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Global ConnectionsThis area of the website explores four different topics and offers suggestive resources:
1. The Role of Religion and ConflictThe Controverted Role of Religion in ConflictReligion can stabilize or de-stabilize. It can make for security or deepen anxiety. Regardless of tradition, creed or theology these polarities can be found in all of our histories. Religion is so important to the question of security in our time that it has become a topic of political interest after its eclipse among policy makers in the twentieth century. Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State and Ambassador to the United Nations, in The Mighty and the Almighty (2006) reports that religion is playing a fundamental role in ordering the world of the 21st century. It is shaping policy in the U.S. It is caught up in the deepening divisions of the Middle East. Christianity and Islam are in a “race for souls” across Africa and Central Asia. What to do with religion has become a question of such significance that in the U.S. Religion has become the focus of work for numerous think-tanks and institutions, including the prestigious Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and its Post-Conflict Reconciliation (PCR) Project. (Danan: 2007) It is a subject of interest in other policy circles and a growing concern of recent National Security Strategy studies of the United States. (ERPCS: 2006) The report growing out of this project concludes that: “Religion is a multivalent force: it … has been mobilized to sanction violence, drawn on to resolve conflicts, and invoked to provide humanitarian and development aid. In all of these capacities, religious leaders, organizations, institutions and communities are especially important in shaping the direction of conflict-prevention or reconstruction efforts in fragile states.” (CSIS 2007)
2. Building Cultures of ReconciliationForgiveness - Reconciliation - Restorative Justice - CommunitySocial scientists and social workers, ministers and other leaders of faith-based communities, many different persons today recognize that the era into which we are rapidly moving may be characterized by social circumstances that are unlike those that have shaped our recent past. Such change inevitably brings different forms of personal and social tension. The purpose of this web page is to suggest ways by which the resources of the schools of the Boston Theological Institute might be of assistance as we move into new social terrain. The material that is found here is designed to promote better negotiation, mediation, conflict resolution and transformation insight and skills. It is to enable us to learn to listen to one another and to understand better. Since the BTI is a consortium of seminaries, theology schools and university divinity schools, the material that is found here is inevitably oriented toward religious ideas and understanding, i.e., it draws upon and is related to the deepest values of people and of our culture and cultures. It is also theological. This is because theology is the structure of religion. It makes possible language about that which is most meaningful to us. Building cultures of reconciliation implies a process. It begins with recognizing the origins of conflict. It often means learning to see the structural violence that lies just beyond the horizon of our own interests – and learning to deal with practices and attitudes that contribute to conflict rather than mutuality. Social conflict is inherent in human relations and is manifest and internal to the persons and parties involved. It is that which reveals difference. Conflict can escalate and eventuate in a variety of outcomes, some of which are destructive. Some can contribute to reconciliation and mutual well being. This does not imply agreement, although it may. Indeed, difference can enrich as well as enflame. Building cultures of reconciliation means developing proactive attitudes and practices that make community possible. Reconciliation happens as persons or groups begin to shape their lives in positive relation to one another. It happens as people learn to deal with what separates them and as they find a bridge to new attitudes and practices that enable people to live in relation to one another, not in isolation from each other. Forgiveness is the means toward breaking the cycles of hostility and violence that lock people into repetitive patterns of mutual destructiveness. A culture of reconciliation is established as persons seek repairative, transformative, or restorative justice. The Boston Theological Institute was founded in order to promote understanding and cooperation, not to erase difference, but to find in difference ways that enhance human experience and deepen patterns of community. Deep change draws upon our assumptions about life, or ontology. It implies a way of understanding, or an epistemology. This must eventuate in practice, or ethics. Building cultures of reconciliation is what churches are all about, or should be. Such a culture happens within and among churches as well as outside of faith-communities insofar as principles of forgiveness, reconciliation, and restorative justice are implemented. These values, and the patterns that work for justice and that build peace, are the focus of this web page.
3. Examples of Conflict TransformationA. US-Based Religious Organizations the Promote Conflict TransformationDifferent religious groups have developed various models for dealing with conflict, often related to their church's polity. Such is true for many Christian denominations. Several associated with BTI schools and their larger denominational connections include the following: See the work of the Baptist World Alliance at www.bwanet.org. The Episcopal Peace Fellowship is a national organization connecting all who seek a deliberate response to injustice and violence and want to pray, study and take action for justice and peace in our communities, our church, and the world. See www.pfnational.org. The Catholic Peace-building Network (CPN) is a voluntary network of practitioners, academics, clergy, and laaity from around the world that seeks to enhance the study and practice of Catholic peacebuilding. See www.cpb.nd.edu. The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) shares God's love and compassion for all in the name of Christ by responding to basic human needs and working for peace and justice. See: www.mcc/org. The Orthodox Peace Fellowship is an association of Orthodox Christians belonging to different nations and jurisdictions trying to live the peace of Christ in day-to-day life, including situations of division and conflict. See www.incommunion.org. The PC (USA) - Presbyterian Peacemaking Program was created in 1980 by action of the General Assembly of the former United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America adopted Peacemaking: The Believers' Calling. See www.pcusa.org/peacemaking. The Unitred Church of Christ supports many peacebuilding efforts. See the Peacebuilding Institute and its extensive list of links to additional peace-building organizations. See at www.peacebuildinginstitute.org. See the Draft Statement of Conscience on Peacemaking, November 2009, of the Unitarian Universalist Association and its effort at Peace-building at www.uua.org/socialjustice. The United Methodist Church has supported the JustPeace Center for Mediation and Conflict Transformation. See www.justpeaceumc.org The World Evangelical Alliance has expanded its role in global peace-building efforts, having made peace-building a priority for the alliance beginning with decisions made in 2007. See: www.worldevangelicals.org.
B. Groups that Promote Religion and Conflict Transformation (ecumenical or secular)Organizations with whicih the BTI has worked include the following. See the Peacebuilding Institute and its extensive list of links to additional peace-building organizations. See at www.peacebuildinginstitute.org. 1. Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) is an organization committed to reducing violence by "Getting in the Way" - challenging systems of domination and exploitation as Jesus did in the first century. CPT is a project of the Mennonite Churches, Church of the Brethren and Friends United Meeting and other Christians. CPT has worked in Haiti, thie Middle East, Bosnia, Chechnya, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, and the USA. See at www.cpt.org. 2. The Eastern Mennonite University, Conflict Transformation Program is designed for persons interested in pursuing academic studies in the field broadly-defined as peacebuilding: conflict transformation, restorative justice, trauma healing, development and related fields. See at www.ccoportal.org/eastern-mennonite-university-conflict-transformation-program. 3. The Fellowship of Reconciliation seeks to replace violence, war, racism, and economic injustice with nonviolence, peace, and justice. The FOR is the largest, oldest Interfaith Peace organization in the United States and is dedicated to the promotion of nonviolentSee at www.forusa.org. 4. The University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute is one of the world’s principal centers for the study of the causes of violent conflict and strategies for sustainable peace. Faculty conduct research on war, genocide, terrorism, ethnic and religious conflict, and violation of human rights; teach students earning degrees in peace studies; and contribute to on-the-ground peacebuilding worldwide. See at www.kroc.nd.edu. 5. Religions for Peace-USA is the largest representative interreligious collaboration in the United States. At RFP-USA, we seek to translate deeply held and widely shared values into concrete multi-religious action through programming initiatives with three foci: 1) Championing diversity, 2) Building community, 3) Mentoring emerging leaders. See at www.rfpusa.org. 6. The Tanenbaum Center works to reduce and prevent the violence perpetrated in the name of religion by supporting religious peacemakers who struggle in areas of armed conflict and by overcoming religious intolerance in workplaces and schools. The focus of its work is around issues of education, workplace discrimination, conflict resolution and other special programs. See at www.tanenbaum.org. 5. The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) provides the analysis, training and tools that help to prevent, manage and end violent international conflicts, promote stability and professionalize the field of peacebuilding. See at www.usip.org.
C. Groups with which the BTI Has Worked (inter-religious, ecumenical or secular)Many of these groups have standing requests for interns for varying lengths of time. (This list is underconstruction.) Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. By changing policies, programs and conditions that allow hunger and poverty to persist, we provide help and opportunity far beyond the communities in which we live. See at www.bread.org. Foundation for Reconciliation (FR), founded in 2000, FR provides theory and practice into the work of forgiveness and reconciliation Colombia and throughout Latin America with pioneering work in additional countries. See www.fundacionparalareconciliacion.org. Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI) is a joint institution of Israelis and Palestinians dedicated to the resolution of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict on the basis of "two states for two peoples" solution. See www.ipcri.org.
4. Peace-making Databases
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