Marc Gopin, author of Holy War, Holy Peace (Oxford, 2002), is a Senior Associate in the Preventive Diplomacy Program
of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C, Visiting Associate Professor of International
Diplomacy at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a Senior Researcher at its Institute
for Human Security.
Summary
A new approach to religous violence and peacemaking
Recent years have seen a meteoric rise in the power and importance of organized religion in many parts of the world.
Although violence is often perpetrated in the name of religion, history shows that religious people have played
a critical role in peacemaking within numerous cultures. In the next century, will religion provide human civilization
with methods of care, healing, and the creation of peaceful societies?
In this groundbreaking book, Marc Gopin attempts to integrate the study of religion with the study of conflict
resolution. He argues that religion can play a critical role in constructing a global community of shared moral
commitments and vision--a community that can limit conflict to its nonviolent, constructive variety. If we examine
religious myths and moral traditions, Gopin argues, we can understand why and when religious people come to violence,
and why and when they become staunch peacemakers. This innovative and carefully argued study also offers a broad
set of recommendations for policy planners both inside and outside of government.
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
1. Alternative Global Futures in the Balance
2. Between Religion and Conflict Resolution: Mapping a New Field of Study
II. A Critique of Current Secular ad Religious Approaches to Conflict and Peace
3. Why Modern Culture Fails to Understand Religiously Motivated Violence
4. What id Midding from Religious Approaches to War and Peace: Judaism an Islam as Paradigms
5. Modern Jewish Orthodox Theologies of Interreligous Coexistence: Strengths and Weaknesses
III. Paradigms of Religous Peacemaking in a Multicultural and Secular Context
6. Healing/Secular Conflict: The Case of Contemporary Israel
7. Conflict Resolution as a Religious Experience: Contemporary Mennonite Peacemaking
New Paradigms of Religion and Conflict Resolution: A Case Study of Judaism
IV Conclusion
9. Systematic Recommendations for Intervention in Contemporary Conflicts
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
