The Oxford Handbook of Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding

The book provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary account of the scholarship on religion, conflict, and peacebuilding. Extending the scope of inquiry beyond previous parameters, the volume engages deeply with the legacies of colonialism, missionary activism, secularism, orientalism, and liberalism as they relate to the discussion of religion, violence, and nonviolent transformation and resistance.

Featuring diverse case studies from various contexts and traditions, the volume is organized thematically into five different parts. It begins with an up-to-date mapping of scholarship on religion and violence, and religion and peace. The second part explores the challenges related to developing secularist theories on peace and nationalism. In addition, this section broadens the discussion of violence to include an analysis of cultural and structural forms, thereby expanding the scope of potential scholarship pertinent to the analysis of religion. The third part engages with the controversies within religion and development, religious-violent and nonviolent-militancy, religion and the legitimate use of force, the protection of the freedom of religion as a keystone of peacebuilding, and theories about gender and peacebuilding. The fourth part highlights peacebuilding in practice by focusing on constructive resources within various traditions, the transformative role of rituals, spiritual practices involved in the formation of peace-builders in contexts of acute violence, youth and interfaith activism in American university campuses, religion and solidarity activism, scriptural reasoning as a peacebuilding practice, and an extended reflection on the history and legacy of missionary peacebuilding. The conclusion looks to the future of peacebuilding scholarship and the possibilities for new growth and progress.

Bringing together a diverse array of scholars, this innovative Handbook grapples with the tension between theory and practice, cultural theory, and the legacy of the liberal peace paradigm, offering provocative, elastic, and context-specific insights for strategic peacebuilding processes.

R. Scott Appleby is Professor of History and John M. Regan, Jr. Director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

David Little is Professor Emeritus of the Practice in Religion, Ethnicity, and International Conflict and Faculty Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard Divinity School.

Atalia Omer is Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Program in Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding, at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, at the University of Notre Dame.

Preface
Atalia Omer

Part One: Mapping the Field
1. Atalia Omer, "Religious Peacebuilding: The Exotic, the Good, and the Theatrical"
2. R. Scott Appleby, "Religious Violence: The Strong, the Weak, and the Pathological"

Part Two: The Historical and the Historicist
3. David Little, "Religion, Peace, and the Origins of Nationalism"
4. Scott Hibbard, "Religion, Nationalism, and the Politics of Secularism"
5. Slavica Jakelic, "Secular-Religious Encounters as Peacebuilding"
6. Jason Springs, "Structural and Cultural Violence in Religion and Peacebuilding"

Part Three: Contested Issues
7. R. Scott Appleby, "The New Name for Peace? Religion and Development as Partners in Strategic Peacebuilding"
8. Patrick Mason, "Violent and Nonviolent Religious Militancy"
9. Rashied Omar, "Religious Violence and State Violence"
10. John Kelsay, "Peacebuilding and the Comparative Study of Ethics"
11. W. Cole Durham, Jr. and Elizabeth A. Clark, "The Place of Religious Freedom in the Structure of Peacebuilding"
12. Susan Hayward, "Women, Religion, and Peacebuilding"

Part Four: Peacebuilding in Practice: Strategies, Resources, Critique
13. Daniel Philpott, "Reconciliation, Politics, and Transitional Justice"
14. Marc Gopin, "Negotiating Secular and Religious Contributions to Social Change and Peacebuilding"
15. Tim Shah, "Secular Militancy as an Obstacle to Peacebuilding"
16. Peter van der Veer, Tam Ngo, and Dan Smyer Yu, "Religion and Peace in Asia"
17. S. Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana, "Peacebuilding in the Muslim World"
18. Eboo Patel and Cassie Meyer, "Youth and Interfaith Conflict Transformation"
19. Peter Ochs, "The Possibilities and Limits of Interreligious Dialogue"
20. Lisa Schirch, "Ritual, Religion, and Peacebuilding"
21. John Paul Lederach, "Spirituality and Religious Peacebuilding"
22. Heather M. DuBois and Janna Hunter-Bowman, "The Intersection of Christian Theology and Peacebuilding"
23. Cecilia Lynch, "Religious Communities and Possibilities for Justpeace"
24. Atalia Omer, "Religion, Nationalism, and Solidarity Activism"

Part Five: The Growing Edge of the Conversation
25. Atalia Omer "Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding: Synthetic Remarks"

Index