Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors ix

Acknowledgments xvii

List of Illustrations xix

Part I Religion and the Search for Peace 1

1 Introduction: Religion and the Search for Peace 3
Jolyon Mitchell and Suzanna R. Millar

2 World Religions and Peace 21
Jolyon Mitchell, Anna S. King, Susan Hayward, Jasjit Singh, George Wilkes, Joshua Rey, and Hussam Timani

3 Relationships between Religion and Peace 39
Ian S. Markham

4 The Intersectional Turn: Theories and Practices for Studying Religion and Peace 49
Atalia Omer

5 Peacebuilding and Religion 63
John Paul Lederach interviewed by Jolyon Mitchell

Part II Religion and Peace in Local Contexts 79

6 ‘And a Little Child Shall Lead Them’: Listening to Young People in Israel/Palestine 81
Victoria Biggs

7 Negotiating the Sacred and the Profane in Jerusalem 91
Trond Bakkevig

8 Women’s Empowerment and Peacebuilding in an Islamic Context 101
Maryam Ahmad and James DeShaw Rae

9 Grassroots Peacebuilding in Contemporary Indonesia 112
Sumanto Al Qurtuby

10 From Dust and Ashes: Religion and Peacebuilding in Nepal 124
Mark Owen

11 Pursuing an ‘Oppressed Peace’: Religion, Identity, and Minority Politics among Muslims in Sri Lanka 134
Farah Mihlar

12 Religion and Peacebuilding in Nigeria 143
Darren Kew and Chris M. A. Kwaja

13 Reconciliation and Non-violent Transformation in South Africa: At the Interface of Theology and Secular Politics 155
John W. de Gruchy

14 Religious Emotions and Religious Peacebuilding in Colombia 164
Sandra M. Rios Oyola

15 Reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina 174
George R. Wilkes

16 Gendering the Peace Process in Northern Ireland 185
Monica McWilliams and Avila Kilmurray

Part III Practices and Embodiments 195

17 Hinduism: The Culture of Peace and the Ethics of War 197
Anna S. King

18 Cities of Sanctuary, Religion, and Justice 216
Helen M. Hintjens

19 Religion and Museums for Peace 231
Clive Barrett

20 ‘Witchy’ Activism: Self-religion in Global Peace Movements 242
Francesca Po

21 Ritual and Peacebuilding 255
Lisa Schirch

22 Scriptural Reasoning and Peacebuilding 264
Peter Ochs

23 Contemporary Buddhist Peace Movements 275
Julie Blythe and Ruth Gamble

24 Mahatma Gandhi, Satyagraha, and the Politics of Non-Violence 289
Anna S. King

Part IV Lived Theologies and Building Peace 307

25 Theology and Peacebuilding 309
Samuel Wells

26 ‘Righteousness and Peace Will Kiss Each Other’: Christian Communities of Reconciliation and the Pursuit of Justice 319
Leah E. Robinson

27 Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Search for Peace 330
Dean J. Johnson

28 Acts of Resistance: Fruits of Grace: Overcoming Violence Against Women 340
Aruna Gnanadason

29 Spiritual Activism, Atomic Theology, and ‘The Bomb’ in Scotland 349
Alastair McIntosh

30 Conflict in Congregations: Power, Polity, and Peace in the Church 364
Martyn Percy

31 Islamophobia and Nonviolence in a ‘Christian Nation’ 373
Cynthia Boaz

32 News Media for Just Peace? Footwashing Making Headlines 383
Christopher Landau

33 Of Gods and Men: Peacebuilding and Catholic Social Teaching 392
Theodora Hawksley

Part V Just War, Just Peace 403

34 Just War, Critique, and Conscientious Objection 405
Marc LiVecche and Nigel Biggar

35 Just Peace: From Versailles to Today 417
Maryann Cusimano Love

36 Religious Warrants: Virtue, Nonviolence, and Just Peace 428
Eli S. McCarthy

37 Can Restorative Justice Transform Structural and Cultural Violence? 438
Jason A. Springs

38 The Humanitarian Conscience between War and Peace 454
Tobias Kelly

39 Ambivalence, Diversity and the Possibility of Religious Peacebuilding 462
Scott Appleby

Part VI Religion and Peace on a Global Stage 473

40 International Relations, Religion, and Peace 475
Jeffrey Haynes

41 Histories: Religious Peace Movements in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 485
Megan Shore

42 Sociological Conceptualizations of Religion and Peacemaking 497
John D. Brewer

43 Geographies of Peace and Religion 509
J. P. Singh

44 Divine Intervention: Invoking God in Peace Agreements 518
Robert Forster and Christine Bell

45 Genocide Prevention, Religion, and Development 530
Azza Karam

46 Nationalism, Religion, and Peace 541
Joshua Rey

47 Religious Leaders and Peace 552
Nukhet Sandal

48 Religion in Peacebuilding: An Emerging Force for Change 562
Mohammed Abu-Nimer

49 Mediation, Peacebuilding, Arts, and Religion 573
Isabel Käser and Jolyon Mitchell

50 Religion and Peacebuilding in the Ukraine-Russia Conflict 589
Jolyon Mitchell

Index 607

About the Author

Jolyon Mitchell is a Professor specializing in Religion, Violence and Peacebuilding and Director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues (CTPI) at the University of Edinburgh, UK. A former President of TRS UK, he has also worked with Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious leaders on peacebuilding projects in Jerusalem. His recent books include Religion and War (2021) and Peacebuilding and the Arts (2020).

Suzanna R. Millar is Chancellor’s Fellow in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at the University of Edinburgh, UK, and Assistant Director of Edinburgh’s Centre for Theology and Public Issues. Her research interests include wisdom literature in the Hebrew Bible, ecological hermeneutics and non-human animals. She is the author of Genre and Openness in Proverbs 10:1-22:16 (2020).

Francesca Po is a scholar of religion specializing in contemporary religion and nonreligion. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors at the Metta Center for Nonviolence in Petaluma, CA, USA, and an educator of religious studies in California, USA. She previously served in the US Peace Corps as well as a high school campus minister, and is the co-editor of The Study of Ministry (2019).

Martyn Percy is the 45th Dean of Christ Church, University of Oxford, UK, where he also teaches in the Faculty of Theology and Religion and tutors at the Saïd Business School. Between 2004 and 2014 he was Principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon in Oxford, one of the largest Anglican ordination training centers in the world. Author of many books, he writes on religion in contemporary culture.