08/06/orthodoxchristians-and-conscientious-objection/. 3. Atila Sinke Guimarães, “Catholic Principles on War up to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” Moral Criteria for Just War . . .—Part II, last modified June 1, 2003,http:// traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/e012htMoralCriteria_2_Guimaraes.html. 4. Forest, “Orthodox Christians and Conscientious Objection”; Barash and Webel, Peace and Conflict Studies. 5. Ibid. 6. Friar Paul, “Peace and War in the Eastern Orthodox Church,” Messenger, last modified January 2003, http://www.stgeorgecathedral.net/article_0103.html. 7. Ibid. 8. Forest, “Orthodox Christians and Conscientious Objection.” 9. Olivier Clément, “The Orthodox Church and Peace: Some Reflections,” Communion, last modified October 18, 2004, http://www.incommunion.org/2004/10/18/theorthodox-church-and-peace/. 10. Forest, “Orthodox Christians and Conscientious Objection.” 11. Semegnish Asfaw, Alexios Chehadeh, and Marian G. Simion, Just Peace: Orthodox Perspectives (Geneva: World Council of Churches Publications, 2012). 12. Harry Anastasiou, The Broken Olive Branch, Volume 1: Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict and the Quest for Peace in Cyprus: The Impasse of Ethnonationalism (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2008a); Harry Anastasiou, “Encountering Nationalism: The Contribution of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution,” in Handbook of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, eds. Dennis J. D. Sandole, Sean Byrne, Ingrid Sandole-Staroste, and Jessica Senehi (New York: Routledge, 2008c.), 32–44.

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13. Marian G. Simion, “International Consultation on Orthodox Peace,” Decade to Overcome Violence, last modified July 3, 2009, http://www.overcomingviolence.org/fileadmin/dov/files/news/Report%2520–%2520Bucharest.pdf; Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, 1995). 14. Anastasiou, The Broken Olive Branch, Volume 1: Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict and the Quest for Peace in Cyprus: The Impasse of Ethnonationalism; Harry Anastasiou, and B.J. Broome, “Nationalism,” in Encyclopedia of Identity. Volumes I and II, ed. Ronald L. Jackson II (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2010). 15. Peter Alter, Nationalism (London: Hodder Arnold, 1994). 16. Ibid.; Anastasiou, The Broken Olive Branch, Volume 1: Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict and the Quest for Peace in Cyprus: The Impasse of Ethnonationalism. 17. Richard Goff, Walter G. Moss, Janice Terry, and Jiu-Hwa Upshur, The Twentieth Century: A Brief Global History (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2001). 18. Anastasiou, “Encountering Nationalism: The Contribution of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution.” 19. Ibid., 30. 20. Michael Howard, “War and Nations,” in Nationalism, eds. J. Hutchinson and A.D. Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994). 21. Anastasiou, “Encountering Nationalism: The Contribution of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution.” 22. Alter, Nationalism. 23. Anthony D. Smith, National Identity (Nevada: University of Nevada Press, 1993); Anthony D. Smith, “Ties that Bind,” LSE Economic and Political Science Magazine 5, no. 1, (1993): 8–11. 24. Alter, Nationalism, 16; Michael Attalides, Cyprus: Nationalism and International Politics (Edinburgh: Q Press, 1979), 33. 25. Anastasiou, The Broken Olive Branch, Volume 1: Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict and the Quest for Peace in Cyprus: The Impasse of Ethnonationalism, 68. 26. Forest, “Orthodox Christians and Conscientious Objection.” 27. Simion, “International Consultation on Orthodox Peace.” 28. Ibid. 29. Clément, “The Orthodox Church and Peace: Some Reflections.” 30. Ibid. 31. Anastasiou, The Broken Olive Branch, Volume 1: Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict and the Quest for Peace in Cyprus: The Impasse of Ethnonationalism. 32. Ibid.; Harry Anastasiou, The Broken Olive Branch, Volume 2: Nationalism Versus Europeanization. 33. Anastasiou, The Broken Olive Branch, Volume 2: Nationalism Versus Europeanization. 34. Forest, “Orthodox Christians and Conscientious Objection.” 35. Ibid.; Simion, “International Consultation on Orthodox Peace”; Ware, The Orthodox Way. 36. Simion, “International Consultation on Orthodox Peace.” 37. Ibid. 38. Anastasiou, The Broken Olive Branch, Volume 1: Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict and the Quest for Peace in Cyprus: The Impasse of Ethnonationalism. 39. Anastasiou, “Encountering Nationalism: The Contribution of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution.” 40. Clément, “The Orthodox Church and Peace: Some Reflections.” 41. Anastasiou, “Encountering Nationalism: The Contribution of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution.” 42. Filotheos Faros—Part 3/8. YouTube Video, (2008), accessed at http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=ljD4mdXNtS4&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list= PLB13856E779550AB8.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Alter, Peter. Nationalism. London: Hodder Arnold, 1994. Anastasiou, Harry. The Broken Olive Branch, Volume 1: Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict and the Quest for Peace in Cyprus: The Impasse of Ethnonationalism. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2008a. ———. The Broken Olive Branch, Volume 2: Nationalism Versus Europeanization. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2008b. ———. “Encountering Nationalism: The Contribution of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution.” In Handbook of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, edited by Dennis J. D. Sandole, Sean Byrne, Ingrid Sandole-Staroste, Jessica Seneh, 32–44. New York: Routledge, 2008c. ———. Broome, B. J. “Nationalism.” In Encyclopedia of Identity. Volumes I and II, edited by Ronald L. Jackson II. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2010. Asfaw, Semegnish, Alexios Chehadeh, and Marian G. Simion. Just Peace: Orthodox Perspectives. Geneva: World Council of Churches Publications, 2012. Attalides, Michael. Cyprus: Nationalism and International Politics. Edinburgh: Q Press, 1979. Barash, David P., and Charles P. Webel. Peace and Conflict Studies. London: SAGE, 2008. Clément, Olivier. “The Orthodox Church and Peace: Some Reflections.” Communion. Last modified October 18, 2004. http://www.incommunion.org/2004/10/18/theorthodox-church-and-peace/. Filotheos Faros—Part 3/8. Video, 10:12. January 15, 2008. http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ljD4mdXNtS4&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list= PLB13856E779550AB8. Forest, Jim. “Orthodox Christians and Conscientious Objection.” Communion. Last modified September 12, 2008. http://www.incommunion.org/2005/08/06/orthodoxchristians-and-conscientious-objection/ . Goff, Richard, Walter G. Moss, Janice Terry, and Jiu-Hwa Upshur. The Twentieth Century: A Brief Global History. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2001. Guimarães, Atila Sinke. “Catholic Principles on War up to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” Moral Criteria for Just War . . .—Part II. Last modified June 1, 2003.http:// traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/e012htMoralCriteria_2_Guimaraes.html. Howard, Michael. “War and Nations.” In Nationalism, edited by J. Hutchinson and A.D. Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. FR. Paul. “Peace and War in the Eastern Orthodox Church.” Messenger. Last modified January 2003. http://www.stgeorgecathedral.net/article_0103.html. Simion, Marian G. “International Consultation on Orthodox Peace.” Decade to Overcome Violence. Last modified 2009. http://www.overcomingviolence.org/fileadmin/ dov/files/news/Report%2520–%2520Bucharest.pdf. Smith, Anthony D. National Identity. Nevada: University of Nevada Press, 1993. ———. “Ties that Bind.” LSE Economic and Political Science Magazine 5, no. 1, 1993: 8–11. Ware, Kallistos. The Orthodox Way. Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1995.

FIFTEEN Ancient News from Buddha’s Research Lab The Role of Buddhism in Peace and Conflict Settings Katharina Bitzker

OF TRICKSTERS, SIMPLIFICATION AND THE THREE MARKS OF EXISTENCE What do most people in the field of Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) imagine when they hear the word Buddhism? You might think of meditating monks, withdrawn from the world, cultivating a state of inner peace—or maybe the Engaged Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh or the Dalai Lama addressing thousands of followers, delighting them with their presence and their message of love and nonviolence. At least, these were the two most frequent answers I got from the people I asked over the last few weeks. First, the term Buddhism, in the singular, is problematic in itself. It conveys the notion of one monolithic entity and creates the illusion that the practitioners of the Buddha Dharma (Dharma referring to Buddha’s teaching, the discovered truth) are homogenous and are applying the same practices whether they are situated in Bhutan, Sri Lanka or Sweden. Take, for example, the embodiment of the archetypal trickster figure in the shape of Lama Drukpa Kunley (1455–1529), one of Bhutan’s favorite and much loved saints. He is quoted 1 as saying: I, the madman from Kyishodruk, Wander around from place to place; I believe in lamas when it suits me, I practice the Dharma in my own way. 263

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By the time you reached the line “my meditation practice is girls and wine,” you might have thought—is this really a Buddhist talking? The diversity of who might find her or his home in Buddhism could surprise you. Lama Drukpa Kunley highlights the Tibetan tradition of ‘crazy wisdom,’ a streak of Buddhism that—among other things—uses humor as a means to raise awareness regarding over-emphasized ideas, clinging, social conventions and overly correctness of the clergy. 2 As Olsen 3 points out the designation Buddhism has its origin in the Western world and there is no conclusive evidence that the different cultural groups grouped themselves under the term Buddhism. Olsen 4 reminds us that “the term Buddhism may not be the best term for an incredibly rich variety of cultural phenomena and levels of discourse.” Unfortunately, the scope of this book chapter does not grant me the opportunity to do justice to the many different schools, paths and practices of—what I shall refer to in a rather simplistic manner—as Buddhism. In addition, I have to limit my outline to a few core teachings of the Buddha in relation to the field of PACS. In case this chapter awakens your curiosity and interest to delve deeper into this subject matter, you will hopefully find a few helpful starting points listed in the bibliography. And as Hu 5 poignantly remarks: “in the Buddhist worldview, texts are also phenomena that have been interdependently co-arisen, which means that texts also bear the ‘Three Marks of Reality,’ i.e. unsatisfactoriness, impermanence and lack of self-essence.” OUTLINE OF SOME BASIC BUDDHIST TEACHINGS Buddhism holds no belief in a God; the idea of a supreme being that many religions have at their core, does not exist in Buddhism. This begs the question: is Buddhism a religion at all? Answers vary, even among Buddhists. If your definition of religion depends on the concept of God, Buddhism does not fit this criterion. You might classify it as a philosophy, a set of ethical guidelines or simply a great toolkit to learn more about the way your mind and the world functions and develops compassion and wisdom. Keown 6 follows the seven dimensions of religions (practical/ritual, experiential/emotional, narrative/mythic, doctrinal/philosophical, ethical/legal, social/institutional and material) as put forward by Ninian Smart, and finds it justifiable to classify Buddhism as a religion. Ponlop, 7 however, points out that

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although Buddhism can be practiced ‘religiously,’ in many respects, it isn’t really a religion. Because of its emphasis on questioning with the mind, it is spiritual in nature. But because it relies on logical analysis and reasoning, as well as on meditation, many Buddhist teachers regard Buddhism as a science of mind rather than a religion.

Moreover, Ponlop 8 reminds us that the Buddhist scriptures are not meant to be “a substitute for your own questioning process. It’s more like a well-equipped research laboratory where you can find all kinds of tools to investigate your own experience.” So how did this religion or experimental toolkit (as you prefer) originate and develop into the fourth largest religion worldwide with an estimated 500 million followers? Buddha is believed to have lived about 2,600 years ago on the Indian subcontinent. He was born into a wealthy family and due to a prophecy (that he would either become a great king or embark on a spiritual quest and renounce the material world) his father shielded him from the outside world to make sure his son would become a king. However, Siddhārtha Gautama (as Buddha was known then) managed to sneak out of the palace and had his first encounter with disease, old age, death, and also an ascetic. This made such a deep impression on him that he left the palace, his wife and son at age 29 and lived as an ascetic for six years, employing various methods to attain enlightenment, such as deprivation of food. Yet, he became increasingly weak and disillusioned with the ascetic practices that he applied. According to the Buddhist narrative, he sat under the Bodhi tree and made a vow to remain there meditating until he had discovered the meaning of suffering and a way to become free of it. During this meditative state he had such a profound insight into the nature of suffering and how to transform suffering—and became Buddha (“the awakened one”). Due to his earlier life experiences, the luxury life in the palace and the ascetic experiences, Buddha advocated what he called The Middle Way, a path of moderation—since he had firsthand experiences that neither extreme self-indulgence nor extreme self-mortification worked well. Buddha travelled and taught his insights for the remaining 45 years of his life. Buddha never wrote any of his Dharma talks down and for 400 years, following Buddha’s awakening under the Bodhi tree, his teachings were only transmitted orally. He taught in a local dialect known as Magadhi and later on the different Buddhist schools composed and translated his words into many languages including Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Thai, Burmese, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Usually two major branches of Buddhism are recognized: Theravāda (“The School of the Elders”) which tends to be more prominent in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and Mahāyāna (“The Great Vehicle”) which has a widespread following in East Asia and includes among others the traditions of Pure Land, Zen Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism. In some

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classifications, Vajrayāna (“The Vehicle of the Thunderbolt”)—practiced mainly in Mongolia, Tibet and parts of China and Russia—is recognized as a third branch. These different schools vary in their practices and understanding of the canons. Many researchers (outside of religious studies) reference mainly the Pāli Canon for key concepts in Buddhism, but there is no single central canonical text that all the different schools of Buddhism agree upon. What were the things that Buddha realized under the Bodhi tree? Obviously numerous things but for the sake of this chapter I provide a rough sketch of the Four Noble Truths, The Noble Eightfold Path, nonSelf, Dependent Co-arising, karma, the Four Divine Abidings and the Five Precepts. In his first sermon, Buddha presented The Four Noble Truths. The first noble truth is that life is suffering (dukkha). There is pain. We experience disease, getting older, fear, loneliness and so on, yet, dukkha points to a deeper, basic unsatisfactoriness because of the impermanence of all things we experience. This is not meant to be pessimistic, rather, this simple statement reminds us to look life and pain in the face—or as Thich Nhat Hanh 9 puts it: “We try to deny our suffering, but it persists. The Buddha said that to suffer and not know that we are suffering is more painful than the burden endured by a mule carrying an unimaginably heavy load.” The second noble truth is that there is an origin of suffering (samudaya): craving (“thirst”) and clinging to transient things, conditioned by ignorance. According to Buddhist theory, it is this strong, addictive desire that causes rebirth. Since the objects of our desire and attachment are impermanent, their loss is inevitable—as is the suffering that is likely to follow. The third noble truth is the cessation of suffering (nirodha). This means that once sensual craving and clinging are removed, our suffering ceases. Through human activity, it is possible to attain freedom of craving and clinging, which will ultimately result in nirvana. Nirvana is understood as imperturbable peace and stillness of the mind where the three poisons of greed, hatred and delusion are extinguished. The fourth noble truth is that there is a path to the cessation of suffering. This is called The Noble Eightfold Path. The Noble Eightfold Path consists of: (1) Right view, (2) Right thinking, (3) Right speech, (4) Right action, (5) Right livelihood, (6) Right diligence, (7) Right mindfulness, and (8) Right concentration. Right View means first, the acceptance of Buddhist teachings and later their experiential confirmation. Right Resolve means making a serious commitment to developing right attitudes. Right Speech means telling the truth and speaking in a thoughtful and sensitive way. Right Action means abstaining from wrongful bodily behaviour such as killing, stealing, or behaving wrongfully with respect to sensual pleasures. Right Livelihood means not engaging in an occupation which causes harm to others. Right Effort means gaining control of one’s thoughts and cultivating positive states of mind. Right Mindfulness means culti-

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vating constant awareness, and Right Meditation means developing deep levels of mental calm. 10

These eight principles are not to be understood as single steps, proceeding in a linear manner, but rather as a highly interconnected set of ethical principles. The so-called dharma wheel is often used as a symbol to convey this idea, the eight spokes of the wheel representing the eight principles. The Noble Eightfold Path is sometimes divided into three overarching categories: wisdom (right view, right thinking), ethical conduct (right speech, right action, right livelihood) and concentration (right diligence, right mindfulness, right concentration). Hu 11 states that Dependent Co-arising (paticcasamuppāda) and the Buddhist concept of non-Self (anatta) are the twin central teachings of Buddhism . . . and are actually the same concept stated from two different angles. Non-Self is taught in response to ‘the eternalist view’ of ‘Self’ and interdependent co-arising is emphasized in response to nihilism and annihilationism. . . . Human existence is relational, and this relational existence is subject to change. . . . Individual persons co-arise with, and are contingent on, their surroundings, and therefore do not exist as unchanging, permanent, blissful pure consciousness that is separate from, and independent of, worldly phenomena.

A key feature of the principle of Dependent Co-arising is that every result or outcome is the result of multiple causes and conditions, it describes a nonlinear causality. From this understanding it follows that someone who has grasped this radical concept of interconnectedness and processorientation would develop a deep sense of responsibility and a commitment to nonviolence. The idea of an autonomous, independent self that can function on its own is rejected by Buddhist theory. Whenever we tend to get a little bit puffed up about our achievements, it is worth stepping back for a moment and reflecting on this teaching: how did I get here and achieve this? Which persons and circumstances helped and supported me on my journey? Quickly we discover that whatever we claim to have achieved “on our own” is embedded in a vast network. For example, Thich Nhat Hanh 12 coined the term interbeing; he says that we cannot just be, “we can only inter-be.” The so-called Twelve Nidānas illustrate the principle of Dependent Co-arising and illustrate through which phenomena suffering is sustained and how it can be reduced. The concept of karma (Sanskrit for “action, work”) often seems bewildering to Western minds. Karma is the force that drives saṃsāra—the cycle of suffering and rebirth for each being. Thus, Sogyal Rinpoche 13 explains In simple terms, what does karma mean? It means that whatever we do, with our body, speech, or mind, will have a corresponding result. Each action, even the smallest, is pregnant with its consequences. It is

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Chapter 15 said by the masters that even a little poison can cause death and even a tiny seed can become a huge tree. And as Buddha said: ‘Do not overlook negative actions merely because they are small; however small a spark may be, it can burn down a haystack as big as a mountain.’ Similarly he said: ‘Do not overlook tiny good actions, thinking they are of no benefit; even tiny drops of water in the end will fill a huge vessel.’ Karma does not decay like external things, or ever become inoperative. It cannot be destroyed ‘by time, fire, or water.’ Its power will never disappear, until it is ripened. Although the results of our actions may not have matured yet, they will inevitably ripen, given the right conditions.

Keown 14 also states that according to Buddhism, human beings have free will, and in the exercise of free will they engage in self-determination. In a very real sense individuals create themselves through their moral choices. By freely and repeatedly choosing certain sorts of things, an individual shapes his character, and through his character his future. As the proverb has it: ‘Sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.’

It is noteworthy, that according to Buddhist theory, the quality of intention of our actions is just as (if not more) important than the outward appearance of the actions that determine the karmic effect. The so-called Five Precepts within Buddhism are ethical recommendations for laypeople (monks and nuns observe many more precepts) to facilitate their practice: (1) to refrain from taking life (non-violence towards sentient life forms, ahimsā), (2) to refrain from taking that which is not given/committing theft, (3) to refrain from sexual misconduct and sensual overindulgence, (4) to refrain from lying, and (5) to refrain from intoxicants, which lead to loss of mindfulness. Buddhists take refuge in the so-called Three Jewels—the Buddha, Dharma (Buddha’s teaching) and Sangha (community of practitioners). The Four Divine Abodes or The Four Immeasurables are: (1) Loving-kindness (Pāli: mettā/Sanskrit: maitri) towards all: the hope that all persons will be well and happy, (2) Compassion (Pāli/Sanskrit: karuṇā): the hope and wish that all persons sufferings will diminish, (3) Empathetic joy (Pāli/Sanskrit: mudita): joy in the accomplishments of a person—oneself or another; sympathetic joy, (4) Equanimity (Pāli: upekkhā/Sanskrit: upekṣā): learning to accept loss and gain, praise and blame, and success and failure, all with detachment, equally, for oneself and for others. Thich Nhat Hanh 15 states that the Four Brahmaviharas are the abodes of true love. This address is much greater than a four-star hotel. It is a 1000–star dwelling. The Four Brahmaviharas are called ‘immeasurable,’ because if you practice them, they will grow in you every day until they embrace the whole world.

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You will become happier, and everyone around you will become happier, also.

The Buddhist ideal of the bodhisattva crystallizes these qualities of empathy and compassion, which go beyond seeking enlightenment for oneself. The bodhisattva makes a vow to help others attain nirvana (in Buddhist understanding over many lifetimes, since the idea of rebirth features strongly)—she or he will basically postpone her or his own entrance into nirvana—until all other sentient beings are free from suffering. I think it is fair to say that this is the Buddhist prototype of a social activist. Moreover, Yeh 16 and Tsomo 17 highlight the comprehensive notion of peace in Buddhism, ranging from inner transformation of violence to extending peacefulness to families, communities and beyond the entire world. Whereas Neumaier 18 raises the question: Thus, while the modern concept of peacebuilding emphasizes freedom or cessation of war and freedom from civil disorder, conflict, and oppression, the Buddhist concept favors an individualistic interpretation of inner peace and harmony, or tranquility. Consequently, the question arises: Do Buddhists and modern ‘peacebuilders’ speak of the same thing when they say ‘peace’?

However, Neumaier seems to start from the assumption that “modern peacebuilders” share a common definition of peace and that practitioners of Buddhism do not extend their inner peace to social arenas. To agree on ‘negative peace’ 19 seems an easier task for peacebuilders than agreeing on a definition of ‘positive peace.’ Consequently, Dietrich’s 20 concept of the ‘many peaces’ and the different ‘peace families’ to understand peace (energetic, moral, modern, postmodern and transrational) might prove helpful in letting go of the idea of a one-peace-fits-all approach. Hu 21 emphasizes that Buddha’s central teachings are not a doctrine invented by Buddha “but a realization of how things work in the phenomenal world.” Buddha was not a supernatural being or a deity or in any other way equipped with something we would not have access to in order to develop compassion and wisdom. It is noteworthy, that the Buddhist tradition principally states that it is possible to gain an understanding of these phenomena without any revelation or transmission from a specific person—Buddha himself is proof of that. His teachings are often presented as being like a raft that helps you cross a river, yet, if you should find it does not help you in easing dukkha; you are encouraged to look for something more suitable to your needs. Hence, Ponlop 22 points out that “if I said ‘I want to become God,’ it would sound crazy or even blasphemous to a theist. It would be considered a very ambitious, very ego-centered thought. But in the Buddhist tradition, we’re encouraged to become like Buddha—awakened ones.” And if by now you are thinking, this sounds all too good to be true . . . —let us start with a side of Buddhism that is not as peaceful as its core teachings.

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LETTING GO OF IDEALIZATIONS—OF BUDDHIST VIOLENCE, KARMA, GENDER TROUBLE, AND THE LULLABY—BEAUTY OF RITUALS Whoever is defiled and devoid of self-control and truth, yet wears the saffron robe, is unworthy of the saffron robe. 23

The currently prevailing dominant narrative of Buddhism has led to a naïve idealization of Buddhists. Mass media regularly reports violence perpetrated by other religious groups. Pictures of Buddhist monks with guns seem incompatible with the peaceful pictures of Buddhism many of us hold in our mental space. The peace researcher Johan Galtung, 24 along the same idealistic lines, asserts that by no stretch of imagination can Buddhism be used to justify direct and structural violence, war and exploitation. When Christianity turns its ugly side up, it spells war; when Buddhism turns its ugly side up, it spells retreatism, ritualism.

Yet, given the course of human history, it can be quite safely said that no philosophical or religious system with peaceful teachings at its core is exempt from being hijacked for destructive, violent purposes. Just now while I am researching and writing this chapter, the newspaper headlines tell of Monks gone wild: when Buddhism derails in Myanmar. 25 So let us start with a simple disclaimer: practitioners of the Dharma are human beings. How many people do you know about whom you would say with 100 percent certainty that they would never resort to violence? We do not know. As the old medical saying goes, ‘practice disturbs theory.’ The ultimate test for practitioners of nonviolence is living in zones of protracted violent conflicts. Just like any other religion or belief system, Buddhism will be what its practitioners make of it. It is not a club of supernatural beings untouched by fear, anger, desire and severe traumata. Still, it is interesting why many of us seem to project the ideal peacefulness on Buddhism. But as with any other projection—sooner or later disappointment makes its appearance. Besides, does that mean violent behavior by someone classified as non-Buddhist would somehow be more acceptable? Someone makes a vow, a commitment to nonviolence because of adherence to a belief system and many people get upset or are disappointed when these practitioners do not stick to their commitment. In fact, most people call it hypocrisy, but not taking a conscious vow to live nonviolently and bending the rules as we like it—might be the greater hypocrisy after all. Elise Boulding 26 is among the few peace researchers who does not seem to start with an idealized picture of Buddhism. She asserts that every religion then contains two cultures: the culture of violence and war and the culture of peaceableness. The holy war culture calls for

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mobilization against evil and is easily politicized. The culture of the peaceable garden relies on a sense of the oneness of humankind, often taking the form of intentional communities based on peaceful and cooperative lifeways, sanctuaries for the nonviolent. It is important to understand the power of the holy war teachings, since they are intertwined with deep spiritual yearnings for relationship with the divine and shape perceptions of right conduct for believers. Holy war teachings in Buddhism, a nontheistic religion, express the violence against the enemy differently, but the sense of mystical oneness with all being of the Buddhist warrior in the act of overcoming evil is not dissimilar to the sense of holy obedience to God of the Christian warrior who also fights to overcome evil.

This is confirmed by the research undertaken by Jerryson 27 who states that “throughout the Chinese Buddhist monks’ scriptures, we find Buddhist militarism repeatedly justified in order to protect sacred spaces.” He goes on to explain that this phenomenon is not limited to China, as historical examples of fighting monks can also be found in Korea, Tibet and Japan. In an essay on violence in Japanese Buddhism, Kleine 28 summarizes that historically so-called warrior monks were employed under the following occasions: “forceful protests against government decisions which affected the religious institutions, internal struggles over dominance in the Buddhist schools, struggles among competing Buddhist orders, attack on ‘heretics’ and clashes with secular authorities over land.” Boulding 29 remarks that this conversion of literally understood battle scenes (described in scriptures) into an understanding of inner struggles (and vice versa) can be found in many religions. This seems to create a space where concepts and guidelines can be easily captured and misused by those in power. In addition, practitioners of Buddhism will find themselves exposed to a great tension between a mythological-symbolic level and a day-to-day world filled with violence and fear. The resulting cognitive dissonance that might be created by these conflicting issues can be resolved in different ways: one way seems to be giving a slightly different spin to some of the Buddhist scriptures and you arrive at -”if I kill with good intentions in defense of the Dharma, then this is in line with the Buddhist ethos and it will not create negative karma.” A disconnect between outlined ethical guidelines and actual behavior shines through in many of the research findings; for example, in Sri Lanka by Bartholomeusz 30 who reports, as Theravadin Buddhist just-war thinking clearly asserts, power unchecked—power not guided by the dharma—has perilous results. And while this study thus far demonstrates that ‘independence of opinion is still a hallmark of monkhood,’ most sangha members that I interviewed, whether they claim to be pacifists or not, allow for the possibility of defensive wars with limits for the protection of the dharma, or of Sri

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Jerryson 31 remarks that nearly every Buddhist tradition has the Four Noble Truths as its core principle, yet, there are no agreed on canonical scripture that interprets or explains them across different traditions. Of course, this interpreting of scriptures takes place within a context (something that PACS pays attention to in every conflict mapping) and as Jerryson 32 describes with regard to Buddhist monks in violent conflicts in Southern Thailand, “the context in which monks enacted their new roles is largely defined by a pervasive and unrelenting level of fear. Fear has a strong influence on monks’ daily activities and was an inseparable element of southern Buddhist life during the incessant murders and bombings that occurred day after day.” With regard to the nation state, Victoria 33 reminds us that the “state represents the collective ego, i.e. the wego of those who identify with it. In turn, patriotism becomes no more or less than attachment to this collective ego.” If we go back to the basic Buddhist principles laid out in the first part, this sort of collective attachment seems to stand in tension with Buddha’s notion of non-attachment as the road to happiness. Some practitioners of Buddhism have also been criticized for the tendency to view sociopolitical problems as a result of negative karma and delegating responsibilities for tackling these issues to a purely inner level. For example, King 34 recounts a meeting with Ouyporn Khuankaew, Head of the International Women’s partnership for Peace and Justice, who said there are two things she would challenge in Buddhism: the popular understanding of karma as fate (and the consecutive passivity) and the idea that being born as a woman is a result of bad karma. “Her response to these ideas is that whatever you are doing now is what makes you who you are. Karma is action . . . and it is important to focus on the present.” The idea of karma could be misused for the maintenance of structural and cultural violence. If being born into impoverished and violent circumstances is seen as a result of karmic inheritance and must be patiently born—from a peace studies perspective this seems like a bitter pill to swallow. Galtung 35 points out that the otherwise laudable tolerance of Buddhism might prove to be a weak point since militaristic systems, exploitative economic doctrines and unethical political leadership are often easily accommodated. King 36 also mentions the uneasy relationship that many Buddhist activists seem to have with the idea of power and how this avoidance of how to deal with power dynamics might prevent success in nonviolent activism. Researchers like Gross and Hu 37 highlight the “privileged, androcentric perspective of the major transmitters of the Dhamma (Dharma), which focused on individual spiritual transformation and paid little attention to structural problems and gender inequity.” The structural and cultural

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violence that is encoded in this patriarchal undercurrent in Buddhism might not feature as prominently in the scientific discourse as other religions which face the same challenge—but it is there. 38 This is also an arena where the concept of ‘crazy wisdom’ can be easily misused for transgressions and exploitation due to an often very close teacher-student relationship. Sutin 39 writes therefore of the “inner circle secrecy” and dangers that may arise from it. Given the strong emphasis on inner work, it does not come as a surprise that Buddhism has often been labeled as not-of-this-world, withdrawn and prone to creating a lullaby ritual—happiness within the narrow context of the Sangha. Keeping in mind that the Buddha extensively taught about conduct regarding “worldly” matters, it is questionable that he aimed at secluded Sangha settings only. Practitioners of the Buddha Dharma, who happen to belong to the transnational consumer class, have been said to indulge in some sort of “champagne Buddhism”; using meditation as a means to keep fit and focused for the rat race of consumer society, being enchanted with rituals, lamas and their own supposed peacefulness—but not particularly interested or aware of how they perpetuate structural and cultural violence in their societies through their life style. Taken to the extreme, you might find a practitioner who will pay attention that every mosquito in a room is saved from being killed but has absolutely no problem with thousands of air miles for short meditation retreats, reinforcing essentialist gender positions in personal relationships, driving a SUV and eating meat excessively. With the emergence of new indicators like the Ecological Footprint and the Happy Planet Index 40 it might become clearer what could constitute a middle way in consumer societies—not only for Buddhists, of course. Other authors, like Wallace, 41 observe a shift to dogmatism and scholasticism in many Buddhist schools, away from pragmatism and empiricism, which once formed the core of Buddha’s teaching: “over the centuries, the spirit of open-minded inquiry has faded among many Buddhist scholars and contemplatives.” This, of course, is not the whole story. Practitioners of Buddhism have been tireless peacemakers around the globe as well. FIND THE BUDDHA INSIDE YOURSELF—OF ENGAGED BUDDHISM, EXPERIENTIAL KNOWLEDGE, AND NOT KNOWING Whoever replaces an evil deed with what is wholesome Illuminates the world like the moon set free from the cloud. 42

Practitioners of the Dharma have been and are involved in numerous peace building activities around the world. In the field of PACS, the socalled Engaged Buddhists, in particular, have caught our attention with community projects, moving ways to re-connect to our human nature, to acknowledge and transform severe suffering in violent conflicts. Differ-

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ent networks and communities such as the Sarvodia Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka, several Buddhist-based NGOs in Cambodia, the work of His Holiness the Dalai Lama within the Tibetan community in exile, the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, the International Network of Engaged Buddhists and many more 43 are working tirelessly at transforming direct and structural violence. True to the Noble Eightfold Path these practitioners have engaged in and enriched peacebuilding activities in many different settings, with the doctrine of nonviolence ahimsā as the ethical cornerstone. Especially ideas regarding the interface of economics and ecology, the root causes of consumerism and the emotional pain resulting from our own participation in the destruction of nature have given fresh ideas to practitioners and scholars alike. 44 Interestingly, emerging indicators like the Happy Planet Index support ancient Buddhist wisdom in the sense that obtaining a maximum of well-being and happiness with a minimum of consumption is central to transform the current global ecological challenge—and could give new zest and support to the idea of Buddhist economics. 45 Although Buddhism has often been criticized for placing too much emphasis on inner reflection and work, I will nevertheless focus on this inner work. This area is strangely underrepresented in the field of PACS. Yes, we might analyze the minds of others—but in skipping the part about our own mind, we actually become trapped in exactly the “othering” that we would like to avoid. Buddhist awareness practices can be used as great tools to observe and transform the many ego-generated activities in peacebuilding; to step back and take a look at one’s own motivation—why am I engaging in this activity? For the prestige, money, to elevate myself and derive subtle pleasure that others are so much worse off and I can help? The inner attitude, inner posture with which we enter situations of helping, mediation, negotiation or research is seldom thoroughly analyzed. The neuroscientist Francisco Varela 46 once said, Running around in gardens does not make people botanists; listening to sounds does not make people musicians; looking at colors does not make people painters. And in quite the same way, cognitive scientists who want to focus on the analysis of their own experiences and the study of the mind must first be taught to be experts. They need means and methods to overcome their ordinary sense of reality, to experience immediately the perpetual activity of the mind, and to restrain its unceasing restlessness. The Buddhist techniques of meditation lead to experiences and insights that would be unthinkable without such methodical schooling.

We might think we can go out into the world and make peace (regardless of our own emotional status), yet we often have little experiential knowledge of what it means to examine and transform our own ill will, embody peace, to be peace—and even if we do, where is the forum in PACS to

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expand on that? Training approaches that include the importance of breath, voice, sound, bodily perceptions in general, methods for diving inwards, are currently an exception in the field of PACS. Strengthening elicitive approaches in peacebuilding 47 over the last years might lead to an increased interest in these practices. In addition, the convergence of ideas from systems theory, peacebuilding and the ancient Buddhist concept of Dependent Co-arising will most likely result in bringing these “hidden dimensions” of peacebuilding to light. 48 Deep ecologist and Engaged Buddhist, Joanna Macy, 49 tells of a meeting when the Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, was asked what we should do to heal our earth. The audience was all attention and ready for the long list of actions to take and Thich Nhat Hanh replied, “What we most need to do is to hear within us the sounds of the Earth crying.” In PACS this is usually the moment when many practitioners think to themselves: well, nice try, but this is not what we most need to do. Although the idea of interconnectedness and systems theory approaches become more and more popular, some practitioners of Buddhism have a way of reminding us that reading and discussing something is very different from experiencing and daily practicing. The renowned peace researcher Wolfgang Dietrich 50 remarks that Buddhists describe envy, greed and ignorance as the three elementary defilements and recommend twisting them through serious work on one’s awareness. One can argue now that justice is not necessarily something that one claims only for oneself. I agree and if one selflessly seeks justice for others in the sense of the Buddhist bodhisattva, we call that compassion—but only if we do not abuse the others unconsciously as vehicles for our inner concept of greed, envy and jealousy. . . . Compassion is only there if we are able to find resonance with the other and not if we give them the tune.

This idea can be seen beautifully put into action in the work of the Zen master Bernie Glassman 51 that can be described as coming from an inner place of “not knowing,” being with someone, instead of subtly (or not so subtly) imposing one’s own agenda/tune. The core idea of the Peacemaker Order he established is to bear witness, not to teach but to listen, to let go of preconceived notions and supposedly superior knowledge of what people need. Glassman—among many other things—has facilitated interfaith retreats at Auschwitz and also so-called “street retreats” where he and his students live for one week on the streets. Experiences of asking for help, being rejected because of one’s smell and outer appearance— and really being with someone, bearing witness and listening with our entire body and mind so that loving action arises—is crucial. When was the last time you experienced something like that? Glassman 52 also remarks that many social activists know how to help others—”but not necessarily how to be helped.” This goes hand in hand with the idea of non-

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judgementalism. One example of this is recalled by King 53 who tells of an interfaith delegation’s visit to Jerusalem and how the participating Buddhists differed greatly in their response from their colleagues to the stories that were told by Palestinians and Israelis. One Buddhist laywoman remarked that both sides were “nourishing their suffering, whereas her training was to let go of it.” To empty oneself of preconceived notions of what is best for others might be the hardest thing to do, especially since it goes against the often prescriptive, banking-style teaching 54 at schools and universities. The credo seems to be: it is better to enter the field with as much accumulated knowledge and preconceived notions as possible—ask yourself: are you comfortable ‘just’ being with someone and listening? The prescriptive training models seem to run deep in PACS. The mantras go like this: we have to do something, we need more tools, we need more expertise . . . we know best—an endless cyclical loop. The convergence of Buddhist ideas and practices and neurobiological research has garnered a lot of attention over the last years. For an excellent overview and a very practical introduction to this topic see Rick Hanson’s Buddha ’ s Brain. 55 Many studies highlight the effects and positive impact of regular meditation on well-being, health and cognitive functioning. 56 Out of the diversity of the different meditation practices of different Buddhist schools, loving-kindness meditation and insight meditation are probably the most widely known. 57 For the sake of this chapter, however, I would like to turn your attention to an area that is central to the field of PACS and introduce a related ancient Buddhist technique for inner conflict transformation. Much of the suffering we witness in conflict is built on the idea of an Other; this dichotomous us-versus-them thinking sometimes becomes so strong and extreme that in order to restore a twisted sense of “peace” this Other has to be extinguished. The Swiss psychiatrist C.G. Jung 58 put a poetic spin on the defense mechanism called projection and coined the term ‘shadow.’ Shadow understood here as unwanted, unbearable character traits and feelings within us that are projected onto other people—so that we do not have to deal with them. It is pretty much like sitting in a cinema— we ourselves generate and project the film (courtesy of our minds)—and then we attack the screen because we tell ourselves it is the source of the film, and not the mind-projector. Many people I know are enchanted with a little story that tells about a wise woman who is asked by her grandchildren how she had become such a loving and peaceful person. The woman replied: “In every human being’s heart there are two wolves: the wolf of love and the wolf of hate. It depends on which wolf I feed every day.” I remember hearing this story as a young girl and my first thought was somewhat different: what about the wolf of hate? You basically starve him to death—intentionally? Where was your love then? These thoughts amused my friends to no end

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and it was only many years later when I got to know the work of C.G. Jung that I understood my reaction. Did not coming to term with one’s own shadow mean an inclusion of the “wolf of hate” as well? Going back to the earlier described peacemaking activities of the Zen priest Bernie Glassman, 59 we find that he says about Zen practice: Over time our minds become more transparent and therefore more spacious, with less ideas and preconceptions about who we are. In that state we discover our oneness with life. We see that we are not just who we thought previously, we’re the entire universe. Every creature, every person, every phenomenon is just another aspect of who we are. A little girl, a mother, a killer, and a policeman are all aspects of who we are. . . . We are the feelings and thoughts of all these people, who are nothing other than aspects of ourselves. We are not attracted or repelled, for we are them.

I think this is not easy for many people in this highly idealistic field of PACS. Yet, if we want to take a serious look at “Othering”—Buddhism reminds us that we need to start within ourselves. Bruneau, et al. 60 examined the differences in neural responses to perceived conflict parties, distant out-groups and in-groups in a neuroimaging study. It would be interesting to offer some of the Buddhist transformation techniques to people in protracted conflict settings over a longer time period and follow up on any behavioral and neural changes. Moreover, Lama Tsültrim Allione 61 has brought ancient Tibetan wisdom to the Western world and—out of a practice called Chöd, developed by Machig Labdrön—she has distilled and adapted the so-called demon feeding. This method can be taught independently of the Tibetan Chöd practice and is open to every interested person. The word demon might strike you as odd—but in Buddhist understanding demons are simply all phenomena that hinder our liberation. The demons come in different forms and shapes: egocentricity, anger, depression, fear, addiction or proneness to violence, etc. On a collective level we might encounter demons as racism, war, economic greed or ecological degradation. In a sense, demons are what we most fear and would like to avoid at any cost. In a five-step process one is guided how to visualize, dialogue with and feed one’s demons. The transformation concerning own projections and quality of relationships that many people using this technique report in their daily lives is remarkable. Again, Buddha’s research lab is open to you—but experiential knowledge is the key, so you will not understand demon feeding by reading about it or trying to analyze it without experiencing it. For example, Tsültrim Allione 62 points out that, I believe Machig’s approach of engaging and feeding the ‘enemy’ provides a revolutionary paradigm shift from domination to tolerance and integration. Religious systems that set up battlegrounds internally and externally have brought us a polarized experience both within our-

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INSTEAD OF A CONCLUSION—THREE LENSES 1. Maybe you are even thinking that you principally agree with the Buddhist ideas and act on them—but wonder if by not calling yourself a Buddhist something is wrong with you? Hu 63 addresses this beautifully when she writes, the ultimate goal of learning or teaching about the co-arising and interconditionality of existence is so that people will have the wisdom of understanding co-arising, will put that wisdom into practice, and thereby will put a stop to dukkha. Whether or not people call that wisdom, ‘Dhamma’ or recognize a dukkhaalleviating practice as ‘Buddhist’ is, based on the teachings of the Buddha himself, beside the point. Bhikkhu Chao Chu puts it this way: ‘the only real Buddhism, the fulfillment of Buddhism, is no Buddhism at all.’

2. PACS practitioners could possibly run the risk to treat Buddhism in a “take the nonviolence/meditation and run”—approach. Some of the Buddhist teachings are quite radical and rebellious in the world we are currently living in. Which brings us back to the trickster spirit in Buddhism—to become enlightened . . . how inconvenient! Goodman, 64 a professor of Asian Studies, tells about a teaching with Lama Tharchin Rinpoche. After everyone was settled he said, “You know that we all have Buddha nature. And that means that at some point we’ll all become fully awakened.” There was a big pause, and then he said, ‘Are you ready? Maybe in the middle of the talk tonight, you will become fully enlightened. Are you ready? It could be very inconvenient. What about all of the plans that you’ve made about where you’ll go after the teaching? You’re depending on not waking up, aren’t you? Maybe you shouldn’t have made so many plans.’

3. I think it is fair to say that at the core of every peacebuilding endeavor is the question: How can I help sentient beings? When Machig Labdrön, 65 one of the most beloved and renowned female Tibetan mystics, encountered a teacher named Phadampa Sanye and asked him exactly this question, “How can I help sentient beings?” He gave her the following answer, which became Machig Labdrön’s guiding motto and which I would like to offer you as a farewell and a somewhat apt and inspiring motto for anyone interested in creating peace.

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Confess all your hidden faults. Approach that which you find repulsive. Whoever you think you cannot help, help them. Anything you are attached to, let go of it. Go to the places that scare you, like cemeteries. Sentient beings are as limitless as the sky, Be aware. Find the Buddha inside yourself.

NOTES 1. Bradley Mayhew, Anirban Mahapatra, and Lindsay Brown, Bhutan (Country Travel Guide). 4th ed. (Melbourne: Lonely Planet Publications, 2011). 2. Keith Dowman and Sonam Paljor, trans. The Divine Madman: The Sublime Life and Songs of Drukpa Kunley (Clearlake, CA: The Dawn Horse Press, 2000); Steven Goodman, “Wisdom Crazy: An Interview with Steven Goodman,” Inquiring Mind 21, no. 2 (2005), accessed November 4 2012, http://www.inquiringmind.com/Articles/ WisdomCrazy.html. 3. Carl Olsen, Different Paths of Buddhism: A Narrative-historical Introduction (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005). 4. Ibid., 3. 5. Hsiao-Lan Hu, This-Worldly Nibbāna: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2011), 16. 6. Damien Keown, Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). 7. Ponlop, Rebel Buddha: A Guide to a Revolution of Mind, 24. 8. Ibid. 9. Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha ’ s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy and Liberation (New York: Broadway Books, 1998), 29. 10. Keown, Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction, 55. 11. Hu, This-Worldly Nibbāna: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community, 65. 12. For example, Thich Nhat Hanh, Interbeing: Commentaries on the Tiep Hien Precepts (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1987); Thich Nhat Hanh, “Ahimsa: Path of Harmlessness,” in The Altruism Reader: Selections from Writings on Love, Religion and Science ed. Thomas J. Oord (West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Foundation Press, 2008), 129–132. 13. Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1993), 92. 14. Keown, Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction, 36. 15. Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha ’ s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy and Liberation, 169. 16. Theresa Der-lan Yeh, “The Way to Peace: A Buddhist Perspective,” International Journal of Peace Studies 11, no. 1 (2006): 91–112. 17. Karma Lekshe Tsomo, “Shi wa: A Vajrayana Buddhist Perspective,” in The Palgrave International Handbook of Peace Studies: A Cultural Perspective, eds. Dietrich, Wolfgang, Josefina Echavarría Alvarez, Gustavo Esteva, Daniela Ingruber and Norbert Koppensteiner (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 229–243. 18. Eva K. Neumaier, “Missed Opportunities: Buddhism and the Ethnic Strife in Sri Lanka and Tibet,” in Religion and Peacebuilding, eds. Harold Coward and Gordon S. Smith (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2004), 74. 19. Johan Galtung, Peace by Peaceful Means. Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilization (Oslo PRIO: Sage Publications, 1996).

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20. Wolfgang Dietrich, Interpretations of Peace in History and Culture (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). 21. Hu, This-Worldly Nibbāna: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community, 20. 22. Ponlop, Rebel Buddha: A Guide to a Revolution of Mind, 25. 23. Gil Fronsdal, trans. The Dhammapada: A New Translation of the Buddhist Classic with Annotations (Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, 2005), 9. 24. Johan Galtung, “Buddhism and the World Peace,” in The Palgrave International Handbook of Peace Studies: A Cultural Perspective, eds. Wolfgang Dietrich, Josefina Echavarría Alvarez, Gustavo Esteva, Daniela Ingruber, and Norbert Koppensteiner (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 290. 25. Andrew Lam, “Monks Gone Wild: When Buddhism Derails in Myanmar,” Huffington Post, (August 2, 2012), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-l am/buddhism-derails-in-myanmar_b_1721427.html. 26. Elise Boulding, Cultures of Peace: The Hidden Side of History (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2000), 17. 27. Michael K. Jerryson, Buddhist Fury: Religion and Violence in Southern Thailand (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 124. 28. Christoph Kleine, “Evil Monks with Good Intentions? Remarks on Buddhist Monastic Violence and its Doctrinal Background,” in Buddhism and Violence, eds. Michael Zimmermann, Chiew Hui Ho, and Philip Pierce (Lumbini, Nepal: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2006), 69–70. 29. Boulding, Cultures of Peace: The Hidden Side of History. 30. Tessa J. Bartholomeusz, In Defense of Dharma: Just-war Ideology in Buddhist Sri Lanka (London: Routledge Curzon, 2002), 66. 31. Michael K. Jerryson, and Mark Juergensmeyer, eds., Buddhist Warfare (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). 32. Ibid., 86. 33. Brian D. Victoria, “A Buddhological critique of ‘Soldier- Zen’ in wartime Japan,” in Buddhist warfare, eds. M.K. Jerryson, and M. Juergensmeyer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 127. 34. For example, Sallie B. King, Socially Engaged Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2009), 163. 35. Johan Galtung, “Buddhism and the World Peace.” 36. Sallie B. King, “Buddhism, Nonviolence and Power,” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 16, (2009a): 106. 37. Rita M. Gross, Buddhism After Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis and Reconstruction of Buddhism (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993); Hu, ThisWorldly Nibbāna: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community, 3. 38. See, for examples, Tsultrim Allione, Women of Wisdom, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984); Gross, Buddhism After Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis and Reconstruction of Buddhism; Ouyporn Khuankaew, “Tackling Gender and Sexual Discrimination in Buddhism,” in Faith-based Peacebuilding: The Need for a Gender Perspective. IFOR Women Peacemaker Program, (2011): 15–17. Accessed November 6, 2012, http:/ /www.ifor.org/WPP/may-pack-2011–web.pdf ; Burkhard Scherer, “Macho Buddhism: Gender and Sexualities in the Diamond Way,” Religion and Gender 1, no. 1, (2011): 85–103; Hu, This-Worldly Nibbāna: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community. 39. Lawrence Sutin, All is Change: The Two-Thousand-Year Journey of Buddhism to the West (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006). 40. Mathis Wackernagel and William E. Rees, Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth (Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 1996); Saamah Abdallah, Juliet Michaelson, Sagar Shah, Laura Stoll, and Nic Marks. “The Happy Planet Index,” New Economics Foundation, Report 2012. Last modified June 2012, http:// www.happyplanetindex.org/assets/happy-planet-index-report.pdf.

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41. B. Alan Wallace and Brian Hodel, Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), 62. 42. Fronsdal, trans. The Dhammapada: A New Translation of the Buddhist Classic with Annotations, 173. 43. See, for example, A.T. Ariyaratne, “Buddhism and Peacemaking,” in Peacemaking: From Practice to Theory eds. Susan Allen Nan, Zachariah Cherian Mampilly, and Andrea Bartoli (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International, 2012); Ubasak Ros Sotha, “National Political Violence and Buddhism Response in Cambodia,” Sathirakoses-Nagapradipa Foundation. Accessed November 11, 2012, http://www.sulak-sivaraksa.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=116&Itemid=77; Khuankaew, “Tackling Gender and Sexual Discrimination in Buddhism,” 15–17; Hanh, “Ahimsa: Path of Harmlessness,” 129–132; King, Socially Engaged Buddhism; Bernie Glassman, Bearing Witness: A Zen Master’s Lessons in Making Peace (New York: Bell Tower, 1998). 44. See for example, Richard K. Payne, ed., How Much is Enough? Buddhism, Consumerism and the Human Environment (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Press, 2010); Seth D. Clippard, “The Lorax Wears Saffron: Toward a Buddhist Environmentalism,” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 18, (2011): 212–248; Joanna Macy, and Molly Young Brown, Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World (Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 1998); Joanna Macy, World as Lover, World as Self. Courage for Global Justice and Ecological Renewal (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 2007); Peter Harvey, “Avoiding Unintended Harm to the Environment and the Buddhist Ethic of Intention. Journal of Buddhist Ethics 14, (2007): 1–34. 45. See for example, Ernst Friedrich Schumacher, Small is Beautiful. Economics as if People Mattered. 25 Years Later . . . with Commentaries (Vancouver, BC: Hartley & Marks Publishers, 1999); Thomas Weber, “Gandhi, Deep Ecology, Peace Research and Buddhist Economics,” Journal of Peace Research 36, no. 3 (1999): 349–361; Juliana M. Essen, “Sufficiency Economy and Santi Asoke: Buddhist Economic Ethics for a Just and Sustainable World,” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 17, (2010): 70–99; Peter L. Daniels, “Climate Change, Economics and Buddhism—Part I: An Integrated Environmental Analysis Framework,” Ecological Economics 69, no. 5 (2010): 952–961; Laszlo Zsolnai, “Buddhist Economics,” in The Palgrave Handbook of Spirituality and Business eds. Luk Bouckaert and Laszlo Zsolnai (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 204—211. 46. Francisco Varela, and Bernhard Poerksen, “Truth is What Works: Francisco J. Varela on Cognitive Science, Buddhism, the Inseparability of Subject and Object, and the Exaggerations of Constructivism,” The Journal of Aesthetic Education 40, no. 1 (2006): 45. 47. Wolfgang Dietrich, Josefina Echavarría Alvarez, Gustavo Esteva, Daniela Ingruber and Norbert Koppensteiner, eds. The Palgrave International Handbook of Peace Studies: A Cultural Perspective (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011); Wolfgang Dietrich, Variationen über die vielen Frieden. Band 2: Elicitive Konflikttransformation und die transrationale Wende in der Friedenspolitik (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2011a); Dietrich, Interpretations of Peace in History and Culture; John P. Lederach, The Moral Imagination — The Art and Soul of Building Peace (Oxford: University Press, 2005); John P. Lederach, and Angela J. Lederach, When Blood and Bones Cry Out. Journeys through the Soundscape of Healing and Reconciliation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010). 48. Louise Diamond, “The Hidden Dimensions of Peacemaking: A Systems Perspective,” in Peacemaking: From Practice to Theory, eds. Susan Allen Nan, Zachariah Cherian Mampilly, and Andrea Bartoli (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International, 2012), 622–636; Joanna Macy, Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory: The Dharma of Natural Systems (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1991). 49. Macy and Brown, Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World, 91.

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50. Dietrich, Alvarez, Esteva, Ingruber and Koppensteiner, eds. The Palgrave International Handbook of Peace Studies: A Cultural Perspective. 51. Glassman, Bearing Witness: A Zen Master’s Lessons in Making Peace. 52. Ibid., 79. 53. King, Socially Engaged Buddhism, 35. 54. To borrow Paulo Freire’s phrase from Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Revised edition. (London: Penguin Books, 1996). 55. Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius, Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom (Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 2009). 56. See for example, Dietrich Lehmann, Pascal L. Fabera, Shisei Teia, Roberto D. Pascual-Marquia, Patricia Milza and Kieko Kochi, “Reduced Functional Connectivity between Cortical Sources in Five Meditation Traditions Detected with Lagged Coherence using EEG Tomography,” NeuroImage 60, no. 2 (2012): 1574–1586; Lorenza S. Colzato, Hilmar Zech, Bernhard Hommel, Rinus Verdonschot, Wery P. M. van den Wildenberg, and Shulan Hsieh, “Loving-kindness Brings Loving-kindness: The Impact of Buddhism on Cognitive Self-other Integration,” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 19, no. 3 (2012): 541–545; Fadel Zeidan, J.A. Grant, C.A. Brown, J.G. McHaffie, and R.C. Coghill, “Mindfulness Meditation-Related Pain Relief: Evidence for Unique Brain Mechanisms in the Regulation of Pain,” Neuroscience Letters 520, no. 2 (2012): 165–173. 57. For further readings on meditation, see for example Ariyaratne, “Buddhism and Peacemaking,” 192–210; His Holiness the Dalai Lama, How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of Loving Relationships (New York: Atria Books, 2005); and for a general and practical introduction to meditation see for Kathleen McDonald, How to Meditate: A Practical Guide (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2005). 58. C.G. Jung, The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. Vol.9, Part II (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969). 59. Glassman, Bearing Witness: A Zen Master ’ s Lessons in Making Peace, 76–77. 60. Emile G. Bruneau, Nicholas Dufour and Rebecca Saxe, “Social Cognition in Members of Conflict Groups: Behavioural and Neural Responses in Arabs, Israelis and South-Americans to Each Other’s Misfortunes,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 367, no. 1589 (2012): 717–730. 61. Tsultrim Allione, Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008). 62. Ibid., 8. 63. Hu, This-Worldly Nibbāna: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community, 177. 64. Steven Goodman, “Wisdom Crazy: An Interview with Steven Goodman,” Inquiring Mind 21, no. 2 (2005), accessed November 4, 2012, http://www.inquiringmind. com/Articles/WisdomCrazy.html. 65. Allione, Women of Wisdom, 160f; Tsultrim Allione, “Machig’s Story,” Tara Mandala, accessed September 21, 2012, http://tm.bluemandala.com/wp-content/uploads/ 2010/07/MachigsStory.pdf.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Abdallah, Saamah, Juliet Michaelson, Sagar Shah, Laura Stoll, and Nic Marks. “The Happy Planet Index.” New Economics Foundation, Report 2012. Last modified June 2012. http://www.happyplanetindex.org/assets/happy-planet-index-report.pdf. Allione, Tsultrim. Women of Wisdom. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984. Allione, Tsultrim. Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008. Allione, Tsultrim. “Machig’s Story.” Tara Mandala. Accessed September 21, 2012. http:/ /tm.bluemandala.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/MachigsStory.pdf.

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Ariyaratne, A.T. “Buddhism and Peacemaking.” In Peacemaking: From Practice to Theory, edited by Susan Allen Nan, Zachariah Cherian Mampilly, and Andrea Bartoli, 192–210. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International, 2012. Bartholomeusz, Tessa J. In Defense of Dharma: Just-war Ideology in Buddhist Sri Lanka. London: Routledge Curzon, 2002. Bodhi, Bikkhu. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha. A new Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2000. Boulding, Elise. Cultures of Peace: The Hidden Side of History. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2000. Bruneau, Emile G., Nicholas Dufour, and Rebecca Saxe. “Social Cognition in Members of Conflict Groups: Behavioural and Neural Responses in Arabs, Israelis and SouthAmericans to Each Other’s Misfortunes.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 367, no. 1589 (2012): 717–730. Clippard, Seth D. “The Lorax Wears Saffron: Toward a Buddhist Environmentalism.” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 18, (2011): 212–248. Colzato, Lorenza S., Hilmar Zech, Bernhard Hommel, Rinus Verdonschot, Wery P. M. van den Wildenberg, and Shulan Hsieh. “Loving-kindness Brings Loving-kindness: The Impact of Buddhism on Cognitive Self-other Integration.” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 19, no. 3 (2012): 541–545. Daniels, Peter L. “Climate Change, Economics and Buddhism—Part I: An Integrated Environmental Analysis Framework.” Ecological Economics 69, no. 5 (2010): 952–961. Deegalle, Mahinda, ed. Buddhism, Conflict and Violence in Modern Sri Lanka. New York: Routledge, 2006. Diamond, Louise. “The Hidden Dimensions of Peacemaking: A Systems Perspective.” In Peacemaking: From Practice to Theory, edited by Susan Allen Nan, Zachariah Cherian Mampilly, and Andrea Bartoli, 622–636. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International, 2012. Dietrich, Wolfgang, Josefina Echavarría Alvarez, Gustavo Esteva, Daniela Ingruber and Norbert Koppensteiner, eds. The Palgrave International Handbook of Peace Studies: A Cultural Perspective. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Dietrich, Wolfgang. Interpretations of Peace in History and Culture. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Dietrich, Wolfgang. Variationen über die vielen Frieden. Band 2: Elicitive Konflikttransformation und die transrationale Wende in der Friedenspolitik. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2011a. Dowman, Keith, and Sonam Paljor, trans. The Divine Madman: The Sublime Life and Songs of Drukpa Kunley. Clearlake, CA: The Dawn Horse Press, 2000. Essen, Juliana M. “Sufficiency Economy and Santi Asoke: Buddhist Economic Ethics for a Just and Sustainable World.” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 17, (2010): 70–99. Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Revised edition. London: Penguin Books, 1996. Fronsdal, Gil, trans. The Dhammapada: A New Translation of the Buddhist Classic with Annotations. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, 2005. Galtung, Johan. Peace by Peaceful Means. Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilization. Oslo PRIO: Sage Publications, 1996. Galtung, Johan. “Buddhism and the World Peace.” In The Palgrave International Handbook of Peace Studies: A Cultural Perspective, edited by Dietrich, Wolfgang, Josefina Echavarría Alvarez, Gustavo Esteva, Daniela Ingruber, and Norbert Koppensteiner, 278–292. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Glassman, Bernie. Bearing Witness: A Zen Master’s Lessons in Making Peace. New York: Bell Tower, 1998. Goodman, Steven. “Wisdom Crazy: An Interview with Steven Goodman.” Inquiring Mind 21, no. 2 (2005). Accessed November 4, 2012, http://www.inquiringmind.com/ Articles/WisdomCrazy.html. Gross, Rita M. Buddhism After Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis and Reconstruction of Buddhism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993.

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Hanh, Thich Nhat. The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy and Liberation. New York: Broadway Books, 1998. Hanh, Thich Nhat. Interbeing: Commentaries on the Tiep Hien Precepts. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1987. Hanh, Thich Nhat. Being Peace. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1987. Hanh, Thich Nhat. “Ahimsa: Path of Harmlessness.” In The Altruism Reader: Selections from Writings on Love, Religion and Science, edited by Thomas J. Oord, 129–132. West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Foundation Press, 2008. Hanson, Rick, and Richard Mendius. Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 2009. Harvey, Peter. “Avoiding Unintended Harm to the Environment and the Buddhist Ethic of Intention. Journal of Buddhist Ethics 14, (2007): 1–34. His Holiness the Dalai Lama. How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of Loving Relationships. New York: Atria Books, 2005. Hu, Hsiao-Lan. This-Worldly Nibbāna: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2011. Jerryson, Michael K., and Mark Juergensmeyer, eds. Buddhist Warfare. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Jerryson, Michael K. Buddhist Fury: Religion and Violence in Southern Thailand. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Jung, C. G. The collected works of C. G. Jung. Vol. 9, Part II. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969. Keown, Damien. Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Khuankaew, Ouyporn. “Tackling Gender and Sexual Discrimination in Buddhism.” In Faith-based Peacebuilding: The Need for a Gender Perspective. IFOR Women Peacemaker Program, (2011): 15–17. Accessed November 6, 2012. http://www.ifor.org/WPP/maypack-2011 – web.pdf. Khuankaew, Ouyporn. “Buddhist Peacebuilding.” International Women’s Partnership for Peace and Justice Accessed November 6, 2012. http://womenforpeaceandjustice. org/courses-we-offer/buddhist-peacebuilding/. Kleine, Christoph. “Evil Monks with Good Intentions? Remarks on Buddhist Monastic Violence and its Doctrinal Background.” In Buddhism and Violence, edited by Michael Zimmermann, Chiew Hui Ho, and Philip Pierce, 65–98. Lumbini, Nepal: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2006. King, Sallie B. Socially Engaged Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2009. King, Sallie B. “Buddhism, Nonviolence and Power.” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 16, (2009a): 103–135. Lam, Andrew. “Monks Gone Wild: When Buddhism Derails in Myanmar.” Huffington Post, August 2, 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-l am/buddhism-derails-in-myanmar_b_1721427.html. Lederach, John P., and Angela J. Lederach. When Blood and Bones Cry Out. Journeys through the Soundscape of Healing and Reconciliation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Lederach, John P. The Moral Imagination — The Art and Soul of Building Peace. Oxford: University Press, 2005. Lehmann, Dietrich, Pascal L. Fabera, Shisei Teia, Roberto D. Pascual-Marquia, Patricia Milza, and Kieko Kochi. “Reduced Functional Connectivity between Cortical Sources in Five Meditation Traditions Detected with Lagged Coherence using EEG Tomography.” NeuroImage 60, no. 2 (2012): 1574–1586. Mayhew, Bradley, Anirban Mahapatra, and Lindsay Brown. Bhutan (Country Travel Guide), 4th ed.Melbourne: Lonely Planet Publications, 2011. Macy, Joanna. Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory: The Dharma of Natural Systems. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1991. Macy, Joanna. World as Lover, World as Self. Courage for Global Justice and Ecological Renewal. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 2007.

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Macy, Joanna and Molly Young Brown. Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 1998. McDonald, Kathleen. (2005). How to Meditate: A Practical Guide. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2005. Neumaier, Eva K. “Missed Opportunities: Buddhism and the Ethnic Strife in Sri Lanka and Tibet.” In Religion and Peacebuilding, edited by Harold Coward and Gordon S. Smith, 69–92. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2004. Olsen, Carl. Different Paths of Buddhism: A Narrative-historical Introduction. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. Payne, Richard K., ed. How Much is Enough? Buddhism, Consumerism and the Human Environment. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Press, 2010. Ponlop, Dzogchen. Rebel Buddha: A Guide to a Revolution of Mind. Boston, MA: Shambala, 2010. Rinpoche, Sogyal. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1993. Scherer, Burkhard. “Macho Buddhism: Gender and Sexualities in the Diamond Way.” Religion and Gender 1, no. 1, (2011): 85–103. Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich. Small is Beautiful. Economics as if People Mattered. 25 years later . . . with commentaries. Vancouver, BC: Hartley & Marks Publishers, 1999. Sotha, Ubasak Ros. “National Political Violence and Buddhism Response in Cambodia.” Sathirakoses-Nagapradipa Foundation. Accessed November 11, 2012. http:// www.sulak-sivaraksa.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=116& Itemid=77. Sutin, Lawrence. All is Change: The Two-Thousand-Year Journey of Buddhism to the West. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006. Thera, Nyanaponika. “Anguttara Nikaya. The Discourse Collection in Numerical Order: An Anthology.” Access to Insight. Last modified April 4, 2011. http://www. accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanaponika/wheel238.html. Tsomo, Karma Lekshe. “Shi wa: A Vajrayana Buddhist Perspective.” In The Palgrave International Handbook of Peace Studies: A Cultural Perspective, edited by Dietrich, Wolfgang, Josefina Echavarría Alvarez, Gustavo Esteva, Daniela Ingruber and Norbert Koppensteiner, 229–243. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Varela, Francisco J., and Bernhard Poerksen. “Truth is What Works: Francisco J. Varela on Cognitive Science, Buddhism, the Inseparability of Subject and Object, and the Exaggerations of Constructivism.” The Journal of Aesthetic Education 40, no. 1 (2006): 35–53. Victoria, Brian D. A Buddhological critique of “Soldier- Zen” in wartime Japan. In Buddhist warfare, edited by M.K. Jerryson, M. Juergensmeyer. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Wackernagel, Mathis, and William E. Rees. Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 1996. Wallace, B. Alan, and Brian Hodel. Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Weber, Thomas. “Gandhi, Deep Ecology, Peace Research and Buddhist Economics.” Journal of Peace Research 36, no. 3 (1999): 349–361. Yeh, Theresa Der-lan. “The Way to Peace: A Buddhist Perspective.” International Journal of Peace Studies 11, no. 1 (2006): 91–112. Zeidan, Fadel, J.A. Grant, C.A. Brown, J.G. McHaffie, and R.C. Coghill. “Mindfulness Meditation-Related Pain Relief: Evidence for Unique Brain Mechanisms in the Regulation of Pain.” Neuroscience Letters 520, no. 2 (2012): 165–173. Zimmermann, Michael, Chiew Hui Ho, and Philip Pierce, eds. Buddhism and Violence. Lumbini, Nepal: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2006. Zsolnai, Laszlo. “Buddhist Economics.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Spirituality and Business, edited by Luk Bouckaert and Laszlo Zsolnai, 204—211. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

SIXTEEN Hinduism War, Peace, and Peace and Conflict Studies S. I. Keethaponcalan

INTRODUCTION Hinduism, one of the oldest surviving religions, is practiced mostly by people in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia. Hinduism and its fundamental ideologies are complex and convoluted, as the religion has no founder in comparison to the Abrahamic faiths that originated in the Middle East or is enshrined in a single document or the source of a belief system like the Bible or Koran. Hinduism encompasses multiple sources of written materials, none of which, one may argue, covers all rudiments of the faith. Since the centerpiece of many of these texts is war, they may appear to an outsider to impart the impression that the Hindu way of life is centered on war and violence. It is, however, clear that Hinduism is no more violent than other contemporary faith systems; ahimsa and tolerance are integral elements of the Hindu way of life. Mohandas Gandhi’s nonviolent movement, for example, was based on such Hindu values. Consequently, if one is to understand the relations between Hinduism and peace, one needs to look beyond the texts. Hence this chapter examines the Hindu notion of war and peace and their relevance to peace studies from textual as well as behavioral perspectives. As far as the texts are concerned, this chapter pays particular attention to Rig Veda, the earliest sacred literary document of the Hindus, and Ramayana and Mahabharata, the two most popular and revered Hindu

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texts. Moreover, the Hindu belief in karma, panchabuda, and tolerance are significant in terms of promoting peace and coexistence worldwide. One of the challenges in studying the relations between Hinduism and peace is the constant and periodic violence undertaken in the name of religion and the riots unleashed against minority communities in India. The partition of British India into two states, India and Pakistan, witnessed one of the most violent episodes of intercommunal violence in modern world history. 1 The demolition of Babry Masjid, a historic Muslim mosque, by the radical Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in 1992 was cited often as evidence of violent tendencies within Hindu society. 2 In the recent past, a series of Christian churches from different denominations were also attacked indicating a reluctance to link Hinduism with peace as war and violence seems to dominate the discourse. It is however, imperative to note that it is a small group of fundamentalists that are involved in these violent incidents as the vast majority of the Hindu people live in peace with other communities in other countries. More often, the discussion also shifts to social issues within Indian society, some of which are supported by Hindu customs and the political system. For example, Hinduism as a religion sanctioned the caste system, which has caused immense problems for people in the lower strata of the society. Casteism is still prevalent in some regions where Hinduism is practiced. Burning widows alive was also a strong Hindu custom in the past, and today some form of segregation of widows still takes place in society. Animal sacrifice is another practice that has also offended many outsiders. These issues are some of the serious problems that persist within Hindu society today. This chapter pays more attention to elements within Hindu literature, practices, and values, which have the potential to promote peace and communal harmony. WAR GLORIFIED The Bible and the Koran are central to the Christian and Muslim faiths respectively. Christianity and Islam possess several written works that serve as guiding lights to the followers of each faith. Hinduism, on the other hand, has no single text or document that is a central source of principles and guidelines for Hindus. Hindu beliefs and principles are decentralized in a multitude of written sources composed over a long period of time. Vedas, Dharmasastras, and epics are among the hundreds of documentary sources that enunciate Hindu principles, rules and values. 3 Since, it is impossible, practically, to examine all of the Hindu texts I pay particular attention to three predominant sources: the Rig Veda, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The Rig Veda is the earliest sacred literary document of the Hindus, which contains a collection of, to be precise, 1028 hymns used in prayers

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glorifying the gods of early Hindus or the so called Indo-Aryans. The Rige Veda is one of several Vedas that date from to 2000 to 1500 BCE. 4 The Rig Veda can be depicted as one of the foundations of the Hindu religion as it provided the genesis for, among other factors’ the caste based social structure of Hindu society. According to the Rige Veda the four major castes of Hindu society include the Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaisyas (merchants, farmers and similar professions), and Sudras (servants or lowers cast people) who evolved from the body of the god, Purusha. The Brahmins or the upper caste evolved from Purusha’s mouth and the lower caste servants or slaves evolved from his feet. The socio-political structure based on the caste system devised by the Rig Veda and other Vedas still remains strong within Indian society today and among Hindu communities elsewhere. The Vedas are still significant to this day. Mahabharata and Ramayana are two of the most revered, popular, and available Hindu epics, which teach people the values of devotion, love, courage, loyalty, and dharma. Ramayana, which has transformed into a political tool in the hands of contemporary radical ideology groups in India, was originally written in Sanskrit. 5 The Sanskrit poet Valmiki wrote the original text, which contains 24,000 verses divided into 500 poems. There are, however, several other versions in existence throughout India and South and Southeast Asia. Significant among them is the poem composed by the Tamil poet Kamban that is called the Kambaramayanam. One can also find minor variations among Ramayana’s, especially Valmiki Ramayana and Kambaramayanam. Notwithstanding the variations, Ramayana in general celebrates the life of Rama or Ram, the seventh century incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. 6 Today Ramayana could today be easily called the very soul of Hinduism and Hindu India. Mahabharata was believed to be composed in the fourth century BCE by the sage Vyasa in Sanskrit and later translated into several Indian languages. 7 The epic contains 200,000 verse lines. Hence, it is classified as the longest Hindu or India chronicle. Vyasa adopted a story within story structure to complete his work, the core of which contained 24,000 verses. One of the sub-stories of the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita provides spiritual guidelines to the followers of Hindu Dharma. The central story of the Mahabharata narrates the Kurukshetra war in great detail. Critiques, more often than not, point out that the Hindu literary tradition is all about war and violence. For example, a noted scholar of religious studies, Robert Hume’s analysis of some of the Hindu texts argues that “Hinduism as a separate historical religion arose in a state of war.” 8 Rig Veda, for example, makes constant reference to war that was fought within Hindu tribes and with the dark skinned Aboriginal people. Hume further argued that “the contents of the Rig Veda clearly shows that the religion of Hindus took its historical rise in a state of intertribal and interracial war.” 9 Mahabharata and Ramayana, the other two literatures also

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treated “war” as the epicenter of the story, despite the fact that they dealt with other human qualities like love, devotion and loyalty. Mahabharata is the story of internecine war between Pandavas and Kauravas, two families of the same tribe, called the Kurus. According to some analysts at least eighteen tribes participated in the Kurukshetra war of the Mahabharata. 10 For Hindu’s therefore, the Kurukshetra war was one of the greatest battles fought in India. Although Ramayana narrates several conflicts and battles among different tribal factions of the period in India, its final battle was between Rama and the Ravana, the ruler of Lanka, or present day Sri Lanka. The essence of Ramayana’s story is that Ravana cunningly captures Sita, the beloved wife of Rama and forcefully takes her to Lanka and Rama with the assistance of the money king Hanuman, liberates Sita by waging a ferocious war. In general Hindu literature focuses on violent battles and glorifies war as some commentators claim, “Hinduism unquestionably sanctioned and assisted war.” 11 It is also true that most Hindu literatures do not proscribe killing as completely unacceptable. According to most of the Hindu texts, violence may be justified if it is used to overcome evil forces. In that sense, Hindu literature may be different from some of the texts of other world religions, which clearly reject violence. In Hinduism, however, violence and nonviolence seem to coexist effectively. 12 Tension built up between Hindus and Muslims in India when Hindu nationalists made preparations to construct a Rama temple on the land where the Muslim Babry Mosque existed. In March 2002, the Sankaracharya of Kanchi, one of the central leaders of Hinduism, was asked what is the real meaning of Ahimsa in today’s world. The Sankaracharya, clearly connecting to RSS type nationalism, said, “we need both pacifism and just wars for the good of the land.” 13 War and violence in Hinduism is almost always justified by the notion of just war. JUST WAR The notion of just war was promoted as a Western Christian value. 14 St. Thomas Aquinas presented a systematic framework for the understanding and promotion of Just War Theory (JWT). 15 Two of the cardinal principles of JWT are: (1) initiating aggression is unacceptable or unjust, and (2) the use of force is acceptable only as a last resort. JWT is a key theme within Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) because war is a social reality. Although PACS rejects war and violence as a state’s means to achieve its goals, it should not shy away from treating war as a subject of examination. In contrast, PACS as a field of study should promote the study of JWT. Despite all the good intentions of those who are involved in PACS and peace work, one cannot expect war to completely disappear. The praxis of PACS and peace work must include tools to regulate war and

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JWT potentially could assist in this endeavor. The point, however, is that the Hindu chronicles, well before the dominance of the Western-Christian hemisphere, adopted and advocated principles of just war. Both Ramayana and Mahabharata constantly discussed conducting war in a just manner. In Ramayana, Rama certainly was not the aggressor and his war with Ravana was not an expansionist project. The Hindu and Indian culture define the husband as the guardian and protector of the wife. Therefore, Rama had a responsibility and he was in fact duty bound to liberate Sita from Ravana, which he did by defeating Ravana on the battlefield. It is also important to note that Ramayana and Hindus in general recognize Sita as the symbol of earth, and Ravana as the demon king. Rama’s battle to liberate Sita was in fact a just war as he fought in an attempt to save the world from evil. The principles of just war are present in the Mahabharata as well. Pandavas, who represented righteousness, were the lead characters in Mahabharata and ruled the kingdom from Hastinapura. Kauravas, cousins of Pandavas, who were depicted as having all immoral characteristics, lured them deceitfully to play a game of dice. The Pandavas lost the game and their kingdom and were forced to live in exile for thirteen years. The Pandavas believed they still had the right to rule the kingdom as they were cheated in the game. On their return from exile they asked the Kauravas to return half of the kingdom to them, which was rejected by the “wicked” Kauravas, which led to conflict. As members of the warrior caste who were champion soldiers, the Pandavas were ready to wage a war to regain their kingdom but wanted to give peace a chance instead. Hence, they undertook all feasible measures to do this including lowering their demand to retain five villages instead of half the kingdom and sending Krishna, the eighth avatar (reincarnation) of the god Vishnu to talk peace with the Kauravas. Duryodana, the senior member of the Kaurava brothers declared that “I will not give the Pandavas an inch of land, not even a needle-point of it.” 16 The Pandavas, therefore, had no option but to fight a war to win their rights. Eventually they defeated the Kauravas in the great Kurukshetra war and restored their rightful ownership of the kingdom. It is therefore imperative to note that although the Hindu literature glorifies war, it does not justify any war only just wars. Mahabharata constantly reiterates the importance of avoiding war and emphasizes the potentially destructive consequences. Mahabharata also asserts the need to find a peaceful solution to the conflict through the involvement of third parties. Krishna in fact was an inside-partial third party who tried to find a peaceful solution to the conflict to prevent both parties from opting to go to war. Most of the characters in the epic were killed in the Kurukshetra war and Mahabharata vividly describes the destruction caused by the war demonstrating the negative consequences of the war.

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BHAGAVAD GITA AND PEACE WORK Hindu literature, especially the Bhagavad Gita, has the potential to resolve one of the major dilemmas within PACS. Practicing peace or working to promote peace in different settings is one of the key ingredients of PACS as a subject. Peace workers, who operate in the real world, know full well that it is not easy to do peace work as they encounter numerous issues ranging from prejudicial attacks to abductions and even extra judicial killing. One of the major problems encountered on the ground is that there is absolutely no guarantee that their work will eventually lead to a peaceful resolution of the cases they work on. At the international or subnational level conflict outcomes may be obscured. More often than not, peace processes collapse leading to the recurrence of conflict or the resumption of war. In Sri Lanka for example, pro-peace individuals and institutions worked towards building a peaceful society for over two decades. 17 All the peaceful mechanisms built over time to promote peace collapsed in 2006 and the war was terminated eventually by military means in 2009 that led to a humanitarian catastrophe. It seemed that all of the investments made to promote peace in this war-ravaged country were wasted. There are two problems: (1) the Sri Lankan example creates doubts about the efficacy of peace work and (2) people who are involved in this business of peacebuilding can become thoroughly demoralized. Both problems remain one of the major dilemmas of practicing peace. However, the Bhagavad Gita may provide an interesting response. The Bhagavad Gita is one of the sub-stories of Mahabharata. The refusal of the Kauravas to return half of the kingdom of Hastinapura to the Pandavas made the war inevitable resulting in the Kurukshetra battle. The forces of Pandavas and Kauravas lined up to face each other in the battle. Arjuna, one of the five Pandava brothers led the Pandava forces. Before the battle began he realized that he essentially had to kill members of his own family to win the battle. He sees “fathers, grandfathers, teachers, brothers, uncles, grandsons, in-laws, and friends” on the other side. He hesitates to fight and asks Krishna why he should kill his own family members for a kingdom. Krishna, the lord incarnation, which agreed to be Arjuna’s chariot driver because of his love of Arjuna explains why Arjuna should not hesitate to fight the war. The conversation between Krishna and Arjuna or the preaching of Krishna to Arjuna is called the Bhagawad Gita, which in its own right could be considered as a separate epic. The Bhagavad Gita essentially lays out the Hindu philosophies of life and is considered by Hindus as a sacred document. Krishna talks about various principles in his conversation with Arjuna trying to convince him to fight the Kurukshetra war. Eventually he succeeds in convincing Arjuna to fight the war. Krishna points out that as a Shatriya (warrior) it was Arjuna’s duty of to fight the war and destroy the forces of evil. “Do your duty and do not worry about the outcome or

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rewards” is the essence of the Gita philosophy. This principle has grown into one of the cornerstones of the Hindu belief system. The duty of the peace worker is to selflessly work towards building peace. The lesson peace workers can extract from the Gita is that they need to just focus on their work rather than concentrate on the outcome of the projects or rewards. The lesson is not to be disheartened when your projects fail to yield the desired outcome and not to focus on awards such as peace prizes or appreciations. ELEMENTS OF PEACE This chapter is written on the premise that it is misleading to argue that Hinduism is solely a religion of violence, which emerged from Hindu literature that sheds only a partial light on the question of relations between the faith and peace. One needs to look into the Hindu way of life to understand Hinduism’s relevance to PACS. Hinduism, as pointed out succinctly by Jeff Spinner-Halev, “is a practice-based religion.” 18 Although one could easily delve into a myriad of subjects, for practical reasons, this chapter limits the discussion to the following three elements: (1) tolerance, (2) karma, and (3) panchabuda. Tolerance The PACS literature often discusses elements such as mistrust and polarization among different groups, incompatible goals, unmet basic human needs, identity formation, intercultural miscommunication, and inequality and injustice as the root causes of conflict. 19 The lack of tolerance has not fully been explored as one of those factors that ignite conflict among groups defined by ethnic and religious factors. As identity formation intensifies and ethnic, religious and ideological boundaries are reinforced, groups become intolerant of the “other.” Ethnic cleansing and genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia were unleashed by radical ultra nationalist elements in order to build an exclusive space for one group. Some religious groups globally have demonstrated their inability to coexist with other groups leading to separatist wars and intrastate conflicts. Hinduism and Hindu people, on the other hand, are known for tolerance, a trait not fully appreciated at least partly due to Hindu-Muslim tensions in India. A vast majority of Hindus, nevertheless, have demonstrated their capacity to coexist with other groups and are accommodative. Their ability to coexist derives from the tolerant nature of the religion itself. One therefore, cannot underestimate the significance and potential of Hindu tolerance for peacebuilding. Spinner-Halev identifies two types of tolerance within the Hindu community: (1) internal tolerance, and (2) external tolerance. Internal tol-

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erance is the recognition and acceptance of diversity among members of the community. He points out that “a Hindu may be a theist, pantheist, atheist, communist, and believe whatever he likes, but what makes him into a Hindu are the ritual practices he performs and the rules to which he adheres, in short, what he does.” 20 In fact a Hindu can reject any of the fundamental principles or even a deity of the religion and still be able to call him or herself a Hindu. 21 A Hindu can leave the religion, practice another and later return to Hinduism without any difficulty. However, what concerns us here is external tolerance, the ability of the Hindu people to coexist with even major, presumably, rival religious groups. Below we discuss two cases whereby, in the first Hindus demonstrate enormous generosity towards Muslims and worship in Mosque, and in the second, they accommodate Buddhist practices in a Hindu temple. The Hazrat Syed Shahul Hameed mosque, a Muslim place of worship, popularly called the Nagore Darha is located in the Nagapattinam District of the state of Tamil Nadu in India. Shahul Hameed, a Sufi saint, who is considered to be a descendent of the Prophet Mohammed, visited Thanjavur in the early sixteenth century and healed the ailing Hindu King Achutappa Nayakkar. In return the king donated two hundred acres of land to saint Shahul Hameed, where the saint was later buried. The Dargha was built on this land. Other Hindu rulers such as Raja Pratap Sing helped financially to expand the Dargha and allocated more land to the Mosque. 22 More than 60 percent of the Mosque was built by Hindus and, according to the administration of the shrine, currently about 75 percent of the devotees who visit the Mosque to offer worship are Hindus. For these Hindus, worshiping in a mosque, has not posed a problem. Compared to Nagore Dargha, the Kathirkamam temple is politically controversial. The Kathirkamam temple complex currently consists of Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim shrines and is very popular among the people of Sri Lanka. Kathirkamam originally was a Hindu temple dedicated to the Hindu God Skandha or Murugan and was used for worship mainly by Hindu Tamils from Sri Lanka and India. The temple also finds a place in the Hindu literature from Tamil Nadu. However, since the temple was located predominantly in the Sinhala region in South Sri Lanka, in the post-colonial period, the state interfered to make it more of a Buddhist place of worship, leading to the popularization of Katharagamadevio (the god of Kathirkamam). Although, this act created political controversy about the ownership of the temple, spiritually, devotees from the Sinhala, Buddhist, Muslim and Vedda (aboriginal people) communities share the space without difficulty. The temple is a place where different cultures and customs blend together and religious tolerance is practiced to the highest level. These are some examples that indicate that different religions can coexist and share common spaces. Although, Kathirkamam and Nagore are

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examples of Hindu tolerance and its accommodation of other religions, credit should also go to the other religious groups as well. The problem is that these examples are not universal enough. Violent conflicts and exclusionary politics will only subside when Nagore and Kathirkamam become universal phenomena. Although race relations are socially a problem in India, the predominant Hindu state has politically demonstrated its extreme tolerance and accommodation of minority communities. For example, Indians have accepted members of minority communities into the top posts in political offices. Recently Abdul Kalam, a Muslim from the non-Hindi speaking south was elected President of India. Manmohan Singh, a member of the Sikh community which once fought militarily to form a separate Sikh state called Khalistan, is the present Prime Minister of India. Sonia Gandhi, an Italian national, has currently headed the Congress Party, the predominant Indian political party. Thus, the Hindu tolerance of other religious communities has been translated into political capital as well. In some other countries, minorities find it extremely difficult to reach higher political offices. In Sri Lanka for example, members of the minority communities cannot become the President, or occupy even the politically insignificant position of the Prime Minister. 23 Panchabhuta Conflicts are caused not only by lack of tolerance but also lack of respect for fellow human beings and the environment. People are killed and resources are abused as a result of people’s lack of respect for nature. In contrast the concept of panchabhuta makes the environment and human body sacred and forbids violence against nature including the human body. The five elements of Panchabhuta form the matter in the universe and there are five elements that Hindus consider sacred namely Prithvi (earth), Jal (water), Agni (fire), Vayu (air), and Akasa (space). For example, the Hindus call earth mother earth and venerate fire at home and in Hindu temples. The Hindus believe that the Ganges River has healing powers and most Hindus make regular pilgrimage to the Ganges. What is significant, however, is that the Hindus believe that the life force is formed by panchabhutas. Prithvi is the most tangible or concrete of the panchabhutas and it can be touched and felt. The bones and flesh of the human body are manifestation of Prithvi and Jal is represented by blood. Since Agni is light, it is associated with sight while one’s breath is Vayu and Akash is manifested by sound and emotions so that life is formed by panchabhutas. The whole purpose of human action, therefore, is to find a balance or harmony among all the five elements. Hence the human body is sacred for Hindus and one cannot violate something she or he considers to be sacred so that one must respect nature and one’s fellow human

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beings. Conflicts will recede only when human beings evolve to see nature as inviolable. Karma In the name of nationalism, patriotism and rights, parties to conflicts commit horrendous atrocities, including mass murders and genocide as if there are no consequences. Much of the carnage could be avoided if and when one realizes that there are consequences to his or her actions. Parties based on notions of just war may justify violence against combatants. More often than not, conflicting parties believe that they wage war to defeat evil. A common argument presented by warring parties is that they started the war and we have no option but to fight. There is absolutely no justification for the destruction of the environment and the killing of noncombatants, children and women and the use, for example, rape as a political weapon, as occurred in several contemporary conflicts. This is where the Hindu notion of karma can be used as a tool for violence mitigation. The Law of Karma is one of the basic philosophies that guide the life of each Hindu. Karma is one of the integral parts of Hinduism as it figured in the early Hindu literature such as Rig Veda and the Upanishads. Although one could find karmic philosophies in religions such as Buddhism and Jainism, which also have roots in India, the Hindu notion of karma is significant. The term karma means action or deed and the philosophy of karma means one’s actions have consequences, not only in this life but also in the next. 24 Therefore, it is linked to the notion of rebirth, which all Hindus strongly believe in. Karma can be divided into two types: good karma and bad karma. The good deeds of a man and woman lead to positive consequences and their bad deeds to negative consequences, because it is the karma that “determines the form and status of one’s next birth.” 25 The essence of the philosophy of karma is that “by performing good actions, one produces positive karma; immoral or irresponsible actions create negative karma. At some point, whether in this life or another, the karma we have generated returns to us: to our benefit, if good; to our detriment, if evil.” 26 Eventually, moksha (heaven) can be attained when one gets rid of all of their bad karma. Therefore, Hinduism stipulates that one needs to strive to realize one’s good karma. The simple idea, which is relevant to PACS, is that one’s actions have consequences. Even in conflict, one need’s to be conscious of bad karma. People will not engage in horrendous violence and atrocities when they are conscious of the bad karma.

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HINDUISM AND NONVIOLENCE No discourse on Hinduism and peace can ignore the contribution made by Mohandas Gandhi who spearheaded one of the most original and effective nonviolent campaigns, which had its roots in Hinduism and the Hindu social structures of India, especially in Gujarat, a state within the Union of India. 27 Gandhi’s nonviolent movement not only derived from Hindu philosophies but it also contributed immensely to world peace as it firmly established a philosophy and a practice for winning people’s rights and goals through nonviolent peaceful means. European expansionist colonial powers ruled India for centuries resulting in violent resistance throughout the colonial era. During Gandhi’s time as the leader of the independence movement, Subash Chandra Bose led a violent struggle for the total independence of India. None of these violent campaigns gained the total approval of India as a nation, at least partly due to the Hindu hesitation to embrace violence. The Gandhian nonviolent movement, on the other hand, captured the imagination of the Indian population, because Gandhi’s methods were compatible with the values and philosophies of Hindu society. Also by leading a nonviolent resistance, Gandhi most probably averted a bloodbath and substantial human suffering on Indian soil. Eventually, the campaign led to the total independence of India from the British Raj. The name of the game was nonviolence in theory and practice. It is, however, important to note that Gandhi’s or rather Indian people’s notion of ahimsa goes well beyond nonviolence, which more or less means not using violence, especially physical violence. In Sanskrit himsa means causing harm. The “a” before the word negates it, imparting the meaning not causing harm or injury. 28 Harm could be caused through violence as well as through other means such as words and nonviolent deeds. Consequently, the concept of ahimsa means to cause physical, emotional as well as psychological harm through violent or nonviolent actions. Hence, ahimsa has a much deeper and broader meaning than the concept of nonviolence. And it formed the very corner stone of Gandhi’s movement. Gandhi was very careful not to cause any harm to his British opponent and its agents in India. He was even willing to suspend his campaign when violence was used against the British interest. For example, in 1922, the Indian National Congress led by Gandhi organized a noncooperation movement to oppose some of the regulations introduced by the colonial government. In Chauri Chauri, a town located in Uttar Pradesh, police killed a dozen protesters and the campaign turned violent. The protesters drifting away from Gandhi’s principles of ahimsa reacted rather violently against the police burning the Chauri Chauri police station. Consequently, more than 20 policemen were killed in Chauri Chau-

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ri. Gandhi immediately suspended the non-cooperation movement as he strongly objected to the use of physical violence. A militant rebel would shed her or his enemy’s blood and a terrorist would shed his or her blood as well as the enemy’s blood. In contrast, a Gandhian satyagrahi would rather shed his or her blood than an opponent’s blood. It is pointed out that a “true satyagrahi will willingly receive the blows of his opponents.” 29 During the Salt March, which was organized in 1919 by Gandhi to symbolically oppose British authority in India, the satyagrahis or the followers of Gandhian philosophies were systematically struck down by the police who remained loyal to the British. Yet the satyagrahis lined up peacefully to receive the violence of the opponent. In fact, Gandhi believed that self-suffering is necessary for realizing the truth, and his fasting campaigns were based on the notion of self-suffering. Self-suffering for Gandhi was a nonviolent tool to alter the behavior of the opponent by moving the heart to change the behavior. He even undertook a fasting campaign to stop the communal violence between the Hindus and Muslims during the partition of India and Pakistan. Satyagraha, which means truth force, was the primary nonviolent tool Gandhi and he eventually won his goal of swaraj for India in 1947. Gandhi’s notion of satyagraha enmeshed with truth, more often than not was criticized as too idealistic and impractical and his opposition to the use of heavy machines and industrialization, was perceived as antimodernization. 30 For example, Sibley argued that “a machineless economy is his ideal, and his theory cannot be understood in the absence of it.” 31 The machineless notion of social order, Gandhi envisioned, was signified by his spinning wheel that symbolized nonviolence, class and caste and religious unity, and Indian independence. No nation can survive in the global economy without a sophisticated process of production and the use of heavy machinery. Largely due to the idealistic nature of many of Gandhi’s principles, the Indian state, which boasts of the legacy of Gandhi, had already abandoned some of Gandhi’s ideals. For example, India has built up the third largest standing army in the world and developed its nuclear weapons capacity. Modern India has no special admiration for nonviolent protest, especially when practiced by opposing or dissatisfied groups. Thus, the effectiveness of nonviolent methods to win community rights in other societies can also be is questioned. For example, inspired by Gandhian methods, the Sri Lankan Tamils, the second largest ethnic community on the island nation, waged a three decade long nonviolent struggle for regional autonomy. The Tamils also extensively used satyagraha and other means of nonviolence such as fasting also used by Gandhi, in their nonviolent campaign against the Sri Lankan state. The Tamils nonviolent campaign failed to convince the Sri Lankan state to share political power with them. This situation does not, however, negate the potential of Gandhian methods to contribute to world peace and harmony. One cannot also underestimate the contribution of

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Gandhi’s philosophies on another most successful nonviolent campaign in the West, the civil rights movement of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the United States of America who conceded that he was deeply influenced by Gandhi. CONCLUSION The fundamental objective of PACS as a field of study should not be in promoting peaceful societies at the expense of other essential basic human needs and human rights. Focus, therefore, should be expanded to include social justice in addressing other social issues because peace without justice would lead to the enslavement of groups or nations. This mission requires a proper understanding of social issues in different parts of the world and among people who adhere to different religious beliefs. Hinduism assists us in understanding typical social issues in a non-Western traditional society. Casteism, animal sacrifice, gender discrimination, poverty, and the segregation of widows are some of the integral problems that persist within Hindu communities that need to be discussed and addressed, and should form critical subjects for examination within the PACS field. Yet, this chapter paid little attention to these issues as the focus comprised examining some of the relations between Hinduism and peace. This exercise was a difficult task as most Hindu texts are overwhelmingly based on war and interracial and inter-tribal violence. The centerpiece of three major Hindu texts, Rig Veda, Ramayana and Mahabharata, namely is the glorification of war. One could therefore, come to the conclusion that Hinduism is a religion of war. What is imperative to understand, however, is that Hinduism does promote just wars and not wars of greed. Moreover, Hindus are no more violent than many other major contemporary religious communities. However, Hinduism is not a religion of text; it is one of practice. Consequently, one needs to look into Hindu practices to understand the nexus between Hinduism and peace. Moreover, the Hindu belief in karma and panchabhuda has the potential to promote international peace. The examples of the Nagore Dargah and Kathirkamam temples exemplify the Hindu tolerance towards and their ability to coexist with other religions. These traits can be promoted and propagated among other religious communities. Also, one cannot underestimate the contribution of Hinduism, especially Mohandas Gandhi’s campaign of ahimsa to the discourse on nonviolence that can be depicted as one of the major pillars of PACS. Gandhi’s satyagraha movement was one of the most original and effective nonviolent campaigns undertaken in the modern era. It certainly inspired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights movement in the United States. If

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properly understood, Hinduism has the potential to contribute to world peace and to the PACS field. NOTES 1. Bede Scott, “Partitioning Bodies—Literature, Abductions, and the State, Interventions,” The International Journal of Post-Colonial Studies 11, no. 1 (2009): 35–49. 2. John Stratton Hawley, “Militant Hinduism—Ayodhya and the Momentum of Hindu Nationalism, in The Life of Hinduism eds. John Stratton Hawley and Vasudha Narayanan, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006). 3. Donald R. Davis, The Spirit of Hindu Law (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010). 4. Norman Brown, “Theories of Creation in the Rig Veda,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 85, no. 1 (1965): 23–43. 5. Sheldon Pollock, “Ramayana and Political Imagination in India,” The Journal of Asian Studies 52, no. 2 (1993): 261–297. 6. Joan Cummins, Vishnu—Hinduism’s Blue Skinned Savior (Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing Ltd., 2011). 7. There is hardly any agreement on the periods in which the Mahabharata and Ramayana were written. 8. Robert E. Hume, “Hinduism and War,” The America Journal of Theology 20, no. 1 (1916): 31. 9. Ibid, 33. 10. Sharad Patil, “Myth and Reality of Ramayana and Mahabharata,” Social Scientists 4, no. 8 (1976): 68–72. 11. Robert E. Hume, 1916, 33. 12. Anantanand Rambachan, “The Co-Existence of Violence and Non-Violence in Hinduism,” Ecumenical Review 55, no. 2 (2003): 115–121. 13. Arvind Sharma, “Does Hinduism Teach Peace or War? The Story of Gandhi and his Assassin,” Voices Across Boundaries—A Multi-faith Review of Current Affairs. http:// acrossboundaries.net/voices/voices1 – 1/sharma.html. 14. For a brief introduction to the Just War Theory see, Crawford C. Neta, “Just War Theory and the US Counterterrorism War,” Perspective on Politics 1, no. 1 (2003): 5–25. 15. Richard B. Millen, “Aquinas and the Presumption Against Killing and War,” The Journal of Religion 82, no. 2 (2002): 173–204. 16. See, Mahabharata retold by C. Rajagopalachari. Compiled and edited by Jay Mazo for International Gita Society. http://www.gita-society.com/section3/ mahabharata.htm . 17. Camilla Orjuela, “Building Peace in Sri Lanka: A Role for Civil Society?” Journal of Peace Research 40, no. 2 (2003): 195–212. 18. Jeff Spinner-Halev, Hinduism, “Christianity, and Liberal Religious Tolerance,” Political Theory 33, no. 1 (2005): 29. 19. Simon Fisher et al., Working with Conflict—Skills and Strategies for Action (London: Zed Books, 2000). 20. Quoted in Spinner-Halev, 2005, 36. 21. Ibid. 22. For further details of this subject see, Vasudha Narayanan, “Tolerant Hinduism, Shared Ritual Spaces—Hindus and Muslims at the Shrine of Shahul Hamid,” in John Stratton Hawley and Vasudha Narayanan eds., The Life of Hinduism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006). 23. S.I.Keethaponcalan, Sri Lanka: Politics of Power, Crisis and Peace, 2000–2005 (Chennai: Kumaran Book House, 2008). 24. Akiti Glory Alamu, “The Concept of Karma in Hinduism and the Christianity: An Appraisal,” Asia Journal of Theology 23, no. 2 (2009): 244–265.

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25. Mark W. Muesse, The Hindu Traditions, A Concise Introduction (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011), 69. 26. Ibid. 70. 27. Howard Spodek, “On the Origins of Gandhi’s Political Methodology: The Heritage of Kathiawad and Gujarat,” The Journal of Asian Studies 30, no. 2 (1971): 361–372. 28. The Himalayan Academy, “The Hindu Ethics of Non-violence.” http://www. himalayanacademy.com/resources/pamphlets/AhimsaNonViolence.html. 29. Mulford Q. Sibliy, “The Political Theory of Modern Religious Pacifism,” The American Political Science Review 37, no. 3 (1943): 443. 30. Ibid. 31. Ibid. 444.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Alamu, Akiti Glory. “The Concept of Karma in Hinduism and the Christianity: An Appraisal.” Asia Journal of Theology 23, no. 2 (2009): 244–265. Brown, Norman. “Theories of Creation in the Rig Veda.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 85, no. 1 (1965): 23–43. Cummins, Joan. Vishnu—Hinduism’s Blue Skinned Savior. Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing Ltd., 2011. Davis, Donald R. The Spirit of Hindu Law. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Fisher, Simon et al. Working with Conflict—Skills and Strategies for Action. London: Zed Books, 2000. Hawley, John Stratton. “Militant Hinduism—Ayodhya and the Momentum of Hindu Nationalism.” In The Life of Hinduism, edited by John Stratton Hawley and Vasudha Narayanan, 257–265. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Himalayan Academy, The. “The Hindu Ethics of Non-violence.” Hinduism Today Magazine, February 1, 1996. http://www.himalayanacademy.com/resources/pamphlets/ AhimsaNonViolence.html . Hume, Robert E. “Hinduism and War.” The American Journal of Theology 20. no. 1 (1916): 31–44. Keethaponcalan, S. I. Sri Lanka: Politics of Power, Crisis and Peace, 2000 – 2005. Chennai/ Colombo: Kumaran Book House, 2008. Millen, Richard B. “Aquinas and the Presumption Against Killing and War.” The Journal of Religion 82, no. 2 (2002): 173–204. Muesse, Mark W. The Hindu Traditions, A Concise Introduction. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011. Narayanan, Vasudha. “Tolerant Hinduism, Shared Ritual Spaces—Hindus and Muslims at the Shrine of Shahul Hamid.” In The Life of Hinduism, edited by John Stratton Hawley and Vasudha Narayanan, 266–270. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Neta, Crawford C. “Just War Theory and the US Counterterrorism War.” Perspective on Politics 1, no. 1 (2003): 5–25. Orjuela, Camilla. “Building Peace in Sri Lanka: A Role for Civil Society?” Journal of Peace Research 40, no. 2 (2003): 195–212. Patil, Sharad. “Myth and Reality of Ramayana and Mahabharata.” Social Scientists 4, no. 8 (1976): 68–72. Pollock, Sheldon. “Ramayana and Political Imagination in India.” The Journal of Asian Studies 52, no. 2 (1993): 261–297. Rajagopalachari, Chakravarti. “Mahabharata.” Edited by Jay Mazo. International Gita Society, 2002. http://www.gita-society.com/section3/mahabharata.htm. Rambachan, Anantanand. “The Co-Existence of Violence and Non-Violence in Hinduism.” Ecumenical Review 55, no. 2 (2003): 115–121.

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Scott, Bede. “Partitioning Bodies—Literature, Abductions, and the State, Interventions.” The International Journal of Post-Colonial Studies 11, no. 1 (2009): 35–49. Sharma, Arvind. “Does Hinduism Teach Peace or War? The Story of Gandhi and his Assassin.” Voices Across Boundaries—A Multi-faith Review of Current Affairs 1, no. 1 (2003). http://acrossboundaries.net/voices/voices1 –1/sharma.html. Sibliy, Mulford Q. “The Political Theory of Modern Religious Pacifism.” The American Political Science Review 37, no. 3 (1943): 443. Spinner-Halev, Jeff. “Hinduism, Christianity, and Liberal Religious Tolerance.” Political Theory 33, no. 1 (2005): 28–57. Spodek, Howard. “On the Origins of Gandhi’s Political Methodology: The Heritage of Kathiawad and Gujarat.” The Journal of Asian Studies 30, no. 2 (1971): 361–372.

SEVENTEEN Daoist Harmony as a Chinese Worldview 1

Yueh-Ting Lee, Honggang Yang, and Min Wang

The Dao/Tao produced the One, The One produced the Two; The Two produced the Three; The Three produced All Things. All Things carry Yin and hold to Yang; Their blended influence brings Harmony. 2

These are well-known Daoist quotations. However, what are “the One,” “the Two,” and “the Three” here? This is both an easy and difficult question. It is easy because almost everyone understands “one,” “two,” and “three” numerically. It is also difficult because “the One,” “the Two” and “the Three” have different connotations in this context. According to Laozi, “The One,” which is produced by Dao (or the natural course), means the entire universe. “The Two” means the Yin-Yang, and “the Three” means heaven, earth, and humans who produce “All Things.” “All Things” also have Yin and Yang whose influence brings “Harmony.” 3 Life or universe is full of harmony produced by Yin and Yang. This chapter attempts to address harmony from a Chinese Daoist perspective in three parts. First, it will introduce Laozi and his philosophical and psychological ideas of Daoism. Second, the authors will focus on the psychology and philosophy of harmony from a Chinese Daoist perspective, which includes the Chinese Yin-Yang oneness and Laozi’s ideas of harmony. Simply speaking, what is meant by Yin and Yang oneness? What do Dao (or Tao) and De (or Te) have to do with us as human beings internally or externally? Is controlling, competition, or fighting an answer 303

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to our existence in this world? What can human beings learn from water? Can Daoism help us become more tolerant of each other and appreciate human difference? Finally, there will be a simple conclusion. It will address harmony-related issues (i.e., to minimize human conflict and respect the external/natural world or universe). LAOZI, DAOISM, AND HARMONY: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION Clarifications and Specifications Several clarifications and specifications are in order. First, the name of Laozi is spelled in various ways in English within the Western world, such Lao Tsu or Lao Tzu for example. In this article, the authors use standard Chinese—i.e., pin yin. 4 Similarly, Laozi’s only classic book, Dao De Jing, and two key terms Dao (i.e., harmony with the external/natural world or universe) and De ( harmony with other human beings), and Daoist/Daoism (instead of Taoist/Taoism) are also expressed in pin yin. Second, readers may run into various English versions of Laozi’s book Dao De Jing (or Tao Te Ching ), for example, Blakney 5 or Lao Tzu, 6 which may differ from each other in their translations due to the philosophical and linguistic difficulty and complexity of the book. For the purpose of understanding and comprehending Laozi’s ideas accurately, this article quoted Laozi’s Dao De Jing based on translations by Wing 7 and Shi 8 who provided readers with both English and Chinese versions. But the authors also modified and adjusted their translations when investigating the other original versions of Laozi’s Dao De Jing in either modern or classic Chinese. 9 Third, the article primarily focuses on Laozi’s Daoism in his Dao De Jing due to the limited scope and nature of the article. However, his student, Zhuangzi (or Chuangzhi/Chuangzhou) is referred to when diversity and tolerance are discussed. Fourth, Daoism is different from the Daoist religion in China. According to Laozi’s Dao De Jing, life followed by death is nature’s course and man should follow this course calmly. This is known as Dao Jia. The Daoist School as a religion, or Dao Jiao, however, was developed much later and focuses on how to avoid death. This, of course, is against nature and Laozi’s philosophy. Thus, this articles focuses only on Dao Jia—i.e., Daoism as a philosophy or the way of harmonious life or a harmonious universe. 10 Finally and most importantly, the concept of “harmony” is “he” (pronounced as “ho”) or “he xie” (pronounced as “ho shie”) in Chinese. “Harmony” (“he” or “he xie”) must be understood in the Daoist context, otherwise it is either misleading or meaningless. For example, harmony is meaningful in relation to Dao (i.e., harmony with the external/natural

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world or universe) and De (harmony with other human beings) as discussed below. Who is Laozi? What are Dao and De in Relation to Harmony? According to classic and recent research, Laozi was born in the central part of China (near the Yangtze River) over 2,500 years ago and his real name was Li (or Lee) Er. Laozi, who previously had worked as an official historian for the Zhou dynasty, was an originator or father of Daoism (or Taoism) which is more like a philosophy than a religion. It is very important to understand two key concepts here: Dao (or Tao) and De (or Te). Generally speaking, Dao means harmony with the universe and the external world. More specifically, according to Lee, 11 Dao can mean a road, a path, the way it is, the way of nature, the Way of Ultimate Reality, the Rules/Laws of Nature. According to R. B. Blakney, 12 in the eyes of Chinese, Dao does not only refer to the way the whole world of nature operates, but also signifies the original undifferentiated Reality from which the universe has evolved. In another translation, 13 Dao means a “way” in both literal (“road”) and metaphysical (“spiritual path”) contexts. Rarely, it can also mean “to say,” “to express” or “to tell.” According to Burton Watson 14 , Dao literally means a “way” or “path” and is used by other schools of Chinese philosophies to refer to a particular calling or mode of conduct. But in Daoistic writing, it has a far more comprehensive meaning, referring instead to a metaphysical first principle that embraces and underlies all being, a vast Oneness that precedes and in some mysterious manner generates the endlessly diverse forms of the world. Thus, Dao lies beyond the power of language to describe. 15 De, on the other hand, usually means harmony with other human beings. More specifically, De means humanistic behavior/virtues, character, influence, or moral force. The character De consists of three parts: (1) an ideograph meaning “to go”; (2) another meaning “straight”; and (3) a pictograph meaning “the heart.” Put together, these imply motivation by inward rectitude. 16 Burton Watson defined De as the moral virtue or power that one acquires through being in accordance with the Dao or what one gets from Dao. 17 DAOIST HARMONY Daoist Harmony Is Based on the Yin-Yang “Oneness” To understand Laozi’s Daoist harmony, it is necessary to expand on the Chinese yin-yang theory which Daoism is largely based upon. According to Chinese philosophy, everything in the world consists of the

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paired yin-yang opposites. Yin and Yang stand for paired opposites of any sort: heaven/earth, hot/cold, light/dark, up/down, wet/dry, male/female, internal/external. There are two parts: the dark as yin and the light as yang. These two parts are pictured as two fish chasing each other constantly, symbolizing that human life or the universe continuously goes on. There is a small dark spot in the light area and likewise, there is a small light spot in the dark area. This means that yin always includes yang. Meanwhile, yang always contains yin. They cannot be separated from one another. The “S”- shape line marking a distinction between yin (dark) and yang (light) stands for a harmonious state or balance. They work together, which creates the balance or the harmonious oneness as a whole. 18 For example, an individual’s mental or physical health can be strengthened and his/her life can be prolonged if one’s yin and yang are in a harmonious state and in good balance. Diseases occur if one’s yin and yang are out of balance. Similarly, natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes, volcanoes, tornados, or hurricanes) occur if the natural world is not in harmony (one force is more powerful than another). Based on yin and yang, oneness (yi in Chinese) is harmonious, as Laozi states in chapter 39 of his book: Heaven in harmony with the One becomes clear, Earth in harmony with the One becomes stable, Spirit (or God/Goddess) in harmony with the One becomes inspiring, Valleys in harmony with the One become full, All Things in harmony with the One become creative. 19

Therefore the yin-yang oneness is the foundation of Daoist harmony. In other words, harmony is based on the ancient Chinese yin-yang oneness. Harmony is the Way it is (Natural) Humans are modeled on earth, Earth is modeled on heaven,Heaven is modeled on the Dao (the Way it is), And the Dao is modeled on nature (the way on that which is naturally so). 20

According to Laozi, there is a clear hierarchy or order among man (ren), earth (di), heaven (tian), nature (zi ran), and the Dao. 21 Conceptually, according to Shamanism, man (ren) means human beings; earth (di) means land, mother nature or yin, which is parallel to heaven (tian). 22 Heaven (tian) means sky, father nature or yang, which is parallel to earth (di). Another meaning of tian is the natural world (i.e., zi ran) outside individuals (ren). Nature (Zi ran) means the principle of nature, the way of the universe or the way of life, including mother nature and father nature (i.e., anything external to human beings). Although complicated, Dao is essentially part of nature, follows nature, and produces almost everything in the universe (i.e., the Way), as can be seen by the excerpt above.

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From the harmonious perspective (as described in Chapter 25 of Dao De Jing), 23 human beings should first follow or be consistent with the way Earth works (ren fa di). Second, the way Earth works follows or is consistent with the way Heaven works (di fa tian). Third, the way Heaven works follows or is consistent with the way Dao works (tian fa dao). Finally, the way Dao works follows or is consistent with the way Nature or the Universe works (dao fa zi ran). 24 In this regard, we can easily see where Daoist philosophy differs from Western cultural beliefs or religious practices. For example, Western churches are usually built and located in the center of the cities, and the top of their structure is often sharp and stands out. Chinese Daoist miao (i.e., Daoist temples) are usually built and located in big mountainous areas where there are trees and water. In this way, it is harmonious with the external world. Westerners also tend to believe that humans are the center of all things or above all things, and that humans can conquer almost everything. 25 Daoism and other Chinese philosophies hold that we, as human beings, are just a small part of the natural world or universe. However, Laozi’s philosophy focused on being in harmony with nature, the universe, or the Dao. People should follow the principles of nature and strive to conduct themselves in such ways that their behavior is in complete harmony with the Dao. The Chinese call this optimal state “Tian Ren He Yi,” which means that man and the external natural world (i.e., tian) are united into one. 26 Different from Western religions, which tend to focus on relationships with gods or fellow humans, Daoist harmony focuses on harmony with other humans and with the external/ natural world or universe. Harmony Means Wei Wu-Wei (Nonintervention) Wei wu-wei means “going with the grain, rolling with the punch, swimming with the current, trimming the sails to the wind, taking the tide at its flood, and stooping to conquer.” 27 It is flow or well-being that allows one to be in harmony with all things or people. 28 Literally, “Wei [to follow or do] Wu-Wei [without doing or without action; wu=not]” implies “noninterference” or “non-action” and allows things to be or to act within the true nature of things. The Dao never acts, And yet is never inactive. 29 To pursue artificial discovering (to learn), add to it daily, To pursue the Dao, subtract (interfere less) from it daily, Subtract and subtract again, To arrive at non-action. Through non-action nothing is left undone. 30

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Chapter 17 Act without action; work without effort. Taste without savoring. Magnify the small; increase the few. Repay ill-will with kindness. Plan the difficult when it is easy; Handle the big where it is small. The world’s hardest work begins when it is easy; The world’s largest effort begins where it is small. Evolved/Wise Individuals (or Sages/Saints), finally take no great action, And in that way the great is achieved. 31

As can be seen above, wei wu-wei does not mean inertia, laziness, laissezfaire, or mere passivity. On the other hand, too much care or being too concerned for other people or the natural world means too much intervention or control. The more we control, the less we can control. Those who would take hold of the world and act on it, Never, I notice, succeed. The world is a mysterious instrument, Not made to be controlled (or handled). Those who act on it spoil it, Those who seize it lose it. 32

Too much action or too much intervention for other humans or for the external world (or things) may produce opposing negative outcomes. Man follows Earth which follows Heaven; Heaven follows Dao which follows Nature or the Universe. All this means that we should be natural and we should not intervene too much, or wei wu-wei. 33 As Laozi stated in chapter 32, “Heaven and Earth would unite to generate timely rain or dew, and people would naturally cooperate without commands.” 34 Harmony Means Water-Like Personality Features (Daoist Big Five) Lee and his colleagues summarized the water-like personality features in the following ways. 35 The most effective way to comprehend Daoism is to focus on a metaphor that links Daoism with water (i.e., water-like or wateristic personality features). To Laozi, the best quality or value involves its similarity to water. What can we, as human beings, learn from water? For example, water always remains in the lowest position and never competes with other things. Instead, water is very helpful and beneficial to all things. In his time, Laozi observed that human conflict (e.g., fighting, killing, wars) would most likely occur if everyone felt they needed to compete and go after his or her own interests (e.g., moving or fighting for more material, more fame or a higher rank). Thus, if we were altruistic and humble (or modest), human conflict could be reduced. Why is the best like water? In his writings, Laozi used water many times as a metaphor to explain the leadership style of the Sage. More

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specifically, water is altruistic and always serves others; water is modest, flexible, clear, soft, yet powerful (or perseverant) philosophically and psychologically. 36 Water has five features which are essential to all individuals. This is what we call the Daoist/Taoist model of “wateristic” or “water-like” personality which includes five essential components: 1) altruism, 2) modesty/humility (or humbleness), 3) flexibility, 4) transparency and honesty, and 5) gentleness with perseverance. 37 These five personality features (known as the Daoist Big Five) are generated from Laozi’s Dao (harmony with the natural world or the universe) and De (harmony with other human beings). 38 First, water is altruistic. All species and organisms depend on water. Without water, none of them can survive. What does water get from us? It gets almost nothing. A good Daoist individual should be as altruistic as water. For example, Laozi advocated a “water-like personality.” We, as human beings, should learn from water because it always remains in the lowest position and never competes with other things. 39 Instead, water is very helpful and beneficial to all things. The highest value (or the best) is like water, The value in water benefits All Things, And yet it does not contend, It stays in places that others despise, And therefore is close to Dao. 40

Daoism recognizes that the ultimate goal of humans is to serve their people without the desire to gain for personal benefit or gratitude. Laozi stated in his book that, “The best are like water, good at benefiting all things without competing for gaining.” 41 Second, water is very modest and humble. It always goes to the lowest place. As we can see from the above quotation, although water benefits all things, it does not contend and always stays in the lowest places which others despise. 42 Being humble and modest is necessary for us to appreciate and understand the Dao of things and to always be ready to learn and alert to overconfidence in the self. 43 While many Westerners often value and enjoy a sense of authority, assertiveness, aggressiveness and competitiveness, Laozi encouraged people to have a water-like characteristic—that is, to maintain a low profile and to be humble and modest, especially in the face of the Dao or nature, as well as to be very helpful and/or beneficial to others. The rivers and seas lead the hundred streams Because they are skillful at staying low. Thus they are able to lead the hundred streams. 44

In Laozi’s opinion, those who are humble and modest not only exist in good harmony with others, but they are effective leaders, just like the rivers and seas.

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The sea, for instance, can govern a hundred rivers because it has mastered being lower. Being humble is important for leaders because it enables them to accept people’s goals as their own and to attract and unite people around themselves. Just as the sea accepts and embraces all rivers coming its way--muddy or clear, large or small--leaders who humble themselves before people draw people towards them and gain people’s trust. 45 That is why Laozi said, “He/She who knows how to motivate people acts humble. This is the virtue of no rival and uses the strength of others.” 46 Third, water is very adaptable and flexible. It can stay in a container of any shape. This flexibility and fluidness lends a great deal of wisdom to our success. People may be more effective if they can adjust themselves to any environment or situation just as water does in a container. 47 Lu Jin Chuan, a contemporary Daoistic master and philosopher, once said that water has no shape of its own but that of the container. 48 Maintaining flexibility and adapting to the dynamics of change, like water following its path, are probably the best options for us. Fourth, water is transparent and clear. As human beings, we should be honest and transparent with each other. The most honorable individuals are usually honest and transparent like water. Though Western Machiavellian or other deceptive approaches might work temporarily, being honest and transparent is one of the big ethical concerns in modern society. 49 Water itself is very clear and transparent if you do not make it muddy. In chapter 15 Laozi stated, “Who can (make) the muddy water clear? Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear.” 50 Metaphorically, human beings are by nature naïve and honest. Social environment and competition (like muddiness) make them unclear. Water’s clarity, transparency, and honesty are most appreciated by Laozi. Finally, water is very soft and gentle, but also very persistent and powerful. If drops of water keep pounding at a rock for years, even the hardest rock will yield to water. Over time, water can cut through the hardest rock, forming valleys and canyons. The style of individuals should be similarly gentle and soft, but perseverant and powerful. Here is an example of what we can learn from water: Nothing in the world, Is as yielding and receptive as water; Yet in attacking the firm and inflexible, Nothing triumphs so well. 51

Since there is nothing softer than water, yet nothing better for attacking hard and strong things, there is no substitute for it. Its softness enables it to tolerate all kinds of environments, gathering strength without wearing off at an earlier stage. And the resolve and perseverance of water help it to cut its path through hard rocks and wear away at mountains. It is very

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important for a leader to know the dialectical relationship as such and to acquire the resolute and persevering characteristics of water. 52 A cautionary note is in order here. Although we should learn from water because of the Daoist Big Five described above, what about the negative aspects of water including floods, storms, or heavy rain? When Mother Nature is not in a balance (i.e., yin and yang is out of balance), floods or storms occur due to external forces. Water cannot create a flood or storm itself without an external force. Floods or other water-related natural disasters occur when yin and yang are out of the balance as described in the section about yin-yang oneness. Similarly, water is usually clear and transparent. However, it is neither clear nor transparent any more when it is polluted or contaminated by humans or other external forces. Harmony Means Love for Peace in Opposition to Violence Laozi lived in the Spring-Autumn times of ancient China when people and states waged murderous wars after the time of the Zhou Dynasty. He was unhappy with battles and other violence. Thus, Laozi decided to live in a mountain as a hermit. He resigned from his official position as the historian at the Chinese Imperial Capital in Luoyang (near the Yellow River in central China) and traveled west with his ox through the Han Ku Pass. 53 There is no doubt that he was a strong advocate of peace in opposition to war and other forms of violence. Let the people value their lives and yet not move far away. Even though there are boats and carriages, There is no occasion to use them. Even though there are armor and weapons, There is no occasion to display them. 54

When all the people in the world follow the Dao, they are not busy with preparing for wars but rather with farming or their livelihood. When the world possesses the Dao, Even the fast horses are used for their dung, When the world is without the Dao, War horses are raised in the suburbs. 55 When armies are positioned, Thorny brambles are produced. A great military always brings years of hunger. 56 The finest weapons can be the instruments of misfortune, and thus contrary to natural law. 57

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From this, we can easily understand that harmony includes a peaceful life for human beings without war or other violence. In a sense, human history is a history of killing, wars, and other violent behavior. War is an extreme example of the destruction of human lives and civilization, which is against Dao and human harmony. Harmony Means Tolerance and Difference Appreciation Laozi emphasized openness to, or tolerance of, differences. According to Laozi, the natural world and human beings are so diverse and complicated that we must be open to, and tolerant of, the differences. Being open and tolerant are very important aspects of Daoism. 58 Laozi wrote: The one with great De (or humanistic virtue) Tends to be tolerant and open to everything Because the one must follow the Dao. 59

In other words, openness and tolerance are the essential and fundamental ways for human beings (Dao). Without openness and tolerance, it is very difficult for human beings to be in harmony with nature and other human beings. The cycle of destiny is called the Absolute: To know the Absolute is called insight; To know the Absolute is to be tolerant; What is tolerant is fair (or impartial); What is fair (or impartial) is powerful; What is powerful becomes natural; What is natural becomes Dao. 60

Our real power is to follow the natural Dao, which must be based on insight, tolerance, and fairness. Thus, open-mindedness, tolerance, and fairness are very important not only for harmonious group relations, but also for harmonious individual interactions. As one of the Laozi’s followers, Chuang Tzu (or Zhuangzi, 369–286 B.C.) lived in the Warring Period in China and was a leading thinker whose ideas also were central to the Taoist school. Enriched by brilliant imagery, making sportive use of both mythological and historical personages (e.g., Confucius), Zhuangzi’s major writings included 7 “inner chapters” and 15 “outer chapters.” All his writings stress Tao (the way of Nature or the way it is). Following Laozi’s ideas in The Tao-Te Ching, Zhuangzi placed more value on people’s inner virtues (i.e., De) than their physical appearance. In chapter 5, “The sign of virtue complete” from his “Inner Chapters,” Zhuangzi regarded those physically “abnormal” people as figures greater than sages. 61 For example, Wang Dai, whose foot was cut off, had more students or followers than Confucius had. Confucius (or Kongzi) spoke very highly of Wang Dai at that time because Mr. Wang, as a crippled

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person, had great virtues. Also, Mr. Lame-Hunchback-No-Lips talked to Duke Ling of Wei. Duke Ling was so pleased with him that when he looked at normal people he thought their necks looked so lean and skinny. Therefore, “if virtue is preeminent, the body is forgotten. But when men do not forget what can be forgotten, but forget what cannot be forgotten—that may be called true forgetting.” 62 Additionally, in chapter 1 entitled “Free and Easy Wandering,” Zhuangzi linked the differences between animals to those between humans. 63 Big birds (like Kun or Peng in ancient China) or little birds (like cicada or dove) are naturally different birds and each has its own function and uniqueness. They should not laugh at or look down on each other. What do these two (big and little) creatures understand? Little understanding cannot come up to great understanding; the shortlived cannot come up to the long-lived. How do I know this is so? The morning mushroom knows nothing of twilight and dawn; the summer cicada knows nothing of spring and autumn. They are the short-lived. In the South of the Chu Kingdom, there is a Ling Gui (i.e., a special turtle) that counts five hundred years as one spring and five hundred years as one autumn. Long, long ago, there was a great rose of Sharon that counted eight thousand years as one spring and eight thousand years as one autumn. They are the long-lived. Yet Peng Zu, the person who lived a long time (about five hundred years per Chinese legend) is famous today for having lived a long time and everybody tries to admire or ape him. Isn’t it pitiful! 64

Why is it pitiful? First, it is against Tao. Everyone is different. If Person X looks white, this does not mean that everyone else in the world should become white. If Person Y is tall, this does not mean that everyone else should become tall. It is unnatural or against Tao. Second, Peng Zu lived a long life, but his life was long or short. This is relative and depends on a comparison of other species. Thus harmony implies tolerance of human difference and also means understanding and appreciating human difference. CONCLUSION The concept of Chinese Daoist “harmony” is very philosophical and psychological. As Laozi loved peace and opposed war, harmony includes peace, but is much broader than an ordinary concept of peace based on recent research. 65 This chapter attempts to address harmony from a holistic, relational, humanistic, and naturalistic perspective. The Dao and De from Laozi signify harmony with the universe or external world, as well as harmony with other human beings. What is Daoist harmony? Simply put, Daoist harmony is (1) based on the yin-yang oneness, (2) the way it is (natural), (3) wei-wu-wei (or non-

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intervention), (4) water-like personality features, (5) love for peace, and (6) tolerance and difference appreciation. If we say Daoism, it means harmony. Daoism should become more and more understandable and appreciable in a global village. Today, there are over six billion people on this planet. We, as global citizens, face human issues (e.g., interpersonal and intergroup/cultural relationships, ethnic conflicts or ethnic cleansing, hate crimes, discrimination against females or minorities, violence against women) as well as ecological/environmental problems around the world (for example pollution or destruction of natural environment). If we follow Dao and De for the purpose of being harmonious with Mother Nature or the external world and with other human beings, it will help us reduce human problems, as well as ecological and environmental problems. Finally, if human beings love each other in the world (the human world), we are in harmony with each other or can peacefully get along. If we love Mother Nature and take care of the external environment or universe (including the natural or physical world) just as we take care of ourselves, we will be in harmony with Mother Nature, the external environment, or the universe. We will be able to survive or human beings may perish. Let us conclude with one final quote from Laozi: Those who esteem the world as self Will be committed to the world; Those who love the world as self Will be entrusted with the world! 66

NOTES 1. This chapter originally appeared as “Daoist Harmony as a Chinese Philosophy and Psychology” in the Summer 2009 issue of Peace and Conflict Studies, vol. 16, no. 1, pages 68–81. 2. Laozi, Bi Wang, and Fu Yan, Laozi Dao De Jing (Taipei: Kuang Wen Press, 1961). Ch. 42. 3. W-Z. Fei, Investigating and Editing Laozi’s Dao De Jing (Taiwan: Meizhi Library Press, 1984); Yueh-Ting Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application,” in Leadership and Management in China : Philosophies, Theories and Practices, ed. Chao C. Chen and Yueh-Ting Lee (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008). 4. Yueh-Ting Lee, “Daoistic Humanism in Ancient China: Broadening Personality and Counseling Theories in the 21st Century,” Journal of Humanistic Psychology 43, no. 1 (2003); Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” 5. Raymond Bernard Blakney, The Way of Life: Lao Tzu (New York: New American Library Inc., 1955), Translation. 6. Lao-Tzu, Tao Te Ching, trans. Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co, 1993), Translation. 7. R.L. Wing, The Tao of Power: A Translation of the Tao Te Ching by La o Tzu (Garden City: A Dolphin Book/Doubleday & Co., 1986). 8. Jun Shi, Selecte d Reading s fro m Famou s Chines e Philosophers (Beijing: People’s University of China Press, 1988).

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9. Fei, Investigating and Editing Laozi’s Dao De Jing; Laozi, Wang, and Yan, Laoz i Da o D e Jing. 10. Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” 11. Lee, “Daoistic Humanism in Ancient China: Broadening Personality and Counseling Theories in the 21st Century.” 12. Blakney, The Way of Life: Lao Tzu. 13. Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo, Lao-Tzu Tao Te Ching (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1993), Translation. 14. Ibid. 15. Lee, “Daoistic Humanism in Ancient China: Broadening Personality and Counseling Theories in the 21st Century.”; Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” 16. Blakney, The Way of Life: Lao Tzu: 38; Lee, “Daoistic Humanism in Ancient China: Broadening Personality and Counseling Theories in the 21st Century.” 17. Addiss and Lombardo, Lao-Tzu Tao Te Ching; Lee, “Daoistic Humanism in Ancient China: Broadening Personality and Counseling Theories in the 21st Century.”; Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” 18. Yueh-Ting Lee and Pei-Cheng Hu, “The Effect of Chinese Qi-Gong Exercises and Therapy on Diseases and Health,” Journal of Indian Psychology 11(1993). 19. Laozi, Wang, and Yan, Laozi Dao De Jing. 20. Ibid. 21. Lee, “Daoistic Humanism in Ancient China: Broadening Personality and Counseling Theories in the 21st Century.”; Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” 22. Yueh-Ting Lee, “‘Unique’ Similarities Between Ancient Chinese and Native American Cultures: Paleo-Psychological Beliefs and Cultural Meanings Beyond Time and Space” (paper presented at the the Annual Conference of Association of Chinese Social Scientists at the University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, October 2001); Yueh-Ting Lee and Dayou Wang, “Aboriginal People in Taiwan, Continental China and the Americas: Ethnic Inquiry into Common Root and Ancenstral Connection,” in Taiwan in the Twenty-First Century, ed. Xiaobing Li and Zuhong Pan (New York: University Press of America, 2003); Dayou Wang, San Huang Wu Di Shi Dai [The Times of San Huang Wu Di] (Beijing: Chinese Society’s Press, 2000); Yueh-Ting Lee, “Psychological Theories in Ancient China: A Historical View” (paper presented at the the 99th annual convention of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, August 1991); K. Yuan, Chinese History of Mythology (Shanghai: Shanghai Literature Publishing House, 1988). 23. Laozi, Wang, and Yan, Laozi Dao De Jing. 24. Lee, “Daoistic Humanism in Ancient China: Broadening Personality and Counseling Theories in the 21st Century.”; Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” 25. You-Lan Fung, A Short History of Chinese Philosophy (New York: Free Press, 1948); Frank Johnson, “The Western Concept of Self,” in Culture and Self: Asian and Western Perspectives, ed. Anthony Marsella, George De Vos, and Francis L. K. Hsu (New York: Tavistock Publications, 1985). 26. Lee, “Daoistic Humanism in Ancient China: Broadening Personality and Counseling Theories in the 21st Century.”; Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” 27. Alan Watts, Tao: The Watercourse Way (New York: Pantheon Books, 1975). 75. 28. Lee, “Daoistic Humanism in Ancient China: Broadening Personality and Counseling Theories in the 21st Century.” 29. Laozi, Wang, and Yan, Laozi Dao De Jing: Ch. 37. 30. Ibid., Ch. 48. 31. Ibid., Ch. 63. 32. Ibid., Ch. 29.

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33. Lee, “Daoistic Humanism in Ancient China: Broadening Personality and Counseling Theories in the 21st Century.” 34. Laozi, Wang, and Yan, Laozi Dao De Jing. 35. Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” 36. Lee, “Daoistic Humanism in Ancient China: Broadening Personality and Counseling Theories in the 21st Century.”; “What Can Chairs Learn from Daoistic/Taoistic Leadership? An Eastern Perspective,” The Department Chair 14, no. 4 (2004); Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” 37. Lee, “Daoistic Humanism in Ancient China: Broadening Personality and Counseling Theories in the 21st Century.”; “What Can Chairs Learn from Daoistic/Taoistic Leadership? An Eastern Perspective.”; Yueh-Ting Lee et al., “Daoist/Taoist Altruism and Wateristic Personality: East and West,” World Cultures e Journal 16, no. 2 (2008), http://repositories.cdlib.org/wc/worldcultures/vol16/iss2/art2/; Alan Watts, Psychotherapy East and West (New York: Pantheon Books, 1961); Tao: The Watercourse Way. 38. See Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” 39. Ibid. 40. Laozi, Wang, and Yan, Laoz i Da o D e Jing: Ch. 8. 41. Ibid. 42. Ibid. 43. Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” 44. Laozi, Wang, and Yan, Laoz i Da o D e Jing: Ch. 66. 45. Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” 46. Laozi, Wang, and Yan, Laozi Dao De Jing: Ch. 68. 47. Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” 48. Jin Chuan Lu, Yuan rong de Tai Ji miao li: Hua sheng, dui dai, liu xing [Tai Ji: A Seamless Theory about Life, Relativity, and Change] (Tai Bei: Third Nature Publishing Co., Ltd., 2001). 280. 49. Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” 50. Laozi, Wang, and Yan, Laoz i Da o D e Jing: Ch. 15. 51. Ibid. 52. Lee et al., “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” 53. Lee, “Daoistic Humanism in Ancient China: Broadening Personality and Counseling Theories in the 21st Century.”; Qian Sima, Records of the Grand Historian of China (Yin-Chuan: Ninxia People’s Press, 1994). 54. Laozi, Wang, and Yan, Laoz i Da o D e Jing: Ch. 80. 55. Ibid., Ch. 46. 56. Ibid., Ch. 30. 57. Ibid., Ch. 31. 58. Lee, “‘Unique’ Similarities Between Ancient Chinese and Native American Cultures: Paleo-Psychological Beliefs and Cultural Meanings Beyond Time and Space.”; “Daoistic Humanism in Ancient China: Broadening Personality and Counseling Theories in the 21st Century.” 59. Laozi, Wang, and Yan, Laoz i Da o D e Jing: Ch. 21. 60. Ibid., Ch. 16. 61. Chuang Tzu, Basic Writings and The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964), Translation. 62. Ibid., 71. 63. Ibid. 64. Ibid., 24. 65. Aiguo Han, “Building a Harmonious Society and Achieving Individual Harmony,” Journal of Chinese Political Science 13, no. 2 (2008); Wenshan Jia, “Chinese Perspective on Harmony: An Evaluation of the Harmony and the Peace Paradigms,” China Media Research 4, no. 4 (2008). 66. Laozi, Wang, and Yan, Laoz i Da o D e Jing: Ch. 13.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Addiss, Stephen, and Stanley Lombardo. Lao-Tzu Tao Te Ching [in Chinese]. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1993. Translation. Black, D. Essentials of Chinese Herbs. Springville: Tapestry Press, 1992. Blakney, Raymond Bernard. The Way of Life: Lao Tzu. New York: New American Library Inc., 1955. Translation. Fei, W-Z. Investigating and Editing Laozi’s Dao De Jing [in Chinese]. Taiwan: Meizhi Library Press, 1984. Fung, You-Lan. A Short History of Chinese Philosophy. New York: Free Press, 1948. Han, Aiguo. “Building a Harmonious Society and Achieving Individual Harmony.” Journal of Chinese Political Science 13, no. 2 (2008): 143–64. Jia, Wenshan. “Chinese Perspective on Harmony: An Evaluation of the Harmony and the Peace Paradigms.” China Media Research 4, no. 4 (2008): 25–30. Johnson, Frank. “The Western Concept of Self.” In Culture and Self: Asian and Western Perspectives, edited by Anthony Marsella, George De Vos, and Francis L. K. Hsu. 91–138. New York: Tavistock Publications, 1985. Lao-Tzu. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co, 1993. Translation. Laozi, Bi Wang, and Fu Yan. Laozi Dao De Jing [in Chinese]. Taipei: Kuang Wen Press, 1961. Lee, Yueh-Ting. “Daoistic Humanism in Ancient China: Broadening Personality and Counseling Theories in the 21st Century.” Journal of Humanistic Psychology 43, no. 1 (2003): 64–85. ———. “Psychological Theories in Ancient China: A Historical View.” Paper presented at the the 99th annual convention of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, August 1991. ———. “‘Unique’ Similarities between Ancient Chinese and Native American Cultures: Paleo-Psychological Beliefs and Cultural Meanings Beyond Time and Space.” Paper presented at the the Annual Conference of Association of Chinese Social Scientists at the University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, October 2001. ———. “What Can Chairs Learn from Daoistic/Taoistic Leadership? An Eastern Perspective.” The Department Chair 14, no. 4 (2004): 25–32. ———. “What Is Missing on Chinese-Western Dialectical Reasoning?” American Psychologist 55 (2000): 1065–67. Lee, Yueh-Ting, Aiguo Han, Tammy Bryron, and Hongxia Fan. “Daoist Leadership: Theory and Application.” In Leadership and Management in China: Philosophies, Theories and Practices, edited by Chao C. Chen and Yueh-Ting Lee. 83–107. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Lee, Yueh-Ting, and Pei-Cheng Hu. “The Effect of Chinese Qi-Gong Exercises and Therapy on Diseases and Health.” Journal of Indian Psychology 11 (1993): 9–18. Lee, Yueh-Ting, Vinai Norasakkunkit, Li Liu, Zhang Jian Xin, and Min-Jie Zhou. “Daoist/Taoist Altruism and Wateristic Personality: East and West.” In, World Cultures eJournal 16, no. 2 (2008): 1–19. Retrieved from http://repositories.cdlib.org/wc/ worldcultures/vol16/iss2/art2/. Lee, Yueh-Ting, and Dayou Wang. “Aboriginal People in Taiwan, Continental China and the Americas: Ethnic Inquiry into Common Root and Ancenstral Connection.” In Taiwan in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Xiaobing Li and Zuhong Pan. 63–82. New York: University Press of America, 2003. Lu, Jin Chuan. Yuan Rong De Tai Ji Miao Li: Hua Sheng, Dui Dai, Liu Xing [Tai Ji: A Seamless Theory about Life, Relativity, and Change]. Tai Bei: Third Nature Publishing Co., Ltd., 2001. Shi, Jun. Selected Readings from Famous Chinese Philosophers [in English and Chinese]. Beijing: People’s University of China Press, 1988. Sima, Qian. Records of the Grand Historian of China [in Chinese]. Yin-Chuan: Ninxia People’s Press, 1994.

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Tzu, Chuang. Basic Writings and the Complete Works of Chuang Tzu. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964. Translation. Wang, Dayou. San Huang Wu Di Shi Dai [in Chinese] [The Times of San Huang Wu Di]. Beijing: Chinese Society’s Press, 2000. Watts, Alan. Psychotherapy East and West. New York: Pantheon Books, 1961. ———. Tao: The Watercourse Way. New York: Pantheon Books, 1975. Wing, R.L. The Tao of Power: A Translation of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. Garden City: A Dolphin Book/Doubleday & Co., 1986. Xu, Xianzhi Z. Shan Hai Jing Tan Yuan [in Chinese] [The Origin of the Book Shan Hai Jing]. Wuhan: Wuhan Publishing House, 1991. Yan, Liang-Shi. “Dao De Jing Xin Li Xue Sixiang: Jingshen Jieyue Lun.” [In Chinese]. Academic Bulletin of Social Sciences at Hunan Teaching University 28, no. 1 (1999): 116–21. Yuan, K. Chinese History of Mythology [in Chinese]. Shanghai: Shanghai Literature Publishing House, 1988.

EIGHTEEN Humanity’s Coming of Age A Bahá’í View of the Process toward World Peace Charles Egerton

The central, pivotal Bahá’í belief is in the oneness of humanity. Bahá’ís see their community as part of humanity, as a workshop, not an art gallery, giving emphasis to a spiritually centered culture of practice, liberated from a fear of making mistakes, and as a working model for world peace with efforts focused on conflict transformation, unity in diversity and community building worldwide. That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race. . . . It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens. 1

Sharing Abrahamic roots with Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the Bahá’í Faith embraces all religions and has grown to become the second most widespread religion next to Christianity 2 with members in 233 countries and territories, representing 2,100 ethnic and tribal groups. 3 Bahá’ís have dynamic guiding principles that cut across the grain of blind imitation and transform default modalities into potential for peace: abandoning all forms of prejudice, equality of women and men, the unity of religious truth, elimination of extremes of poverty and wealth, universal education, independent search for truth, establishment of a global commonwealth of nations, and recognition that true religion is in harmony with reason and the pursuit of scientific knowledge. 4 Bahá’ís view resistance to world peace as a “paralysis of will,” 5 and focus on developing personal and community spiritual potential to over319

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come it. They are challenged to nurture individual and collective volition for change. The core and concrete activity in Bahá’í communities today is internal spiritual transformation, overcoming default attitudes, removing prejudices, and forming a new consciousness of oneness and interdependence in children, youth and adults. In more than 120,000 local communities 3 these changing attitudes and worldviews find an arena of practice, equipping a cohort of diverse peace workers to bridge divides and transform conflict. These Bahá’í principles are given form and substance through the application of frank consultation, collaborative decisionmaking, and collective action couched in a spiritual atmosphere of love and unity. The sustained work of the Bahá’í International Community’s NonGovernmental Organization (NGO) at the United Nations and the over 1,300 Bahá’í social and economic development projects in more than 100 countries serve as another arena of practice and service to humanity. 6 Bahá’ís believe in one loving Creator that has successively and progressively revealed truth to humanity through the founders of all the world’s great religions. It is their teachings that are the catalyst for all human civilization and progress. This perspective positions Bahá’ís as bridges of change within families and communities fostering broader, affirming, and hopeful attitudes and inspiring actions that help transform cultures of conflict and exclusiveness into cultures of peace and inclusion. The very diverse and widespread Bahá’í community believes in the inevitable achievement of world peace. “To choose such a course is not to deny humanity’s past but to understand it. The Bahá’í Faith regards the current world confusion and calamitous condition in human affairs as a natural phase in an organic process leading ultimately and irresistibly to the unification of the human race in a single social order whose boundaries are those of the planet.” 7 Bahá’ís believe that the collective human organism, having evolved through the stages of infancy and childhood now finds itself “in the culminating period of its turbulent adolescence approaching its long-awaited coming of age.” 7 The Bahá’í Faith emerged against a moving backdrop in Persia (Iran), Iraq, Turkey and Palestine. Today in its birthplace Iran, Bahá’ís continue to suffer severe structural violence and systematic religious persecution. In contrast, it is experiencing rapid growth and development around the world. A BRIEF HISTORY Siyyid Ali Muhammad, titled the Báb or “Gate,” arose in Shiraz, Iran in 1844 and announced that he was the Qá’im or promised one of Islam preparing the way for the imminent coming of the promised one of all religions. 8 Tens of thousands of Persians passionately embraced the Báb’s

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new faith and became Bábís, unleashing a violent wave of persecution by fanatical Shi’ah Muslim clergy who saw it as heresy and apostasy. The Báb was publically executed in 1850. 9 Mirza Husayn Ali,14 titled Bahá’u’lláh or “Glory of God,” was prominent among the Báb’s early followers and renowned for his compassion and wisdom. Despite his status as son of a minister of the Shah, Bahá’u’lláh too was swept into the vortex of persecution. In 1853 he was arrested, publically beaten, and heavily chained in a foul subterranean prison in Teheran, where he was expected to die. In that prison Bahá’u’lláh received a revelation from God proclaiming he was the Promised One foretold by the Báb. 10 In 1863, on the banks of the Tigris River near Baghdad he publically announced his Prophethood. 11 The writings of Bahá’u’lláh are prodigious, contained in over one hundred books. His wisdom, prayers, and laws redefine and illuminate our understanding of human potential, offer a blueprint for peace building and are the source of inspiration and guidance for Bahá’ís. Of special significance to students and practitioners in the field of conflict and peace is a precedent setting series of bold letters he wrote to world rulers in the late 1860’s. 12 Pope Pius IX, Napoleon III, Queen Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm I, Czar Alexander II, Násiri’d-Dín Sháh, Sultan Abdul Aziz, Emperor Francis Joseph, the Rulers of America, the Elected Representatives of the Peoples in Every Land, and other religious leaders all received letters from Bahá’u’lláh. In them he called for all nations to assemble in a great convocation to establish the foundations for world peace, admonished these leaders against the acquisition of wealth without regard for the poor, and advised disarmament and a reduction of exorbitant expenditures for war to those needed for internal security. He introduced the concept of collective security: “Should any king take up arms against another, all should unitedly arise and prevent him,” 13 called for the adoption of a world commonwealth of nations, an international currency and a common auxiliary language. In 1868, Ottoman authorities exiled him to the notoriously remote and odious prison city of Ákká, Palestine; which is now situated in northern Israel. Bahá’u’lláh endured a total of forty years of exile and imprisonment until his passing in 1892. Cambridge University Oriental Scholar Edward Granville Browne was granted a unique interview with Bahá’u’lláh in April 1890. “We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations; yet they deem us a stirrer-up of strife and sedition worthy of bondage and banishment…” Bahá’u’lláh said to Browne, “That all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race be annulled — what harm is there in this? . . . Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the `Most Great Peace’ shall come.” 14

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The beautiful shrines of Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb stand in Akka and Haifa, Israel, as sites of pilgrimage at the heart of the Bahá’í World Centre and its governing institutions headed by the Universal House of Justice. In 2008, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) listed them as world cultural heritage sites. 15 TEACHINGS ON SPIRITUAL REALITY AND HUMAN NATURE FORMING THE FOUNDATION OF BAHÁ’Í PEACE WORK Bahá’u’lláh taught that human life is a journey of the immortal soul through this contingent and physical world. Though carried in physical form, our true reality is inherently and essentially spiritual. The purpose of life for a Bahá’í is to know and love God. 16 God the Creator is an Unknowable Essence, Omnipotent, All-Loving and Infinite with no gender, physical, or human form. Humans, as finite beings, can only know God through the Manifestations or Prophets who give voice to the Infinite. Spiritual practices include daily prayer, meditation and study of the sacred texts of the faith, an annual period of fasting, and the lifelong acquisition of divine virtues to be translated into deeds that foster world citizenship, peace and unity. In addition to considering work and arts to be forms of worship, Bahá’ís believe that actions that contribute to peace building are a sacred obligation. To engage in destructive conflict, contention or backbiting is strictly prohibited. To live a Bahá’í life means to be “anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements,” 17 and “to consider one’s own destiny as tied to the common destiny of all”, to “enrich the poor, raise the fallen, comfort the sorrowful, bring healing to the sick, reassure the fearful, rescue the oppressed, bring hope to the hopeless, shelter the destitute!” 18 Bahá’u’lláh’s desire is to create “a community of people who are to unite around a new set of beliefs about human nature and well-being and sacrifice their own interests to work for justice, the unification of the human race, and the common good.” 19 Through the lens of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings, Bahá’ís see human nature as fundamentally spiritual and inherently good. Destructive conflict lies outside the norm of our true nature and is not inevitable. Unity and peace are considered the norm or ideal of collective and individual spiritual health. Destructive conflicts are symptoms of an underlying disease: disunity. Oneness of Humanity, Embracing Human Interdependence in Peacebuilding Permeating and motivating Bahá’í thought, prayer, creativity and action is the pivotal principle of the oneness of humankind. Beyond the ideal of the “brotherhood of man,” it presents a fresh and comprehensive

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concept of spiritual, moral and scientific truth. Acceptance of this principle requires a shift from the adolescent consciousness of “otherness” to one that embraces human interdependence. The oneness of humanity also represents the very spirit of Bahá’í governing institutions and expanding communities that are practicing and implementing its reality on all social levels. It “calls for no less than the reconstruction and demilitarization of the whole civilized world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.” 20 Oneness of Religion, Religious Interdependence and the Potential for Peace Not to be confused with syncretism or ecumenism, the Bahá’í teaching of the oneness of religions is a belief in the organic and fundamental unity of all the world’s major faiths revealedby one common Creator. The historic appearance of each religion is viewed as a progressively unfolding expression of divine purpose designed for the age and population to which it appeared. The Bahá’í writings declare: “Blessed souls, whether Moses, Jesus, Zoroaster, Krishna, Buddha, Confucius, or Muhammad were the cause of the illumination of the world of humanity. How can we deny such irrefutable proof? How can we be blind to such light? 21 According to the Bahá’í teachings, the purpose of religion is to promote spiritual growth and to release humanity’s individual and collective potential for unity, peace, justice, and compassionate civilization. It is to liberate humanity from ignorance, guide us to true understanding, and “to ensure the peace and tranquility of mankind, and provide all the means by which they can be established.” 22 “In matters of religion every form of fanaticism, hatred, dissension and strife is strictly forbidden.” 23 Religion is seen as “the greatest of all means for the establishment of order in the world and for the peaceful contentment of all that dwell therein.” 24 The Bahá’í writings state categorically “the religion of God is intended to be the cause of advancement and solidarity and not of enmity and dissolution. If it becomes the cause of hatred and strife, its absence is preferable. Its purpose is unity, and its foundations are one.” 25 The reality that religions bring both abiding spiritual truths and situational social and practical teachings helps Baha’is unpack religious conflicts and find unity while respecting diversity. Bahá’ís are encouraged to “consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship.” 26 “Love ye all religions and all races with a love that is true and sincere and show that love through deeds and not through the tongue.” 27 Distortions of religion or a focus on non-essential teachings have caused major destructive conflict in the world. Bahá’ís view these events as a willful warping of the essential reality of religion and a tragic dislocation of its great potential for peace. A major source of conflict is

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clergy who have abused their authority through “lust of leadership” and a lack of “knowledge and understanding.” 28 Immortality, Often the Crux of Conflict among Religious Worldviews According to Bahá’í teachings, death is not to be feared rather it is viewed as a natural transition in the spiritual evolution of the soul. “I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve 29 asks Bahá’u’lláh. An analogy from Bahá’í writings relates this physical world to a “womb” for the development of our spiritual faculties just as our mother’s womb was for physical development. 30 Bahá’ís believe that everyone possesses an immortal soul that will be born into a purely spiritual life upon physical death. The condition of the soul at death is a fundamental responsibility of the individual, 31 as is described in the passage “Bring thyself to account each day ere thou art summoned to a reckoning; for death, unheralded, shall come upon thee and thou shalt be called to give account for thy deeds,” 32 encouraging Bahá’ís to practice mortality salience and act in accordance with their beliefs. Violent conflict in defense of immortality worldviews is an anxious tendency to dismiss other paths to an afterlife and to see their existence as a challenge one’s own. A belief in the oneness of all religions helps Bahá’ís avoid this pitfall. Independent Investigation of Reality and the Elimination of Prejudice; Faith Appealing to Reason, Science, and Justice Helps Bahá’ís Maintain a Perspective of Peace The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice. . . . By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. 33

Bahá’ís believe that each person has the obligation to investigate reality. Prejudice, misinformation, false assumptions, blind imitation of the past, emotional commitment to ignorance and presuming one already knows the truth, all stifle opportunities for conflict transformation and stunt human potential for peace. From a perspective of spiritual growth, it is often in the process of searching for truth that one finds significant meaning and personal identity with a system of belief. Authenticity of self and living in harmony with reality are essential parts of spiritual development and a peaceful worldview. Learning to dispassionately observe, suspend judgment, and actively listen to the views of others is a critical aspect of a compassionate analysis of conflict. “First diagnose the disease and identify the malady, then prescribe the remedy, for such is the perfect method of the skilful physician.” 34 Bahá’ís are encouraged to “depend upon your own reason and judgment and adhere to the outcome of

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your own investigation; otherwise you will be utterly submerged in the sea of ignorance and deprived of all the bounties of God.” 35 To believe and act on prejudice is seen by the Bahá’í teachings as “a negation of faith.” 36 Unity in Diversity, a Belief That Embraces Complexity Over Reductionism The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord. 37

This Bahá’í concept goes well beyond a tolerance or appreciation of human diversity to the idea that diversity is critical to the creation and sustainability of true unity and the establishment of world peace. To support this, the Bahá’í writings compare the diversity of humanity to the physical body itself. The diverse cells, organs, structure and systems of the human body each have a vital function only it can perform. Each part subordinates itself to work in unison and coordination with the others to support the life of the whole. This analogy well describes the Bahá’í perspective of true community. 38 “This means to have no regard for one’s own personal benefits and selfish advantages . . . to see one’s self as only one of the servants of God. . . . It means to consider the welfare of the community as one’s own. It means, in brief, to regard humanity as a single individual, and one’s own self as a member of that corporeal form, and to know of a certainty that if pain or injury afflicts any member of that body, it must inevitably result in suffering for all the rest.” 39 Conflict as Illness, Bahá’u’lláh as Divine Physician: Conflict is the Absence of Peace Utilizing a medical model, destructive conflict is considered the absence of peace, just as disease is the absence of health, and evil the absence of good. Bahá’ís look upon Bahá’u’lláh as the divine physician for this day and his teachings, laws and principles as the remedy for healing an ailing humanity. 40 Peace is an expression of our true and highest nature as mature human beings, rejecting the notion that we are inherently selfish, destructive and quarrelsome. “All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization,” wrote Bahá’u’lláh, “Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and lovingkindness towards all the peoples and kindreds of the earth.” 41 Humanity “is greatly in need of a physician,” wrote ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “The disease that afflicts the body politic is lack of love and absence of altruism. . . . Without these there can be no progress or prosperity attained.” 42

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PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNANCE THAT PROMOTE EQUALITY, PERSONAL EXPRESSION, AND PEACE The Bahá’í Faith has no clergy or priesthood. Democratically elected councils of nine adult members are responsible for governance in local and national Bahá’í communities. All adults are eligible to vote and be voted for. Elections are held in a sacred and prayerful atmosphere. Nominations and campaigning are not permitted in a process that gives minorities priority when there is a tie vote, and promotes greater equality and inclusion of women and minorities in governance. Strictly held Bahá’í principles are obedience to duly constituted governments, and non-involvement in partisan politics. Bahá’ís do not voluntarily enlist in the military where they would be subject to orders to engage in the taking of human life, they request non-combatant status if inducted into military service, but Bahá’ís are not absolute pacifists and recognize the right and duty of governments to use force for the maintenance of law and order and to protect their people. 43 Bahá’ís thoughtfully weigh the intricate balance between the needs of the individual and needs of a just and unified society. BAHÁ’Í PRACTICE OF CONSULTATION, THE “OPERATING EXPRESSION OF JUSTICE” 44 NURTURING A COMMUNITY OF PEACE Bahá’u’lláh taught that consultation increases awareness and clarifies truth from falsehood, that the “maturity of the gift of understanding is made manifest through consultation.”44 Bahá’í consultation is a unique process of problem solving and decision-making used by elected institutions, committees or any group of Bahá’ís. Consultation, in practice, focuses the benefit of all Bahá’í teachings on an issue while requiring those consulting together to strive to interact with a high standard of spiritual maturity. Establishing a climate of prayerful devotion, couched in love and free of adversarial elements is an essential first step. In addition the atmosphere must allow the exercise of the “undoubted right of the individual to self-expression, his freedom to declare his conscience and set forth his views,” 45 The most unique aspect of Bahá’í consultation is that once an idea or view is expressed to the group the individual who expressed it no longer retains ownership or attachment to it. This detachment frees the group to accept, aggregate, digest, distill or reject any idea or perspective without fear of hurt feelings, or hidden agendas. “Should any one oppose, he must on no account feel hurt, for not until matters are fully discussed can the right way be revealed. The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions.” 46 Clearly identifying

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the problem and the facts involved, and applying the guiding Bahá’í principles precedes discussion of solutions. A chairperson facilitates the process to a decision by consensus or majority vote. This unique process removes barriers of social status, privilege and hierarchy from the consultation. Consultation is considered the “operating expression of justice in human affairs.” 47 It promotes inclusion and gives every community member a place at the table. “No man can attain his true station," is Bahá'u'lláh's counsel, "except through his justice. No power can exist except through unity. No welfare and no well-being can be attained except through consultation."47 Additionally, Bahá’í consultation offers a training ground for learning how to engage in difficult discourse and unpack the underlying factors causing conflict and strife. Its practice develops vital practical skills for peace and conflict workers. 48 PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF BAHÁ’Í TEACHINGS The work of Bahá’ís in peace education and social and economic development is part of a spiritual practice that assists the development of divine virtues. Bahá’í social and economic development projects address many key issues effecting world unity and peace. Some examples include: literacy and rural education in Ghana, Panama and Bolivia; medical clinics in New Guinea; moral and virtue education in Ethiopia, Russia and the United States; micro finance and poverty in Tanzania, Nepal, and Stockholm, and solar cookers, community gardens, and alternative fuels in India, Mongolia, and Vanuatu.6 The Universal House of Justice, the world governing body of the Bahá’í Faith, works closely with the United Nations through its NGO the Bahá’í International Community (BIC). The BIC was represented at the inception of the United Nations and for over six decades has played an active role in United Nations initiatives around the globe, as well as in writing significant statements and reports on declarations, resolutions and issues of concern. Some examples of BIC organizational and delegation participation include: the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio, the 1995 UN International Conference on Women in Beijing, the 2000 Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders in New York, the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban. The BIC has been awarded consultative status with UNICEF and engaged in collaborations related to the rights of women and minorities with UNIFEM and UNESCO. 49 In 1985 the Universal House of Justice, the Bahá’í international governing body, wrote an open letter to the peoples of the world titled “The Promise of World Peace.”5 We will focus on three critical issues they identified as ripe for transformation on the path to world peace.

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Racism “Racism, one of the most baneful and persistent evils, is a major barrier to peace. Its practice perpetrates too outrageous a violation of the dignity of human beings to be countenanced under any pretext. Racism retards the unfoldment of the boundless potentialities of its victims, corrupts its perpetrators, and blights human progress.” 50 In 1912 ‘Abdul-Bahá, 51 son of Bahá’u’lláh, a prisoner and exile for over 40 years, took an historic journey to North America. During this time, he provided Bahá’ís with a clear example of how to apply the principle of the oneness of humanity. 52 In the face of overt structural Jim Crow racism and deep racial prejudice he attracted and spoke to racially diverse audiences, unheard of at the time, and promoted interracial unity and unconditional love and equality. During his nine-month tour he gave hundreds of important speeches but two were especially significant to race. The first was at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he said: “Today I am most happy, for I see here a gathering of the servants of God. I see white and black sitting together. There are no whites and blacks before God. All colors are one, and that is the color of servitude to God.” 53 The other speech was at the Fourth Annual NAACP Convention in Chicago where he declared that all races are created in the image of God. 54 These appearances attracted the attention of many leaders in the African American community including Alain Locke of the Harlem Renaissance, and Robert Abbott, publisher of the Chicago Defender who both joined the Bahá’í Faith. Louis G. Gregory, attorney and noted lecturer, found the Bahá’í Faith in 1907. Poet /writer Robert Hayden became a Bahá’í in 1943. Dr. Elsie Austin Assistant Attorney General of Ohio joined the Faith in 1934. 55 In one speech, ‘Abdul-Bahá proclaimed that to accomplish the unity of blacks and whites would be an “assurance of the world’s peace.” 56 On this epic journey he encouraged all Bahá’ís to embrace the oneness of humanity and counseled white Bahá’ís to purge themselves of prejudice as a spiritual requirement. He advocated interracial marriage as an expression of the oneness of humanity, supporting and blessing the marriage of African American Louis G. Gregory to Louisa Matthews who was white. ‘Abdul-Bahá also warned of impending violence and bloodshed if racial unity, equality and justice were not established in North America presaging the race riots to come in the next decade, as well as the civil rights movement many decades later. His actions and words inspired a series of unprecedented, Bahá’í sponsored, Race Amity Conferences in cities around the United States in the 1920s and 1930s 57 All this encouraged Bahá’ís to apply these principles to efforts for interracial and cross-cultural understanding evident in many social and economic projects and has given generations of Bahá’ís an

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essential skill set of experience with interracial and intercultural relationships in conflict transformation and peace building. Emancipation of Women: “Women and Men Have Been and Will Always Be Equal in the Sight of God.” 58 The emancipation of women, the achievement of full equality between the sexes, is one of the most important, though less acknowledged prerequisites of peace. The denial of such equality perpetrates an injustice against one half of the world’s population and promotes in men harmful attitudes and habits that are carried from the family to the workplace, to political life, and ultimately to international relations. There are no grounds, moral, practical, or biological, upon which such denial can be justified. Only as women are welcomed into full partnership in all fields of human endeavour will the moral and psychological climate be created in which international peace can emerge. 59

A measure of progress towards the emancipation of women is the number of women serving in elected and appointed leadership positions in Bahá’í institutions. Within the context of a community with no clergy, governance is by nine member councils elected in a dramatic democratic process open to all. The absence of nominations and campaigning and voting by secret ballot provides the means for women to vote their consciences free from social pressures and dominant male hierarchies. According to results of a 1994 survey of the worldwide Bahá’í community women held 30 percent of elected positions on the national level, and 40 percent on the local level. This represents a significant percentage when compared to the 10 percent of women elected to the world’s national parliaments. Another branch of Bahá’í leadership is in appointed roles, primarily consultative rather than legislative in function in which womencompose 47–50 percent worldwide. 60 Among the Báb’s chosen eighteen disciples was a remarkable woman, poet and scholar named Tahirih meaning “the pure one.” In July 1848, coincidentally the same month and year as the historic Seneca Falls Convention for Woman’s Suffrage in New York, 61 she defiantly and dramatically removed her veil in a conference of Bábí leaders declaring a clean break with tradition. 62 Tahirih uttered these prophetic last words before being executed by order of Muslim clergy: “You can kill me as soon as you like but you cannot stop the emancipation of women.” 63 ‘AbdulBahá, who as a young child sat on the lap of the brave heroine Tahirih, utilized a clarion analogy illustrating why gender equality is vital to world peace. The world of humanity is possessed of two wings: the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly. Until womankind reaches the same degree as man, until she enjoys the same arena of activity, extraordinary attainment for

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Religious Strife, Iran as a Testing Ground for Bahá’í Attitudes, Beliefs and Principles in Action Religious strife, throughout history, has been the cause of innumerable wars and conflicts, a major blight to progress, and is increasingly abhorrent to the people of all faiths and no faith. Followers of all religions must be willing to face the basic questions that this strife raises, and to arrive at clear answers. How are the differences between them to be resolved, both in theory and in practice? The challenge facing the religious leaders of mankind is to contemplate, with hearts filled with the spirit of compassion and a desire for truth, the plight of humanity, and to ask themselves whether they cannot, in humility before their Almighty Creator, submerge their theological differences in a great spirit of mutual forbearance that will enable them to work together for the advancement of human understanding and peace. 65

An example of extreme religious persecution is found in the dire situation of the Bahá’í community of Iran, the country’s largest religious minority of 300,000. A sustained campaign of persecution has for over a century and a half lain a burden of suffering and death on a people whose only desire is love, unity and peace. Shi’ah clergy continue to brand Bahá’ís heretics and apostates. Since the 1979 Iranian revolution, the nonviolent and nonpolitical Bahá’ís have been charged as spies for Britain and Israel, with “conspiracy against national security, against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” and “corruption on earth.” Hundreds of Bahá’ís have been, jailed, abducted or have simply disappeared. More than two hundred Bahá’ís have been executed or killed. In 2008 seven Iranian Bahá’í leaders, were imprisoned, charged with espionage, propaganda against the Islamic Republic, and the establishment of an illegal administration, and sentenced to twenty years in prison. Documents have been uncovered clearly showing the Iranian government’s plans for the systematic destruction and annihilation of the Bahá’í community. 66 Recently Bahá’ís have been arrested and prevented from hosting their own Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education, which was created as a result of a government ban on post secondary education for Bahá’í youth. A campaign and documentary film titled “Education Under Fire,” has sought to raise awareness of the plight of Iran’s Bahá’ís and enlist world

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opinion with screenings and discussions at schools and colleges around the world. 67 The Bahá’í response to restrictions and persecution within Iran has been to obey government edicts and to disband as a formal community. They have suffered a loss of basic human rights, unjust imprisonment, desecration and destruction of holy places and cemeteries, and death. Despite this dire situation, they have demonstrated dignity and compassion for their persecutors. On the international level the Bahá’í community works to reveal the truth about their plight and to rally support for their freedom. The Bahá’í approach to these issues illustrates a dynamic community that is willing to peacefully and lovingly stand by its principles and beliefs in the face of opposition, oppression and suffering. CONCLUSION In summary, Bahá’ís feel they are far from perfect and struggle daily to live up to the high standards of their teachings. They strive to reframe their conception of human nature to that of noble, spiritual and peaceful beings, and to prioritize peaceful action in their lives. Peace on earth will come, either by deliberate choice or, through extreme pain and suffering. War, violence and destructive conflict are symptoms of humanity’s disunity. They believe working to heal and repair each symptom one by one will not restore sustainable global health. They are convinced that if spiritual unity and harmony is sought first it will create the climate necessary for developing solutions to heal humanity’s long list of individual ills. As with the concept of unity in diversity illustrated by the physical body, sustainable peace will be established when we willfully and selflessly apply systemic and unifying spiritual remedies to the disease of disunifying conflict. In the words of Bahá’u’lláh “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.” 68 NOTES 1. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1971), 117. 2. Encyclopedia Britannica, Worldwide Adherents of All Religions, 2010 Book of the Year (Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2010), 300. 3. Bahá’í International Community, The Bahá’ís: A Profile of the Bahá’í Faith and Its Worldwide Community (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1999), 5. 4. ‘Abdu’l Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ‘Abdu’l Bahá during His visit to the United States and Canada in 1912 (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982), 106–9. 5. Universal House of Justice, The Promise of World Peace, A Bahá’í Statement on Peace (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1985), 23.

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6. Holly Hansen, “Overview of Bahá'í Social and Economic Development,” in The Bahá'í World 1992–1993 ed. Bahá'í World Centre (Haifa, Bahá'í World Centre, The Bahá'í World 1992–1993), 229–45. 7. Universal House of Justice, Promise of World Peace, 16. 8. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1970), 3–4. 9. Hassan Balyuzi, The Báb: The Herald of the Day of Days (Oxford: George Ronald Publisher, 1975), 148–60. 10. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, 89–103. 11. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, 151–56. 12. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, 206–13. 13. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from Writings, 259. 14. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, 194. 15. UNESCO, World Heritage List: Bahá’i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee (Paris, UNESCO World Heritage Centre 7, 2008), decision 32 COM 8B.57, 195–96. 16. Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’í Prayers: A Selection of Prayers Revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Short Obligatory Prayer (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 2002), 4. 17. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from Writings, 213. 18. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks. (London: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1995), 79–81. 19. Paul Lample, Revelation and Social Reality: Learning to Translate What Is Written into Reality (West Palm Beach, FL: Palabra Publications, 2009), 15. 20. Universal House of Justice, Promise World Peace, 29. 21. ‘Abdu’l Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 344–45. 22. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from Writings, 79–80. 23. Bahá’u’lláh, Tabernacle of Unity (Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 2006), 39. 24. Shoghi Effendi, World Order, 186–87. 25. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 129. 26. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from Writings, 95. 27. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá (Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1978), 68. 28. Universal House of Justice, Promise of World Peace, 4. 29. Bahá’u’lláh, The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1975), 3–4. 30. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks, 178. 31. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from Writings, 155. 32. Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words 11. 33. Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words, 3–4. 34. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from Writings, 269. 35. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 293. 36. Shoghi Effendi, “Racial Prejudice is Simply a Negation of Faith,” in Lights of Guidance: A Bahá’í Reference File, ed. Helen Hornby (New Delhi: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1983), 531. 37. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks, 53. 38. Bahá’í International Community, The Prosperity of Humankind (Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1995), 3–4. 39. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Secret of Divine Civilization (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1970), 39. 40. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 204–5. 41. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from Writings, 215. 42. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 171. 43. Shoghi Effendi, “Military Service,” in Lights of Guidance, 406–7. 44. Bahá’í International Community, Prosperity of Humankind, 7. 45. Shoghi Effendi, Bahá’í Administration (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1968), 63. 46. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from Writings, 87. 47. Bahá’í International Community, Prosperity of Humankind, 8.

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48. Robert Kegan & Lisa Lahey, How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001), 121. 49. Bahá’í International Community, “Bahá’í International Community Quadrennial Report 2006-2009,” (New York: Bahá’í International Community, BIC Document # 100601, 1 June 2010), 1–5. 50. Universal House of Justice, Promise of World Peace, 25. 51. Hassan Balyuzi, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Center of the Covenant (London: George Ronald Publisher, 1971), 3–8. 52. Robert Stockman, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in America (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 2012), 87–118. 53. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Peace, 44–46. 54. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Peace, 69–70. 55. Gayle Morrison, To Move the World : Louis G. Gregory and the Advancement for Racial Unity in America (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982), 381–82. 56. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’í World Faith: Selected Writings of Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1971), 269. 57. Gayle Morrison, Move the World, 129–43. 58. Bahá’u’lláh, Women: Extracts from the Writings of Baha’u’llah , ‘Abdu’l-Bahá , Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice, Research Department of The Universal House of Justice, comp. (Thornhill, Ontario: Bahá’í Canada Publications, 1986), 26. 59. Universal House of Justice, Promise of World Peace, 26–27. 60. Bahá’í International Community, United Nations Office, The Greatness That Might Be Theirs: The Status of Women in the Bahá’í Community, (Beijing, China: Bahá’í International Community, BIC Document #:95-0826.9. 26 Aug. 1995), 1. 61. Sally Gregory, Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women's Rights Movement, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 3. 62. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, 31. 63. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, 75. 64. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Peace, 375. 65. Universal House of Justice, Promise of World Peace, 26. 66. Dominic Parviz Brookshaw & Seena B. Fazel, “Introduction,” in The Bahá’ís of Iran: Socio-Historical Studies,” ed. (London: Routledge, 2008), 1–4. 67. Education Under Fire. Directed by Jeff Kaufman, (2011; Connecticut: Single Arrow Productions/Amnesty International, 2011), DVD. 68. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from Writings, 286.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Bahá ’ í World Faith: Selected Writings of Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1971. ———. Paris Talks. London: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1995. ———. The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ‘ Abdu ’ l Bahá during His visit to the United States and Canada in 1912. Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982. ———. The Secret of Divine Civilization. Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1970. ———. Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha. Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1978. Bahá’u’lláh. Bahá ’ í Prayers: A Selection of Prayers Revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 2002. ———. Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá ’u’lláh. Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1971. ———. The Hidden Words of Bahá ’ u ’ lláh. Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1975. ———. Tabernacle of Unity. Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 2006. Bahá’í International Community. The Bahá ’ ís: A Profile of the Bahá ’ í Faith and Its Worldwide Community. Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1999. ———. The Prosperity of Humankind. Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1995.

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Bahá'í World Centre, ed. The Bahá'í World 1992-93. Haifa: Bahá'í World Centre, 1994. Balyuzi, H.M. ‘Abdu ’ l-Bahá: Center of the Covenant. London: George Ronald Publisher, 1971. ———. The Báb: The Herald of the Day of Days. Oxford: George Ronald Publisher 1975. Brookshaw, Dominic Parviz, and Seena B. Fazel. The Bahá'í s of Iran: Socio-Historical Studies. London: Routledge, 2008. Education Under Fire. Directed by Jeff Kaufman. Connecticut: Single Arrow Productions/Amnesty International, 2011. DVD Gregory, Sally. Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women's Rights Movement. New York: Oxford. University Press, 2008. Hornby, Helen. Lights of Guidance: A Bahá ’ í Reference File. New Delhi: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1983. Kegan, Robert, and Lisa Lahey. How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001. Lample, Paul. Revelation and Social Reality: Learning to Translate What Is Written into Reality. West Palm Beach, FL: Palabra Publications, 2009. Morrison, Gayle. To Move the World: Louis G. Gregory and the Advancement for Racial Unity in America. Wilmette. IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982. Research Department of the Universal House of Justice. Women: Extracts from the Writings of Bahá ’ u ’ lláh , ‘ Abdu ’ l-Bahá , Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice. Thornhill, Ontario: Bahá’í Canada Publications, 1986. Stockman, Robert. ‘Abdu ’ l-Bahá in America. Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 2012. Shoghi Effendi. Bahá ’ í Administration. Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1968. ———. God Passes By. Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1970. Universal House of Justice. The Promise of World Peace, A Bahá ’ í Statement on Peace. Wilmette, IL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1985.

NINETEEN Religious Leader Engagement Military Chaplains Engaging Indigenous Religious Leaders and Their Communities in Operations (Voices from the International Chaplaincy Community) Padre S. K. Moore

INTRODUCTION Conflicts confronting the international community today present complexities beyond the earlier more conventional experience of war. Acknowledged, as well, is the reality that in many parts of the world the religious dimension of life—in both its irenic and conflictual manifestations—must be taken into account if efforts to resolve conflict are to be effective and lasting. Military leaders and their Whole of Government (WoG) partners recognize the strategic merit of building relations and establishing cooperation with the religious segment of societies as critical to the accomplishment of mission mandates. In the military milieu, it is under commander’s authority and in accordance with their intent that chaplains contribute to meeting these operational objectives through engaging religious leaders and their faith group communities. Military chaplains from a number of countries testify to engaging religious leaders at local, regional and, in some instances, national levels in what is known as Religious Leader Engagement (RLE). Networking, partnering and, in some instances, peacebuilding endeavors among religious leaders and their communities have proven to be effective means of garnering the much-needed trust of these influential community leaders—something that other initiatives 335

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may build on. Increasingly, chaplains speak anecdotally of a cross-section of such engagement in theaters of operation around the globe: Canada (Bosnia and Afghanistan), the United States (Iraq and Afghanistan), France (Kosovo), New Zealand (Afghanistan), Norway (Afghanistan), Australia (East Timor) and South Africa (Burundi). Increasingly, chaplains are working more closely with Command to bring religious leaders together, in some instances, at the highest levels, leading to greater understanding of the other and increased cooperation across ethnic lines. To date, the majority of instances of RLE have taken place within the military context and under Command. More extreme expressions of religion are representative of the complexities facing contemporary conflict. These challenges will continue to drive the requirement for innovative ways to navigate such labyrinths. Salutary to this discussion is the role of RLE beyond strictly military venues to that of WoG. As an interagency domain, it continues to expand as greater collaboration with other government departments (OGD) and agencies (OGA) increases in the bid to enhance nation-building capacities. Concomitant with this broadening effort is the emerging phenomenon of religious peacebuilding originating indigenously where conflict persists as well as in the facilitative efforts of outside actors working among religious communities to bring to bear the principles of peace and justice known to all religious traditions. In years to come, the strategic significance of chaplains’ engaging religious leaders and their communities engulfed in the larger conflicts of their respective identity groups will play a more significant role alongside their interagency (WoG) partners. This chapter will offer an overview of RLE, its inception at a time of increased religiously inspired violence, the efficacy of the peaceful applications inherent to faith traditions, accompanied by synopses of the operational experiences of chaplains, while underscoring the relevance of RLE for Provincial Reconstruction Team-like configurations. The Challenge: Religious Extremism as a Driver of Conflict Harvard’s Hebert C. Kelman, known for his work with the Oslo Accord, maintains that the deep-seated “negation of the other” is a main driver of conflict, which in turn shapes collective identity 1 as boundaries are drawn to secure one’s safety and identity from the alien other. In such situations, this is done “largely by exclusion, placing beyond that boundary those who are ‘not us,’ who are ‘them’. . . these are the ones made other.” 2 Stirring such animosity, or stoking its embers, becomes an effective means of polarizing ethno-religious communities for political gain, inciting violence by misleading local populations, colluding with the criminal element if need be. 3 Mimetic in nature, violence often becomes reciprocal, perpetuating the spiraling effect of the human urge to strike back twice as hard. 4 Volatility and violence can be expected outcomes if

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people are outraged by their “victimization” at the hands of the other— real or perceived—rendering their deep emotional currents and prejudices easily exploited. 5 Sadly, religion is often employed as a catalyst for such conflict escalation due to its uniqueness as an instrument of global appeal. Today’s unprecedented co-optation of religion as a means of deepening existing cultural and political fault lines aids in fueling the justification of militancy and terrorism, embracing violence as a divine duty or sacramental act. 6 In the contemporary context, “religious identity and affiliation are more transnational and therefore more mobile than identity based on nationality or language.” 7 The complexities of conflict may be compounded further when religious leaders who, with their incendiary language, contribute to the congealing of adversarial identity markers, exacerbating the polarization of communities even more. 8 “Religious identity per se is not exclusive. The problem comes when it turns into the only motivation for political action under the influence of opportunistic leaders with exclusive political programs.” 9 Florida Pastor Terry Jones (Dove World Outreach Center) is a case in point, who, along with his followers, placed the Koran on trial, finding its teachings guilty of inspiring murder. Its subsequent public burning aired on YouTube, sent tremors throughout the Islamic world resulting in widespread rioting and loss of life. 10 An exemplar of radical religious leaders the world over—regardless of faith tradition—the reckless and irresponsible leadership of Jones and his following depicts how the impressionable and uninformed come to experience religion as a combination of misinterpreted sacred texts imparted via clerics claiming to speak for the divine. 11 Such sacralizing—a veneer of religiously sanctioned dictums to rationalize aggression—becomes a powerful inducement to engage in violence against rival ethnoreligious groups. 12 In recent decades religiously motivated violence has become more pronounced, mainly due to a strategy of elevating religious images to the realm of divine struggle, thus creating in the minds of ardent followers the specter of cosmic war. Harnessing such emotive themes is the mainstay for many waging worldly political battles. Convincing youth to commit horrific acts of violence against innocent civilian populations becomes much less arduous when such atrocities are deemed to be “sanctioned by divine mandate or conceived in the mind of God. The power of this idea has been enormous. It has surpassed all ordinary claims of political authority and elevated religious ideologies to supernatural heights.” 13 Today, extreme religious expression has given terrorism remarkable power by spiritualizing violence. 14

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A Contribution: Religious Peacebuilding Seemingly paradoxical, although political leaders frequently exploit religious identity in order to stir ethnic and tribal division, religion may also be invoked as a means of transcending differences and unifying rival tribes. 15 Unfortunately, for many, discussing what may be termed as religious peacebuilding in our contemporary context, congers up its opposite religious-based conflict. As such, the role of religious actors engaging in conflict transformation or mitigation is either downplayed or dismissed. Known as multitrack diplomacy, a growing number of religious interventionists—individuals and/or organizations—are working with religious leaders and their faith communities as a means of bridging alienation and transcending conflict in various parts of the world. 16 Religious peacebuilding may be viewed as a parallel endeavor complementing more traditional approaches in a world where extreme expressions of religion continue to infuse conflict. Those familiar with Operations will recognize USAID as a significant actor in reconstruction and stabilization. Religion, Conflict & Peacebuilding: An Introductory Programming Guide, 17 was designed as a “toolkit” to lower discomfort levels among personnel to making connections between conflict, religion and peacebuilding. In more unstable situations, the writers state, “inattention to religious identities or to the views and aspirations of religious leaders may result in mischaracterizations about what the conflict is actually about or how likely it is to become violent.” 18 Not to underestimate the “challenges” that engaging religious communities may bring—hence, the need for transparency in dialogue—the document underscores the undeniable influence religious leaders have within their communities as well as the integrity and authenticity of religious themes and organizations in the midst of conflict. The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a secular think tank of longstanding. In their view, successfully resolving today’s complex conflict will necessitate “government analyses, policy, training, and programming . . . fully incorporat[ing] an understanding of the varied roles for religion in conflict-prone settings.” 19 The report, Mixed Blessings: US Government Engagement with Religion in Conflict-Prone Settings, recommends additional government expertise in all departments with respect to religion, expanding outside partnerships with academics in related fields, and linking this community of experts to those in the field as a force multiplier. In addition, the framers of this document encourage broader engagement inclusive of “not only ‘religious moderates’ but also ‘religious conservatives’ as opinion leaders and possible drivers of change.” 20 Poignant to the deliberation to follow is the Report’s citing of the role of chaplains as a strategic resource in the operational environment. 21

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More than any other contingent member, the chaplain embodies a natural bond with their local counterparts in theaters of operation. As such, they offer inroads to local communities where the intermeshing of religion and culture blur any lines of distinction. The Role of the Chaplain as a Religious Leader in Operations More so than at any time in operations commanders are looking to their chaplains as a strategic resource. The complexities of today’s new wars 22 or wars amongst the people 23 are inclusive of the religious dimension and, as such, indigenous religious leaders and their communities are viewed as influential entities within cultures where religion permeates the public space. A resulting expectation for an increased capacity among chaplains to provide further knowledge of the religious other in operational environments is most assuredly emerging. What sets chaplains apart from others is their status as religious leaders in their own right. More than any other contingent member, they share common ground with their local counterparts. As practicing religious leaders, chaplains understand the rigors of a religious discipline and are intimately familiar with leading faith communities, one of the main reasons why indigenous clerics often reach out to chaplains. As people of faith, chaplains are deemed trusted individuals—”people of the book.” It must be understood, as faith community leaders these individuals are often desirous of an exchange on the spiritual plane, as that is their way of life. Due to their faith orientation, chaplains better understand the religious impulses of local communities that, if supported, may serve to ameliorate relationships, mitigating conflict between alienated groups. Engendering trust, chaplains become a safe space for religious leaders to share their story and audibly express their concerns and aspirations, an important aspect of the reconciliation process. The integrity of such exchanges must be respected. For RLE, the aim is to engage those of tolerant voice who often express interest in transcending conflict. These are the faith group leaders who would join together with even the enemy other across ethnic lines in search for ways to provide greater security for their people and a better future for their youth. Chaplains are uniquely positioned as peace builders in conflict and postconflict environments, catalysts for intercommunal dialogue and cooperation where often none exists. Creating a safe space for dialogue between religious community leadership becomes a means to engender trust—a peacebuilding measure known in chaplaincy parlance as the ministry of hospitality. The seeds for conflict transformation are sown in such encounters. Networking among religious communities often leads to humanitarian assistance initiatives. The trust and confidence necessary for the initial steps for peace often begins here. The inter- and/or intra-faith

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ritual events initiated by chaplains are also transformative—public celebrations, shuras, shared meals, etc.—become venues where stereotypical images of the other are dispelled. Additional peacebuilding measures take the shape of collaborative activities. Chaplains from a number of countries have introduced more integrative activities through the usage of supraordinate goals. Such intercommunal cooperation sees religious communities accomplishing together what neither group could have achieved alone. Integrative in nature, grassroots leadership and their communities are brought together in activities and forums that promote interdependence. It is through such processes that new narratives begin to be written. Chaplains have and continue to facilitate diverse and contextually sensitive peacebuilding activities. An added dimension to such rapport is the oft-held perception by indigenous leaders in the developing world that Western leaders are secularist, and, consequently, a threat to their faith and way of life. The tendency is to avoid engaging “Westerners” be they military or civilian. Chaplains are able to bridge to these influential communities, breaking the way for meaningful dialogue with other actors. A caveat to the above is that although the emphasis is on engaging the tolerant voice of religion, dialogue may not be confined to them alone. The fluidity and unpredictability of conflict may give rise to situations where those involved in the conflict may choose to speak with religious leaders as a conduit to entering into discussion—those who function more on the fringe of an insurgency, thus broadening the base of stakeholders. Insurgents that are more radical may not be satisfied with anything less than achieving their goals. That said, “The vast majority of most insurgent groups are normally composed of less highly motivated people who simply want to achieve a better life.” 24 A chaplain could find him/herself on the periphery of such engagement. This is not to suggest that chaplains become negotiators. However, they could facilitate bringing those with expertise in such matters to the table where meaningful dialogue could begin between principals to the conflict. Building trust among fringe elements may be difficult, yet efforts to do so remain imperative if permanent solutions are to be realized. ADVISING COMMAND: RELIGIOUS AREA ANALYSIS Conceptually, Religious Area Analysis (RAA) originates with the United States Army Chaplain Center and School at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. The Canadian Forces Chaplain Branch is working in consultation with their American counterparts in developing this aspect of chaplaincy training, deploying chaplains who possess the skills to accumulate and categorize information relating to the religious practices and traditions pertinent to an Area of Operations (AO). This information will be gath-

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ered from as wide a range of open source resources as practicably possible in the amount of time allotted prior to deployment. In a very real sense, this will remain a living document once networking among local religious leaders and their communities becomes a reality. This is not to suggest that what others bring is of no consequence. Chaplains come to operations with advanced theological training and, as such, are well positioned to interpret the nuances of religious belief that may impact a group’s behavior and actions—undetected, this could potentially be costly to the mission. If this were to escape detection the cost could be high to a mission. In grasping the meaning and reality of the faith perspective, chaplains are better able to understand—and perhaps anticipate—how the grassroots person would respond to given mission initiatives, plans of action, troop movements, and the like. The nature of command often necessitates sending troops into harms way. As such, the availability of all information pertinent to the decision-making process is critical. Religious Leader Engagement: An Emerging Role for Operational Chaplains Identifying the tolerant voice among religious leaders is key to initiating dialogue. These are faith group leaders—community leaders—often desirous of moving beyond conflict, thus transcending present hostilities and the intransigence that often pits their respective identity groups against one another. Known as middle-range actors, they enjoy the confidence of the grass roots while moving freely at the higher levels of leadership within their own communities. 25 Their ease of access affords them relationships that are professional, institutional, some formal, while other ties are more a matter of friendship and acquaintance, hence a high degree of social capital within communities. More notable still, “middlerange actors tend to have pre-existing relationships with counterparts that cut across the lines of conflict within the setting . . . a network or relationships that cut across the identity divisions within the society.” 26 Religious leaders are undoubtedly among the more influential centers of gravity within indigenous populations—middle range actors who, in non-Western societies, where the lines of separation between faith and the public space are markedly less defined, carry much influence at community, regional and national levels. Such sway owes its origins to the almost seamless nature existing between religious communities and local culture and, at times, politics. Encounter Where estranged religious communities are engulfed in the larger conflict of their respective identity groups, the goal becomes to gradually bring religious community leaders together in encounter, a delicate pro-

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cess of dialogue leading to the establishing of what practitioners refer to as the “fragile we, a situation . . . where us versus them gives way to we at least in certain contexts.” 27 As progress in relations improves, working trust emerges, bringing conflicting communities closer to coexistence where, initially, the desire may be to live separately in a conflict-free environment. It is this will to embrace that not only sees the other from a different perspective, but also sees the self from the perspective of the other, something Miroslav Volf calls “double vision.” 28 Repeated acts of cooperation aid in achieving common instrumental goals often see such trust emerge, an indispensable element of peacebuilding. Social psychologists refer to such collaboration as instrumental reconciliation. 29 Networking In accordance with command directives and mission goals, future operations will see chaplains networking among local religious leaders more intentionally—establishing dialogue, engendering trust, and, more importantly, creating a conduit for communication locally/regionally. RLE activities will naturally flow out of the RAA conducted by chaplains. In this sense one is built upon the other. As command authorizes and security permits, both are necessary to the full scope of engagement among local religious communities. Partnering Chaplains are often members of Key Leader Engagement 30 teams, conversing with the religious leaders present. Such engagement facilitates continued dialogue where genuine needs of the surrounding communities may be identified leading to more intentional partnering with Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) or other agencies/NGOs. Such program development serves as a crucial link in the security-development nexus, a potential precursor to collaborative activities across ethno-religious boundaries. The following is but one example of peace building through humanitarian aid distribution at the tactical level. Canadian Forces (CF) Padre Gabriel Legault, while serving with Security Forces (SFOR) headquartered in Zgon, Bosnia-Herzegovina (2003) partnered with CIMIC personnel in bringing much needed Humanitarian Aid (HA) to the multi-ethnic community of Glamoč. The Platoon of Canadian troops had unwittingly created tension for themselves and among the local ethno-religious communities by a lack of attentiveness to the even distribution of HA coming into their area through supply lines. A few visits by Legault with the Imam and Roman Catholic and Orthodox priests soon revealed the problem of the unintentional impartiality, but, more disturbingly, the depth of estrangement among these religious leaders. The Imam had not so much as exchanged words with his Chris-

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tian counterparts over a period of years. During his visits with the clerics individually Legault soon learned that all were pressured with constant requests for HA from their people still recovering from the war’s devastation. With the support of Command and the CIMIC officer, a shared meal was proposed where the local clerics of all three faith communities were invited to discuss a plan for fair and equal distribution of HA. While sitting at table and breaking bread together—a significant ritual event in and of itself—the Imam and Roman Catholic and Orthodox priests agreed that an Inter-communal Committee of lay members representative of all three faith groups would be struck. Transcending the existing animosity, the agreed-upon criteria for the division of HA was demonstrative need, regardless of ethnicity—in effect, the higher good. Of import as well was the ensuing conversation that transpired between the Imam and his Christian counterparts, something that had not occurred up to that point. RLE activities of this nature hold within them the seeds of reconciliation. Collaborative Activities Restorative justice does not glaze over past wrongs, rather, as a way of moving forward, it stresses a lessening of the relational gap as a precursor to collaboratively creating new narratives through increased association. The righting of past injustice is far more promising in an environment where trust has had a chance to develop through interdependence and cooperation. Doctrine underscores the poignancy of “impartiality, trust, cooperation and openhearted relationships” 31 as critical to successful negotiations. RLE is not negotiation, albeit, any peacebuilding activity among religious communities will compel the same measure of authenticity and integrity. It must be understood that engagement within the religious realm must not be relegated to simply being a tool or technique for the sake of leverage, nor can such encounters be viewed as opportunities for intelligence gathering. Such approaches would undermine progress made. The hope is that in time such sustained trust and cooperation may move communities closer to integration where personal trust creates an atmosphere of friendship. Peace building In circumstances where security and opportunity have been favorable, commanders have authorized chaplains to undertake more intentional peace building activities among religious communities. Chaplains have brought religious leaders together who, due to existing tensions, have been incommunicado for a number of years. Dialogue and, in some cases, collaborative activities have resulted, affording occasions to seed reconciliation. Such cooperation among local religious leaders and their com-

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munities over the long-term may function as “shock absorbers,” preventing the manipulation or abuse of religion to escalate conflict or tensions. 32 The predominant feature of collaborative activities is the peacebuilding nature of supra-ordinate goals. Noted earlier, these are jointly agreedupon objectives that benefit both communities, yet neither community can accomplish alone, achievable only through intercommunal cooperation. With thorough needs analysis—a two-way street between local religious leadership and military/civilian program developers—a shared project with the right fit may be selected. As such, greater integration comes to the fore. Through cooperation of this nature, an identity more inclusive of the other begins to develop. It is in such an atmosphere that conflict is transcended, new narratives are written and the healing of memory begins. Inter- and intrafaith dialogue has led to public celebrations and ritual events inclusive of the faith group leaders of the implicated identity groups. Such public displays of unity offer to the people a vision of themes of peace, justice and mutuality that are faithful to the Holy Texts known to all faith traditions. Palpable among religious leaders is the concern for the well being of their youth and what future lay ahead for them. Chaplains may facilitate long-term programming to address such concerns, leading to the transcending of barriers among conflicting groups. OPERATIONAL ANCEDOTES Religious leader engagement has been emerging for some years in tandem with the shifts in operational emphases as a response to the change and complexity of conflict. Visionary commanders have given their support to chaplains from a number of countries precipitating some rather extraordinary encounters with religious leaders at operational and strategic levels. The following operational anecdotes offer a glimpse of the peacebuilding activities of a number of chaplains under commander’s authority in collaboration with their WoG partners. 33 Canada: Demonstrative of chaplains collaborating with their WoG partners are the significant gains made among the Sunni and Shi’a faith communities in Kandahar facilitated by CF chaplain, Captain Imam Suleyman Demiray (2006–2007) in collaboration with the PRT Commandant and Political Advisor for Foreign Affairs Canada. A Shura was held in the PRT compound where, for the first time, staff engaged local and regional religious leaders—an achievement that up to that point had evaded PRT personnel. Through his concerted efforts, the re-establishing of the Shi’a presence on the Governor-appointed, and predominantly Sunni, Ulama Shura (provincial council of Mullahs and Islamic scholars) was accomplished—a presence that had been lost for a period of two years due to

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the assassination of the former Shi’a representative. The goodwill established among the religious communities and cooperation with the director of religious affairs for Kandahar Province also noticeably improved security for the greater mission. 34 United States: U.S. Army Chaplain Colonel (retired) Mike Hoyt who, in collaboration with Cannon Andrew White—Anglican Special Envoy to the Middle East—and in WoG fashion, brought together military, Iraqi government, U.S. government departments, the diplomatic community and an indigenous NGO in creating the Iraqi Inter-Religious Council (IIRC). Comprised of all of the major religious groups of Iraq, the IIRC convened in Baghdad (2007) where an Accord was struck, facilitating agreement to ameliorate hostilities by providing a platform for warring factions to safely debate their issues, begin a Government of Iraq political interface, and to affirm religious contributions to social and national unity. Subsequent to the Baghdad conference, a meeting was held in Cairo (2008) among major regional Sunni and Shi’a religious leadership where Iraqi Shi’a and Sunni personally committed to work towards issuing an unprecedented joint fatwa concerning peace and religious tolerance for all. The process continues in the High Religious Council of Iraq, which meets on a regular basis and is heavily engaged in limiting violence, renouncing reprisals and terrorism, and seeking sustainable government accountability to the highest ideals of transparency and religious accountability. France: French Chaplain Lieutenant Colonel Michel de Peyret served as the theater chaplain for NATO Forces under French Command in Kosovo (2005–2006). At the behest of LtGen de Kermabon, Commander of the Kosovo Forces (KFOR), de Peyret established good relations with the senior religious leaders of all three religious traditions: Muslim, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic. Much good will had been previously established through the repairing of an Orthodox monastery partially destroyed during days of intercommunal tensions and rioting the year prior. It was discovered that no historical account existed in Kosovo of Muslim, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic religious leaders ever coming together for dialogue. Through his continued overtures among these religious communities de Peyret garnered enough trust to bring Mufti Terrnava (Albanian Muslim), Mgr Teodosije (Serbian Orthodox bishop) and Mgr Sopi (Albanian Roman Catholic bishop) to KFOR Headquarters for a shared meal with the commander. Having received authority from the Orthodox hierarchy in Belgrade, Serbia the day prior, Serbian Orothodox Bishop Tedosije stood in this company and offered a sincere apology for any wrong his people may have caused to the Albanian Muslim community. Before a speechless gathering, Mufti Terrnava took the bishop by the hand and pledged to him his support if it were ever needed. Encouraged by such progress, the following week all three religious leaders

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returned for an additional meal which this time included the United Nations High Representative and Prime Minister of Kosovo. New Zealand: Chaplain Leon O’Flynn of New Zealand speaks of the chaplain’s WoG role in the Bamyan Province PRT, Afghanistan (2009–2010). Aside from the pastoral support function, the specific task for the chaplain is in the domain of reconstruction and development. This is not ad hoc in any measure, as the predeployment phase includes a twoweek CIMIC course where the principals of the PRT team are assembled to begin training and planning for their WoG endeavor together. By the time they arrive in theater the PRT team has already had an opportunity to get acquainted and consult one with another as to their roles and the various organizations they will encounter. Poignant to O’Flynn’s facilitative role also was the methodical approach employed by the NZPRT to bring projects to completion. He speaks of utilizing Liaison Officers who spent time with village councils explaining to them the PRT/government process of developing a plan for a project submission to the district level. This grassroots engagement was critical to moving much needed infrastructure improvements to the next level—a “bottom up” endeavor. The PRT staff worked in concert with these efforts to assure safe passage of each initiative to both district and provincial stages of the process. Again, linking the director of education with the appropriate NGO for funding purposes became a “top down” procedure as government structures already in place were accessed on behalf of grassroots requests. In this regard, the chaplain aided in the circular causality needed for grassroots initiatives to come to fruition— both “bottom up” and “top down” processes functioning together to bring about needed infrastructure changes in Bamyan Province. Advantageous to the reconstruction efforts was the enhanced central government’s image among the people as they personally witnessed their provincial representatives making a difference—the writing of new narratives. By virtue of the chaplain facilitating such programming among government leadership and the NGO community it became a function of RLE, an added dimension of WoG. Norway: The Norwegian’s lead a PRT in Faryab Province, Afghanistan in collaboration with Latvia, Finland, and Iceland—in principle a Nordic endeavor. Although Norwegian chaplains regularly engage the local religious leadership in Faryab Province, Chaplain Frode Lagset is the first to write about it. In his estimation, a distinction exists between internal pastoral ministries among the PRT personnel and the external role among the community religious leadership. The Norwegian chaplaincy is still exploring this new capacity within the Whole of Government environment of the PRT. Lagset saw benefit in developing a “specialist” role for a chaplain who would work in collaboration with PRT personnel in RLE activities. In such a scenario, a second priest would deploy to care for the sacramental and pastoral needs of the PRT personnel, precluding

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any undermining of the more traditional role due to a chaplain becoming too distracted by outside interests. The “specialist” would devote all of his/her energies to networking, partnering and peacebuilding among local religious communities, which would complement the diplomatic and development initiatives of his/her WoG partners. Intimated here is the need for additional training beyond that which would prepare the chaplain for the priesthood, a notion worthy of consideration. Chaplain Lagset offered the intriguing observation that from the Afghan perspective, it was difficult to separate any peacebuilding initiatives from other PRT activities—a local Afghan did not make such a distinction. As the PRT chaplain, he was duly recognized as a religious leader within the community but never lost his attachment to the foreign European presence among them. How could he? Interestingly, Lagset did not see this as a detractor among the local populace. His impression was that in Afghan society for religious leaders to be involved in political and, sometimes, military endeavors, was the norm. He deemed his affiliation with those in uniform was not as much of a problem for the local community as some would contend. CONCLUSION The recognition that traditional approaches need to be inclusive of more innovative ways of resolving the perplexing tests of today’s new wars has emerged among Western nations in particular. Internationally renowned for his mediation and negotiation acumen, I. William Zartman poignantly states, “[A]ll the knowledge that can be brought to bear in favor of conflict resolution is badly needed and all the hands that can be brought to the task can be helpful. 35 In this light, religious leader engagement stands as an emerging dimension of operations that is as promising as it is timely. As seen above, documented anecdotal evidence exists of deployed chaplains from a number of countries, successfully engaging local, regional and national religious leaders in peace building activities, employing an assortment of approaches, all unique to the given context. Albeit, these overtures toward reconciliation among estranged religious communities were ad hoc, yet they were carried out under commander’s authority and in his explicit intent. In several instances WoG personnel were directly implicated in the peace building activities of the chaplain. With more intentionality and committed resources, chaplains with peace building expertise in the major religious traditions of our time could open up new avenues for the advancement of peace in fulfillment of mission mandates and in collaboration with WoG initiatives.

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NOTES 1. Herbert C. Kelman, “Reconciliation from a Social-Psychological Perspective,” in The Social Psychology of Intergroup Reconciliation, eds. Arie Nadler, Thomas E. Malloy, and Jeffery D. Fisher (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 15–32. 2. Robert J. Schreiter, Reconciliation: Mission & Ministry in a Changing Social Order (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books and Boston Theological Institute, 1992). 3. Ashutosh Varshney, Ethic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002). 4. V. Neufeld Redekop, From Violence to Blessing: How An Understanding of DeepRooted Conflict Can Open Paths to Reconciliation (Toronto: Novalis, 2002). 5. R. S. Appleby, The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000). 6. R. S. Appleby and R. Cizik, Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for U.S. Foreign Policy (Chicago: The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 2010). 17. 7. Ibid., 38. 8. P. Otis, “Religion and War in the Twenty-First Century,” in Religion and Security: The New Nexus in International Relations, ed. R. A. Seiple and D. R. Hoover (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004). 9. M. Apostolov, Religious Minorities, Nation States and Security: Five Cases from the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean (Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2001). 13. 10. Taimoor Shah and Rod Nordland, “Protests Over Koran Burning Reach Kandahar,” New York Times, April 2, 2011. 11. B. Hoffman, Inside Terrorism: Revised and Expanded Edition (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006). 83. 12. Appleby, The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation, 60. 13. M. Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2000), 146, 216. 14. Ibid., 217. 15. Appleby, The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation, 61. 16. Joseph Montville Zuckerman, “Can Unofficial Talks Avert Disaster? Defining Track II: Meet Joseph Montville,” The Carnegie Reporter 3, no. 3 (2005). 17. USAID, “Religion, Conflict & Peacebuilding: An Introductory Programming Guide,” (2010). 18. Ibid., 3. 19. L. Danan and A. Hunt, “Mixed Blessings: U.S. Government Engagement with Religion in Conflict-Prone Settings,” in A Report of the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies Press, 2007), 1. 20. Ibid., 52. 21. Ibid., 26. 22. Mary Kaldor, New and Cold Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era, 2 ed. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006). 8–9. 23. R. Smith, The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World (London: Penguin Books, 2006). 289–92. 24. “Land Force: Counter-Insurgency Operations, Doc. No. B-GL-323-004/FP-003,” (Kingston, Canada: Army Publishing Office, 2008), 3–13. 25. John Paul Lederach, Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 1997). 26. Ibid., 42. 27. R. M. Baron, “Reconciliation, Trust, and Cooperation: Using Bottom-Up and Top-Down Strategies to Achieve Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” in The Social Psychology of Intergroup Reconciliation, ed. A. Nadler, T. E. Malloy, and J. D. Fisher (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 284. 28. M. Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996).

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29. A. Nadler and N. Shnabel, “Instrumental and Socioemotional Paths to Intergroup Reconciliation and the Needs-Based Model of Socioemotional Reconciliation,” in The Social Psychology of Intergroup Reconciliation, ed. A. Nadler, T. E. Malloy, and J. D. Fisher (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 41. 30. Key Leader Engagement may be defined as “the conduct of a deliberate and focused meeting with a person of significant importance in order to achieve a desired effect.” “Land Force Doctrine Note 2-09,” in Key Leader Engagement (KLE)—Approval Draft (2009). 31. “Joint Doctrine Manual: Peace Support Operations, Doc. No. B-GJ-005-307/FP030,” (Ottawa, Canada: National Defence, 2002). 32. Appleby and Cizik, Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for U.S. Foreign Policy: 52. 33. The anecdotes cited here are brief synopses of documented case studies complete with theoretical and theological application to be published in the forthcoming volume: S. K. Moore, Military Chaplains as Agents of Peace: Religious Leader Engagement in Conflict and Post-Conflict Environments (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, forthcoming). 34. Brigadier-General David Fraser (Former Commander of Regional Command South, International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF)), in interview with the author, Kandahar, Afghanistan, January 29, 2007. 35. I. W. Zartman, “Toward the Resolution of International Conflicts,” in Peacemaking in International Conflict: Methods & Techniques, ed. I. William Zartman and J. Lewis Rasmussen (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997), 14.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Apostolov, M. Religious Minorities, Nation States and Security: Five Cases from the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2001. Appleby, R. S., and R. Cizik. Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for U.S. Foreign Policy. Chicago: The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 2010. Appleby, R.S. The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. Baron, R. M. “Reconciliation, Trust, and Cooperation: Using Bottom-up and TopDown Strategies to Achieve Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” In The Social Psychology of Intergroup Reconciliation, edited by A. Nadler, T. E. Malloy and J. D. Fisher. 275–98. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Danan, L., and A. Hunt. “Mixed Blessings: U.S. Government Engagement with Religion in Conflict-Prone Settings.” In A Report of the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project. Washington, D.C.: Center for Strategic and International Studies Press, 2007. http:// csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/070820_religion.pdf. Hoffman, B. Inside Terrorism: Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. “Joint Doctrine Manual: Peace Support Operations, Doc. No. B-Gj-005-307/Fp-030.” Annex C, C004.1.a, 7C-2. Ottawa, Canada: National Defence, 2002. Juergensmeyer, M. Terror in the Mind of God. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2000. Kaldor, Mary. New and Cold Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era. 2 ed. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006. Kelman, Herbert C. “Reconciliation from a Social-Psychological Perspective.” In The Social Psychology of Intergroup Reconciliation, edited by Arie Nadler, Thomas E. Malloy, and Jeffery D. Fisher, 15–32. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. “Land Force Doctrine Note 2-09.” In Key Leader Engagement (KLE)—Approval Draft, 2009. “Land Force: Counter-Insurgency Operations, Doc. No. B-Gl-323-004/Fp-003.” Kingston, Canada: Army Publishing Office, 2008.

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Lederach, John Paul. Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies. Washington: United States Institute of Peace, 1997. Moore, S. K. Military Chaplains as Agents of Peace: Religious Leader Engagement in Conflict and Post-Conflict Environments. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, forthcoming. Nadler, A., and N. Shnabel. “Instrumental and Socioemotional Paths to Intergroup Reconciliation and the Needs-Based Model of Socioemotional Reconciliation.” In The Social Psychology of Intergroup Reconciliation, edited by A. Nadler, T. E. Malloy and J. D. Fisher. 37–56. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Neufeld Redekop, V. From Violence to Blessing: How an Understanding of Deep-Rooted Conflict Can Open Paths to Reconciliation. Toronto: Novalis, 2002. Otis, P. “Religion and War in the Twenty-First Century.” In Religion and Security: The New Nexus in International Relations, edited by R. A. Seiple and D. R. Hoover. 11–24. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004. Schreiter, Robert J. Reconciliation: Mission & Ministry in a Changing Social Order. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books and Boston Theological Institute, 1992. Shah, Taimoor, and Rod Nordland. “Protests over Koran Burning Reach Kandahar.” New York Times, April 2, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/world/asia/03afghanistan.html?ref=terryjonespastor. Smith, R. The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World. London: Penguin Books, 2006. USAID. “Religion, Conflict & Peacebuilding: An Introductory Programming Guide.” 2010. http://transition.usaid.gov/our_work/cross-cutting_programs/conflict/publications/docs/Religion_Conflict_and_Peacebuilding_Toolkit.pdf. Varshney, Ashutosh. Ethic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002. Volf, M. Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1996. Zartman, I. W. “Toward the Resolution of International Conflicts.” In Peacemaking in International Conflict: Methods & Techniques, edited by I. William Zartman and J. Lewis Rasmussen. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997. Zuckerman, Joseph Montville. “Can Unofficial Talks Avert Disaster? Defining Track Ii: Meet Joseph Montville.” The Carnegie Reporter 3, no. 3 (2005). http://carnegie.org/ publications/carnegie-reporter/single/view/article/item/136/.

Part III

The Way Forward: Four Faith Models

TWENTY Striving for Justice and Peace on Earth, Catholic Peace Initiatives Ismael Muvingi

Historically, religion has been implicated as a major causal or contributory factor in violent conflict; a view that is in part fueled by exclusivist religious worldviews that are blamed for promoting a divisiveness which is at odds with a pluralist, globalizing world. Religion in peacemaking has not received a great deal of attention therefore and the advent of the secular state and the paradigm of state and church separation further marginalized the peacemaking role of religion. Some policy makers and academics even dismissed religion as a “waning, irrational, and dysfunctional aberration.” 1 However, peace scholars like Powers, have argued that the commitment of faith that underscores religion, can equally be a powerful force in the pursuit of freedom, justice, liberation and peace which are the cornerstones of conflict resolution and sustainable just peace. 2 This chapter explores the conflict resolution and peacemaking work that is inspired by the Catholic faith and actualized by Catholic actors. The peace and conflict resolution record of the Catholic Church (the Church) has indeed been mixed. The Church collaborated with the violence and exploitation of colonization and in Latin America it had a troubling record of backing authoritarian regimes. But the Church also became the forum for powerful resistance to oppression across the globe, articulating a theology of liberation and adopting a preferential option for the poor in public policy. 3 It is present in innumerable conflict locations, contributing to the understanding, surfacing, resolution and prevention of conflicts. It is also present picking up the pieces in the after353

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math of violence; engaging in recovery, restoration and reconstruction. In fact, the Church is present before, during, and after conflict. These actions are informed by commitment to a Catholic vision of peace that is a part of the larger Christian mission but also a particularly Catholic view of world order. The Catholic Church is the biggest and most global Christian institution. 4 Given its size and complexity, analysis of its activities entails an exploration of questions such as; what is the Catholic Church? How does it define its role in conflict interventions? Who acts in its name? What do the actors actually do? How do they accomplish their work and what are the impacts of the interventions? In this chapter, I give a brief synopsis of the institution of the Church and the actors that intervene in its name as well as a summation of the Catholic vision of peace. The interventions are then presented through the lens of conflict phases as an analytical tool while recognizing the interlinked nature of conflict interventions and the reality that conflicts do not necessarily follow a linear progression. The Catholic vision of peace goes beyond the cessation of violence and postulates the creation of right relationships as a core element of sustainable just peace. Resistance to oppression and exploitation, and the advocacy and mobilization to end injustice are therefore an additional component of Catholic peace. Specific examples of the Church’s work in each category will be offered. The concluding analysis will point to the increased engagement of the Church in conflict resolution and peacebuilding that challenges the nineties’ scholarship’s dismissal of religion as a waning aberration. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH The Church is a vast institution with more than one billion followers. It has been a central figure in the development of the world for nearly two thousand years and remains an existing power whose reach extends to every part of the globe. 5 That power is paradoxical in being centralized and yet diffuse; exercised and maintained by a complex and diverse community of multiple actors, religious and lay, that can be individual, collective and/or organized. As the oldest institution in the world, the Church is steeped in tradition and maintains very conservative positions on issues of morality, yet at the same time it advances some of the most progressive thinking and undertakes visible local and global action on social issues such as human rights and development. This equipoise of change and tradition gives the Church tremendous credibility when it advocates change. The Church’s universal reach requires high operational adaptability. It has adapted to, and in turn influenced, most cultures. Universal presence means the Church is present in multiple forms at the locations of social conflicts. Particularly since Vatican II, the Church has sought to

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advance the cause of peace through proclamation and intervention in conflict; helping to resolve violent confrontations and staying to help rebuild societies in the aftermath of the devastations of violence. That peacemaking and peacebuilding role is facilitated by its unique identity and position as both a global and a local actor driven by values rather than any desire for direct political power. The Vatican, which is the center of World Catholicism, is the holder of both moral and quasi-state power that is not enjoyed by any other state. It has diplomatic status that gives it direct access to policy makers. The Church thus transcends moral and political dimensions and bridges the secular and the religious. 6 Although the Church is centralized, it is simultaneously disparate; a characteristic sometimes referenced as the octopus church; many hands linked to a center, but acting independently. The Pope appoints all the bishops, and bishops appoint priests, but the Church is also a vast array of interest groups that are autonomous. These other actors comprise religious orders, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), charities, health and education institutions, and the laity, individually or in groups. This duality of centralization and autonomy is illustrated by the lay association of St. Egidio that chooses its initiatives independently of Rome and bears the responsibilities on its own. 7 It is a Church with many centers of action but a common peace mission. While there is unity brought by the vertical integration of the Church, there is also considerable diversity of thinking and acting. The Church’s presence is spatially variable; little in some countries and pervasive in others. As Appleby said of the conflict in Columbia, “The majority of members of the army, the guerrillas, the paramilitaries, the victims and the governments hail from a Catholic background.” 8 Church actors also intervene in conflicts in a wide variety of ways. The Pope is its most visible representation and besides proclaiming the peace mission, he is actively engaged in resolving conflicts. Out of Vatican II, a Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and Justice and Peace Commissions comprised of lay people were created. Bishops’ conferences and individual bishops such as Archbishop Romero of El Salvador, Archbishop Monswengo of Congo, Bishop Ruiz of Mexico, and Bishop Belo of East Timor among others have taken lead roles in negotiating peace in their regions. So have priests. Church affiliated groups, such as Pax Christi, Caritas Internationalis, and St. Egidio undertake peacemaking and peacebuilding. The conflict environment in which the Church is operating has been changing. As Smith has argued, industrial war has evolved into war among the people in which battles are fought for hearts and minds. 9 Civilians are now the target of violent conflict and its main casualties. That has necessitated an expansion of actors in the world of peacemaking. State diplomacy and interventions remain central, but are no longer adequate. As formal battle and battlefield victory are fading, different

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strategies for resolving conflicts are called for. Organizations such as the Church that do not have geo-political ambitions and constraints have greater flexibility in mediating between warring factions. The Church’s legitimacy is enhanced by a holistic approach that seeks to address everyday issues affecting communities such as food, shelter, health provisions from which state interveners are more distanced. The Church’s vision of peace is grounded in justice and directed by charity. As Christiansen articulated, the Catholic contribution to peace comprises in two formats; a) its visioning and articulation of peace, and b) the practice of peace. 10 CATHOLIC VISION OF PEACE The Catholic Church has a substantial body of teaching on peace, underscored by the belief that peace is not just the absence of war; but rather, the existence of conditions that enable the dignity of the human person. The peace mission was articulated in Pope John XXIII’s encyclical letter, Pacem in terris (Peace on earth) that identified peace with a unity of order that is based on respect for the law of God, peace as between persons, between persons and communities, between communities and peace in the world community. 11 Pacem in terris advanced the social question in this worldly existence, and set in motion changes that led to profound reform in the Church including efforts at reconciliation amongst religions. 12 Pope John Paul II followed up by calling on Catholics to fight for justice in order to attain peace and to do this through nonviolent means. Justice is not, however, the equivalent of peace. For long-term peace, constructive social relations are imperative. 13 The Church’s perspectives on peace have been undergoing a transformation. Appleby traces this transformation from theocratic dogma to liberalism and from active acquiescence to state repression, to the championing of human rights. 14 Particularly under the leadership of Pope John Paul II, nonviolence became a nonnegotiable tenet. In 1968, the Latin American Catholic Church added the preferential option for the poor as a counter to the institutionalized violence which oppresses the poor and requires structural transformation. 15 In 1971 the World Synod of Catholic Bishops proclaimed transformative social justice action as an integral part of the Church’s mission of redemption and liberation of humanity from oppression. 16 This has become an activist Church. The majority of Church actors speak in terms of peacemaking and peacebuilding rather than conflict resolution, but there is considerable overlap and congruence between the terms. Rubenstein defines conflict resolution as a field of study and practice that seeks to resolve conflicts by assisting the conflicting parties to identify causes of violent or destructive behavior and resolve them through changing the responsible sys-

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tems if necessary. 17 Catholic Relief Services (CRS) defines peacebuilding as responding “to the root causes of violent conflict, including unjust relationships and structures, in addition to addressing its effects and symptoms.” 18 Powers defines peacebuilding as “a set of nonviolent methods of dealing with conflict, from mediation and interfaith dialogue to relationship building and reconciliation programs.” 19 RESOLVING CONFLICTS AND BUILDING PEACE The Church’s vision of peace makes resolving conflicts and building peace an inseparable endeavor that can only be achievable through a multidimensional approach. Universal cohesiveness of actions is bound to remain a perpetual challenge given the diversity of global conflicts, but the vision is integral. The intervention initiatives can be understood in terms of the different phases of conflict. The first phase of prevention is gaining greater prominence in the field and takes two forms: a) anticipating and responding to imminent danger and b) preventing the recurrence of fighting after the violence has come to an end. When parties get to swords’ point or violence erupts, resolution work focuses on short-term mitigation or peacemaking. This second phase is where most of the traditional conflict resolution mechanisms such as negotiation, facilitation and mediation get deployed. Eventually violence comes to an end whether through battlefield victory or negotiation. The third phase is reconstruction and includes transitional processes, restoration and reconstruction. The fourth type of intervention comprises in the endeavor to build right relationships by addressing underlying causes of conflict. This entails advocacy against oppressive relationships, mobilizing for social change, creating awareness and training communities on nonviolent conflict resolution. These actions must be understood as interconnected and at times integrated. The exploration task here is empirical but not quantitative given the variances of situations, intensities, and processes. Prevention Peace actors seek to preempt imminent violent conflict by giving early warnings and responses as well as preventing the resurgence of hostilities in the immediate postviolence phase. The Church has been present in each of these endeavors and it is ideally placed to intervene. It is rare for violence to erupt without warning. Indicators of situation volatility are often apparent at local levels for varying periods prior to open violence. While many propositions have been made for monitoring and early warning mechanisms at the international level, international monitoring is challenged in picking up on indicators of impending violence because of distance, language and trust issues. 20 The Church on the other

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hand, is present with a wide network of local institutions and actors that people can turn to such as priests, bishops, and health and education providers. These Church personnel provide access to the wider world. There are a number of examples of early warning by Church actors. The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Rhodesia, for which I worked during the civil war in the 1970s, is one example. Villagers provided information on imminent danger for people and communities and we in the commission in turn warned decision makers and the international community. In December 2011, Catholic bishops in the Democratic Republic of Congo issued a dire warning of the high possibility of violence in the precarious political situation pertaining in the country as elections were being marred by irregularities. 21 In 2005, the Archbishop of Lomé, Togo, warned the government to postpone elections because of the danger of imminent violence. He was ignored and hundreds of people were killed and even more injured in the ensuing violence. 22 In the aftermath of violence, it is imperative to address the sociopsychological impacts of violence. Killings and brutalization engender the desire for revenge and can generate fear of the other which, especially in cases of genocide, can be existential. Left to fester, postviolence grievances can become historicized and lead to chosen traumas when collective memory only recalls the enemy in the other and the victim in the self. Peace agreements have had a high rate of failure when both the original causes of the conflicts as well as the impacts of the violence are not dealt with. So pressing is the need for addressing the past in order to move into a peaceable future that a field of study and practice, Transitional Justice, has emerged. The Church, with its gospel of reconciliation and charity and the practice of participatory engagement, is well placed to act in addressing the traumas of violence and accompanying societies in the transition from violence to peace. This work is often integrated with restoration and reconstruction as will appear below. Peacemaking—Mitigating the Violence When parties are in open conflict, Church intervention efforts turn to containment, mitigation and cessation of violence and again these initiatives are interrelated, interlinked and connected to the overarching goal of sustainable just peace. There has been considerable variability of the actions in terms of type and depth of engagement. Pope John XXIII’s communication of the world’s desire for peace helped contain the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 from conflagration into a deadly war between the superpowers. In 1989/1990 following his depose, Panamanian strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega took refuge in the Papal Nunciate. The Nuncio negotiated a delicate agreement with the United States for a peaceful handover of Noriega to the United States that averted a bloody confrontation in the country. 23

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In some instances, the Church has helped mitigate conflicts through its presence and accompaniment. As Ferdinand Marcos’s rule of the Philippines grew ever more autocratic, the pope visited the country in 1981 and one of the results was that the Marcos government lifted martial law. 24 More often, intervention has been through facilitation of negotiations and mediation between parties and that has taken place when parties are at sword’s point as well as when violence has already erupted. Examples include the Beagle Channel Islands dispute, the Mozambican civil war, and a few others. In 1978, Argentina and Chile were on the brink of war over strategically located islands at the South American continent’s southern tip. The dispute dated back to 1904 and had been the subject of many failed negotiations and arbitration. Eventually as the countries entered full war preparation mode in 1978, they approached the Vatican for mediation. Initially, the pope’s representative, Cardinal Antonio Samore played the role of intermediary, running shuttle diplomacy between the capitals of the protagonists. Mediation finally started in 1979. After much faltering and direct papal intervention, agreement was reached in 1984. 25 Success has been attributed to a number of factors. The Church was a medium that allowed the parties to make concessions without losing face because the proposals could be couched as papal. The Church was acceptable as a mediator because it was driven by principle and not material interest. It approached the negotiations in terms of its Christian mission and capitalized on the parties’ faith. As Princen recounts, at one point the Vatican even asked each negotiating team to give its positions as if in confession. 26 The Church relied on and mobilized moral power in part also because of the large Catholic constituency in both countries. The Church’s mediation of the Beagle Islands dispute was remarkable in that it took place when church and state relations were bad in both countries due to the dictatorships then in power on both sides. Few countries were willing to be associated with regimes that were guilty of heinous human rights violations. But the Church is obligated by its teachings to minister to sinners and that allowed it to act without risk of international opprobrium. The church was thus able to contribute to international peace and conflict resolution by entering the space of diplomacy from its morally authoritative position and its peace mission. A widely celebrated case of mediation by a Church actor is that of the Saint Egidio community’s intervention in the Mozambican civil war. Sant’ Egidio is an association of Catholic lay people whose mission, among others is advancing peace in the world. Immediately following its independence from Portugal, Mozambique became embroiled in a civil war in which one side was sponsored by neighboring Rhodesia and later South Africa. The negotiations for ending the war were conducted in Rome from July 1990 to October 1992 and resulted in the peace agreement that ended the fifteen-year-long vicious civil war. At least ten na-

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tional governments including Kenya, Zimbabwe, Italy and the United States provided a supporting role, as did one multinational corporation and The United Nations. 27 The religious status of St. Egidio made possible its mediation role. It was perceived as neutral, compassionate and without a political agenda. Its political neutrality also meant that the government could deal with the rebel Renamo movement without the problems of political recognition. The negotiations represent one of the most visible intervention roles by a nongovernmental actor with broad based support from regional and international players. St. Egidio has mediated and facilitated resolution initiatives in other conflicts. The community hosted secret talks between warring factions in Burundi, enabling formal state level talks that were subsequently chaired by former Tanzanian president, Julius Nyerere. 28 In the heat of war in Lebanon in 1982, the community facilitated a meeting between Melkite Greek Catholic patriarch Maximos V. Hakim and Druse leader Walid Jumblatt to try and safeguard ancient Christian villages. Other St Egidio mediation efforts were not as successful. In 1996, St. Egidio offered to mediate the education dispute in Kosovo. The International Crisis Group’s analysis is that the resultant agreement known as the “3+3” agreement had negative impacts overall. 29 The community’s efforts to help resolve the Algerian conflict also failed and the community became the focus of the Algerian government’s opposition to a negotiated resolution. St. Egidio was criticized by the Algerian bishops, the Vatican secretary of state and Franco de Courten, Italy´s ambassador to Algeria. Some critics accused St. Egidio of being a partisan Catholic organization interfering in the internal affairs of an Islamic country. 30 Nevertheless, its activities represent some of the most active efforts by Church actors to mitigate conflicts. The Church has also sought to mitigate conflicts by creating awareness of the violence against vulnerable communities. In the Sudan and South Sudan war, the Catholic Church through its bishops took a leading role in mobilizing against the repression and brutality perpetrated by the Khartoum government. Catholic bishops such as Bishop Paride Taban and Bishop Macram Gassis provided rallying points for the Southern Sudanese laity and they campaigned vigorously in the international arena for visibility of the conflict and action on the devastation of the war. Many bishops and priests have acted individually as mediators or assisted in peace negotiations. A papal nuncio helped establish a ceasefire in the Dominican Republic in 1965. 31 Fr. Alex Reid was a mediator in the Northern Ireland conflict and he also assisted in bringing the ETA (Basque separatists) and the Spanish government to negotiation. 32 Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia of Mexico championed the cause of the indigenous people and mediated the conflict between the Mexican government and the Zapatista National Liberation Army in Chiapas state, work for which he received death threats. In East Timor, Bishop Carlos Belo became a

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symbol of peaceful resistance and he courageously criticized the oppressive policies of the Indonesian regime which killed and imprisoned thousands of East Timorese. Bishop Belo became the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize winner for pursuing a just and peaceful resolution to the conflict in East Timor. The Church’s mediation role is not confined to state level intervention. In Colombia, Church officials have facilitated peace agreements at local levels between youth groups, between gangs, and some Church actors even secured the release of kidnapped persons. Bishop Jose Luis Serna was the chief negotiator of a cease-fire and peace agreement between the Paez Indians and the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). Church facilitated discussions between the government and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) led to a ceasefire and AUC demobilization in 2002–2003. 33 Reconstruction Reconstruction begins with the transition from violence to peace and has twin goals of dealing with the heritage of violence and constructing peaceable and just futures. The period after violent conflict is a tough and delicate time. Survivors of the violence will have suffered psychological and physical harm and invariably inherit a social climate dominated by division, resentment, anger, sadness, loss of social values, fear, the desire for vengeance, despair, mistrust, lack of solidarity and intolerance. The toxic carryover from the violence is a potent mix for new violence and desperately requires addressing for the transition from violence to peace to take root. The damage to the infrastructure of a country also means that health and education institutions are devastated, as is economic production. In a lot of cases war will have caused huge displacements of people. The Church has been active in many transitional justice activities such as truth recovery, trauma healing, memorialization, and fostering forgiveness and reconciliation. In Guatemala, the Catholic Church initiated the Project for the Reconstruction of a Historical Memory that investigated war crimes and enabled survivors of war to tell their stories. Under its auspices, public ceremonial reburials were conducted so as to honor the dead and provide closure. 34 It proved to be dangerous work. Bishop Juan Gerardi was killed two days after presenting the report of the project. In Brazil, the output of the investigative work into state and state sponsored violence was the highly sought after report Nunca Mais (Never Again). In East Timor, the Church had a checkered history of complicity in the colonization of the country, but it championed the cause of liberation from Indonesia. Priests and nuns were killed in the struggle and now in the post-colonial phase, the Church is deeply engaged in the peacebuilding and development of East Timor. 35 In Chile, General Augusto Pino-

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chet overthrew democratically elected President Salvador Allende in 1973. Pinochet’s regime was harsh on its opponents and thousands were killed, interned and tortured. At the time of his death, Pinochet was facing more than three hundred criminal charges. The Church denounced Pinochet’s repression and provided support to the victims. The Archdiocese of Santiago established a Vicariate of Solidarity that advocated for families of those that had been “disappeared “by the regime. It investigated, publicized and recorded the dictatorship’s human rights violations. When the Pinochet rule came to an end, the bishops established “houses of reconciliation” where victims could tell their stories. 36 In Togo the Church set up Listening and Accompanying Centers in places where violent atrocities were committed. The centers provide listening and counseling so as to console and affirm as well as help victims let go of the desire for revenge. The Church’s attention to addressing past wrongdoing has included its own sins. Pope John Paul II acknowledged the moral debts of the Catholic Church in relation to Orthodox Christians, Muslims and Jews for the violence of the Crusades, the Inquisition and the Holocaust. Argentina’s bishops sought public forgiveness for their complicity in the junta’s vicious rule. Reconstruction and rebuilding is complicated business which requires balancing the demands of justice with the need for peace and co-existence. There is a multiplicity of cross cutting and often competing issues that make for incredible complexities in helping societies move into a more peaceable future. In Uganda, one of the legacies of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebellion is the child combatants who were the LRA’s foot soldiers in the commission of horrendous crimes. Because of the nature of the crimes, communities are understandably not keen to welcome back the former children into the society and yet the child combatants were themselves victims. The Church has been acting as a provider of neutral ground through which the child combatants can be housed while the Church facilitates their reintegration into the communities. It is a delicate negotiation of recovery and reconstruction of the society. The Uganda example contrasts with the Rwandan experience, which illustrates again the ambivalence of the Church’s actions in different eras and different contexts. The Church was complicit in the colonization of Rwanda, the disastrous Belgian reinvention of ethnicity and the divide and rule tactics. 37 Church leaders’ participation in the genocide demonstrated the abysmal depths to which Church leadership can sink in local contexts. Consequently the Church has had little influence on resolution efforts at the state level and works instead on local initiatives. An example is the youth peace education project undertaken by CRS in collaboration with local communities in Umutara. 38 The youth in Rwanda were affected by the genocide in numerous ways beyond the trauma: limited access to education, lack of jobs, illnesses, hostility, fear and ethnic preju-

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dices. The breakdown of social order caused increases in crime, alcoholism and drug abuse. Schisms ran along lines of ethnicity (Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa), refugee returnees versus prior residents, and victims and victimizers. It was a recipe for continuance of serious conflict at intrapersonal, interpersonal, intra- and inter-group levels. According to CRS, conflicts included “lynching, abuse, intimidation or humiliation, exclusion and marginalization, mainly against groups of differing origins or differing material and economic interests.” 39 To try and overcome the accumulation of social ills, avoid more conflict and facilitate the reconstruction of the society, the Church designed a project targeted at youth with the objective of creating a culture of peace. Facilitators provided information on peacebuilding, enabled the youth to have dialogue with each other, search for solutions to their problems, seek reconciliation after adversity, provide each other with mutual support and engage in activities to enhance economic sustainability. Beyond the immediacy of violence, the Church is engaged in long term development work which addresses some of the root causes of social conflict. It seeks to eradicate poverty because poverty impedes human fulfillment and dignity, but poverty is also a factor in violence. Causes of conflict are complex and multiple, but as some scholars have argued, poverty and violence are mutually causative. 40 Political exclusion and economic inequality in contexts of poverty especially when poverty is perceived in conjunction with inequitable access to and control over political power, are triggers of violent contestations. Such potential violence can best be prevented by changing the systems of inequity. On a global level, the Church joined in the campaign for debt relief for poor countries and Pope John Paul II endorsed the 2000 “Year of Jubilee” and publicly appeared in events for debt cancellation. In many African countries, the Church’s health and educational institutions represent the bulk of social service provision particularly in rural areas. 41 That work has increasingly incorporated conflict resolution and peacebuilding of necessity, due to the devastating impacts of violence as CRS has done in the wake of the Rwandan genocide. 42 It was clear that years of development work can be wiped out in a few days of violent conflict. The aftermath of war is often the impoverishment of masses of people. Advocacy, Mobilization, and Training for Peace As indicated earlier, the 1963 encyclical Pacem in terris articulated a vision of peace as more than simply an absence of war. Justice and peace exist in tension and as Pope John Paul II declared, in order to build peace, one must work for justice. Catholics have advocated for policies that promote right relationships and engaged in nonviolent mobilization against oppression and exploitation in many parts of the globe. The ac-

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tions vary in form and intent depending on the context. In some cases they have comprised in simple solidarity. In 1989 for example, a show of solidarity boosted the morale of the people of East Timor in their struggle for independence from Indonesia when Pope John Paul II prayed in a field in the East Timor city of Dili where civilians had been massacred by the Indonesian army. In other circumstances such as Colombia, which has a long history of violence that is rooted in inequality, exclusion and organized crime, the Church has undertaken initiatives to create cultures of peace. The heritage of extended violence brought poverty, inequality, unmet basic needs and social ills such as substance abuse, domestic violence, crime and prostitution. Furthermore, continuing violence was perpetrated by guerrillas, paramilitaries and other groups. 43 As a response, in 1996, Caritas Colombia and the Jesuit Program for Peace initiated a mobile School for Peace and Coexistence (EPC). The EPC’s objective is to inculcate a social, institutional and individual psyche that opts for peace rather than violence by providing training in tolerance, conflict resolution and peacebuilding. As part of a holistic approach, the EPC provides essential social services such as temporary shelter, food banks, health services and palliative care. Democracy is now hailed as a major antidote to violent conflict and at its core is the institution of elections. To fulfill their mandate, elections need to be free and fair but that is never guaranteed especially when the legitimacy of government is contested or the political elite is unwilling to give up power. Elections can be fraudulent or get marred by violence. These dangers have led to a growth of elections monitoring by both local and international observers with the hope that political contestants will be less inclined to manipulate the process when there are watchdogs present. Monitoring can be by international or domestic observers. Domestic monitoring is carried out by groups originating within the host state and one of the first and most effective instances of domestic monitoring was when the Catholic Church supported the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) in the Philippines. In 1986, when Corazon Aquino challenged President Marcos, the elections promised to have all the hallmarks of fraud and intimidation. 44 To counter political fraud, the Church in collaboration with the business sector, mobilized internal monitoring. Church actors such as the Catholic Education Association of the Philippines (CEAP) made available high schools and colleges to election monitors across the country. The Church recruited organizers and raised funds for monitoring, providing as well significant credibility to the challengers of state power. 45 Cardinal Jaime Sin was credited with the consolidation of religious groups in support of the opposition. 46 Despite Church and civil society discrediting the elections, Marcos inaugurated himself as president and the engagement changed to confrontation. The Church and business leaders mobilized such huge

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protests that Marcos fled into exile. 47 The Philippines case represents probably the most visible and direct form of resistance to oppression and successful mobilization against dictatorship. Others have sought to emulate the Philippine example. In 2011, Church leaders from twenty African countries called for the church to strengthen its role in observing and monitoring elections in African countries because of the prevalence of violence. 48 Emphasizing the growing interventions of the Church in violent situations, the leaders who included several bishops, urged Catholics to "bring to bear on politics their Christian faith and virtues.” 49 The Church is well positioned to monitor elections again because of its local presence and its ability to work through local communities. Its observers will be in familiar territory and speak the local languages as compared with international observers. So much has the advocacy of the Church in democratic endeavors taken root that Huntington characterizes “the third wave” of democracy as Catholic. 50 The Church has also adopted principled opposition to war. In the 1990s, the advocacy of John Paul II turned to social justice as the solution to war and the Church embraced and promoted nonviolence and forgiveness. As Christensen points to, the Pope even questioned the concept of just war in the context of modern warfare. 51 In 2003, the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference challenged the U.S. invasion of Iraq. 52 This was not the first time the Church had been critical of U.S. war making. The American Catholic bishops had opposed U.S. military interventions in Latin America during the Reagan years. 53 The Church has pursued the preferential option for the poor in very concrete terms. The Catholic Church supported the rural poor to contest illegal land seizures and unfair labor conditions in Guatemala in a constructive escalation of conflict. For such efforts, Church personnel such as Bishop Ramazzini received death threats. 54 Advocating for those marginalized created such trust, however, that the Church was able to participate in peace negotiations to end the long, ongoing, armed conflict which had lasted thirty-six years. 55 In the aftermath of the war, the Church participated in the transitional process of reconstructing the truth by helping recover memory from the testimony of those who lived through the war. Catholic lay people also took a lead in advocacy, conciliation and mediation in Guatemala. A notable advocacy initiative was the National Pilgrimage (or Stations of the Cross) for Life, Justice, and Peace. These efforts were part of a broader peace movement. The work to construct sustainable just peace is an ongoing endeavor.

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FACILITATORS AND CHALLENGES The Church has been engaged in these multiple, multidimensional peacemaking efforts based on its vision, utilizing the conflict resolution and transformation methodologies adopted by its personnel, agencies and the laity. On occasion, some of the work overlays with state diplomacy but the bulk of Church work is Track Two Diplomacy, and community centered. Those factors that have facilitated intervention can also present challenges. There is not necessarily a congruence of views among so many actors and being so vast, the work is not well coordinated. Many factors have made Church intervention possible. The encyclical Pacem in terris and Vatican II were milestones that enabled engagement on the social question and fostered collaboration with other faiths and other actors. Interfaith approaches to conflict resolution are on the increase as illustrated in India and Uganda. The Church was part of the Joint Peace Mission Team (JPMT), an ecumenical peacebuilding body that sought to address the violence in Northern India. It is part of the Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative (ARLPI) in Northern Uganda. The Initiative has served as an intermediary between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Ugandan government. The Church is able to intervene in many places because of its unique presence at multiple levels. It is simultaneously local, national, and international. Negotiating peace and instituting the transformations from violence to peace is painfully slow. As an old institution, the Church has a different sense of time that is not hurried to attaining results. The Beagle Island negotiations took six years and it took two and half years to negotiate peace in Mozambique. Conflict resolution processes are delicate endeavors that often demand confidentiality until agreement is reached. The Vatican is a closed shop when it comes to information. The Vatican has no public gallery to play to and rarely seeks public attention when it is mediating. That stance discourages negotiating parties from posturing and grandstanding. The pope is the Church’s most visible representation, but a big part of the power of the church and its ability to intervene in conflicts emanates from the multiplicity of its actors who include official personnel, affiliated organizations, religious orders and the Catholic laity singularly and in concert with each other. Catholic bishops and to an extent priests, have some flexibility walking politics, often because they are perceived as having no political ambitions yet have a huge constituency of the faithful. They gain prominence individually and through bishops’ conferences. Lay people such as Eileen Egan, dedicate their lives to peacemaking and peacebuilding activities, serving victims of war and seeking alternatives to armed conflict. The Church also commands substantial resources that it makes available for the well being of the people among whom it oper-

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ates. People respect it because the Church ministers to their needs in conflict and in peace. The Church’s vision of peace does not make it morally impartial and far from detracting from its interventions, that has facilitated its intervention. Its power is referent and emanates from the parties’ relationship with the intervener. Many parties in whose conflicts Church actors intervene recognize its moral authority. It is this which gives the Church legitimacy. Paradoxically, with some exceptions, the Church has been most active in peacemaking and peacebuilding in countries where its standing had been compromised by its acquiescence or complicity in the repression and violence by elites. CONCLUSION Religion and religious actors exist and act in a complex milieu with other actors and in the context of multiple impinging factors, but as Smock and others have illustrated, faith based actors are increasingly active in peacemaking and peacebuilding. 56 Because the Church operates in so many geographical and social spaces, there are similarities from one space to another, but the work is also highly diverse, reflecting not only the variability of contexts, but also of the many arms of the Church and their varied strategies. Conflicts are simultaneously local and international. As Gurr points out in a globalizing world there cannot anymore be localized conflicts. 57 As an international institution with local presence, the Church has been able to bridge the local and the international. The Beagle Islands dispute and the Mozambican mediation illustrate both the local and global links and the blurring boundaries between diplomatic tracks. The outcomes of the work of Church actors are never guaranteed. However, with the changing nature of violent conflict and the need for other actors than governments to play a role, the Church’s work has come to be valued even by political actors. Understanding and learning of and from the conflict resolution and peacebuilding work of the Church is only just beginning. Much more needs to be done so that the contribution can be enhanced. There are strong calls for example to ground and integrate the peacebuilding work of the Church in local understandings and methodologies and this is being embraced by many Church actors. Far from waning, the Church’s engagement in social issues and in conflict resolution and peacebuilding especially is only increasing. NOTES 1. Zbigniew Brzezinski, “The Illusion of Control,” in Peacemaking: Moral and Policy Choices for a New World, eds. G. Powers, D. Christiansen, and R. Hennemeyer (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1994), 31.

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2. Gerard Powers, “Religion and Peacebuilding,” in Strategies of Peace: Transforming Conflict in a Violent World, eds. Daniel Philpott and Gerard Powers (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010), 318. 3. Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation, (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1973); Daniel Philpott, “The Catholic Wave” in World Religions and Democracy, eds. L. Diamond, M. F. Plattner, and P. J. Costopoulos (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), 102–16. 4. Judy Carter, and Gordon S. Smith, “Religious Peacebuilding: From Potential to Action,” in Religion and Peacebuilding, eds. Harold Coward and Gordon S. Smith (New York, State University of New York Press, 2004), 279. 5. Allen D. Hertzke, “The Catholic Church and Catholicism in Global Politics,” in Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics, ed. J. Haynes (New York, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2009), 48. 6. Jodok Troy, “The Catholic Church: An Underestimated and Necessary Actor in International Affairs,” Culture and Society 9, no. 1 (2008): 71. 7. Mario Giro, “The Community of Saint Egidio and its Peace-Making Activities,” The International Spectator 33, no. 3 (1998): 85–100. 8. R. Scott Appleby, “The Many Dimensions of Catholic Peacebuilding,” (presentation, Catholic Peacebuilding Network Conference on the Future of Catholic Peacebuilding, University of Notre Dame, April 13–15, 2008). http://cpn.nd.edu/assets/ 14636/applebynd. 9. Rupert Smith, The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World (New York, Vintage, 2008). 10. United States Institute of Peace, Special Report, Catholic Contributions to International Peace (Washington, DC: USIP, 2001), 4. 11. Pacem in terris (“Peace on Earth,”), 1963. 12. John F. Broderick, and Frank J. Coppa “Church, History of, IV (Late Modern: 1789–2002),” New Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. 2nd ed. (Detroit, MI: Gale, 2003), 626. 13. David Steele, “An Introductory Overview to Faith-Based Peacebuilding,” in Pursuing Just Peace: An Overview and Case Studies for Faith-Based Peacebuilders, eds. M. M. Rogers, T. Bamat and J. Ideh (Baltimore: Catholic Relief Services, 2008), 8. 14. R. Scott Appleby, “Disciples of Peace,” in Beyond Violence; Religious Sources of Social Transformation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, ed. J. L. Heft (New York, Fordham University Press, 2004), 118. 15. Medellin Documents: Poverty of the Church, Justice, and Peace, accessed April 14, 2012, http://www.shc.edu/theolibrary/cstdocs.htm. 16. Justicia in Mundo, accessed April 2, 2012, http://www.educationforjustice.org/ catholic-social-teaching/encyclicals-and-documents. 17. Richard E. Rubenstein, “Conflict Resolution & Power Politics; and Global Conflict After The Cold War Two Lectures by Richard E. Rubenstein” (ICAR Working Paper 10, CIAO 2/99, January 1996). 18. Mark M. Rogers, Tom Bamat and Julie Ideh, eds. Pursuing Just Peace: An Overview and Case Studies for Faith-Based Peacebuilders (Baltimore: Catholic Relief Services, 2008). 19. Powers, “Religion and Peacebuilding,” 323. 20. Susan Hayward, “Religious Contributions to Conflict Prevention and Transformation” (presentation, Catholic Peacebuilding Network Conference, Kroc Institute, Notre Dame University, April 14, 2008). Accessed April 4, 2012, http://cpn.nd.edu/ assets/14644/hayward.pdf. 21. Radio Netherlands Worldwide, accessed April 9, 2012, http://allafrica.com/ stories/201112050778.html. 22. Rogers, Bamat and Ideh, eds. Pursuing Just Peace: An Overview and Case Studies for Faith-Based Peacebuilders, 65. 23. Ronald H. Cole, Operation Just Cause, (Washington, DC: U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1995), accessed April 13, 2012, http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/doctrine/history/justcaus.pdf.

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24. Eva-Lotta E. Hedman, In the Name of Civil Society: From Free Election Movements to People Power in the Philippines (Southeast Asia: Politics, Meaning, and Memory) (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005), 89–90. 25. Thomas Princen, Intermediaries in International Conflict (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1995), 141. 26. Princen, Intermediaries in International Conflict, 180. 27. Jeffrey Haynes, ed. Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics (New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2009), 64. 28. Lennart Wohlgemuth, “African Sanctions: The Case of Burundi,” in International Sanctions; Between Words and Wars in the International System, eds. P. Wallensteen, and C. Staibano (New York: Routlege, 2005), 132. 29. International Crisis Group, “Kosovo Spring.” ICG Report, Pristina-Sarajevo, 21–23. Last modified March 20, 1998, http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/ europe/Kosovo%201.pdf. 30. Franco de Courten, Algeria Diaries: 1996–1998 (Soveria Mannelli, Italy: Rubbettino, 2003). 31. William P. George, “Looking for a Global Ethic? Try International Law,” The Journal of Religion 76, no. 3 (1996): 359–82 32. Pamela Aall, “The Power of Nonofficial Actors in Conflict Management,” in Leashing the Dogs of War: Conflict Management in a Divided World, eds. C. A. Crocker, F. O. Hampson and P. Aall, (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2007), 483. 33. Mauricio Garcia Duran, “The Role of Civil Society in Peacebuilding in Colombia,” (paper presention, Catholic Peacebuilding Network conference, Bogota, Colombia, July 24-29, 2007). Accessed April, 6, 2012, http://cpn.nd.edu/topics-in-catholicpeacebuilding/peace-processes-and-mediation/background-on-peace-processes-incolombia/; Virginia M. Bouvier, Building Peace in a Time of War, (presentation, Catholic Peace Network conference, Bogota, Colombia, July 24–29, 2007). 34. J. Douglas, “Faith-based Organizations: The Religious Dimensions of Peacebuilding,” in People Building Peace II: Successful Stories of Civil Society, eds. Paul van Tongeren, M. Brenk, M. Hellema and J. Verhoeven, 239–43 (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005). 35. Alynna J. Lyon, “The East Timorese Church: From Oppression to Liberation,” in The Catholic Church and the Nation-state: Comparative Perspectives, eds. P. C. Manuel, L. C. Reardon, and C. Wilcox (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2006), 131–48. 36. Robert J. Schreiter, Reconciliation: Mission and Ministry in a Changing Social Order, (New York: Maryknoll, 1992). 37. Elisée Rutagambwa, “The Rwandan Church: The Challenge of Reconciliation,” in The Catholic Church and the Nation-state: Comparative Perspectives, eds. P. C. Manuel, L. C. Reardon, and C. Wilcox (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2006), 173–89. 38. Joseph Muyango, and Laura Dills, “Rwanda: Church Action in Promoting a Culture of Peace,” in Pursuing Just Peace: An Overview and Case Studies for Faith-Based Peacebuilders, eds. Mark M. Rogers, Tom Bamat, and Julie Ideh (Baltimore: Catholic Relief Services, 2008), 45. 39. Ibid., 49. 40. Francis Stewart, and Graham Brown, “Motivations for Conflict; Groups and Individuals,” in Leashing the Dogs of War: Conflict Management in a Divided World, eds. Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2007), 219. 41. Linda Heywood, “The Angolan Church: The Prophetic Tradition, Politics and the State,” in The Catholic Church and the Nation-state: Comparative Perspectives, eds. P. C. Manuel, L. C. Reardon, and C. Wilcox, 191–206. (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2006). 42. Rogers, Bamat and Ideh, eds. Pursuing Just Peace: An Overview and Case Studies for Faith-Based Peacebuilders, 3.

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43. Maria Victoria Rivera Paez, “Colombia School for Peace and Coexistence in the Archdiocese of Manizales,” in Pursuing Just Peace: An Overview and Case Studies for Faith-Based Peacebuilders, eds. Mark M. Rogers, Tom Bamat, and Julie Ideh (Baltimore: Catholic Relief Services, 2008), 71–72. 44. Eric C. Bjornlund, Beyond Free And Fair: Monitoring Elections And Building Democracy, (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2004). 45. Eric C. Bjornlund, “Transition Elections as Ends or Means? Lessons for Democracy Assistance from Domestic Election Monitoring,” in Democratic Institution Performance: Research and Policy Perspectives, eds. E. R. McMahon and T. A. P. Sinclair (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2002), 102. 46. Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, “Preventing Deadly Conflict, Final Report,” (New York: Carnegie Corporation of New York, 1998), 11 (Box 5.5). 47. Hedman, In the Name of Civil Society: From Free Election Movements to People Power in the Philippines, 91. 48. “Africans Say Church Must Strengthen Role in Election Monitoring.” Catholic News Service, September 19, 2011, accessed March 27, 2012, http:// www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1103710.htm. 49. Ibid. 50. Samuel P. Huntington, The Third Wave, Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), 76–85. 51. Drew Christiansen, “Catholic peacemaking, 1991–2005: The Legacy of Pope John Paul II,” Review of Faith and International Affairs 4, no. 2 (2006): 21–28. 52. John L. Allen, Jr., All the Pope’s Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks (New York: Doubleday, 2004), 7. 53. Timothy A. Byrnes, Catholic Bishops in American Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991). 54. Paul Jeffrey, “Five Years Later no Peace in Guatemala,” The Christian Century 119, no. 9 (2002): 14. 55. Paul Jeffrey, Recovering Memory: Guatemalan Churches and the Challenge of Peacemaking (Uppsala: Life and Peace Institute, 1998). 56. David R. Smock, ed., Religious Contributions to Peacemaking. When Religion Brings Peace, not War (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2006). 57. Ted Robert Gurr, “Minorities, Nationalists, and Islamists: Managing Communal Conflict in the 21st Century,” in Leashing the Dogs of War: Conflict Management in a Divided World, eds. C. A. Crocker, F. O. Hampson and P. Aall, (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2007), 131.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Aall, Pamela. “The Power of Nonofficial Actors in Conflict Management.” In Leashing the Dogs of War: Conflict Management in a Divided World, edited by C. A. Crocker, F. O. Hampson and P. Aall, 477–96. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2007. “Africans Say Church Must Strengthen Role in Election Monitoring.” Catholic News Service, September 19, 2011. http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/ 1103710.htm. Allen, John L., Jr. All the Pope’s Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks. New York: Doubleday, 2004. Appleby, R. Scott. “Disciples of Peace.” In Beyond Violence; Religious Sources of Social Transformation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, edited by James L. Heft, 113–44. New York: Fordham University Press, 2004. Appleby, R. Scott. “The Many Dimensions of Catholic Peacebuilding.” Presentation at Catholic Peacebuilding Network Conference on the Future of Catholic Peacebuilding, University of Notre Dame, April 13–15, 2008. http://cpn.nd.edu/assets/14636/ applebynd.

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Bjornlund, Eric C. Beyond Free and Fair: Monitoring Elections and Building Democracy. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2004. Broderick, John F. and Frank J. Coppa. New Catholic Encyclopedia, No. 3., 2nd ed., s.v. “Church, History of, IV (Late Modern: 1789–2002).” Detroit: Gale, 2003. Byrnes, Timothy A. Catholic Bishops in American Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991. Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict. “Preventing Deadly Conflict, Final Report.” New York: Carnegie Corporation of New York, 1998. Carter, Judy, and Gordon S. Smith. “Religious Peacebuilding: From Potential to Action.” In Religion and Peacebuilding, edited by Harold Coward and Gordon S. Smith, 279–302. New York, State University of New York Press, 2004. Christiansen, Drew. “Catholic Peacemaking, 1991–2005: The Legacy of Pope John Paul II.” Review of Faith and International Affairs 4, no. 2 (2006): 21–28. Cole, Ronald H. "Operation Just Cause." Washington, DC: Joint History Office, 1995. Accessed April 13, 2012. http:/www.dtic.mil/doctrine/doctrine/history/justcaus.pdf. Coward, Harold and Gordon S. Smith, eds. Religion and Peacebuilding. New York: State University of New York Press, 2004. de Courten, Franco. Algeria Diaries: 1996–1998. Soveria Mannelli, Italy: Rubbettino, 2003. Crocker, Chester A., Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall, eds. Leashing the Dogs of War: Conflict Management in a Divided World. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2007. Diamond, Larry, Marc F. Plattner, and Philip J. Costopoulos, eds. World Religions and Democracy. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. Douglas, J. “Faith-based Organizations: The Religious Dimensions of Peacebuilding.” In People Building Peace II: Successful Stories of Civil Society, edited by Paul van Tongeren, M. Brenk, M. Hellema and J. Verhoeven, 239–43. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005. Duran, Mauricio Garcia. “The Role of Civil Society in Peacebuilding in Colombia.” Presentation at Catholic Peacebuilding Network Conference, Bogota, Colombia, July 24–29, 2007. http://cpn.nd.edu/topics-in-catholic-peacebuilding/peace-processes-and-mediation/background-on-peace-processes-in-colombia/. George, William P. “Looking for a Global Ethic? Try International Law.” The Journal of Religion 76, no. 3 (1996): 359–82. Giro, Mario. “The Community of Saint Egidio and its Peace-Making Activities.” The International Spectator 33, no. 3 (1998): 85–100. Gurr, Ted Robert. “Minorities, Nationalists, and Islamists: Managing Communal Conflict in the 21st Century.” In Leashing the Dogs of War: Conflict Management in a Divided World, edited by C. A. Crocker, F. O. Hampson, and P. Aall, 131–60. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2007. Gutierrez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1973. Haynes, Jeffrey, ed. Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2009. Hayward, Susan. “Religious Contributions to Conflict Prevention and Transformation.” Presentation at Catholic Peacebuilding Network Conference, Kroc Institute, Notre Dame University, April 14, 2008. Accessed April 4, 2012, http://cpn.nd.edu/ assets/14644/hayward.pdf. Hedman, Eva-Lotta E. In the Name of Civil Society: From Free Election Movements to People Power in the Philippines (Southeast Asia: Politics, Meaning, and Memory). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005. Hertzke, Allen D. “The Catholic Church and Catholicism in Global Politics.” In Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics, edited by J. Haynes, 48–63. New York, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2009. Heywood, Linda. “The Angolan Church: The Prophetic Tradition, Politics and the State.” In The Catholic Church and the Nation-state: Comparative Perspectives, edited by

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P. C. Manuel, L. C. Reardon, and C. Wilcox, 191–206. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2006. Huntington, Samuel P. The Third Wave, Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991. International Crisis Group. “Kosovo Spring.” ICG Report, Pristina-Sarajevo. Last modified March 20, 1998. http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/europe/Kosovo%201.pdf. Jeffrey, Paul. “Five Years Later No Peace in Guatemala.” The Christian Century 119, no. 9 (2002): 14. Jeffrey, Paul. Recovering Memory: Guatemalan Churches and the Challenge of Peacemaking. Uppsala: Life and Peace Institute, 1998. Manuel, Paul Christopher, Lawrence C. Reardon, and Clyde Wilcox, eds. The Catholic Church and the Nation-State: Comparative Perspectives, 131–48. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2006. McMahon, Edward R.., and Thomas Sinclair, eds. Democratic Institution Performance: Research and Policy Perspectives. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002. Latin American Bishops. “Poverty of the Church.” Theology Library: Catholic Social Documents. Accessed April 14, 2012. http://www.shc.edu/theolibrary/cstdocs.htm. Lyon, Alynna J. “The East Timorese Church: From Oppression to Liberation.” In The Catholic Church and the Nation-state: Comparative Perspectives, edited by P. C. Manuel, L. C. Reardon, and C. Wilcox, 131–48. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2006. Paez, Maria Victoria Rivera. “Colombia School for Peace and Coexistence in the Archdiocese of Manizales.” In Pursuing Just Peace: An Overview and Case Studies for FaithBased Peacebuilders, edited by Mark M. Rogers, Tom Bamat, and Julie Ideh, 71–72. Baltimore: Catholic Relief Services, 2008. Philpott, Daniel, and Gerard Powers, eds. Strategies of Peace: Transforming Conflict in a Violent World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pope John XXIII. "Pacem in terris." Survival 5, no. 4 (1963): 146–47. Powers, Gerard F., Drew Christiansen, and Robert T. Hennemeyer, eds. Peacemaking: Moral and Policy Choices for a New World. Washington, DC: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1994. Princen, Thomas. Intermediaries in International Conflict. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995. Rogers, Mark M., Tom Bamat, and Julie Ideh, eds. Pursuing Just Peace: An Overview and Case Studies for Faith-Based Peacebuilders. Baltimore: Catholic Relief Services, 2008. Rubenstein, Richard E. “Conflict Resolution & Power Politics; and Global Conflict After The Cold War Two Lectures” Working Paper 10, CIAO 2/99, Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, 1996. Rutagambwa, Elisée. “The Rwandan Church: The Challenge of Reconciliation.” In The Catholic Church and the Nation-state: Comparative Perspectives, edited by P. C. Manuel, L. C. Reardon, and C. Wilcox, 173–89. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2006. Schreiter, Robert J. Reconciliation: Mission and Ministry in a Changing Social Order. New York: Maryknoll, 1992. Smith, Rupert. The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World. New York: Vintage, 2008. Smock, David. “Special Report: Catholic Contributions to International Peace.” Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2001. Smock, David R., ed. Religious Contributions to Peacemaking. When Religion Brings Peace, Not War. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2006. Steele, David. “An Introductory Overview to Faith-Based Peacebuilding.” In Pursuing Just Peace: An Overview and Case Studies for Faith-Based Peacebuilders, edited by M. M. Rogers, T. Bamat and J. Ideh, 5–42. Baltimore: Catholic Relief Services, 2008. Stewart, Francis, and Graham Brown. “Motivations for Conflict; Groups and Individuals.” In Leashing the Dogs of War: Conflict Management in a Divided World, edited by

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Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall, 219–44. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2007. Synod of Bishops. “Justicia in Mundo.” Education for Justice. Accessed April 2, 2012. http://www.educationforjustice.org/catholic-social-teaching/encyclicals-and-documents. Troy, Jodok. “The Catholic Church: An Underestimated and Necessary Actor in International Affairs.” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs 9, no. 1 (2008): 65–73. van Tongeren, Paul, M. Brenk, M. Hellema and J. Verhoeven, eds. People Building Peace II: Successful Stories of Civil Society. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005. Wallensteen, Peter, and Carina Staibano, eds. International Sanctions; Between Words and Wars in the International System. New York: Routlege, 2005. Wohlgemuth, Lennart. “African Sanctions: The Case of Burundi.” In International Sanctions; Between Words and Wars in the International System, edited by P. Wallensteen, and C. Staibano, 126–43. New York: Routlege, 2005.

TWENTY-ONE Peace building Principles and Values in Islam 1

Beyond the Basic Framework Mohammed Abu-Nimer

INTRODUCTION In its fourth decade of development, the field of peace building (conflict resolution and peace studies) has gained significant growth and recognition in both academic institutions and professional organizations. Hundreds of undergraduate and graduate programs have been created, which grant degrees in this field of study, and thousands of nongovernment organizations around the world focus their work on promoting peace and conflict resolution practices on all social and political levels. Within this context, a new emerging field of religion and peace has also gained momentum, which is evidenced by a proliferation of academic programs focusing on the role of religion in peace building being launched in various academic institutions. 2 For the last two decades, many Christian scholars and theologians have led the way in contributing to the development of a religious peace building subfield within the fields of peace studies and conflict resolution field. 3 Muslim scholars and practitioners have also engaged in such efforts to systematically explore and articulate principles and methods of peace building based on Islamic theology and tradition. This chapter focuses on the question: What are the current debates and challenges facing Muslim scholars and practitioners of peace building in their efforts to develop a religious and cultu375

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ral peace building framework which is based on Islamic religious and cultural sources? Justifying Violence and Peace Scholars categorize issues of violence and its use in the Islamic context under three main categories: 1) offensive groups: war and violence; 2) defensive groups, just war theorists, and 3) nonviolence resistance groups. There are thousands of books and articles (especially by nonMuslim scholars) that focus on the first category and abundance of the literature is aimed at proving the argument that Islamic teachings mainly support violence and aggression. 4 The second category of studies, the just war defensive Islamic studies, is reflected by the thousands of books and articles (especially by Islamic scholars) who articulated the conditions for engaging in war and violent conflict. 5 The third category is the least developed category. However, in the last two decades there have been many studies published in support of this nonviolent hypothesis. These studies argue for nonviolence, peace, pluralism, and interfaith dialogue as a central teaching of Islamic theology and negate the use of violence in one’s pursuit of justice and peace. 6 When examining these studies, it is clear that an Islamic framework for peace and nonviolence has emerged and is being systematically developed and applied in various Muslim and non-Muslim communities. There are certain basic principles that constitute the core of this emerging framework. Pursuit of Peace in Islam Is Based on Justice and Nonviolence Scholars have identified Islamic peace and nonviolent values and rituals that constitute a solid base for a theoretical framework. Islamic values of peace include concepts such as: Ihsan (healing reconciliation), Samah (forgiveness), Sabr (patience), Adl (justice), taqwa (faith), aml Al Kheir (good deed), and a collective sense of communal peacemaking and human solidarity (Ummah). These concepts are common to all Islamic communities and have been emphasized by all Islamic prophets (peace be upon them). Islamic processes of peace and conflict resolution have also been identified and documented by learned and experienced scholars and practitioners. The practices of these experts trade include Islamic approaches to mediation, arbitration, and dialogue. In supporting these practical methods of peacemaking researchers have reexamined the practices of peacemaking in Islam such as the Prophet’s behavior and intervention as mediator in cases such as the Ka’aba incident (the moving of the black stone by Qureish tribes with the intervention of the Prophet), the Treaty at Hudaybiyyah (a treaty that fellow Muslim saw as humiliating, but is proof of Islam’s desire for peaceful coexistence with those of

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other faiths), the liberation of Mecca from Qureish tribes, the Prophet’s preaching and life in the thirteen years at Mecca, the Medina constitution and other treaties, and the concept of ceasefire or “hudna” as practiced by Arab tribal communities and its Islamic adaptation. In addition, many scholars have realized the Sulh as a Qur’anic peacemaking method. 7 When examining Islamic peace building studies in the last two decades. It is obvious that scholars have made a solid theological and sociological case for the presence of an Islamic peacemaking framework. 8 More than fifteen books and hundreds of articles have been published in the last decade in support of an Islamic peace building framework. 9 Bridging the Gap between the Ideal and the Real A major challenge that faces scholars and practitioners of Islamic peace building is in translating their newly constructed framework into relevant practices or mechanisms that can be utilized by various Muslim and non-Muslim professionals, as well as, the average person in their daily lives. In the last two decades, I have conducted many workshops in peace building for Muslim participants in areas as diverse as: the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Bosnia, Chad, Niger, and the United Sates. In many of these workshops, participants often raised the challenging question of how to translate these ideal values of Islamic peace into our daily interaction or relationships? Obviously such question is not unique to Muslim communities or faith. Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and other faith groups’ leaders face the same challenge of bridging between their preaching for how the true followers of the faith ought to behave and the actual reality of their communities. For example, many Christian clergy members preach for return to the “true” teaching of Christ as a way to reduce urban youth violence. In fact one can argue that people regardless of their religious affiliation (including secular humanists) also struggle to breach the gap between their ideals and actual behaviors. Unfortunately in the last two decades a wide speared perception has evolved in which Islam as a religion and Muslim communities are inherently violent or have (in comparison to other faith groups) a unique religious or/and cultural set of values that promote violence, extremism. 10 Thus, the question of gap between Muslim reality and Islamic ideal values becomes even more relevant and pressing when Western conflict resolution techniques and frameworks are packaged through trainings and publications by Western governments, corporations (forces of globalization), and nongovernmental organizations. Such methods are introduced with their cultural assumptions and values of materialism, rationalistic cost-benefit analysis, individualism, and a strong emphasis on contractual relationships. Such cultural values do not necessarily fit

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many of the recipients who come from Muslim collectivist and relationship oriented communities. In addition, many of these conflict resolution models (training and other forms of intervention designs) assume that the core problem in any given conflict is mainly in communication and perceptions. This often result in a simplistic analysis of the local often deep rooted and structural conflicts and in avoiding the asymmetric power structures or institutional discrimination and oppressive policies, which characterize many of the social and political conflicts in Muslim community contexts. For example, an organization that offers communication training for Egyptian Muslim and Christian participants as a framework to address their relations without any explicit or implicit examination of the social, political, and cultural structures that shape much of the fabric of Muslim Christian relations in Egypt. Obviously, it is important to improve the interpersonal capacity for effective communication; however, avoiding the structural factors can perpetuate the root causes of the conflict. Islamic peace building approaches have not yet produced practical methodologies to compete with the above government and nongovernmental agency approaches that constantly conduct training in order to market conflict resolution methodologies in Muslim communities. Adopting such peace and conflict resolution approaches that are disconnected from the reality of Muslim masses is problematic and ineffective. Similarly, solely relying on the teachings and resources of early Muslim scholars cannot be an effective tool to affect daily life of trainees in such context. Muslim communities located in deeply divided societies such countries as Iraq, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, and others, are not the same as what Ibn Taymiyyah, Ghazali, Rumi, or other early great Islamic scholars were responding to when they wrote about peace and war. While the problems lie in the social, cultural, and political systems, Islamic peace building frameworks, as defined by intellectual, legalistic, theological, and philosophical debates, remain theoretical and have little practical connections to current real life issues. Thus, the question remains: Can Islamic peace approaches develop relevant and effective methods for the average Muslim communities and individuals to utilize in confronting these systems? Confronting Violent Islamic Interpretations The events of September 11, 2001, have unleashed dangerous and violent forces in Muslim societies around the world. Al Qaeda ideology was supported by the violent attacks launched by Europeans and Americans forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Chechnya, Yemen, and similar places. This colonial and imperialistic legacy and reality has fueled those voices that support the use of violence in responding to injustice.

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In such a context, the Islamic peace building framework has contributed to moving the scholarship and practice beyond the already wellestablished narrative of defensive Islam, and strengthening Islamic conflict resolution as a frame of references upon which violent Islamic interpretations cannot be justified. The main discussion in most of the studies published on Islamic peace have been framed within a defensive mode of thought, in which authors defend the hypothesis that Islam has enough source of peace, or respond to authors who argue that Islamic values promote “jihadist violent culture.” Post-9/11 policies have intensified the need to clarify and show Western governments and the wider public that Islam as a religion does not preach violence or terrorism. Nevertheless, two decades later, scholars have produced enough literature to respond to those who supported the “clash of civilizations” hypothesis, proving that Islam as a religion and tradition is not inherently violent or supportive of aggression. 11 In addition, scholars of Islamic peace building have already responded to the question of how does Islam promote peace, pluralism, and interfaith dialogue? For example, hundreds of publications have produced solid evidence that both Islamic teachings in general and specific traditional practices such as Sulh support pluralism, nonviolence, and peacemaking. 12 Due to a heavy reliance of militant Muslim organizations (such as Al Qaeda) on Wahabi narrow and exclusive interpretations of Islamic sources, it is essential for Muslim and non-Muslim communities to be exposed to an alternative narrative and perspective on these issues of war, violence, and relations to the other. 13 The Islamic peace building framework is an important formulation of a social and cultural narrative or discourse to counter radicals and fanatics in Muslim communities. In many cases, these groups are not only tolerated and their discourse is present in the streets and in houses of the Ummah, but even dictating the daily agenda for certain segments of the Muslim societies. Having an Islamic nonviolence peace building framework for resisting oppression and pursuing justice leaves less space for community members to be complacent with a situation in which militant and fanatic interpretations are imposed by minority of scholars or militant activists. Islamic Peace building Framework and Root Causes of Conflict Introducing an alternative discourse (Islamic peace building framework) is a first step in confronting the militant interpretation of Islamic teaching. However, many participants in peace building workshops often point out that the real problems and challenges facing Muslims are not in the theological debate, but in dealing with root causes of the conflicts in their communities. Some of these macro factors or root causes that con-

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tinuously generate violent conflicts in the Muslim societies include such items as the following. A Reality of Economic Deprivation The majority of the population of Muslim societies, in which an often small economic elite controls more than 70 percent of the national wealth, 14 lives in economic deprivation. These extreme differences in wealth have increased the tension and instilled a sense of despair and hopelessness. As a consequence, Muslim societies do not have experience or belief in genuine change via peaceful means. Many scholars and analysts have attributed this reality to the continuing growth of militant Islamic movements. 15 Confusing Globalization Trends Global cultural invasion of rural and urban Muslim communities that lack the relevant tools to deal with such overwhelming force. In most cases, Muslim religious leaders either fully co-opted the global trends and immersed in the consumerist culture, or withdrew to sixth century Islamic interpretations to counter twentieth century globalization trends. Very few leaders have managed to formulate an authentic Islamic response to handle globalization forces in healthy and productive ways. 16 Due to the weak and fragile central state systems of government, the political elite’s have not developed any authentic tools and mechanisms to handle globalization and its consequences on their societies’ religious and cultural identity. Authoritarian and Security States Systems State-run, authoritative political regimes rule Muslim societies with little space for opposition groups to express their dissent. The masses are under constant surveillance and pressure to conform to the ruling parties’ various ideologies or discourses. These “security states or regimes” promote a culture of violence through their sheer existence and daily practices in repressing individual and collective rights. 17 The legitimacy for these authoritative security-state regimes stems largely from the respect for authoritarianism and its cultural practices. Islamic teachings that originally aimed to liberate Arab Muslims from their tribal mentality in the early Islamic period have been manipulated to perpetuate the tribal and authoritative mentality in twentieth century reality. 18 The recent revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Libya, and Bahrain are examples of social and political movements attempting to reform or even reject such structures.

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Theology of Stagnation In most Muslim societies there is very little room or space for reinterpretation of the Qur'anic teachings or Islamic history and tradition. Scholars who have dared to voice new hermeneutics have been expelled by the regimes and excommunicated by religious establishments. 19 Certain religious leaders in Muslim societies have acted as gatekeepers in defending the process of recycling selective sixth century ideas and interpretations, and fighting and delegitimizing the type of interpretations that breaks the historical and religious myths. An example would be when religious authorities issue various Fatwas (religious decrees) to limit the freedom of Muslim women in both social and professional spheres. 20 Thus, religious myths are being recycled and fed by intellectuals. Some of these myths relate to: the role of violence in settling Muslim internal and external disputes; spreading a sense of superiority over other nations and religion; continuing to impose harsh limits and restrictions on Muslim women by disseminating certain cultural and religious rules. There is no doubt that there is a need for newer Islamic hermeneutic to assist Muslim communities in the struggle to effectively counter such cultural and theological decay. Patriarchal Structures Dominant patriarchal system in which male identity (especially older men) sits on the top of the social and cultural system, with specific norms and values to systematically maintain that identity. This reality has produced wide gender institutional gaps (in economic, political, educational, cultural, religious, and all other systems). 21 According to the United Nations-annually sponsored reports, women in the Muslim societies, especially in the Arab world are still denied equality of opportunity, despite the fact that their disempowerment is a critical factor crippling the nations’ quest to return to the first rank of global leaders in trade and science. The reports not only call for all Arab women to be granted equal access to essential health, education and all types of activities outside the family, but also urge temporary adoption of affirmative action to expand such participation, thus allowing centuries-old structures of discrimination to be dismantled. “Full participation and empowerment of women, as citizens, as producers, as mothers and sisters, will be a source of strength for Arab Nations and will allow the Arab World to reach greater prosperity, greater influence and higher levels of human development,” said UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Kemal Dervis, whose agency sponsored the Arab Human Development Report 2005. 22

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Tribal Loyalties Islamic teaching, when originally spread in the tribal Arab context, aimed at liberating and enhancing the rights of women, however tribal and cultural practices of Muslims around the world (especially in Gulf states) obstructed the application or these principles and manipulated them via conservative and literal interpretations to perpetuate domination of men over women in all spheres. Thus, although the repression of women might not be in the Qur’anic teachings themselves, it is obvious that interpretations of these teachings need to be fundamentally reevaluated and many of them may be obsolete; especially, when one considers the Muslim reality of twenty first century as opposed to the seventh or eighth century. The tribal loyalties affect not only gender relations, but it extends to shape much of the political and social systems. For example, the tribal factor in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and all the Gulf States have contributed significantly to the obstruction of democratic participatory governance systems. 23 Co-opted Religious Establishments In most of the Muslim societies there is a legitimacy crisis facing the religious establishments, since most religious leaders are co-opted by the political elites or states. This alliance of the religious and political elites has produced a reality in which the masses are torn between this mainstream co-opted religious leadership and the dissenting militant and radical interpretation of Islam. In such a context, a lack of a third discourse or voice exists. The third voice, one that is not co-opted by the political elite and does not preach for fanaticism, militancy, violence, and extremism in its religious interpretation, is sorely needed. The co-optation of the religious establishments can be easily observed through the manipulation of the various regimes of their top clergy. For example the competing fatwa issued by religious leaders in supporting or denouncing the Syrian regime’s killing of its people. Clergies’ leaders from Saudi, Qatar, Egypt, and other states who opposed the regime called for fighting against the regime, while clergy from Iran, Lebanon, and others issued religious calls in support of the regime’s policies. Disempowering Educational System The educational institutes in many Muslim countries continue to promote a frontal, conformist, authoritative, and obedient type of education. Self-examination and critique are discouraged or absent from the teaching curricula and pedagogy of most Muslim societies. Public education systems often promote shame and honor codes that reduce creativity and critical thinking skills. Such systems become effective tools in the mainte-

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nance and control of certain political, ethnic, and religious elites. 24 Mamoun Fandy has argued that Muslim intellectuals have struggled for decades to institute pedagogical “software” that would encourage students to engage with the West and take up the challenge of reforming their national cultures from within to make them compatible with modern, global society. 25 For reasons of political expediency however, the governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and other Muslim states have allowed and even encouraged another version of “educational software,” one developed by people like Sayyid Qutb and organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood. This jihadist software nurtures student resentment and hostility toward the non-Muslim world, as well as toward progressives and intellectuals within Muslim societies. Those states now face a crisis within their educational systems as the exclusionist Islamist ideology has spread throughout their schools and beyond their borders. 26 There is a need for an Islamic diversity approach rooted in development. Such approach relates to non-Muslims without apologies or defensiveness, but with constructive social and economic initiatives. Non-Muslims can learn more about Islam and its history through these pluralist principles and economic development rather than dogmatic preaching. 27 CONCLUSION There are various Islamic historical and religious figures whose thoughts and legacies are rooted in humanist and Universalist framework. Many of these have deep linkages to the Sufi tradition (Rumi, Al Ghazali, Ibn Arabi, etc.). They offer significant contribution to the third group of scholars and practitioners (those who support the hypothesis that Islamic nonviolence resistance and peace building values and norms can be the central lens for all Muslim communities in dealing with their internal and external conflicts and interactions). Such intellectual and scientific traditions can be the foundation for building an effective peace building paradigm (concepts and tools) to counter the narrative and discourse of extremism. Scholars and practitioners have made significant progress in the development and publication of this framework of Islamic peace building and nonviolence in the last two decades. These scholars as mentioned earlier have managed to articulate the rich and diverse Islamic theological sources that support an Islamic nonviolence and peace building hypothesis. Such research, in this initial phase, has focused on basic questions: How does the Quran relate to the causes and types of conflicts? What principles of conflict resolution are reflected in the Quran? What are the techniques and strategies in dealing with conflict described in the Quran? Are there different techniques and procedures in approaching family, community, and state conflicts? 28

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The same above research methodology and questions proposed in 1996 have also been applied to examine Islamic sources on dialogue and pluralism. Scholars addressing these questions in relation to pluralism have published books on sources of interfaith dialogue and pluralism according to the Hadith and Qur’anic sources. 29 In addition, new courses have been developed in academic institutions to teach about religious sources of peace in Islam. Seminars and workshops are being offered on continual bases by various Muslim organizations around the world to bring this framework to both Muslim and non-Muslim audiences. 30 Despite the above achievements, the research and practice of an Islamic framework for peace building and nonviolence appears to have been trapped in its initial phase of extracting Qur’anic verses and statements from Hadith in support of their hypothesis. The overwhelming majority of books and articles on this topic repeatedly return to the Holy Quran and list those verses that support peace and nonviolence. Muslims and Non-Muslim readers have been overexposed to these religious teachings and this overexposure has not produced pragmatic results. In the next phase of constructing an Islamic peace building framework, scholars and practitioners need to move beyond such research and practice methodology. 31 Specifically, there is a need to: 1. Increase research that examines the religious teachings used by militants and fanatics, and even mainstream establishment Islam in support of violence, exclusion of others, ethnocentrism, and tribal loyalties. Offering alternative interpretations for such teaching based on Islamic nonviolent resistance and peace building is an essential step in challenging this discourse. 2. Develop concrete and practical tools for Muslim professionals (social change agents) on how to utilize Islamic approaches of nonviolence and peace building in their work and quest for political and social change. Such tools, if rooted in proper cultural and religious context, can be an effective vehicle to engage Muslim communities in mobilizing for change (instead of being exposed or adopting only certain alienating Western rationalistic and secular cultural approaches to peace building and nonviolent activism). 3. Diversify the religious sources in the articulation of Islamic peace building to include Shi’a and other Islamic minority discourses. The tradition of Ahl al Bayt is not represented in the current publications and practice of Islamic peace building. The historical experience of Shi’a minorities around the Muslim world is a rich source of teaching for Muslims on how to pursue in a nonviolent struggle their rights and preserve their theological identity. It is the duty of Shi’a and Sunni scholars to bring these teachings into the center of an Islamic peace building framework.

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4. Link the theoretical and abstract research on Islamic peace building and nonviolence resistance with real issues of economic and social development that face Muslim communities around the world. Without this systematic link, such framework and teaching will remain in the realm of Islamic ideal teachings. 5. Continue to formulate an Islamic peace building framework that is capable of capturing the minds and aspirations of (young) Muslims, even though such framework is being developed and rooted in specific local Muslim societies and scholars, such as Turkish Gulen, Abdul Ghafar Khan in Peshawar (Pakistan), 32 Jawdat Said in Syria, or Imam Shirazi in Iraq and Iran. Connecting these localized movements into a transnational Muslim peace building and nonviolence resistance movement is monumental task that awaits both scholarly and activist imagination and creativity. NOTES 1. State Institute for Peace’s Religion and Peacemaking Program. Douglas M. Johnston and Cynthia Sampson, eds., Religion: The Missing Dimension of Statecraft (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994 ); Cynthia Sampson, “Religion and Peace building,” in Peacemaking in International Conflict: Methods and Techniques, ed. W. Zartman and L. Rasmussen (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997). 2. Douglas M. Johnston and Cynthia Sampson’s edited (1994) volume on religion and peace has functioned as a main reference in this regard, arguing for the need for institutionalizing religious approaches to peace in political process. Since then, a number of institutions have emerged as leaders in the field of religion and peace building in North America, including American University’s Peace and Conflict Resolution Program, George Mason University’s Center for Religion and Diplomacy, The Kroc Institute at Notre Dame University, Emory University’s Center for East and West, Harvard University’s Divinity School, and The United 3. See Catholic Relief Services publications on Catholic Justice Lenses (www.crs.org); Marc Gopin (1991) is among the leadings Jewish scholars who have researched peace and violence in Judaic faith. Glen Stassen, ed. Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 1998); Susan Thistlethwaite and Glen Stassen, “Abrahamic Alternatives to War: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives on Just Peacemaking,” in USIP Special Reports (Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace, 2008); Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach, eds., From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peace building (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000 ); Marc Gopin, “Religion, Violence, and Conflict Resolution,” Peace and Change 22, no. 1 (1991). 4. See many references in support of these categories in Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Nonviolence and Peace building in Islam (Gainsville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2003), 20–30; Chaiwat Satha-Anand, Islam and Nonviolence (Tampa, FL: University of South Florida, 1987); “Core Values for Peacemaking in Islam: The Prophet’s Practice as Paradigm,” in Building Peace in the Middle East: Challenges for the States and Civil Society, ed. Elise Boulding (Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner Publishers, 1994); Nonviolent Crescent: Two Essays on Islam and Nonviolence (Alkmaar, The Netherlands: International Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1996); Abdul Aziz Said and Nathan C. Funk, “The Role of Faith in Cross-Cultural Conflict Resolution,” Peace and Conflict Studies 9, no. 1 (2002); Jawdat Sa’id, The Doctrine of the First Son of Adam: The Problem of Violence in Islamic Practice, Fifth ed. (Damascus: Dar al Fikr, 1993); “Peace or Nonviolence in History and with the

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Prophets [Trans. by Dr. Abduhu Hammud al-Sharif, revised with notes by Dr. Karim Crow]” (paper presented at the Conference on Islamic Values for Change, Bi’r Ajam, Qunaytra, Syria, April 3, 1997); “Law, Religion and the Prophetic Method of Social Change,” Journal of Law and Religion 15, no. 1–2 (2000–2001); Abdul Aziz Said and Nathan C. Funk, “Islam and the West: Three Stories,” in The Future of Islam-West Relations, ed. Shireen Hunter (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1998). 5. John Kelsay and James Turner Johnson, eds., Just War and Jihad: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on War and Peace in Western and Islamic Traditions (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991); Bassam Tibi, “War and Peace in Islam,” in The Ethics of War and Peace: Religious and Secular Perspectives, ed. Terry Nardin (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996). 6. There are many studies in this categories: see list of these studies in: Karim Douglas Crow, “Divided Discourse: Muslim Discussion on Islam and Peace,” (Washington DC: Nonviolence International, unpublished paper, July 1997); Amr Abdalla, “Principles of Islamic Interpersonal Conflict Intervention: A Search within Islam and Western Literature,” Journal of Law and Religion 15(2000); Abu-Nimer, Nonviolence and Peace building in Islam (see Said Abdul Aziz 1996; 2007) (Abu-Nimer 1996). 7. See the many studies documenting the procedures of Sulha and traditional dispute resolution mechanisms in Muslim communities, including: George Irani and Nathan Funk, “Rituals of Reconciliation: Arab-Islamic Perspectives,” Arab Studies Quarterly 20, no. 4 (1998); George Irani, “Islamic Mediation Techniques for Middle Eastern Conflicts,” MERIA (Middle East Review of International Affairs) Journal 3, no. 2 (1999); Ayse S. Kadayifci-Orellana, “Religion, Violence and the Islamic Tradition of Nonviolence,” Turkish Yearbook of International Relations, no. 34 (2003); Abu-Nimer, Nonviolence and Peace building in Islam. 8. It should be noted that the overwhelming majority of these studies heavily relied on Sunni perspectives and resources. There are few studies that utilized Shi’a perspective and sources in constructing a case for Islamic peace and nonviolence, among them are the writing of Imam Shirazi and his many followers (see Free Muslim Association for further information about Imam Shirazi work and life). 9. See Nonviolence International (www.nonviolenceinternational.net) for a complete list of these references on Islamic Peace (compiled by Karim Crow in 1998). 10. Abu-Nimer, Nonviolence and Peace building in Islam. See also a report on Islamophobia documented by Fear Inc. (accessed September 27, 2012). http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/religion/report/2011/08/26/10165/fear-inc/. 11. See Sachedina Abdul Aziz book on pluralism Islam, Nonviolence, and Social Transformation—Part I, Mamoun-al-Rasheed. Originally published on The Center for Global Nonviolence web site at http://www.globalnonviolence.org/islam.htm. 12. As mentined earlier, there are many books and even separate bibliographies compiled to collect these sources (see Nonviolence International and www.SalamInstitute.org, who have been promoting Islamic peace and conflict resolution approaches. 13. This Wahabi interpretation of Islam is prevalent in many Islamic Madrassa systems (Islamic schools), especially in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. 14. See more information on the economics of Arab society in Halim Barakat, The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State (Berkeley and Los Angeles: California University Press, 1993); Walter Laqueur, No End to War: Terrorism In The Twenty-first Century (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003). 15. See also No End to War: Terrorism In the Twenty-first Century: 18. 16. In the Arab society context, Amr Khalid is among the few Arab young religious preachers who have been formulating new teachings to help the younger Arab Muslim generation dealing with the contradictions resulting from modernization and globalization trends (see www.amrkhaled.net).

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17. A quick review of the fifty-six Muslim countries reveal that overwhelming majority of these regimes lack any wide or comfortable space for opposition (individual or collective) to express their political views or participate in democratic governance process. Under such regimes, elections are often manipulated by one party or royal family, political prisoners are kept without trial, interior security forces impose a terrorizing environment on opposition groups, and media outlets are heavily censored. 18. Iraqi, Afghani, Saudi, and Pakistani tribal and clannish loyalty are only a few examples of how deep this primordial tribal identity remains ingrained in Muslim societies and blocks the emergence of more egalitarian communities. 19. In the last few decades many Muslim scholars have found refuge outside of their homelands or have been prohibited from entering certain countries due to their alternative and courageous reinterpretation of Islamic texts and theological frameworks. Some of these include: Hamid Abu Zeid, Nawal Saedawi, Fatima Marnesi, Mohammed Arkoun, Khalid Abu Al Fadel, Tareq Ramadan, Mahmoud Taha, and others. 20. Some of these Fatwas aimed to limit the contacts between male and female; reduce the age for marriage below the already existing legal age of 16. For example, the Islamic seminary Darul Ulum Deoband in India issue two recent Fatwas preventing women from running beauty salons and prohibiting birthday celebrations as a Western tradition (see Asia News accessed September 27, 2012. http:// www.asianews.it/news-en/Deoband-seminary-issues-fatwa-against-birthdays23111.html). Other political Fatwas called for disconnecting any social relations with non-Muslims or declaring total wars against western societies (Al Qaeda 1998). 21. See the United Nations development agency report on gender gaps in Arab World. 22. Arab Human Development Report 2005: Toward the rise of women in the Arab world. Http://www.peacewomen.org/news/International/Dec06/GenderEquality_ArabWorld.html-December 7, 2006—(UN News Centre). 23. Abu-Nimer, Nonviolence and Peace building in Islam. 24. There are many sources in support of this hypothesis, but more importantly, there have been recent attempts to address these characteristics of Muslim education. “We as leaders of the Muslim world need to take responsibility for ourselves and our citizens,” said Sheik Saud bin Saqr al-Qasimi, the crown prince and deputy ruler of Ras al-Khaimah, a part of the United Arab Emirates. “We need to make sure that our young people can find jobs.” Shortfalls in education in Muslim countries “make people vulnerable to misinformation.” See Thomas Fuller, “Can the Muslim world be rebranded?” International Herald Tribute May 28, 2007. A report on Indonesia and Malaysia conference to counter these trends in the Muslim world. (http://www.iht.com/ articles/2007/05/28/africa/forum.php). 25. Mamoun Fandy, Educational Crisis in the Muslim World (Washington, DC: United States Institute for Peace, senior fellow report, June 2004), http://www.usip.org/fellows/reports/2004/0610_fandy.html. 26. Fandy, Educational Crisis in the Muslim World. 27. Gulen movement provides an excellent example of such initiatives. It has hundreds of economic development projects (schools and other poverty reduction programs) in many Muslim communities around the world. Such emphasis enhances and empowers the local Muslim capacity and assist in developing new community discourse that is not based on victimhood. 28. Abu-Nimer (1996: 37). 29. For a list of publications on interfaith dialogue in Islam, see Mohammed AbuNimer and Muhammad Shafig, Interfaith Dialogue: A Guide For Muslims, Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue (Salam: Peace and Justice Institute and the International Institute for Islamic Thought, 2007). For practical examples see: “Muslim-Christian

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Dialogue Forum Peace is divine, preach it” at http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/cicr/ ejournal/features/kaduna.html. 30. Some of these organizations include: Rumi Forum in the United States, Salam Institute for Peace and Justice in Washington D.C., and Amana in Thailand and South Asia. The Center for Global Peace at American University developed six graduate courses on Islamic Peace and have put together a Global Islamic Peace curriculum (see list of Muslim peace organizations at www.SalamInstitute.org). 31. In an article in 1996, the author Mohammed Abu-Nimer articulated a list of proposed research questions and challenges for the development of Islamic nonviolence and peace building framework. See the list in: Mohammed Abu-Nimer, “Conflict Resolution in an Islamic Context: Some Conceptual Questions,” Peace and Change 22, no. 40 (1996): 36-37. 32. Eknath Easwaran, A Man to Match His Mountains: Badshah Khan: Nonviolent Soldier of Islam (Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1984); Robert C. Johansen, “Radical Islam and Nonviolence: A Case Study of Religious Empowerment and Constraint Among Pashtuns,” Journal of Peace Research 34, no. 1 (1997).

BIBLIOGRAPHY Abdalla, Amr. “Principles of Islamic Interpersonal Conflict Intervention: A Search within Islam and Western Literature.” Journal of Law and Religion 15 (2000): 151–84. Abu-Nimer, Mohammed. “Conflict Resolution Approaches: Western and Middle Eastern Lessons and Possibilities.” The American Journal of Economics and Sociology 55, no. 1 (1996): 35–55. ———. “Conflict Resolution in an Islamic Context: Some Conceptual Questions.” Peace and Change 22, no. 40 (1996): 22–40. ———. Nonviolence and Peace building in Islam. Florida: University Press of Florida, 2003. Abu-Nimer, Mohammed, and Kadayifci-Orellana. “Muslim Peace Building Actors in Africa and the Balkans.” Washington DC: Salam Institute for Peace and Justice Report, 2005. Abu-Nimer, Mohammed, and Muhammad Shafig. Interfaith Dialogue: A Guide for Muslims. Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue. Salam: Peace and Justice Institute and the International Institute for Islamic Thought, 2007. Abu-Nimer, Mohammed, and Ihsan Yilmaz. “Islamic Resources of Peace building: Achievements and Challenges.” In Islam and Peace building: Gulen Movement Initiative, edited by John Esposito and Ihsan Yilmaz. Istanbul: Blue Dome Press, 2010. Ali, Moulavi Chiragh. “War and Peace: Popular Jihad.” In Contemporary Debates in Islam: An Anthology of Modernist and Fundamentalist Thought, edited by Moaddel Mansoor and Kamran Talattof. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Aziz, Said Abdul, and Nathan Funk. “Peace in the Sufi Tradition: An Ecology of the Spirit.” In Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam, edited by Abdul Aziz Said, Nathan C. Funk and Ayse S. Kadayifci-Orellana. 247–62. Lanham: University Press of America, 2001. Barakat, Halim. The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State. Berkeley and Los Angeles: California University Press, 1993. Chittick, William C. “Theological Roots of Peace and War According to Islam.” The Islamic Quarterly 34, no. 3 (1990): 145–63. Crow, Karim Douglas. “Divided Discourse: Muslim Discussion on Islam and Peace.” Washington DC: Nonviolence International, unpublished paper, July 1997. Donner, Fred M. “The Sources of Islamic Conceptions of War.” In Just War and Jihad: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on War and Peace in Western and Islamic Traditions, edited by John Kelsay and James Turner Johnson. 31–69. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.

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Easwaran, Eknath. A Man to Match His Mountains: Badshah Khan: Nonviolent Soldier of Islam. Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1984. Gopin, Marc. “Religion, Violence, and Conflict Resolution.” Peace and Change 22, no. 1 (1991): 1–31. Irani, George. “Islamic Mediation Techniques for Middle Eastern Conflicts.” MERIA (Middle East Review of International Affairs) Journal 3, no. 2 (1999). Irani, George, and Nathan Funk. “Rituals of Reconciliation: Arab-Islamic Perspectives.” Arab Studies Quarterly 20, no. 4 (1998): 53–73. Johansen, Robert C. “Radical Islam and Nonviolence: A Case Study of Religious Empowerment and Constraint among Pashtuns.” Journal of Peace Research 34, no. 1 (1997): 53–71. Johnston, Douglas M., and Cynthia Sampson, eds. Religion: The Missing Dimension of Statecraft. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994 Kadayifci-Orellana, Ayse S. “Religion, Violence and the Islamic Tradition of Nonviolence.” Turkish Yearbook of International Relations, no. 34 (2003). Kelsay, John, and James Turner Johnson, eds. Just War and Jihad: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on War and Peace in Western and Islamic Traditions. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991. Laqueur, Walter. No End to War: Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003. Malik, Iftikhar H. “Islamic Discourse on Jihad, War and Violence.” Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies 21, no. 4 (1998): 47–78. Mousalli, Ahmad S. “An Islamic Model for Political Conflict Resolution: Tahkim (Arbitration).” In Conflict Resolution in the Arab World: Selected Essays, edited by Paul Salem. Lebanon: American University of Beirut, 1997. Sa’id, Jawdat. The Doctrine of the First Son of Adam: The Problem of Violence in Islamic Practice. Fifth ed. Damascus: Dar al Fikr, 1993. ———. “Law, Religion and the Prophetic Method of Social Change.” Journal of Law and Religion 15, no. 1-2 (2000-2001): 83–149. ———. “Peace- or Nonviolence- in History and with the Prophets [Trans. By Dr. Abduhu Hammud Al-Sharif, Revised with Notes by Dr. Karim Crow].” Paper presented at the Conference on Islamic Values for Change, Bi’r Ajam, Qunaytra, Syria, April 3, 1997. Said, Abdul Aziz, and Nathan C. Funk. “Islam and the West: Three Stories.” In The Future of Islam-West Relations, edited by Shireen Hunter. Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1998. ———. “The Role of Faith in Cross-Cultural Conflict Resolution.” Peace and Conflict Studies 9, no. 1 (2002): 37–50. Said, Abdul Aziz, Nathan C. Funk, and Ayse S. Kadayifci-Orellana. Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam: Precept and Practice. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2001. Salem, Paul, ed. Conflict Resolution in the Arab World: Selected Essays. Lebanon: American University of Beirut, 1997. Salmi, Ralph H., Cesar Adib Majul, and George K. Tanham. Islam and Conflict Resolution: Theories and Practices. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1998. Sampson, Cynthia. “Religion and Peace building.” In Peacemaking in International Conflict: Methods and Techniques, edited by W. Zartman and L. Rasmussen. 273-316. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997. Sampson, Cynthia, and John Paul Lederach, eds. From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peace Building. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000 Satha-Anand, Chaiwat. “Core Values for Peacemaking in Islam: The Prophet’s Practice as Paradigm.” In Building Peace in the Middle East: Challenges for the States and Civil Society, edited by Elise Boulding. Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner Publishers, 1994. ———. Islam and Nonviolence. Tampa, FL: University of South Florida, 1987.

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———. “The Nonviolent Crescent: Eight Thesis on Muslim Nonviolent Action.” In Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam: Precept and Practice, edited by Abdul Aziz et. al. 195–211. New York: University Press of America, 2001 ———. Nonviolent Crescent: Two Essays on Islam and Nonviolence. Alkmaar, the Netherlands: International Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1996. Stassen, Glen, ed. Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 1998. Thistlethwaite, Susan, and Glen Stassen. “Abrahamic Alternatives to War: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives on Just Peacemaking.” In USIP Special Reports, 20. Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace, 2008. Tibi, Bassam. “War and Peace in Islam.” In The Ethics of War and Peace: Religious and Secular Perspectives, edited by Terry Nardin. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.

TWENTY-TWO Peace on Earth The Anabaptist-Mennonite Perspective Lois Edmund

INTRODUCTION TO ANABAPTISTS AND MENNONITES Anabaptism began in the early sixteenth century as a Christian theological movement in protest of the practices of both the Roman Catholic Church and the spreading Magisterial Protestant Movement inaugurated by Martin Luther. The early Reformation history suggests three somewhat coincidental Anabaptist “points of departure” in Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. 1 Typically, 1525 is observed as the historical beginning of Anabaptism. In Zurich, the first so-called “believers’ baptism” occurred. Even this episode was steeped with conflict. Several reformers differed with Swiss reformation leader, Huldrych Zwingli, over the issue of baptism, and they were threatened with banishment if they did not comply with infant baptismal rules. At a secret, forbidden meeting, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, Conrad Grebel, and others baptized each other with poured water. It was called ana-baptism (rebaptism), since all were adults who had been baptized as infants. Shortly after this believers’ baptism, a small Anabaptist congregation was formed in Zurich. When news of the rebaptism became known, it resulted in the imprisonment of several members. About five years later, Menno Simons, a Dutch priest who actively studied the Bible, and questioned the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, found out about the practice.

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The movement grew rapidly between 1525 and 1550. It was, and is, known by many names such as the “Amish” (after Jakob Ammann), “Hutterites” (after Jakob Hutter), and “Mennonites” (after Menno Simons). Persecution throughout the European continent by other developing reformation groups, established church, and governments, resulted in the rapid spread of the beliefs through whole-community migration, with its subsequent fragmentation, which continued well into the nineteenth century. The Anabaptist movement came to be called the Radical Reformation, “neither Catholic nor Protestant,” 2 because of significant theological distinctions. The use of nonviolent resistance and the creation of a peaceable community were part of the theology and practice from the early days of the movement. The early Anabaptist leaders were almost universally pacifist. 3 When fringe Anabaptist leaders such as Thomas Muntzer, Melchior Hoffman, and Jan van Batenburg, and their followers in Germany, advocated and practiced violent resistance, they were decried and expelled by others within the mainstream Anabaptist movement. Mennonites throughout history have struggled with the dilemma of how to treat those who advocate or resort to violence with compassionate responses, in order to provide correction and motivate conformity. The Mennonites are now only one church among a larger group called “Peace Churches,” a term first developed at a peace conference in 1935. 4 Peace Churches advocate and practice nonresistance and pacifism as a tenet of faith. Many of these churches, including such denominations as Amish, Brethren in Christ, Church of the Brethren, Hutterite, a variety of Mennonite groups, and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), affiliate through the Mennonite World Conference, a community of Anabaptist related churches. Other Christian groups do exist who are fully or partially pacifist (for example, the Christadelphians, the Church of Christ, and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church), but they do not identify with peace churches of the Anabaptist tradition. This chapter discusses the history of the Anabaptist peace churches, current Anabaptist Mennonite contributions to peacebuilding, future directions of the Anabaptist Mennonite peace theology as well as an Anabaptist Mennonite understanding of peace on earth. HISTORY FOR ANABAPTIST PEACE CHURCHES The origins, theological development, and growth of the AnabaptistMennonite movement have been marked throughout its history by conflict. For centuries, the multiple groups who identified with the Christian pacifist movement were shaped by conflicting theology, values, and lifestyle. This continues today within sects and also within the broader church and political environment.

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Anabaptist peace theology demonstrated little uniformity as it developed, and the “Mennonite” positions today continue to be divergent. The specific positions on violence, war, and peace depend on the group of reference. Historically, the conviction supporting nonviolent resistance came gradually to the European Anabaptists. 5 The first overt reference to the Mennonite rejection of violence came through Conrad Grebel in 1524. The commitment later cohered in 1527 in the agreement called the Schleitheim Confession. Contemporary Mennonite peacebuilding dialogue and activity happen at all levels: congregational and regional, through international peacebuilding education organizations such as Mennonite Central Committee, and through pragmatic advocacy of organizations such as the Christian Peacemaker Teams. Foundations in Theological and Ideological Values From the beginnings of Anabaptism, the central theological pillar was “Jesus is Lord.” This had a definitive meaning, going deeply beyond church membership or simple acceptance of traditional doctrines transmitted by authoritative priests. It meant that Jesus’s teachings were accepted as normative for all of life, individually and within the entire social order. Jesus’ teachings should be the model for all believers. The tenets of their faith contrasted drastically with contemporary paradigms which vested absolute authority in the church and in the rulers of the day. That conviction motivated all of the Christian reformers, but particularly the Anabaptists, to rethink every aspect of their faith, and to study biblical texts with new or renewing fervor. The belief also contributed to external perceptions of the Anabaptist movement as inciters of opposition and rebellion, rejecting both church and government, and fueled the often violent persecution of Anabaptist adherents. However, pacific values were foundational to the Anabaptist movement, which was marked by a refusal to retaliate when misunderstood or harmed. The Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective summarizes, “The Spirit . . . empowers us to love enemies, to forgive rather than to seek revenge, to practice right relationships, to rely on the community of faith to settle disputes, and to resist evil without violence.” 6 Although the specific beliefs and practices of Mennonite groups vary regionally, and often correlated with historical developments, common elements in Anabaptist-Mennonite theological and philosophical beliefs include the following four principles. 1. The sola scriptura principle of the reformation was, and is, central. This term comes from the Latin phrase meaning ‘scripture alone,’ which the early Radical Reformers took to mean directly understood and unmediated by priestly authorities. The Bible, emphasizing the Old Testament prophets as well as the New Testament, is the starting point for understanding human purpose and uses of power. The central message of the

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Gospel (the God-story) is of peace and reconciliation. If Anabaptists had to choose a single influential Scripture passage, it would have been Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. 7 It is difficult to point to Scriptural bases for Mennonite pacifism without proof-texting and selecting passages that only speciously prove the point. However, biblical descriptions of Jesus’ life, relationships, and teachings about peace are the main sources of Mennonite ideology. Briefly, Mennonites interpreted Jesus’ and other biblical teachings to describe a response to violence completely different from the prevailing attitudes. Love your enemy; 8 do not retaliate but, rather, “turn the other cheek;” 9 live peacefully with all. 10 Other Scriptural support for the peace position was based on passages prohibiting killing, describing a peaceable community, and relating to justice- and peacemaking roles. 2. Faith and life must be consistent. An oft-used quotation from Menno Simons expressed, “true evangelical faith...cannot lie dormant. It expresses itself in all righteousness and works of love. . . . It clothes the naked; feeds the hungry; consoles the sorrowful; shelters the destitute; aids and consoles all the oppressed; returns good for evil; serves those that harm it; prays for those that persecute.” 11 In life and lifestyle, then, Mennonites value “patience, understanding, love, forgiveness, a desire for the redemption even of the enemy.” 12 The “upsidedown Kingdom” is a phrase which describes a life that is radically different from the secular. 13 The motivation of faith is discipleship, to strive to live as Jesus lived and taught. Although the whole Bible is authoritative, New Testament history and apostolic letters most fully describe the life of the faithful. Christians act on their beliefs. The purpose of the church is to demonstrate an alternative way of being, living a faithful lifestyle embedded in community. Mennonites practice social justice because the ministry of God’s People is to overcome division and create shalom. 3. The faith community is critical to a life of faith. God and the Holy Spirit are discernible in every person, so every person is a vital part of a community that practices mutual assistance and accountability. No person is more or less legitimate or valuable; therefore, no one deserves to use retribution or violence. Peace is not simply a belief, but is an achievable way of life. In the Bible, careful and somewhat literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount formed the paradigm for this community. 14 The community is formed as a body centered in love, different and separate from surrounding cultures. “We become conformed to Christ, faithful to the will of God, and separated from the evil of the world...True faith means seeking first the reign of God in simplicity...acting in peace and justice, rather than with violence and military means.” 15 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I would not fall into the hands of the Jews. As it is, my kingdom is not of this realm.” 16

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Mennonites believe that Christians are responsible to be facilitators of justice and peacemaking. “As followers of Jesus, we participate in the ministry of peace and justice. God has called us to find our blessing in making peace and seeking justice.” 17 Within the community, diversity has been interpreted in two ways historically: some affirm that the community should include all who voluntarily choose to be part of it; other groups place more emphasis on strict demonstrations of purity, and embrace only those who comply while shunning those who differ. 4. Principled pacifism asserts that no Christian should use violence, bear arms, or serve in combatant military roles. Many early Anabaptist writings refer to peace and well-being of all humans as the primary Christian motivation. Mennonites choose nonviolent means for solving conflict, believing in the power of truth, justice, and loving action to create peace. It is better to die than to kill. Jesus’ teaching, ministry, and mission are the ultimate revelation of God’s way of being in the world, and he refused to use violence to defend himself or to persuade others of his message. “God created the world in peace, and God’s peace is most fully revealed in Jesus Christ, who is our peace.” 18 Martyrs Mirror 19 documents the stories of numerous early reformer Christians, particularly Anabaptists, who willingly chose martyrdom rather than compromise their faith with the use of violence. For many Anabaptist-Mennonites, principled pacifism correlates both with refusal to use violence, and also with pragmatic justice-making roles, personally and professionally. “Shalom,” the concept of harmoniously balanced, responsible, peaceful spirit is commonly used in Peace Church communities to summarize this central pillar of Anabaptist values. Using numerous biblical allusions, Menno Simons expressed the nonresistant principle in this way: “The regenerated do not go to war nor fight. They are children of peace who have beaten their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and know of no war. They give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s. Their sword is the sword of the spirit which they wield with good conscience through the Holy Ghost.” 20 Results in Living in the World Living out these values has in visible and ideological ways distinguished Mennonites as communities with unique lifestyle practices. Mennonites advocate: • Voluntary, informed faith, and freedom of conscience, including believer’s baptism and adult church membership.

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• “Priesthood of all believers” asserts that every human has the right, even the responsibility, to communicate directly with God, to interpret Scripture, and to administer justice, peace, and reconciliation in community with other believers. Pragmatically, church membership entails a level of mutual accountability and discipline that is not common in church communities. • Nonconformity to the secular values and ways of a surrounding culture. This does not often translate into open critique or criticism of society, though, and Mennonites were once known as die stille im lande (the quiet in the land). This lead to external perceptions shaped by suspicion, and to significant criticism for a passive silence on matters of faith. • Rejection of rulers or governments that practice peace through injustice or might. • Negative pacifism, or refusal to use violence. • Most (but not all) Mennonite groups are active with positive pacifism, mending harms when they occur physically and environmentally, socially, and spiritually, building community and working to establish social justice for all Failure in the Twentieth Century Until the beginning of the twentieth century, Mennonites deliberately remained on the periphery of most societies, declining to participate in secular economic, educational, and political institutions. Rather, they formed somewhat isolated communities with an ethic of mutual noninterference with surrounding peoples. When their community mores were threatened, for example by the requirement that they send their children to public schools, they repeatedly moved whole communities to new regions with promises of continued isolation. This contributed to the passive, non-missional spread of Anabaptist-Mennonite theology to many areas of the world, mostly in the Western hemisphere. Mennonites preferred to be identified as “nonresistants” rather than as “pacifists,” in order to assert a biblical peace theology, and to avoid association with growing humanism. 21 One of the Mennonite migrations from Germany to Canada resulted in the Order in Council of 1873 (called, by some, the “Mennonite Treaty of 1873”), which provided for automatic exemption from military service of any kind for members of Mennonite churches. Many during World War I to claim exemption or alternative service utilized this treaty. Because of the devastating losses of World War I, Mennonites were forced to come to terms with the sobering realities of war along with the rest of the world’s population. A period of significant debate within Mennonite conferences were the years 1920 to 1940. Contention centered in traditionally conservative versus progressive views about political struc-

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tures and participation, fundamentalism and the social gospel, and acutely contrasting perspectives on the “peace position.” Arguments surrounded Biblical interpretation, theological principles, and pragmatic relationships with the world. Many efforts were made to sort through the differences. Individual Peace Church groups appointed groups with the mandate to develop programs of peace teaching and peace action. In 1907, the General Conference Mennonite Church formed the “Military Problems Committee,” which functioned until 1919. The “Peace Problems Committee” succeeded this in 1919. Both committees promoted a three-point program of peace education, active representation to government bodies, and open sharing of knowledge in dialogue with other churches. 22 In 1939 a cooperative effort called the “International Mennonite Peace Committee” was inaugurated through the Mennonite Central Committee. A plan of action was drafted for use in the case of war. Inexplicably, activities of this committee were suspended during World War II, so it had mostly an ineffectual influence. The work of the committee continued only fitfully until 1986, when it affiliated with the Mennonite World Conference. Although the committee no longer exists, the work has become the mandate of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Peace Section, which operates in most regions where MCC has workers. Mennonites today engage in similar dialogue and social work through ecumenical bodies. In the United States, Peace Church representatives visited President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 with letters explaining Mennonite views on war and violence, and their refusal to bear arms. The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 provided alternative “work of national importance,” without explicit military service exemption. The president created the Civilian Public Service (CPS) and the position of “Director of Selective Service,” with responsibility and authority to oversee American selective service programs. Over one hundred and fifty work camps were established to do such work as forestry, fire fighting, as well as social and mental health work. Nine Christian denominational groups sponsored all but twenty-four of these camps. Most of the twenty-four Selective Service camps were organized cooperatively with the American Friends Service Committee. Peace Church groups and congregations sponsored the majority (approximately 60 percent) of these camps. 23 Approximately twelve thousand conscripts accessed this service between 1941 and 1947. Five hundred and three Americans were granted conscientious objector status during World War II and, of those; one hundred and thirtyeight were Mennonites. 24 Although these exemptions were welcomed, they, in fact, occurred somewhat too easily, and many Mennonites neglectfully lost the theological arguments for their peace position. This weakened appeals for military exemptions in later periods such as World War II, the Korean War, and even the Vietnam War.

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Pervasive theological argumentation within Mennonite circles was significantly calmed with the publication and acceptance of Guy Hershberger’s landmark formulation of Mennonite peace theology in 1944. This began a period of intense scholarship during which Mennonite theologians’ work converged on serious Biblical exegesis, study of Jesus’s teaching, and exploration of peace theology. Anabaptist Mennonites became leaders in the peace theology advances from the mid-1950s onward, focusing on violence and war, peace, and the relationship of the church to political structures. The Role of the Conscientious Objectors in Peace Churches Abstinence from military action on the basis of conscience has been a recognized, but not often accepted, practice in most cultures for centuries. However, one Mennonite theologian contends that early Christianity was, in fact, pacifist, and that a shift to Christian militarism was the direct result of the legalization of Christianity under Constantine’s edict of 313. 25 Individuals and groups declare a range of pacific commitments, from simple refusal to comply with required military service, to searching for and creating alternative service opportunities, to absolute refusal to participate in any conflict-related activity or alternative. Such advocacy activities have historically coalesced somewhat divergent groups through advocacy activities. 26 Nonpacifist responses to these commitments often overlook the deeply religious beliefs that motivate many conscientious objectors. These beliefs are often negative, centered in a refusal to use violence, but may also take assertive forms of working toward peace through active conflict resolution. During World War II, approximately 10,000 Canadian and 4,600 American Peace Church men chose to seek conscientious objector (C.O.) status rather than to comply with conscription. 27 About 60 percent of Mennonite conscripts applied for C.O. status, and approximately 75 percent of all successful C.O. applicants were Anabaptist-Mennonites. The remaining 40 percent of conscripts chose to serve in the military or requested noncombatant roles within the medical corps. 28 Some were assigned to alternative service placements such as fire fighting, forestry, working on farms and in hospitals; some faced military tribunals and imprisonment. Peace Church conscripts who chose enlistment caused enduring conflict with, and in, their home congregations and many soldiers felt compelled to leave Mennonite congregations upon return to their home communities. Of course, pacifist beliefs are not limited to Mennonites or other Peace Church adherents, but controversy often surrounded Peace Church faith groups because of outspoken opinion and public actions taken.

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Many Peace Churches offered sanctuary and assistance to people seeking C.O. status, and continue to do so. CURRENT ANABAPTIST-MENNONITE CONTRIBUTIONS TO PEACE BUILDING The Mennonite World Conference estimates there are 1.6 million people in sixty-five countries that affiliate with one of almost one hundred different Mennonite church conferences. Sixty percent of these members are in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, which record the highest growth rates in membership. 29 Peace theology and the peace positions are at the critical intersection of faith and theory, intervention and education. Contemporary Mennonites are not united in theology or practice, but continue in serious dialogue all over the world. Peacebuilding activities include formal education, activism in justice making and peacebuilding, with goals of repairing harm, building community, reconciling traditionally hateful groups, and protesting injustices throughout the world. Guided by the principles sketched in Micah 6:8, Mennonites actively work to create justice and live peaceably. “What does God require of humans, to do good? . . . Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.” We can only provide a sketch of some of these activities. 1. Peace education and scholarship. In North America, approximately twenty Mennonite schools provide high school education that conforms to regional standards, but also includes Biblical and pacific curricular components. Many cities in North American have Mennonite-sponsored community skills training and certification programs for communication, healthy relationships, conflict resolution, and formal mediation roles. At least fourteen Mennonite colleges, universities, and seminaries in Canada and the United States deliver bachelor and graduate programs in Conflict Resolution Studies, Peace and Justice Studies, and Peace Theology. The master’s degree program at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia is only one example of this type of education program. Mennonite scholars participate in higher education peace studies programming in institutions across the world. Access to information regarding these educational enterprises is available through the Global Directory of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution Programs, a joint project of the Peace and Justice Studies Association and the International Peace research Association Foundation. 2. Advocacy and activism. Mennonites advocate and train for peace support and activist work, especially to promote human rights and positive race relations. One example of this work occurs through the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), founded in 1986 by a coalition of Peace Church groups. This organization trains, and then sends teams into areas of in-

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tense conflict, where civilian casualties are common, in nonviolent efforts to reduce violence and prevent atrocity. Generally, this advocacy work is most intense in areas where traditional hostility, new social development, or reparative development is taking place. The challenges of responding pacifically to conflict are both profound and dangerous. Mennonites from more peaceable areas in North America and Europe usually play a supportive role, providing sanctuary or accompaniment, financial support, or theological and theoretical context. Dialogue between these regions often provides the fuel for the advancement of Anabaptist theological understandings. Mennonites also participate in many existing movements for social justice such as the civil rights movements in the United States and South Africa. 3. Corrections. Mennonites have been on the frontiers of developing theories and practices of Restorative Justice since the 1960s, with particular activity in, and challenge to, traditional Retributive Justice systems. Mennonite groups sponsor and develop such organizations as Communities of Support and Accountability (COSA), which act as intermediating support groups for sexual offenders who are returning to their communities after incarceration. Another type of Restorative Justice activity is providing support for offenders and those affected by crime. Mennonite Central Committee’s Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP) is one such example. 4. Development. Following on the traditional theme of faith in living, Mennonites are active in development work, providing relief, voluntary development service, and health and elderly care. The hope is to solve the root problems causing conflict. Probably the most prominent global organization working in this area is the Mennonite Central Committee, providing relief, community development, and peace education “in the name of Christ” across the globe. Another development organization is the Mennonite Disaster Service, a North American volunteer network that cleans up, repairs, and rebuilds areas affected by natural disaster. 5. Spiritual care, worship, and study. The emphasis of peace work overall is practical intervention, but Mennonites are also challenged to attend to the spiritual dimensions of pacifism. Real violence begins within one’s own attitudes of violence and oppression, and real peace comes through transformation of inner and outer lifestyle. The tense work of peacebuilding takes place in the integration of faith with actions. Mennonites do this with explicit spiritual care through congregational pastoral leadership and chaplaincies, but also by exploring opportunities for self-reflection and growth. The peace education work of the Mennonite Central Committee, for example, develops training materials and delivers workshops that promote critical self-reflection of faith elements of personal peacebuilding. Mennonite-Catholic interreligious dialogue groups are another example.

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FUTURE DIRECTIONS IN ANABAPTIST-MENNONITE PEACE THEOLOGY As a diverse group, Mennonites emphasize continuing improvement of Biblical exegesis and theological interpretation, and maintaining lifestyles that are faithful to pacific values, balancing inner work with outward service. Theory and practice are increasingly integrated to the frontiers of research, education, and intervention. Both convergence of principle, and divergence of practice, will be evident. Some discernible contemporary trends will likely form directions taken within Mennonite peace studies and pacifist practices in the next couple of decades. 30 1. Human rights. Mennonites will continue to work restoratively in relationships. Human rights advocacy and advancement will be a priority for peacebuilding, both directly and cooperatively with like-minded organizations. 2. Ecological well-being. Work involving creation care and improved human interactions with nature will be important to Mennonites’ stewardship of the human environment. 3. Economic well-being. Because distributive injustice is a major contributor to real-life conflict, Mennonites will continue activities of distributive justice, making efforts to live peaceably. 4. Nonviolent conflict resolution. Mennonites are committed to living nonviolently in every context, including threat and hostility. We will continue to develop, practice, and teach new ways to deal with egregious violence, including challenges of forgiveness and reconciliation previously not imagined. In this way, transformative healing justice will be an increasing focus. 5. Personal transformation. As more and more people of non-European origin form and join Mennonite-Anabaptist churches, more diversity of conviction will become evident. Mennonites will choose interactions with and influences from other traditions and faiths. More emphasis on developing global, transnational understandings will occur. ANABAPTIST-MENNONITE UNDERSTANDINGS OF “PEACE ON EARTH” “Peace on earth,” to Mennonites, has taken specific meanings: • Peace manifests itself in a commitment to Christian discipleship, growing toward exemplifying the teachings and way of Jesus Christ. • Peace results in the rejection of all use of violence; to die is better than to kill.

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• Peace is good news for the courageous, and provides a realistic peacebuilding role in the world. • Peace building entails deep concern for and a commitment to complex peaceful relationships, working to create and maintain dignity and respect for all of God’s creations. • Peace is both spiritual and political. Religious Mennonites work to bring Christian faith commitments into life, attempting to live the way of peace and also to witness this way to political structures and to others. • Peace is achievable; the power of love and service can and does overcome hatred and violence. • Peace is lived outwardly, actively building peace in relationships, in community, and in solidarity with others around the world. NOTES 1. James M, Stayer, Werner O. Packull, and Klaus Deppermann, From Monogenesis to Polygenesis: The Historical Discussion of Anabaptist Origins (Goshen, IN: Mennonite Historical Society, 1975). 2. Klaassen Walter, Anabaptism: Neither Catholic Nor Protestant, 3rd ed. (Kitchener, ON: Pandora Press, 2001). 3. Guy F. Hershberger, Ernst Crous, and John R. Burkholder, “Nonresistance,” Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, 1989. Accessed July 11, 2012, http:// www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/N656ME.html. 4. Donald B. Kraybill, ed., Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins, 2001). 5. Walter, Anabaptism: Neither Catholic Nor Protestant. 3rd ed. 6. Mennonite Church USA, Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1995). 7. Matthew 5–9. 8. Matthew 5: 43–48. 9. Matthew 5: 38–42. 10. Matthew 5: 9, Ephesians. 11. Menno Simons, The Complete Writings of Menno Simons, trans. Leonard Verduin, ed. J. C. Wenger (Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1986). 12. Walter, Anabaptism: Neither Catholic Nor Protestant. 3rd ed. 13. Donald B. Kraybill, The Upside-Down Kingdom (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1978). 14. Matthew 5–9. 15. Mennonite Church USA, Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective. 16. John 18: 36 17. Mennonite Church USA, Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective. 18. Ibid. 19. Jan T. van Braght, Martyrs Mirror: The Story of Seventeen Centuries of Christian Martyrdom From the Time of Christ to A.D. 1660 (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1938). 20. Simons, The Complete Writings of Menno Simons. 21. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, 1989. Accessed July 11, 2012, http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/N656ME.html. 22. Swarthmore College Peace Collection, “List of CPS Camps,” Civilian Public Service Camps List. Accessed July 10, 2012, http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/ conscientiousobjection/CPScampsList.htm.

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23. Guy F. Hershberger, War, Peace, and Nonresistance (Waterloo, ON: Herald Press, 1969). 24. Harold S. Bender, “Peace Problems Committee (Mennonite Church),” Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, 1959. Accessed July 13, 2012, http:// www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/P4273.html. 25. John Howard Yoder, “Is There Such a Thing as Being Ready for Another Millennium?,” in The Future of Theology: Essays in Honor of Jurgen Moltmann, eds. Miroslav Volf, Carmen Krieg, and Thomas Kucharz (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1996). 26. The Brethern Encyclopedia, 1983. 27. Cornelius Krahn, Melvin Gingerich, and Orlando Harms, eds., The Mennonite Encyclopedia (Waterloo, ON: Mennonite Publishing House, 1955). 28. Ibid.; Mennonite Church Canada Archives, 2012. 29. Mennonite World Conference, 2012. Accessed July 8, 2012, http://www.mwccmm.org/. 30. David Barash, Approaches to Peace: A Reader in Peace Studies (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2009).

BIBLIOGRAPHY Barash, David. Approaches to Peace: A Reader in Peace Studies. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2009. Bender, Harold S. “Peace Problems Committee (Mennonite Church).” Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Accessed July 13, 2012. http:// www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/P4273.html. Driedger, Leo, and Donald B. Kraybill. Mennonite Peacemaking: From Quietism to Activism. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1994. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Encyclopedia Index. http:// www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/P4273.html. Hershberger, Guy F. War, Peace, and Nonresistance. Waterloo, ON: Herald Press, 1969. Hershberger, Guy F., Ernst Crous, and John R. Burkholder. “Nonresistance.” Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, 1989. Accessed July 11, 2012. http:// www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/N656ME.html. Klaassen, Walter. Anabaptism: Neither Catholic Nor Protestant. 3rd ed. Kitchener, ON: Pandora Press, 2001. Krahn, Cornelius, Melvin Gingerich, and Orlando Harms, eds. The Mennonite Encyclopedia. Waterloo, ON: Mennonite Publishing House, 1955. Kraybill, Donald B., ed. Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins, 2001. Kraybill, Donald B. The Upside-Down Kingdom. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1978. Mennonite Church USA. Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1995. Mennonite World Conference, 2012. Accessed July 8, 2012. http://www.mwccmm.org/. Peace and Justice Studies Association and the International Peace Research Association Foundation. Global Directory of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution Programs. Last modified August 7, 2006. http://www.peacejusticestudies.org/globaldirectory/ login.php. Sampson, Cynthia, and John Paul Lederach, eds. From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Simons, Menno. The Complete Writings of Menno Simons. Translated by Leonard Verduin, edited by J.C. Wenger. Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1986. Stayer, James M, Werner O. Packull, and Klaus Deppermann. From Monogenesis to Polygenesis: The Historical Discussion of Anabaptist Origins. Goshen, IN: Mennonite Historical Society, 1975.

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Swarthmore College Peace Collection. “List of CPS Camps.” Civilian Public Service Camps List. Accessed July 10, 2012. http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/conscientiousobjection/CPScampsList.htm. Swartley, Willard and Cornelius J. Dyck, eds. An Annotated Bibliography of Mennonite Writings on War and Peace, 1930–1980. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1987. The Brethren Encyclopedia. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, 1983. van Braght, Jan T. Martyrs Mirror: The Story of Seventeen Centuries of Christian Martyrdom From the Time of Christ to A.D. 1660. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1938. Yoder, John Howard. “Is There Such a Thing as Being Ready for Another Millennium?” In The Future of Theology: Essays in Honor of Jurgen Moltmann, edited by Miroslav Volf, Carmen Krieg, and Thomas Kucharz, 63-72. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1996. Yoder, John Howard. The Politics of Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1972.

TWENTY-THREE Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam The “Oasis of Peace” Deanna Armbruster

Only a visionary can see through the darkness to a place where there is sunshine. —Father Bruno Hussar, founder of Neve Shalom/Wahat alSalam

Father Bruno Hussar (1911–1996) founded the mixed Jewish-Arab village Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam (NSWAS). In 1972, he negotiated with the Trappist monks at the Latrun Monastery, producers of wine in IsraelPalestine for more than three hundred years, to lease a portion of the monastery’s expansive land. A 100-year lease was signed for roughly 100 acres of land for less than 100 dollars. The land was located in a demilitarized no-man’s land, a political “Green Line” which defined borders between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors. It was on this barren hillside, overlooking the beautiful Ayalon Valley, equidistant from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where Father Bruno was inspired by the phrase from the Bible: “My people shall dwell in an oasis of peace” (Isaiah 32:18). He envisaged “a village where Jews and Arabs from the country will live together in harmony and peace and collaboration. And the name of that village will be Neve Shalom (in Hebrew), Wahat al-Salam (in Arabic), the “Oasis of Peace,” to prove by its existence that cooperation is possible.” 1 Father Bruno was born in Egypt to secular Jewish immigrants from Hungary. In his early twenties, he moved to France and converted to Catholicism. In 1950, he was ordained as a Dominican priest and began a lifetime commitment to bringing understanding between people of different faiths. Father Bruno believed that although the religions of the 405

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Middle East have often been a source of division between people, religions also have a common seed that, if nurtured, can serve as a harmonizing influence on the cultural and political conflicts that exist. Throughout the mid-1950s and 1960s, Father Bruno traveled and lived in Israel where he rediscovered his Jewish roots and worked to build better relationships between the Christian and Jewish communities. By the early 1970s Father Bruno was determined to pursue his dream to build a village where Jews, Muslims, and Christians would live and work together, setting an example for others, and teaching their children about mutual understanding, respect and cooperation. From his memoirs: “[People] are so divided by history and prejudice, shouldn’t we try to find a way for them to share life together, a community where they may be faithful to their own faith and traditions while fully respecting each other?” 2 He began to camp on the hillside land leased to him by Latrun. His home was a large ocean-liner shipping container. There was no running water or electricity. Father Bruno imagined people would come from all over the country to meet those from whom they were estranged, wanting to break down the barriers of fear, mistrust, ignorance, misunderstanding, preconceived ideas—all that separate us—and to build bridges of trust, respect, mutual understanding, and, if possible, friendship. This aim would be achieved with the help of courses, seminars, group psychology techniques, shared physical work and recreational evenings. 3

He waited for others to join him. After six years living alone in rough, uncomfortable, and poor conditions, failing to convince others to share his dream, Father Bruno was ready to abandon hope. “I did something very rash that I wouldn’t advise anybody to do,” said Bruno, “I sent an ultimatum to God, and I gave Him one year to give me two signs.” 4 The first sign would be the arrival of one family to live with him on the hill; the second sign would be to raise enough money to begin building a school to teach peace to others. Within two months Bruno received his signs. It was 1979 when the first families arrived—one Jewish-Israeli, the other Palestinian Arab-Israeli. Around the same time, Bruno met a German donor whose support led to the installation of electricity and water in time for the first peace workshops. This first gift led to a network of international Friends organizations that through decades have raised millions of dollars to support the programs of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam. At last, Father Bruno’s “Oasis of Peace” became a reality. THE SCHOOL FOR PEACE Father Bruno not only imagined a village that would demonstrate that it is possible to live together in a spirit of equality and cooperation, but also

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intended the village to build a school that modeled the values of its residents. 5 According to Father Bruno, “For years there have been academies in the various countries where the art of war has been taught. We wanted to found a school for peace, for peace too is an art.” 6 The School for Peace (SFP) conducts workshops between Israelis, both Jewish and Arab, and Palestinians from the West Bank/Gaza. The SFP held its first encounter workshop between Jews and Palestinians in 1979. The underlying goal in each program is to create possibilities for peace through dialogue. The work initially focused on teenagers attending three-day encounter workshops. Later, the program expanded its conflict management work to include university courses, training programs for educators and community leaders, and adult courses, including projects focused on empowering women. Since 2006, the SFP has directed a “Change Agents” program working with hundreds of professionals in the field of media, mental health, medicine, politics, law, civil engineering, environment, politics and others to impact their communities more effectively by creating and improving conditions for peace and implementing projects to sustain and expand upon the dynamics of communication, dialogue, and negotiation. The United States Agency for International Development has funded this program. 7 The now internationally renowned institution utilizes a unique intergroup dialogue approach working with Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians in a conflict management framework. Developed through thirty-five years of experience, the SFP method views the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as between two national identity groups and participants learn to connect the workshop dialogue to the reality of the wider conflict. The SFP raises individuals’ awareness of deep-seated beliefs that are part of a person’s identity, challenges stereotypes, encourages participants to take responsibility for their role in the conflict, and ultimately, works to engage workshop participants as change agents in society by supporting actions that promote reconciliation. Further, because many root causes that perpetuate this conflict are psychological and directly related to core beliefs about group identities, issues relating to the conflict (land, equality, security, justice) must be directly addressed in binational (mixed Jews and Arabs) workshops in order to effect real change in participants. This direct, person-to-person confrontation and challenge to negate stereotypes of “the other” can help participants recognize how they can diminish the conflict and create a positive impact within their society. This model has become a “best practice” in the field of conflict management because of its long-term impact for effectively changing behavior. The SFP method developed through a multiyear process of trial and error. Numerous nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Israel-Palestine work to bridge the distance between Jews and Palestinians through friendship building activities. This kind of interaction fails to address stereotypes and misperceptions or underlying issues of inequality. 8 To-

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day, many Palestinians express disinterest in dialogue encounters with Israelis because these meetings are viewed as “kalam fadi,” or empty talk. 9 The SFP has reached tens of thousands, and its influence has been powerful in shaping the lives of its participants. It was described in an interview with an SFP facilitator and director: The encounter has a power that no other activity related to this subject has. It is an experience that opens a variety of both possibilities and risk, but there is no substitute for it. The realities of Israel do not give the young people of both groups a chance to meet on equal terms. So the encounters that take place are usually accompanied by feelings of fear, humiliation, disappointment, and distrust. What we try to do is to provide a way to process and understand these feelings, helping our young people to be better able to cope with the Jewish-Palestinian conflict. 10

An individual’s identity, including implications of faith practices, is central as facilitators guide participants to become more aware, recognize their relationship to the conflict and understand their role as individuals in a conflict. Participants learn to take greater responsibility for their opinions and actions as related to Jewish-Arab relations. THE PRIMARY SCHOOL In Israel, Arab and Jewish citizens live apart from one another, and are educated in different school systems so that most Jewish and Arab children grow up in separate spheres with little or no contact with the other side. Their opinions about the other are formed by the prejudices and stereotypes that surround them, often generated by the media. Father Bruno and the early residents of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam set out to challenge the reality of perpetuated fear and mistrust embodied in educational segregation. This led to their creation of Israel’s first bilingual, bicultural school, where Jewish and Palestinian students sit side-byside in the classroom and play together in the schoolyard, speaking one another's language, and having the same shared experiences, each child enriching the mix by bringing their home and family experience to school—giving every child an ongoing exposure to the culture and traditions of both people. Bruno explained: “These children have the opportunity to discuss where they come from, what they’re afraid of, and how they’re going to try and solve it together. They learn and play in the same classes. . . . Maybe they will have the capacity to change the world in this region.” 11 The village began offering bilingual, binational and multicultural education to young children (nursery and kindergarten levels) in the early 1980s. By 1984, a more formalized Primary School began to take shape. Using recycled building materials, the village constructed a small facility

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and began serving the children of parents living in the “Oasis of Peace.” As the teachers gained confidence in their methods and began developing a meaningful curriculum, the Primary School accepted children from outside the village and the Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam (NSWAS) Primary School became Israel’s first Jewish-Arab school. Today there are five other bilingual schools in Israel based on the NSWAS model, but the “Oasis of Peace” kindergarten through sixth grade Primary School remains unique in that it is located in the only community in the region where Arabs and Jews choose to live together in a commitment to peace and equality, demonstrating coexistence without exclusion, discrimination, alienation and barriers. This location provides the students with a living example of everything they are learning. Currently, the school serves approximately 220 students, 90 percent of them coming from about 30 surrounding towns and villages. Students spend their days in mixed Jewish-Arab classes with two teachers, one Jewish-Israeli and one Palestinian citizen of Israel. The school is a “recognized non-official school” a status that allows a greater autonomy and freedom regarding the pedagogy and curriculum, as well as increased independence in hiring teachers and administrators (formerly appointed by the Ministry of Education). The Primary School continues to experiment with classroom structure and curriculum. The approach underscores the importance of maintaining one’s cultural identity, including an individual’s faith, while being exposed to the language and viewpoints of the other side. Language is an essential element in development and identity. Learning to speak and understand another language aids in understanding that other culture. As teachers instruct in their own language, they also present their own cultural perspective. Bar Shalom stated in his research on bilingual schools in Israel that “Neve Shalom [Wahat al-Salam] school is particularly interesting, as it succeeds in changing stereotypical attitudes of the students toward the other culture, and develops a tolerant multi-cultural view among them.” 12 In an unpublished study of the Primary School, Abu-Nimer and Nasser identified six strengths of the school: environment, ideology, childcentered education, history and location, special curriculum including arts, music and sport, and the school’s ability to promote understanding and the capacity to deeply understand the complexities of the external conflict. 13 BUILDING SPIRITUALITY: LIVING TOGETHER IN FAITH Father Bruno believed that although the religions of the Middle East have often been a source of division between people these religions share a common seed that if nurtured can serve as a consensus-building influ-

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ence on existing cultural and political conflicts. The families of the community remain committed to their own religious and spiritual traditions while respecting and learning about their neighbors’ faiths and traditions. For those living there that means being “wholly” Arab or “wholly” Jewish and not becoming a melting pot. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Father Bruno led small group discussions called the “Circle of Reflection,” which allowed participants to discuss the role of religious values in peacemaking. In 1987, the House of Silence (Beit Doumia in Hebrew, Beit as-Sakina in Arabic) was built in a beautiful secluded corner of a hillside in the village. This is a simple round domed structure intended to symbolize the unity at the heart of religions and taking its inspiration from the words of Psalms 65, “For You, silence is praise” and from the Koran 48:4 “He sends tranquility (sakinah) into the hearts of the believers, that they may add faith to their faith.” Devoid of specific religious symbols, the House of Silence is a place where everyone from every faith and tradition can find inspiration and a space for meditation. The residents of the community celebrate holidays together, and the basic cultural elements of major holidays are taught in the Primary School where the children learn about Hanukkah, Ramadan, Christmas, Purim, Easter, Eid Al-Fitr, and other celebrations, although deeper spiritual explanations are left to the families. The community and the schools use the holidays as a way to bring people together. When a teen celebrates her Bat Mitzvah, she invites both Jewish and Arab families to celebrate. Likewise, on Ramadan the families in the community break the fast together. The Bruno Hussar Pluralistic Spiritual Center constitutes a framework to explore religious identity through encounter activities, study and reflection, based on values of equality, justice and reconciliation. The center helps people to explore their spiritual, ethnic, ideological, and cultural experiences and then articulate an identity that connects people together without diminishing the importance of differences. Its activities draw inspiration from the resources and spiritual traditions of the Middle East and the world at large. Programs focus on open, inter-religious and intercultural dialogue, and the advancement of peace. The Pluralistic Spiritual Center, in its setting, mission, and programs, is unique in Israel. While not intended as a model for all, it provides a place to begin for other mixed-religion towns or neighborhoods, and offers another path to peace building in addition to the conventional ones of diplomacy, governance and secular education. Though it is well understood in Israel and Palestine that the conflict between the two peoples is not strictly based on religion, it is becoming increasingly clear that every attempt to resolve the conflict that does not take into account religious factors is doomed to failure. In the global context, there has been a rise in antagonism between the Islamic world and Western nations. In the Middle East, there has been a rise in religious extremism on all sides. This

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has added fuel to the conflict in a variety of ways. On the Israeli side, the religious settler population of the West Bank exerts an influence far beyond its numbers, and pulls public opinion and government towards intransigence. On the Palestinian side, in recent years there was a shift in power away from the more secular Fatah party towards the Muslim fundamentalist Hamas party. At the same time, there have been limited expressions of support by clergymen for interfaith meetings and a realization that although religion can contribute to conflict, it can also contribute to peace. Abu-Nimer studied interfaith dialogue in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine and concluded “many civil societies and some of these governments understand the potential constructive role that interreligious meetings can play in bridging the gaps within each society. However, there are few interfaith initiatives between Israelis and Palestinians in the region.” 14 The Pluralistic Spiritual Center’s premiere Dirasat project addresses the need to engage, and assume responsibility for, religiously expressed attitudes, relationships and behaviors by working with the faculty of academic religious institutions, and then by working with students of the same institutions (future clergy and educators). Most religious colleges and seminaries in the region lack programs of interfaith costudy. Such programs are necessary if members of the religious sector are to develop skills and attitudes conducive to engagement in peace building and the struggle for justice. It is of paramount importance to address this need, both because the religious sector constitutes a sizable and growing portion of Israel's population, and because this sector exerts a political and moral influence beyond size alone. Not to engage this sector is to exclude a crucial factor in the development of a peaceful, equitable, and stable society. NEVE SHALOM/WAHAT AL-SALAM IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the nexus of the wider issues facing the Middle East. As both a latent and violent conflict ongoing for decades, a durable solution requires political negotiation processes and the goodwill of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. The Israeli people will not achieve security without an independent Palestinian state alongside. However, the root causes of the conflict run deeper and are more complex than disputes over borders and land, holy places, and settlements and refugee rights that come to the forefront in international negotiations. At the heart of the conflict are differing historical narratives of Palestinians and Israelis who need their respective national identities and histories to be recognized by each other. Many root causes of conflict and obstacles to reconciliation (conflicting historical narratives, distrust, help-

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lessness, superiority, victimhood) have become institutionalized in both societies and as isolation between the two societies grows, lack of understanding and mistrust between the two national groups also increases. Both groups fear change and are engaged in a competition for the role of the victim and the claim to be “right.” Reconciliation requires recognizing the “other” and engaging with root issues to break down and remove barriers that separate the conflicting groups. Programs aimed at conflict management and reconciliation must not only address these difficult issues and challenges, but must break down obstacles in a way that impacts institutions directly and fosters opportunities for the reconciliation process to begin and for cooperation to occur. Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam coalesced into an idea that would not just exist for itself but that would push beyond its borders to demonstrate to others that Israeli Jews and Palestinian citizens of the State were capable of living side by side, democratically electing leaders, and settling neighborly disputes and differences through open dialogue. All shared an ideal that their children could grow up with children from other traditions, learning two languages and two cultures by playing and attending school together. These first young couples knew that they did not grow up with such contact in their own schools and neighborhoods. Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam is a microcosm demonstrating that Jews and Palestinians can live together. It is a living, working example comprised of generations of families who have been committed to equality, mutual respect and cooperation for decades. The community demonstrates that Jews and Palestinians not only can live together, but can establish far reaching educational programs that touch well beyond the families living in the community. It is a role model for Palestinians and Jews and an international example for people in conflict. The community offers hope at times when the political climate seems hopeless. The more intense the conflict the more examples of hope are needed. Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam is not a utopian community, but rather it is imbedded in the reality of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It is affected by the conflict, yet it creates an alternative reality. In Palestine-Israel violence is part of daily life. In NSWAS, daily life is based on cooperation. The village is engaged in a daily process of conflict management from the micro to the macro levels by addressing critical issues in discussions and through cooperative decision-making. In Israel and Palestine, both sides act from victim positions by stressing how the other has harmed them. NSWAS recognizes the legitimacy of the other and genuinely acknowledges the other’s narrative and perceptions. People are encouraged to take responsibility for their national group’s role in the conflict, and to see the role they can play in creating positive change. The educational programs in the village empower people to see their own role in the conflict. They encourage people to connect with their own national identity, while at the same time respecting the others national identity. Living

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in the community differentiates identities; it does not aspire to meld identities together. While Father Bruno imagined NSWAS to be a village based on faith perspectives of Muslims, Jews, and Christians, the work its School for Peace and Primary School are driven in great part by the national identities of the conflict. Even still, when others criticized the secular aspects of the village Father Bruno said the essential element of the village is spiritual. He said: “God is everywhere within the everyday occurrences of this village and its inhabitants; in their everyday lives. They are doing God’s work whether they realize it or not. There is moral and spiritual reflection and action that takes place here constantly. What is more religious than that?” 15 BUILDING A WORLD PEACE COLLEGE AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE The “Oasis of Peace” and its educational institutions are devoted to exploring and embodying the ways in which two peoples, in conflict for generations, can also live together peacefully. The core of this work has been respectful dialogue and its evolution to engagement in peace activism. This dialogue, and action to create meaningful, sustainable change in the peace process, has occurred in the governance and daily life of the village and in the research and applied scholarship of its academic institutions. This work has attracted the interest of other groups in conflict from around the world, and has established the “Oasis of Peace” community as a widely respected pioneer in the field of dialogue and peace activism in a time of conflict. Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam and its educational programs have long acted as the bridge between dialogue and action. Neve Shalom/Wahat alSalam is hard at work developing the World Peace College. The objective of this academically rigorous and experientially based program is to prepare cadres of peace builders ready to work within the full range of sociopolitical frameworks in conflict. Students are to be trained as activists in the field of conflict resolution, prepared to work in civil society either with groups in conflict or on the political and policy level. This will be achieved by linking theory and practice with critical perspective, examining the interaction between the micro and macro levels of inter-group conflict, building habits of reflective practice within individuals, and highlighting the interactions between individual, group and community levels. A multidisciplinary curriculum is being developed to draw from conflict resolution, political science, history, social psychology, anthropology, religious studies, gender and cultural studies, economics, philosophy, and sociology. Students will be challenged to integrate theoretical studies with the practical, real life experiences provided by studying the “Oasis of Peace” and its educational institutions. Students observe and

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analyze the work of the conflict management programs at the School for Peace, the bilingual, binational, multicultural Primary School, interfaith initiatives of the Pluralistic Spiritual Center and the daily life experience of living in a mixed Palestinian-Jewish village. Father Bruno and the families who came to live in the village work to connect individual values related to peace to civic consequences. The principles of peace education are an integral part of the World Peace College. They include developing the knowledge, attitudes, and skills enabling peace to become a state of being; understanding and overcoming obstacles to peace; managing conflict without violence; and developing different (peaceful) alternatives capable of creating a sustainable reality. An immersion in the mixed village environment will benefit students of the World Peace College greatly since the community is a model for cooperative relations and the constructive resolution of conflicts. In turn, the World Peace College will serve to extend the experience and the knowledge of NSWAS internationally. Combining forces will facilitate worldwide outreach. Future graduates of the program, having had the invaluable experience of living within the NSWAS as they learned theory and methodology relating to peace and conflict-resolution, will serve as emissaries of peace throughout the world. NOTES 1. Grace Feuerverger, Oasis of Dreams: Teaching and Learning Peace in a Jewish-Palestinian Village in Israel (New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2001), 124. 2. Bruno Hussar, When the Cloud Lifted: The Testimony of an Israeli Priest (Dublin: Vertas Publications, 1989), 102. 3. Ibid., 103. 4. Feuerverger, Oasis of Dreams: Teaching and Learning Peace in a Jewish-Palestinian Village in Israel, 126. 5. Hussar, When the Cloud Lifted: The Testimony of an Israeli Priest, 126. 6. Ibid., 103. 7. “Creating Change Agents,” http://www.change-agents.org. 8. Rabah Halabi, Israeli and Palestinian Identities in Dialogue: The School for Peace Approach (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004). 9. Ibid. 10. Feuerverger, Oasis of Dreams: Teaching and Learning Peace in a Jewish-Palestinian Village in Israel, 86. 11. Ibid., 129. 12. Yehuda Bar Shalom, Educating Israel: Educational Entrepreneurship in Israel’s Multicultural Society (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). 13. Mohammed Abu-Nimer and Ilham Nasser, An Evaluation of the Neve Shalom/ Wahat al-Salam Primary School (Washington, DC: Center for Global Peace, American University, 2005). 14. Mohammed Abu-Nimer, “Interfaith Dialogue in Israel-Palestine: Real Contribution or Venting Mechanism?” Common Ground News Service, January 26, 2006. http:// www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=1432&lan=en&sp=0. 15. Feuerverger, Oasis of Dreams: Teaching and Learning Peace in a Jewish-Palestinian Village in Israel, 128.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Abu-Nimer, Mohammed. “Interfaith Dialogue in Israel-Palestine: Real Contribution or Venting Mechanism?” Common Ground News Service, January 26, 2006. http:// www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=1432&lan=en&sp=0. Abu-Nimer, Mohammed, and Ilham Nasser. An Evaluation of the Neve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salam Primary School. Washington, DC: Center for Global Peace, American University, 2005. Bar Shalom, Yehuda. Educating Israel: Educational Entrepreneurship in Israel’s Multicultural Society. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Feuerverger, Grace. Oasis of Dreams: Teaching and Learning Peace in a Jewish-Palestinian Village in Israel. New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2001. Halabi, Rabah. Israeli and Palestinian Identities in Dialogue: The School for Peace Approach. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004. Hussar, Bruno. When the Cloud Lifted: The Testimony of an Israeli Priest. Dublin: Vertas Publications, 1989.

TWENTY-FOUR Conclusions Peace on Earth Revisited Hamdesa Tuso, Jessica Senehi, and Sean Byrne

INTRODUCTION Vern Redekop 1 suggests that we continue to commit the folly of repeating patterns of violence. Scott Appleby 2 argues, therefore, that violent protagonists and peacemakers often coexist within the same ethnoreligious group so that a more complex understanding of what influences people to support extreme religious practices must move our thinking about how we deconstruct local and global conflict and construct appropriate conflict transformation interventions. Consequently, Marc Gopin 3 contends that it is crucial to explore religious morality and myths to comprehend why some religious leaders may use violence to attain their goals, seek revenge for past humiliations, or actively strive to create a more tolerant and peaceful world. Thus, it is important to bear in mind that conflict fueled by religion is not everlasting and can be addressed through religious nonviolent methods that promote humanity and engender the power of love among people in order to heal their deep wounds. 4 Indeed religious or spiritual connection that supports individuals’ sense of connectedness or oneness with humanity, with all living things, can “lead us to see the world not as a battlefield or as a trap, but as a wellspring of our body and mind.” 5

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RELIGION AS A SOURCE OF CONFLICT Recently we have witnessed an escalation of Muslim-on-Muslim violence in Syria with an Al Qaeda–supported insurgency movement taking on the Syrian Baath Party and the government of Bashir Assad as well as government crack downs on the largely nonviolent movements seeking social change in Egypt and Tunisia. 6 Recent child abuse scandals have rocked the Catholic Church in North America and Europe to its very foundations. For example, Cardinal Sean Brady, the all Ireland Primate, moved pedophile priests accused of sexually abusing children from parish to parish. The cover-up by the Irish Catholic Church has strained relationships between the Vatican, who directed Cardinal Brady not to act, and the Irish government, who has reacted angrily against the inference of a foreign power in its internal domestic affairs by recently expelling the Holy See’s ambassador to Ireland. In Canada, the Catholic Church, other Christian churches, and the Canadian government have apologized to First Nations survivors of the abuse of indigenous young people. The Catholic Church established an organization, Moving Forward Together, to fund indigenous people attending colleges and universities. The Canadian government also compensated survivors of its residential school program creating a national truth and reconciliation commission to record survivors’ stories as part of the historical record and to bring closure, peace, and healing to the survivors of the abuse. Religious patriarchies’ position on women’s and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Queer, Transgendered, and Two Spirited (GLBQTTS) people’s control of their own bodies and their treatment within these institutions is also a major concern. GLBQTTS people, women, and youth do not hold key leadership roles within most of these institutions. Moreover, othering extends beyond rival religious groups to extend to others on the margins of society, men, women, the elderly, and youth. The separation of church and state ensures that the rule of law, bill of rights, and institutions of democracy indicate that politics may be more important than religion in creating peaceful relations. Yet as Brian Rice articulates, the Iroquois Great Law of Peace had the Creator provide a functioning governing philosophy enshrined in the Longhouse that empowered the Iroquois community and blended religion, humanism, science, nature and politics into a holistic and integrated peacebuilding system so that its elements are to be found in indigenous religion intermeshed with the natural life cycle. 7 The Iroquois Great Law of Peace influenced the American system of government. Religion is a human creation. People desire religion because they want to associate with a Divine spiritual entity to justify and guide their existence and to experience the comfort of belonging to a supportive like-

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minded group, with religion supporting the fulfillment of these basic human needs. Thus, what elements in religion can we use, and how can we use them to teach people, serve the greater purpose, and nurture community? RELIGION AS A SOURCE OF PEACE BUILDING, TOLERANCE, AND COEXISTENCE Power is not evenly distributed within culture which results in the power elite enforcing certain norms and developing a supporting mythology. 8 Religion is also a cultural force that has a function of sanctioning social control and enforcing the cultural and structural violence of a certain political and/or religious elite. 9 In other words, the politicization of religion ensures that it has become a social, political, and economic force to empower one group and disempower another. For example the conflict in Northern Ireland isn’t a religious conflict (except for some evangelical members of the Free Presbyterian church). Rather it is a political conflict that is nationalist in nature and a potent force in the ostracization of the other. Similarly, the conflict between religious groups in the Middle East is politicized by groups like Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and ultra-Christian and Jewish nationalists. The Semitic religions have not reconciled their differences so that they can coexist peacefully with each other. 10 People create cultures so that some groups that create conflict also forge mechanisms to resolve it. 11 Consequently, as Hamdesa Tuso notes, religion has the potential to build and nurture peaceful relations because we are who we have become through our cultures. 12 Religion encourages people to reach out to each other and resolve differences so that culture is a part of this process and religion is an integral component of culture. 13 The human capacity for peaceful relations can be reshaped, recalibrated and resocialized positively through PACS to influence people to be peaceful and considerate of others. 14 If culture can be used for destructive purposes it can also be used for constructive peaceful purposes because people are not damned to become permanent enemies. 15 For example Britain, France and Germany were historical enemies and now coexist within the European Union (EU). The constructive teachings and norms within all of the great religions instruct people to forgive, reconcile, be tolerant, help heal, and advocate for the greater good. 16 Leadership is crucial in this process. Pope John Paul II apologized to indigenous people for slavery for the purpose of reconciliation and the redemption of the Catholic Church. Similarly, United States Southern Baptists apologized to African Americans for slavery and Jim Crow laws, and the country elected an African American as their leader. In addition Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. focused on truth telling,

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and the fact that the oppressed are not inferior. They taught people peaceful practices as part of their nonviolent campaigns in India and the United States. Creating fair and egalitarian partnerships and structures became part of a permanent nonviolent structure in human history. 17 CONCLUSION We learn from this volume that sectarian conflict and violence can be transcended to build a pluralistic and nonviolent community comprising social justice, and human rights dimensions 18 operating in an ecological vortex as people are, as Erlich says, “dialectically interconnected” with each other. 19 Moreover, Jarem Sawatsky notes ecumenical groups can work together to forge a “healing justice” 20 to restrengthen community and reshape its spiritual linkages to Mother Earth using a “just peace imagination and ethics.” 21 Moreover, Mohammed Abu-Nimer argues that indigenous religious peacebuilding rituals and symbols can be amalgamated and fused into a reconciliation process for societies emerging from protracted violence. 22 Interreligious dialogue meetings, such as the Arab Jewish Dialogue group in Winnipeg, Manitoba, or the Syracuse Area Middle East Dialogue (SAMED) group in Syracuse, New York, create a critical and inclusive space that encourages people to listen and learn from each other. Over time people work together to cocreate a sense of common humanity as they share their stories in a deep engagement where they strive to imagine new creative possibilities. 23 Thus, local religious peacemakers like those in the Corrymeela community in Ballycastle, County Down, Northern Ireland, are crucial in transforming local conflict, building and rebuilding new bridges, and nourishing and nurturing a sense of healing and closure, and providing people a new awareness of what shape an inclusive and participatory community can really take. 24 NOTES 1. Vern Neufeld Redekop, From Violence to Blessing: How An Understanding of Deep Rooted Conflict Can Open Paths to Reconciliation (Toronto, ON: Novalis, 2002). 2. Scott Appleby, The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation (Baltimore, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005). 3. Marc Gopin, Between Eden and Armageddon: The Future of World Religions, Violence and Peacemaking (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). 4. David Smock, Interfaith Dialogue and Peacebuilding (Washington DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2002). 5. Joanna Macy, World as Lover, World as Self: Courage for Global Justice and Ecological Renewal (Berkeley, CA: Paralax Press, 2007), 31. 6. Amr Abdalla, “The Arab Revolutions of 2011: Roots and Prospects,” Africa Peace and Conflict Journal 4, no 1 (2011): 89–94.

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7. Brian Rice, “People of the Longhouse,” in Handbook of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, eds. Dennis Sandole, Sean Byrne, Ingrid Sandole-Staroste and Jessica Senehi. (London: Routledge, 2008). 8. Ken Boulding, Three Faces of Power (Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 1989). 9. Johan Galtung, Peace by Peaceful Means (Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 1996). 10. Nathan Funk and Abdul Aziz Said, Islam and Peacemaking in the Middle East (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2008). 11. See Tuso, Ch. 9. 12. Ibid. 13. Ibid. 14. Thomas Maytok, Jessica Senehi and Sean Byrne eds., Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012). 15. See Tuso, Ch. 9. 16. See Creamer and Hrynkow, Ch. 2. 17. Johnston McMaster, Overcoming Violence (Blackrock, Dublin: Columba Press, 2012). 18. Louis Kriesberg, “Coexistence and Reconciliation of Communal Conflicts.” In The Handbook of Interethnic Coexistence edited by Eugene Weiner, 182–198. New York: Continuum, 2002). 19. Haggai Erlich, Islam and Christianity in the Horn of Africa: Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2010). 20. Jarem Sawatsky, The Ethic of Traditional Communities and the Spirit of Healing Justice: Studies from Hollow Water, the Iona Community, and Plum Village (London: Kingsley Publishers, 2009). 21. Jarem Sawatsky, Justpeace Ethnics: A Guide to Restorative Justice and Peacebuilding (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2009). 22. Mohammed Abu-Nimer, ed. Reconciliation, Justice and Coexistence: Theory and Practice (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001). 23. Mohammed Abu-Nimer, David Augsburger, Ghulam Haider, Asma Afsaruddin, Osman Bakar, Steven Brown, Karim Douglas Crow and Alvin C. Dueck, eds., Peacebuilding By, Between, and Beyond Muslims and Evangelical Christians (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009); Marc Gopin, Holy War, Holy Peace: How Religion Can Bring Peace to the Middle East (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002); David Little, Peacemakers’s in Action: Profiles of Religion in Conflict Resolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007); David Smock, Interfaith Dialogue and Peacebuilding (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2002). 24. McMaster, Overcoming Violence.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Abdalla, Amr. “The Arab Revolutions of 2011: Roots and Prospects,” Africa Peace and Conflict Journal 4, no. 1 (2011): 89–94. Abu Elaish, Izzeldin. I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor ’ s Journey. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011. Abu-Nimer, Mohammed. Dialogue, Conflict Resolution, and Change: Arab-Jewish Encounters in Israel. Albany, NY: SUNY, 1999. Abu-Nimer, Mohammed, ed. Reconciliation, Justice and Coexistence: Theory and Practice. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001. Abu-Nimer, Mohammed. Nonviolence and Peacebuilding in Islam: Theory and Practice. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. Abu-Nimer, Mohammed, David Augsburger, Ghulam Haider, Asma Afsaruddin, Osman Bakar, Steven Brown, Karim Douglas Crow, and Alvin Dueck, eds. Peacebuilding By, Between, and Beyond Muslims and Evangelical Christians. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.

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Appleby, Scott. The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. Arinze, Cardinal. Building Bridges: Interreligious Dialogue on the Path to World Peace. London: Faithworks, 2004. Boulding, Kenneth. Three Faces of Power. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 1989. Bowe, Peter, and Anthony O’Mahony. Catholics in Interreligious Dialogue. Leominster, Herefordshire: Gracewing, 2006. Butarbutar, Robinson. Paul and Conflict Resolution: An Exegetical Study of Paul ’ s Apostolic Paradigm in 1 Corinthians 9. Eugene, OR: Paternoster Press, 2007. Cassidy Edward Idris, Cardinal. Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue: Unitatis Redintegratio, Nostra Aetate. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2005. Creamer, David. Guides for the Journey: John MacMurray, Bernard Lonergan and James Fowler. Baltimore, MD: University Press of America, 1996. Darby, John. The Effects of Violence on Peace Processes. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2001. Darby, John, and Roger MacGinty, eds. The Management of Peace Processes. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000. Erlich, Haggai. Islam and Christianity in the Horn of Africa: Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2010. Fisher, Ron, ed. Paving the Way: Contributions of Interactive Conflict Resolution to Peacemaking. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005. Funk, Nathan, and Abdul Aziz Said. Islam and Peacemaking in the Middle East. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2008. Galtung, Johan. Peace by Peaceful Means. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 1996. Gopin, Marc. Between Eden and Armageddon: The Future of World Religions, Violence and Peacemaking. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Gopin, Marc. Holy War, Holy Peace: How Religion Can Bring Peace to the Middle East, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Gopin, Marc. Healing the Heart of Conflict: 8 Crucial Steps to Making Peace with Yourself and Others. Emmamus, PA: Rodale Books, 2004. Guelke, Adrian. Democracy and Ethnic Conflict: Advancing Peace in Deeply Divided Societies. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Hodges, Melvin. The Indigenous Church and the Missionary. Springfield, MO: The Gospel Publishing House, 2009. Jeong, Ho Won. Peacebuilding in Postconflict Societies: Strategy and Process. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2005. Kaufman, Edy, and Manuel Hassassian. “Israel/Palestine.” In Regional and Ethnic Conflicts: Perspectives From the Front Lines, edited by Judy Carter, George Irani, and Vamik Volkan, 87–129. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008. Kelman, Herb. “Group Processes in the Resolution of International Conflicts: Experiences from the Israeli-Palestinian Case,” The American Psychologist 52, (1997): 212–20. Kemp, Graham, and Douglas Fry, eds. Keeping the Peace: Conflict Resolution and Peaceful Societies Around the World. London: Routledge, 2003. Knox, Colm, and Paul Quirk. Peace Building in Northern Ireland, Israel and South Africa: Transition, Transformation and Reconciliation. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Kriesberg, Louis. Constructive Conflicts: From Escalation to Resolution. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998. Kriesberg, Louis, Stuart Thorson, and Terri Northrup, eds. Intractable Conflicts and Their Transformation. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1989. Kriesberg Louis. “Coexistence and Reconciliation of Communal Conflicts.” In The Handbook of Interethnic Coexistence, edited by Eugene Weiner, 182–98. New York: Continuum, 2002. Lederach, John Paul. Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995.

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Index

AFSC (American Friends Service Committee), 201, 212, 217, 437. See also Quaker Abdul-Bahá, 328 Abdul Ghaffar Khan, 134 Aboriginal Religion, 165, 168; Christian, 169; church and state, 173; ceremonies and symbols, 171; denominations, 169; land, 170, 171; medicine bundles, 171; scrolls, 171. See also land absolution, 72 academy: limitations of dialogue, 93; racism, 224; religiophobia, 118 Afghanistan, 19, 336 Africa, 231, 236 African religion, 144, 146; ancestral worship, 149; and Emmanuel Levinas, 146; eight critical elements, 153; and God, 154; emphasis on peace, 157; inconsistency, 162n60; indigenous, 143; interconnected, 155; kikuyu prayers, 156; lived and practiced, 150; many religions or just one, 150; myth of only primitive religion, 148; not chosen people, 157; othering, 146; peacemaking, 143, 144, 153–157; ritual and symbol, 155; situated within culture, 144, 145; survival, 144; ten functions, 150; Waqifatchaa, 143 Africans, 144; demonization, 144; marginalization, 144; myth of African place in evolution, 148; myth of descent from Ham, 147; myth of lacking history, 148; othering , 144; slavery, 147 agap é, 54–55; actions done with, 47; Apostle Paul, 52; blessing-based love, 47, 48, 50, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58–59,

61; ethics of care, 59; fruit of the spirit, 56 Ahisma,. See also Gandhi; Hinduism 287, 297 Akbar, 20 Al Qaida, 41, 378, 379; militant jihad, 250, 382; supports insurgency, 418 Ambrose of Milan, 71 America, 40; consumerism, 184; exceptionalism, 122; hegemony, 40; Ugly American, 116 Amish. See Mennonite Anabaptists. See Mennonite Anishinabe Indians, 171 Aquinas, St. Thomas. See Just War Doctrine Asad, Bashir. See Syria Ashoka (Emperor), 19 Asians, 231 atheism, 106 atrocities, 337 Augustine of Hippo,. See also just war 71 Ayalon Valley (Israel). See NSWAS Báb. See Bahá’i Babry Masjid, 288 Bahá’í., 323; Abrahmic, 319; Báb (Gate), 320; Bahá’u’lláh, 321–322, 322; central belief 319; coming of age, 320; community building, 319; conflict an illness, 325; conflict analyzed, 324; conflict transformation, 319; consultation, 326; death, 324; diversity, 319, 320; education, 327; equality, 326; governance, 326; interconnection, 322; interdependence, 322; love, 319, 326; mercy and compassion, 325; NGO (Nongovernment

425

426

Index

Organization), 320; numbers, 319; oneness of religions, 323; pacifism, 326; persecution, 320; pilgrimage, 322; poverty, 319; prejudice, 324; purpose of life, 322; racism, 328; reason 319; religious strife, 330; roots in Persia, 320; spiritually Centered, 319; Tahirih, 329; teachings, 327; unity, 325; Universal House of Justice, 327; widespread, 320; women, 329; world peace, 319, 323 Bahá’u’lláh. See Bahá’í baptism, 391 Bennett, Clinton, 16–17 Berry, Thomas, 26. See also ecology Bertone, Cardinal Tarcisio, 69 Bhagavadgita. See Bhagavad Gita; Buddhism; Hinduism Bhagavad Gita, 289, 292 Bhave, Vinoba, 37–38. See also Gandhi Bhutan, 263 Bible, 288 blessing, 47, 48, 51; hermeneutics, 51, 59; Romans 12-15, 51; teachings of, 47, 48, 51, 60. See also agape Bodhisattva,. See Buddhism Book of Judith, 17 Bose, Subhash Chandra, 33 Bosnia, 293 Brady, Cardinal Sean. See Roman Catholicism Bruggemann, Walter, 17 Bruno, Giordano, 21 Buddha,. See also Buddhism 265 Buddhism, 1, 19, 31, 60; asectic practices, 73; basic teachings, 264; Bodhi Tree, 266; Bodhisattva, 269; Buddha nature, 278; central teachings, 267; Chinese Buddhism, 271; defilements, 275; Dhammapada, 32; Dharma, 263, 265, 270, 273; disappointment, 270; Eight Principles, 266–267; Engaged, 263, 273; Five Precepts, 266, 268; Four Immeasurables, 267; free will, 268; gender inequality, 272; helping sentient beings, 278; interbeing, 267; just war thinking, 271; Mahayana,

265; meditation, 273; nation state, 272; nirvana, 266; Noble Eightfold Path, 266, 274; Noble Truths, 266, 272; origins, 264; scriptures, 73; Shiva, 32; sociopolitical problems, 272; suffering, 266; Theravada, 265, 271; Tibetan, 277; Vishnu, 32; withdrawal, 273; Zen, 275 Burundi, 69 Cambodia. See Buddhism Canaan, 51 Canada Aboriginal People, 165, 168; culture of conflict, 170; cultural perceptions, 167; First Nations, 418; population, 168; relocation 166; severing connections, 174; social identity formation, 167. See also Aboriginal Religion; land capitalism, 15 Catholic. See Roman Catholic Catholic peacemaking, 69 Center for Peacebuilding and Development, 435 Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 338 Central America, 39 chaplains. See military chaplains Charlemagne, 70 Cheyenne, 63n13 child abuse. See Roman Catholicism China, 38 Christianity, 14, 32, 37, 42, 59, 61, 192, 319; Abrahmic, 319; Africa, 223; anti-Semitism, 105; churches attacked, 288; clergy, 143; colonial system, 226; concepts of peace altered, 71; control, 223; dominates education, 173; early Christians, 398; Easter, 105; fundamentalism, 106; martyrdom early, 70; nationalists, 419; necessary for rights, 172; oppression, 105, 224, 231; penetration of Africa, 151; poor example, 95; reconciliation, 89, 90; scriptures, 18; superiority of, 21; suspicion of, 51; timely ideology, 166; unjust war doctrine, 247; and war, 270; women relevant, 89. See

Index also Aboriginal Religion; Canada Aboriginal People; just war; Mennonite; NSWAS Civil Rights Movement, 15 Clément, Olivier, 254, 255 Communism, 107 community, 57; inclusion, 420 Community of Sant ‘Egidio,. See also Mozambique 19, 75; Communist Party link, 77; community, 75; pioneer in conflict resolution, 75; organized by the Holy See, 75; piety, 76; resolution, 75; tradition, 75 conflict, 47, 50, 56; atrocities, 48; what drives it, 336 conflict resolution. See Hien Vu: need for transformation, 90 conscription. See conscientious objection Constantine, 16 Corinthians, 52, 56, 58; 1 Corinthians 13, 47, 50, 53–56 Corrymeela, 420 Council of Trent, 72 Counter Reformation, 72 creativity, 57; emergent, 59 Crusades, 15; First Crusade, 71; Muslims, 71 Cuban Missle Crisis, 72–73 culture, 145; defined, 145; seven basic functions, 145; and social conflict, 146; three primary components, 145. See also religion Cypriot Fighters, 252 Cyprus,. See also nationalism 254 Dahomey, 227 Dalai Lama, 15, 23 Dammapada. See Buddhism Dao, 303, 304, 306; action, 307, 308; against Dao, 313; army, 303; Daoist, 304; Daoist Religion, 304; De, 303, 304, 305, 314; death, 304; differs from West, 307; diversity, 304; harmony, 304; harmony with nature, 307; he , 304; Laozi, 303, 304, 305, 308, 309, 311, 312–314; nonintervention, 307; peace, 311; tolerance, 304, 312, 312–313; war

427

preparation, 311; water metaphor, 308–311; weapons, 311; Zhuangzi, 312–313 Dao De Jing, 304, 307 Daoist Harmony, 305, 306, 313; earth (di), 306; heaven (tian), 306; man (ren), 306; nature (zi ran), 306; psychological, 313. See also Dao Dark Continent. See Africans dehumanization, 59, 224 democracy, 36, 41. See also Quaker Dessalines, Jean-Jacques,. See also Haiti 229 Dhlakama, Afonso, 78 Dominicans, 71, 405 Douglass, James, 39 Eastern Orthodox Christianity, 243; accommodation to war, 243; contrast to religious nationalism, 259; evil of war, 243; gospel principles (Akreivia), 246; issues of war and peace, 256; mission, 247; nationalism, 247, 250; never developed just war, 245; pacifism, 246; promotes moral values, 258; spirituality, 255, 256; universal nature, 256; war lacks justification, 247; and warfare, 260 ecology,. See also Bahá’í; Mennonite 108, 115, 215, 275, 420; collapse, 27; economic degradation, 116 ecumenical, 420 Edict of Milan, 70 education, 165, 166; positive, 169 Egypt, 418 Einstein, Albert, 43 elections, 2 engagement, 4 escalation, 48 ethics, 59; feminist ethicist, 59; Muslim war and peace, 131 ethnic cleansing, 314 ethnonationalism, 261n14 European Union, 419 events of September 11, 2001, 378 exegesis, 50 Exodus, 51, 63n16

428

Index

Falwell, Jerry, 2 Fatah Party. See Palestine Fatehpur Sikri, 20, 21; Jama Masjid, 28n17 fatwa. See Muslim First Vatican Council, 72 Forest, Jim,. See Christianity 255 forgiveness, 49, 61 Franciscans, 71 French Revolution, 248 GLBQTTS. See religion Gandhi, Mohandas K., 3, 15, 24–25, 28n26, 297, 299; Ahisma, 31–40; Ashram Observations , 32; Constructive Program , 36; failure, 39; five vows, 32–33; Lord Montbatten, 28n25; movie, 38; Salt March, 298. See also Hinduism; truth Geertz, Clifford, 201 Global Marshall Plan, 110, 111–114, 116; domestic plan, 115; not seen as alternative, 117. See also Torah God, 32–33; called to, 395; Haitian Vodou, 233; as murderer, 257; in the name of, 257; Kingdom of, 323; no colors before, 328; pinning down, 108; represented, 173. See also Quaker Golden Rule, 17 government, 195; oppression, 189 Gramsci, Antonio, 77 Greek Wars, 252 Guatemala, 74. See also Roman Catholicism Haiti, 223, 230; American occupation, 231; colonization 224; slavery, 223; Tainos precursors, 223, 224; unity and survival, 224. See also Vodou Haitian Revolution, 230 Hanh, Thich Nhat, 25, 60–61, 263, 267, 275; Being Peace, 284; mindfulness, 60; Interbeing, 284; True Love, 65; walking meditation, 25. See also Ecology Havel, Vaclav, 40 Herder, Johann Gottfried. See nationalism

Hezbollah, 419 Hien Vu, 95; conflict resolution, 96; in Hanoi, 96; Vietnam, 96 Hindu,. See also Gandhi 21, 31; reform movements, 22 Hindu-Muslim Riot, 42 Hinduism,. See also Hindu 1; ahisma, 287, 290, 297; caste, 288; Dharmacastras, 288; diversity, 293; just war, 290, 291, 300n14; karma, 287, 296; Mahabhavata, 287, 288, 289, 291; pacifism, 290; panchabuda , 287, 295; peace, 288; practiced where, 287; Ramayana, 287, 288, 289, 291; Rig Veda, 287, 288, 289; three main Hindu texts, 299; tolerance, 287, 293 history, 223 Holocaust, 72 homophobia, 118 Hussar, Father Bruno. See NSWAS Hutterites. See Mennonite imagination, 57 India, 19; culture of peace, 23; different religions co-exist, 294; emnity toward Pakistan, 24; Kathirkamam, 294; race relations, 295; Shahul Hameed, 294. See also Gandhi Indian Freedom Movement, 33 Indian National Congress, 22, 33 Industrial Revolution, 248 industrial war, 355 Inquisition, 21 Institute for Global Engagement, 85, 92; project, 94–95 Intuit, 168 Iran,. See Bahá’í 41 Iraq, 335 Iraqi Inter-Religious Council (IRC). See military chaplains Iroquois,. See also religion 420n6 Isaiah, 18, 87, 107, 405 Islam: abode of peace, 125; adl (justice), 376; aims at liberation, 382; aml al kheir (good deeds), 376; challenge of theory and practice, 377; clergy, 143; common ground, 126; communicating signs, 126;

Index condemns oppression, 134; conflict resolution, 379; contextual practice, 123; defense of the innocent, 129; diversity, 131; forgiveness, 133; fundamentally similar, 122; identity West-decided, 377; Ihsan (reconciliation), 376; jihad, 126–128; jurisprudence (fiqh), 126; meaning of life, 125; minority imposing decisions, 379; multivalence of the sacred, 123; Muslim scholars, 375, 384, 385, 388n31; nonviolent rituals, 376; nonviolent study, 376; observant Muslims, 125; Oromo, 152–153; paths of peace, 125; peace paradigm, 131, 132–133, 134; peace teachings, 122, 379; peace traditions, 137; penetration of Africa, 151; perception of inherent violence, 379; precepts, 124; Prophet’s behavior, 376; Prophet’s preaching, 377; Quran, 129, 383; reconciliation, 133; restorative justice, 133; sabr (patience), 376; samah (forgiveness), 376; scripture, 129; simplistic questions, 121, 122; state-centered approach, 132; Sufi, 383; taqwa (faith), 376; teachings (shari), 125; universalism, 134–135. See also Muslims Islamic jihad, 419 Israel,. See also Mennonite; NSWAS 92; barriers and border checks, 92 Jain, 31 Jansenism, 72 Jesus, 18, 59, 393, 394, 395; Kingdom of God, 87; Prince of Peace, 87; reconciliation, 87; and women, 88. See also Gandhi; Mennonite; Protestant evangelical women; Quaker Jews. See NSWAS Jim Crow, 158, 328 Jones, Pastor Terry, 337; attacks Quran, 337 Judaism : contradictory views, 105; diverse explanations, 105; intolerance, 106

429

just war, justum bellum , 71, 74, 290; just peace, 243; mistaken theory, 72; Muslim ideas about, 130, 376; theorists, 376; ummah (solidarity), 376; workshops for peace, 377. See also Augustine; Buddhism Just War Doctrine (JWD), 244, 290; approach of Christianity, 244 justice, 13; aligned with peace, 72; animating faith, 3; being peace, 25; sense of, 48; Also see Jesus Karma. See Hinduism Khrushchev, Nikita, 73 King, Jr., Rev. Martin Luther, 15, 299; non-violence, 25; U. S. apartheid, 39. See also Gandhi; Mennonite Koran. See Quran Korean War,. See Mennonite 397 land, 167, 173–174; and narrative, 167, 168. See also Aboriginal Religion Lao Tsu. See Laozi Lao Tzu. See Laozi Laozi. See Dao Latrun Monastery (Trappist). See NSWAS Lederach, John Paul, 90 Lerner, Michael. See NSP; Tikkun Magazine Libya, 41 Lord’s Resistance Army, 15 Lundquist, Kristen, 91 Lwa , 233. See also Vodou Machiavelli, Niccolo, 14 Macy, Joanna, 275 mammalian empathy, 63n21 Mamberti, Archbishop Dominique, 69 Marshall Plan, 111 martyrs, 251 Marx, Karl, 15; Liberation Theology, 28n24 Matyók, Thomas, 440; Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies: Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy , 440 Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice. See PACS

430

Index

Mennonite, 74, 75, 96; advocacy and activism, 399–400; ana-baptism, 391; Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), 399; colleges and universities, 399; community, 394, 395; Conciliation Service (MCS), 186; conscience, 395; conscientious objection, 397, 398; consistency, 394; current contributions, 399; discipleship, 401; ecological well-being, 401; economic well-being, 401; education, 399; example, 183; grassroots peacebuilding, 188–189; growth, 399; human rights, 401; isolated communities, 396; local ownership, 186; martyrdom, 395; nonconformity, 396; nonviolent resistance, 392, 401; peace intervention, 400; Order of Council, 396; pacifism, 395; Peace Church, 392; peace political, 402; peace scholarship, 399; peace theology, 392, 392–393, 401; peacebuilding, 183–186, 186, 399; peacekeeping dilemmas, 191, 192; peacekeeping longterm, 188; persecution, 185, 392; physically present, 187; priesthood of all, 184, 396; Protestant Reformation, 391; public face, 186; relief work, 400; relinquishing control, 189; restorative justice, 400; rural cult, 185; scripture alone, 393; social justice, 394, 396; spirituality, 184; twentieth-century history, 396–397. See also peacebuilding Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), 400 Mennonite Treaty (1873), 396 Meno Simmons (Dutch),. See Mennonite 395 migration, 223; forced, 223; voluntary, 223 military chaplains, 335; advanced theological training, 341; collaborative activities, 344; deployed chaplains’ experiences, 347; dialogue, 340; emerging role, 341; encounter , 341; enhancing nation-building, 336; facilitative

roles, 336; friendship and acquaintance, 341; future command directives, 342; gains among Sunnis and Shi’a, 344; garnering trust, 335, 339; incendiary language, 337; intentional peace activities, 343; interfaith dialogue, 344; Key Leadership Engagement, 342, 349n30; labyrinthine challenges, 336; long-term programming, 344; Moore, Steve, 440; negotiators, 340; networking, 342; new narratives, 343; operational, 344; operational bonding, 338; PRT personnel in RLE activities, 346; partnering, 342; peace builders, 339; peacebuilding expertise, 347; Religious Area Analysis RAA), 340; Religious Leadership Engagement (RLE), 335; safe space, 339; status, 339; strategic role of chaplains, 338, 339; supraordinate goals, 339; terrorism, 337; today’s new wars, 347; uniquely positioned, 339; working with command, 335 Mirza Husayn Ali. See Bahá’í; Bahá’u’lláh monotheism, 14 Moses, 17, 63n16 Mother Teresa, 15 Mozambique, 19, 76–77, 80–81; local bishops selected, 76; peace accord, 76; visit from Community of Sant’ Egidio, 78–79 Mughal Empire, 20–21; old centers of power, 22 Mughals. See Mughal Empire Muslims,. See Islam; NSWAS 20–21, 21, 42; authoritative political regimes, 380, 387n17; concern for social justice, 136; contributions to peacemaking, 136; co-opted religious establishments, 382; education disempowered, 382; global cultural invasion, 380; jihadist software, 383; masses under surveillance, 380; Muslim Riots, 34; non-Muslims, 20; nonviolent response, 136; patriarchal

Index structures, 381; quietists and ascetics, 136; reform movements, 22; self-defense, 128, 129; social life, 127; societies deprived, 380; theology of stagnation, 381; tribal loyalties, 382, 387n18; violence, 130, 418 Muslim Americans, 2 NAACP, 328 NATO, 41 NSWAS, 405, 436; bilingual-binational, 408; Circle of Reflection, 410; cooperation, 412; education, 413; founder, 405; Fr. Hassar’s signs, 406; first Jewish-Arab school, 408; Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 411; language essential, 409; living together, 406; microcosm of togetherness, 412; not utopian, 412; nurturing commonality, 409; Oasis of Peace, 413, 414; peacebuilding, 413; person-to-person, 407; raising money, 406, 407; relationship, 408; SFP workshops, 407; School for Peace (SFP), 406–408; World Peace College, 414 Nagler, Michael, 39 nationalism, 248, 249, 252; appealing, 249; co-opting religion, 252–253; fusion with religion, 253; justifies violence, 249; master narrative, 251; moralistic, 249; no heroes of peace, 255; supreme morality, 249. See also religious nationalism Nepal, 19 Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP), 109, 111, 115, 117; domestic Marshall plan, 115; joining, 119. See also Global Marshall Plan Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam. See NSWAS Nevsky, Alexander. See nationalism New Cold War, 162n59 Nobel Peace Prize, 41 Noble Paths. See Buddhism Nonviolence, 43; actively affirmed by early Christians, 70. See also Buddhism; Gandhi; satyagraha

431

Northern Ireland, 2 Obama, President, 2, 41 Ojibway scrolls. See Aboriginal Religion Osama bin Laden, 2, 15 pacifism, 392 pacifists, 72; criticized as traitors, 72 Pakistan, 19; broad understanding of peace, 16; enmity toward India, 24; formation of Islamic Republic of, 22 Palestine, 92, 410 paternalism, 62 Paul (Apostle), 47, 51, 52, 53–56, 56, 87; agape, 61; list of characteristics, 60; Thessalonians , 88; work of women, 88 Pax Americana , 40–41, 45n47 Pax Gaia. See Thomas Berry peace,. See Buddhism 267; failure to develop alternatives, 107; Islamic framework, 376; vision, 109 Peace Churches,. See Mennonite 392, 398 Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS),. See Buddhism; Matyók 51, 385n2; adjustment needed, 1; being peace, 274; critical questions, 166; design problem, 378; dominated by Western thinking, 3; fourth decade, 375; fundamental objectives, 299; highly idealistic, 277; lack of political support, 107; learning from Quaker, 215, 218; lessons, 175; limited, 107; meditation, 278; mistrust and polarization, 293; needing resolution, 292; prescriptive training, 276; privileging the West, 3; and the realistic, 108; relevance of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, 243; relevance of Hinduism, 287, 293; religion understudied, 1; religious subfield, 375; reshapes positively, 419; under-representation, 274; value of the African, 231 peacebuilding. See Mennonite: actual practice, 181, 182; benefitting from

432

Index

Mennonite example, 193–195; controlled by outsiders, 181, 182; grassroots, 195, 196n1–196n2; JWT key theme, 290; local ownership, 182, 195, 198; reliance on local knowledge, 190–191; relinquishing control, 190; theory, 182 peacemaking. See peacebuilding Penn, William, 208. See also Quaker Phoung, Cao Ngouc. See Thich Nhat Hanh pin yin, 304 Plum Village. See Thich Nhat Hanh Pope Benedict, 72 Pope John XXIII,. See Roman Catholicism 72, 80, 358; Pacem in Terris(“Peace on Earth”), 72 Pope John Paul II,. See Roman Catholicism 18, 73, 74, 78; apology to indigenous people, 419 Pope Paul VI, 16; Popularum Progressio, 16 Pope Pius XII, 72 poverty, 117 power elite, 419 Protestant evangelical women, 87, 90 Quaker,. See also AFSC 201; America, 208; avoid measurement, 202; beliefs, 201; and conflict, 206; causes of structural violence, 215; onsensus, 217; creed, 204; democracy, 203; direct communion, 202, 204; divisions, 209, 210, 211; dogma, 204; equality, 203; GLBT, 211; humility, 204–205; inner conflict, 209; listening, 217; meetings, 201; not uniform, 202; optimism, 206; pacifism, 212; peace, 201; persecution, 206–207, 207, 208; relief work, 217; religious freedom, 207; reuniting, 209; social inequality, 214; social justice, 213; spirituality, 201; testimony, 202, 203, 205; toleration, 210; view on depravity, 205; war prevention, 216; war resistance, 203, 212; witness, 205, 213 Quaker House, 213

Quietism, 72 racism: legalized in the United States, 147 Raj, 21 Ramadan. See NSWAS Ramakrishna, Sri, 23 Rasbriya Swayamsevak. See Babry Masjid reconciliation, 47–52, 420; animated by spontaneity, 58; concepts related to, 47, 61; and peacebuilding, 47, 50 religion, 27, 90; Abrahamic, 1; apology to African-Americans, 419; Arab Jewish Dialogue Group, 420; battle scenes, 271; church-state separation, 418; comparative study, 14; complexity, 3; contentious and constructive, 3; contributing to violent conflict, 353; cover for gain, 2; creative reappraisal, 124; creative influence, 3; crisis of faith, 6; and culture, 145; diviseness, 353; double-edged sword, 13; enters into conflict, 335; extremism, 338, 410, 417; force for freedom, 353; GLBQTTS, 418; Harmonizing influence, 406; illiteracy, 3; importance, 86; in other cultures, 27n2; inherent complexity, 3; Iroquois, 418; linked to nationalism, 250; linked to violence, 249–250; missing dimension of statecraft, 1; motivation for political action, 337; necessary component, 2; not monolithic, 124; not necessary for spiritual progressives, 108; opportunities, 5; organized religion, 143; Parliament of the World’s Religions, 28n22; peace primacy, 5; peacebuilding, 375; primary driver of political action, 3; primitive indigenous, 14; opium of the people, 15; religio, 14; religiousinspired violence, 336; ritual, 50; role in Peace and Conflict Studies, 3, 13; sacrilizing, 337; scapegoating, 2; six basic functions, 146; source of conflict, 418; source of peace, 419;

Index sources, 51; state-church separation, 353; supporting social inequality, 15; Syracuse Area Middle East Dialogue (SAMED), 420; tool of state, 165; used politically, 172; used to divide, 338; using violence, 417; violence in its name, 2; way to less violence, 1; world religions, 14; Also. See engagement; Quaker; respect religious extremism, 336 religious interventionists, 338 religious nationalism, 255, 256, 258; accepts use of force, 257; Armageddon, 258; kill the enemy, 258; and secular nationalism, 259; and war, 260; difference with spiritual orthodoxy, 257 religiously motivated violence, 337 Renaissance, 14 respect, 4, 73; out of difference, 105 Rig Veda. See Hinduism ritualism, 270 Roman Catholicism, 18; Argentina and Chile in 1978, 359; Association of St. Egidio, 355; backing authoritarian regimes, 353; biggest, 354; Catholic Relief Services (CRS), 356; child abuse, 418; colonization, 353; conservative, 354; direct access to policy, 354; early warning, 358; liberation theology, 353; mediation in the Beagle Islands, 359; mitigates conflicts, 359, 360; mobilizing for social change, 357; Mozambique, 359, 366; Pacem in Terris , 356; peacemaking, 358; pedophilia, 418; Pope John Paul II, 356; postviolence, 358; pre-emptive peace, 357; progressive, 354; solidarity, 73; spacially variable, 355; teaching peace, 74; tradition, 354; universal reach, 354; Vatican II, 354, 355; vision of peace, 73, 354, 355, 356, 357, 367 Romans (Epistle), 51 Rotary Peace Center Committee, 435 Rwanda, 63n9, 293 Said, Edward, Orientalism, 146

433

Saint Dominic, 71 Saint Francis, 18, 71 Samoré, Cardinal Antonio, 69 Sanskrit, 265, 268, 289 sangha. See Buddhism Sarvodaya Samaj. See Bhave satyagraha, 32, 33, 35, 42–43, 298. See Gandhi Saudi Arabia, 41 savage (Ishkonigan), 165 scapegoat, 49–50 Schell, Jonathan, 40, 45n45; The Unconquerable World , 40 Second Vatican Council, 18, 72, 73, 75; structural changes, 74 secular think tanks, 338 Selective Service System. See Mennonite Septimius Severus, 16 Sermon on the Mount, 32, 36, 394. See also Mennonite spirituality Shi’a, 20, 320, 384 Siddhartha Gautama. See Buddhism Siksika Indians, 171 Siyyid Ali Muhammad. See Báb slavery, 51, 214, 226; defeated, 227; dehumanization, 226. See also Quaker Smith, Adam, 64n40 Solidarity (Poland), 6 social justice. See Quaker South Africa, 34–35 Sri Lanka, 2, 123 state tools, 165 stories, 234, 236 Sufi, 20 Sunderlal Bahuguna. See Bhave Sunni, 20 Syria, 41, 92; Muslim-on-Muslim, 418 taboo, 50 Tacitus, 15 Talmud, 105; Elijah, 105; multiple explanations, 105; preserves minority opinion, 105 Tao. See Dow Tao Te Ching. See Dao De Jing Temple (Jewish), 15, 87; Court of Women, 88

434 terrorism, 13; misplaced, 124 theology, 14 Tibetan Buddhism. See Buddhism tikkun olam , 107 Tikkun Magazine, 109, 439 Titus, 27n7 torah, 51, 118 Towards a Global Ethic , 23–24 Trajan, 16 transformation, 48 transpersonal connections, 58 treaties, 168 Treaty of Westphalia, 1; invented international law, 172 truth, 32–33, 35, 41–42, 60 U. S. Army Chaplain Center. See Military Chaplains U.S.S.R., 40 Upanishads, 33 unemployment, 115 United Nations, 41; Security Council, 86 Vatican, 74; Apostolic Palace, 69; Holy See, 69; role, 69; world affairs, 69 Vietnam War, 185 violence, 48, 49, 172, 181; colonialism, 172; loss of peace culture, 175; René Girard, 48, 48–50; Canaan, 51 Vietnam, 96; Christian peacemaking, 96–100 Vietnam War,. See Mennonite 397 violence, 270; in Africa, 159 Vivekananda, Swami, 23 Vodou: ancestors, 229; assisted resistance, 224; communication (langai), 225; communities, 232; dominated by Catholicism, 224; drumming (Tam Tam), 226;

Index guidance, 236; in the Haiti Constitution, 229, 230; harmony and balance, 236; Hoodoo, 231; Independence, 224; lambi (conch shell), 226; Lwas , 235; mounting (chwal), 234; one with Haiti, 233; oral culture, 225; peace, 235, 237; revolution, 224; righteousness, 235; self-determination, 226; spirits (Lwas), 225, 236; studied, 224; symbolic return to Africa, 232; tradition, 225; unification, 226; Veve designs, 231; wisdom, 235 war, 41; glorified, 72, 254; mainstream Islamic thinking, 130 way, 306. See also Dao wealth disparity, 115 West, Cornel, 109 West Bank. See Palestine white supremacy, 224 women of faith, 85; annual symposium, 86; engage with local community, 94; mediators, 86; Middle East, 93; morality of responsibility, 89; no better group positioned, 100; no group less used, 100; ordination over-emphasized, 101; peacekeeping, 85, 86; relevancy, 89; unstudied, 100 Woolman, John. See Quaker World Trade Center, 2, 40 World War I, 396 World War II,. See Mennonite 40, 397 yin-yang, 303, 305, 305–306 Zhuangzi (Chuang zhi). See Dao Zurich. See Mennonite Zwingli, Huldrych, 391

About the Contributors

Mohammed Abu-Nimer is full professor at American University’s School of International Service in International Peace and Conflict. He is the director of the Center for Peacebuilding and Development and the coeditor of the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development. He has published many books and articles on peace building in Islam, interfaith dialogue, and conflict resolution. His edited book is Peace-Building By, Between and Beyond Muslims and Evangelical Christians, Mohammed AbuNimer and David Augsburger, eds. (2009). As scholar-practitioner, he also led training workshops in many conflict areas around the world, including Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Chad, Niger, the Philippines (Mindanao), Sri Lanka, and the United States. Harry Anastasiou is professor of international peace and conflict studies at Portland State University. He has taught, published, and lectured widely on nationalism, ethnic conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean, multidimensional peace building, and international peace and conflict issues. For two decades, he has been playing a leading role in peacebuilding initiatives and facilitation engaging Greek and Turkish citizens and policy leaders from Greece, Turkey, and ethnically divided Cyprus. Professor Anastasiou has been an invited lecturer for The International Visitor Leadership Program of the U.S. Department of State, and in 2012 was been invited as a consultant by the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the U.S. Department of State to help brief the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Cyprus. He has also been an invited frequent lecturer for the “Great Decisions” series of the World Affairs Council, while in 2010 he was appointed by Rotary International as an academic advisor to the Rotary Peace Centers Committee. Margaret Mitchell Armand was born and raised in Haiti. A graduate of the University of Texas, she earned a PhD in conflict analysis and resolution at Nova Southeastern University and an MA and licensure in mental health counseling. Her work addresses transformative conflict resolution, community-based and family conflicts, and religious and sociocultural issues. She has taught as a visiting professor at national and international universities, and has worked as a mental health counselor and a Supreme Court family mediator. Her extensive travel in the world’s indigenous communities promotes the urgency for truth, respect, dignity, and equity. She is an artist and poet as well as a scholar whose 435

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About the Contributors

passion for social justice is reflected in her works that teach the way to peace. Deanna Armbruster is the U.S. director of the Neve Shalom/Wahat alSalam World Peace College supporting the work of the “Oasis of Peace” community through the Middle East Peace Dialogue Network. She served for sixteen years as the executive director of the American Friends of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam. Her advocacy efforts throughout the United States work to bridge differences and build relations between the Palestinian and Jewish communities. She is the author of the book Tears in the Holy Land: Voices from Israel and Palestine, a collection of personal interviews taking the reader beyond the daily news headlines to tell the personal stories of the struggles of the Palestinians and Jews. She also serves on the board of the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP), a coalition initiative working to increase advocacy efforts with U.S. policymakers. She has received awards for her work from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Hearst Newspaper Foundation, the Horizon Award recognizing her efforts in the Arab and Jewish communities, and the Building Brides for Peace Award from the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee. She has spoken at the United Nations both in New York and Geneva, Switzerland, and also works with the media, mosques, churches, temples, universities, congressional representatives, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission, and other community activities on peace education programs. She is a PhD candidate in conflict and resolution at Nova Southeastern University. Katharina Bitzker is a medical doctor, body psychotherapist, peace researcher, and writer. She received her medical doctoral degree from Humboldt–University Berlin (Germany) and also holds an MA in international peace studies from the UN-mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica. Her current areas of interest and research include the interconnectedness of love and peace; the role of poetry/narratives, music, and humor in conflict transformation; systems theory approaches; and the convergence of neurobiology and peace studies. She is currently pursuing her PhD in peace and conflict studies at the University of Manitoba (Canada). Sean Byrne is professor of PACS, and with Jessica Senehi, founding head of the PhD and joint MA programs in peace and conflict studies at University of Manitoba (UM), and founding director of the Mauro Centre housed in St. Paul’s College at UM. He is author, coauthor, and coeditor of numerous books, journal articles, and book chapters. He has published extensively in the area of ethnic conflict analysis and resolution. His research has been supported by the United States Institute of Peace, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Canada. His current research interests include ethnic conflict analysis and resolution, economic aid and peace building, children and war, women and peace building,

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the deconstruction of the liberal peace-building paradigm, and third party intervention. He is a native of Ireland. Paul Nicolas Cormier is a status Indian from Canada registered with Lake Helen First Nations, Red Rock Indian Band. Paul holds his Bachelor of Education from McGill University, an MA in conflict analysis and management from Royal Roads University, and is currently a PhD candidate in peace and conflict studies at the Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice, University of Manitoba. He is assistant professor of interdisciplinary studies at First Nations University of Canada, Saskatchewan. His research interests are in traditional Indigenous peace building, land disputes related to Indigenous peoples and land rights, and research as a process for peace building in Indigenous contexts. David G. Creamer, S.J., is associate professor at St. Paul’s College, University of Manitoba. He teaches in both undergraduate and graduate programs in the faculties of arts and education. Each August, he takes students and teachers on a popular three-week field study program in India. For ten years Creamer was editor of Perspective, a semiannual journal of Catholic and Ignatian thought published by the Jesuit Centre for Catholic Studies at St. Paul’s College. He is author of several articles and book chapters, as well as a book of his own, Guides for the Journey: John Macmurray, Bernard Lonergan, James Fowler (1996). Vernie Davis is Guilford College Professor Emeritus of peace and conflict studies and anthropology. He brings to this volume the perspective of a Quaker, an anthropologist, a peace and conflict studies scholar, and a practitioner in peace building and conflict transformation. He was attracted to Quakerism because of its peace testimony and social justice work, and has been a member or regular attender at several Quaker meetings—Syracuse Friends Meeting (Syracuse, New York), Clear Creek Meeting (Richmond, Indiana), New Garden Friends Meeting (Greensboro, North Carolina), and currently Durham Friends Meeting (Durham, North Carolina). He was drawn to anthropology by his love of diversity and unity of the human experience, and he has a special interest in conflict across cultures. He has taught for thirty-five years in Quaker Colleges (Guilford College and Earlham College), including chairing a department of peace and conflict studies and serving as director of the Guilford College Conflict Resolution Resource Center; and he has been a member of The Peace and Justice Studies Association, Association of Conflict Resolution, and Mediation Network of North Carolina. As a practitioner, he has been a mediator and trainer in mediation and conflict transformation for more than thirty years, and he has served on committees for the American Friends Service Committee and Friends Committee on National Legislation. Lois Edmund is a clinical psychologist with a practice in high-intensity conflict mediation. She is currently associate professor of conflict resolution studies, and program coordinator for conflict resolution stud-

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ies at Menno Simons College, Canadian Mennonite University (in association with the University of Winnipeg) in Winnipeg, Canada. Chuck Egerton has learned and served in many capacities but especially in healing conflict around race and culture as a Bahá’í for more than forty years. As a college educator in professional photography for the past two decades his parallel passion for oneness and social justice has found convergence in arts based conflict transformation projects creating community opportunities for building unity in diversity and world peace. Maureen Flaherty is assistant professor in peace and conflict studies (PACS) at the Arthur V. Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice, St. Paul’s College (SPC), University of Manitoba (UM), Canada. Her research interests include gendered perspectives in interpersonal violence, narrative, visioning, and community development. She has been a front-line social worker, therapist, consultant, and educator specializing in the areas of crisis and trauma recovery, intimate partner abuse, and community development. Her work has taken her to Russia and Ukraine with her most recent research resulting in the book, Peacebuilding with Women in Ukraine: Using Narrative to Envision a Common Future (2012). In 2012, she was awarded UM’s Distinguished Dissertation Award. Nathan C. Funk is associate professor of peace and conflict studies at the University of Waterloo’s Conrad Grebel University College, with previous appointments at American University and George Washington University. He obtained a doctorate in International Relations from American University in 2000. His writings on international affairs, the Middle East, track-two diplomacy, and the cultural as well as religious dimensions of peace building include Ameen Rihani: Bridging East and West (2004) and Islam and Peacemaking in the Middle East (2009). He currently serves on the board of directors of Project Ploughshares, a Canadian peace research NGO. Christopher Hrynkow is assistant professor in the Department of Religion and Culture at Saint Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan, and is a doctoral candidate in peace and conflict studies at the Arthur V. Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice, University of Manitoba. He has also taught at the secondary school level; conflict resolution studies at Menno Simons College, University of Winnipeg; peace and conflict transformation studies at the Canadian Mennonite University; religion and ecology at the Jesuit Centre for Catholic Studies, St. Paul’s College, Winnipeg; and in the social foundations of education department at the University of Manitoba. S. I. Keethaponcalan is chair of the conflict analysis and dispute resolution department, Salisbury University, Maryland. Formally, he was professor of political science and head of the Department of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has published extensively on Sri Lanka and South Asia.

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Klaus Konrad Klostermaier received his Doctorate in Philosophy from Gregorian University Rome. He lived in India from 1961 to 1970 and earned his PhD in ancient Indian history and culture at the University of Mumbai. He joined the Department of Religion at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg Canada, in 1970 and is Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His major publications include Mahatma Gandhi: Hin duismus (1965), Freiheit ohne Gewalt? (1969), Hindu and Christian in Vrindaban (1971), The Nature of Nature (2004), A Survey of Hinduism (1989, 3rd ed. 2007), Buddhism: A Short Introduction (2000), and Hinduism: A Beginner’s Guide (2011). Yueh-Ting Lee is professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toledo, Ohio. He received his PhD at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook and completed his postdoctoral training and research at the University of Pennsylvania. He has authored and coauthored approximately eighty refereed journal articles and produced several scholarly books including: Leadership and Management in China: Philosophies, Theories and Practices (2008), The Psychology of Ethnic and Cultural Conflict (2004), Personality and Person Perceptions across Cultures (1999), and Stereotype Accuracy: Toward Appreciating Group Differences (1995). His research was funded by various federal and state agencies. As a social psychologist and cross-cultural/ethnic scholar, he has also taught courses in psychology and cultural and ethnic studies for years in American higher education. In addition to teaching, research, and administrative services, Dr. Lee has been invited to do consulting and training for multinational corporations and public agencies both in the United States and in China regarding cultural competency, differences appreciation, and conflict management. Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun Magazine, chair of the interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives, Rabbi of Beyt Tikkun SynagogueWithout-Walls in San Francisco and Berkeley, California, and author of twelve books including: Embracing Israel/Palestine, The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right, Spirit Matters, The Politics of Meaning, Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin (coauthored with Cornel West), The Socialism of Fools: Anti-Semitism on the Left, Surplus Powerlessness: The Psychodynamics of Daily Life and Work, and Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation. Kristen Lundquist is IGE’s program officer for religion, security, and gender. In this position, Kristen oversees IGE’s Women of Faith for Peace and Security and Muslim-majority World initiatives, as well as provides management and consultation on all IGE foundation proposals and grants. Prior to her tenure at IGE, Lundquist served as a consultant to numerous women’s NGOs in program management, research and analysis, development, and communications. In 2005, she lived in the Middle East—namely in Egypt, Syria, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, and Jordan—examining women’s roles in Christian-Muslim relations and

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U.S.–Middle East foreign policy. Her research interest focuses on the role of women of faith in peace building and security formation within the Muslim-majority world. Lundquist holds an MA in world history from Eastern Illinois University, a BA in ancient history, and a BA in biblical studies with a focus on Near East languages from Northwestern College. She also holds a certificate in religion and conflict resolution from Nyack College. Thomas Matyók is associate professor in the program in conflict and peace studies at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His research interests include the role of religion in peace and conflict studies, the changing nature of war and its remembrance, violence, and institutions of peace. Matyók possesses substantial knowledge of international conflict management, organizational, and cross-cultural conflict transformation processes. He has negotiated significant international agreements and has been recognized for his abilities by the United States Coast Guard and United States Army, as well as national and international human rights organizations. Tom is coeditor of Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies: Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy (2011). Steve Moore served as a chaplain in the Canadian Forces (CF) for twenty-two years, with operational tours including Bosnia (1993), Haiti (1997), and Afghanistan (2006). Engaging religious leaders of greater Sarajevo—a city at war—left an indelible mark on his life. These were men of faith and leaders of religious communities, endeavoring to lead their people during a time of intense turmoil. On the completion of his PhD, Moore continued developing his concepts within the CF where, in June 2011, religious leader engagement became an operational capability under development for chaplains. He is currently developing a one-year, five-module, online program at Saint Paul University, Ottawa, in integrative peace building. Ismael Muvingi is associate professor in conflict resolution at Nova Southeastern University, Florida. He has worked in war zones, practiced law in Zimbabwe for twenty years, worked for a U.S.-based NGO as a legislative advocacy campaign manager on conflict resolution and HIV/ AIDS issues in Africa, and has taught conflict analysis and resolution for eight years. His research interests include transitional justice, extractive industries, and social movements with a focus on Africa. John Perry is a Jesuit priest who, until his retirement from teaching at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, was an adjunct professor at the Mauro Center for Peace and Justice at St. Paul’s College. He has recently taken a teaching position at the Kofi Annan Institute for Conflict Transformation at the University of Monrovia in Liberia. Vern Neufeld Redekop is full professor in the School of Conflict Studies at Saint Paul University, Ottawa. His involvement in training and program development has taken him to Indigenous communities in Canada as well as to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sudan, Taiwan, and other

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countries. His theoretical and practical insights found expression in his book, From Violence to Blessing: How an Understanding of Deep-Rooted Conflict Can Open Paths to Reconciliation. Subsequent research has focused on protest crowds and police, resulting in (with Shirley Paré) Beyond Control: A Mutual Respect Approach to Protest Crowd—Police Relations. Most recently published is Introduction to Conflict Studies: Empirical, Theoretical, and Ethical Dimensions, which he coauthored with Jean-Francois Rioux. Current research focuses on spirituality, emergent creativity and reconciliation, and on economic development based on reconciliation. Chris Seiple is president of the Institute for Global Engagement, a research, education, and diplomatic institution that builds sustainable religious freedom worldwide through local partnerships. He is a member of the Federal Advisory Committee to the U.S. Secretary of State’s “Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society,” senior adviser to the dialogue’s working group on “Religion & Foreign Policy,” and vice chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Role of Faith. He is founder of The Review of Faith and International Affairs and the coeditor of The Routledge Handbook on Religion & Security (2012). A former Marine infantry officer and member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies, he speaks regularly to government audiences regarding the relationship between religion and realpolitik. Dr. Seiple is a graduate of Stanford, the Naval Postgraduate School, and the Fletcher School for Law & Diplomacy. Jessica Senehi is associate professor of PACS and associate director of the Mauro Centre, St. Paul’s College at University of Manitoba. At University of Manitoba, in 2007, she established the award-winning graduate-level Summer Institute for Peace and Renewing Community. In 2006, she established the Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival (WISF): Storytelling on the Path to Peace, presented by the Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice. WISF was a semifinalist for the prestigious McJannett global award. She was also awarded the UM’s Outreach and Rh Research awards. Her research focuses on the role of storytelling in peace building, cultural conflict, and gender. She coauthored, with Sean Byrne, Violence (2012), and coedited Critical Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies (2011) and the Handbook of Conflict Analysis and Resolution (2009) and Reconciliable Differences (2000). Chuck Thiessen is a research fellow in peace building at the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies at Coventry University in the United Kingdom. Previous to this, Dr. Thiessen worked as a research manager at Cooperation for Peace and Unity, a peacebuilding NGO in Afghanistan, where he guided the organization’s research and evaluation activities. His current research and writing is investigating the struggle for local ownership of peacebuilding activities in Afghanistan and other war-torn contexts.

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Hamdesa Tuso is a member of the faculty at the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Manitoba. Before joining the University of Manitoba, he was associate professor of conflict resolution and sociology at the Department of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Nova Southeastern University. Prior to that, he taught at the conflict resolution programs at Antioch University and George Mason University. His areas of interest include indigenous processes of peacemaking, nationalism, ethnicity and conflict, human rights and human security, organizational conflict, and theories of social conflict. During the 2006–2007 academic year, he was selected as the Distinguished Visiting Professor of conflict resolution studies, at Menno Simons College, University of Winnipeg. He is founder of the Oromo Studies Association, and founder and director of the Africa Working Group. Hien Vu is the East Asia program officer at the Institute for Global Engagement. Hien graduated from Hanoi University, Vietnam, with a bachelor’s degree in English, and from Fresno Pacific University in California with her master’s degree in peacemaking and conflict studies. Her thesis examined perceptions and attitudes of Vietnamese Christians on conflict and peacemaking. She has prepared bilingual (English and Vietnamese) training manuals and provided several workshops on Conflict Resolution Skills to Vietnamese and multicultural Christian groups. Prior to joining IGE, Hien’s field work experience includes working with the Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), community development with World Vision Vietnam , and serving the Southeast Asian refugee communities in California with Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries. Min Wang is associate professor in the Department of Foreign Languages in the National University of Defense Technology in Hunan, China. She received postgraduate training and education at Central South University in Changsha, Hunan. Her research interest includes, but is not limited to, intercultural communication, technical English translation and teaching, American literature, Sino-U.S. culture, and Chinese Daoism. Honggang Yang has been serving as dean of the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Nova Southeastern University since 1999. He earned his PhD in applied anthropology from the University of South Florida. His Master of Jurisprudence was in sociology and social psychology from Nankai University in China. He also received the Leadership & Management Institute Certificate from Harvard. In the early 1990s, Dr. Yang worked for the Carter Presidential Center of Emory University as research associate and internship coordinator. He taught and chaired the Antioch program in conflict resolution in Ohio. He has served on several councils and boards in the fields of conflict resolution, anthropology, peace research, and community development. Dr. Yang was honored as the NSU Academic Dean of the Year in Student Life Achievement at NSU and the SOCHE Faculty Awardee for Teaching Excellence from

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the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education. As a professor of interdisciplinary studies, his specialties include reflective practice, peacemaking among helping professionals, and experiential learning for midcareer students.