Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to understand religious approaches to peace from four faith traditions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam (listed in order of chronological establishment). This chapter argues that the four faith traditions have much in common, and these commonalities can be witnessed in each faith’s emphasis on non-violence and the disciplines that sustain the commitment to non-violence. Peace in each tradition is connected to a metaphysical hermeneutic, one that cannot be separated from how followers demonstrate their faith through their care for other humans. Thus, an emphasis is placed on respect for human life that comes from and is sustained by a person of faith’s commitment to her/his religious practices, including love, reconciliation and benevolence. In order to demonstrate these commonalities, the chapter will elucidate how each religion defines peace and how this informs its pacifist approach. These commonalities also differentiate a religious approach to peace from the liberal peace, mainly in how the traditions define the source of peace and the spiritual connection with the said source. Finally, the chapter will look at the tensions in religious non-violence, mainly that each tradition also contains a strong ‘just war’ legacy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Miranda Fricker, Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 29.
John Paul Lederach, The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 28.
Nicholas F. Gier, The Virtue of Non-Violence: From Gautma to Gandhi (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005), 29.
Mahinda Deegalle, ‘Is Violence Justified in Theravada Buddhism?’ The Ecumenical Review 55, no. 2 (2003): 124.
Gregory C. Elliott, ‘Components of Pacifism: Conceptualization and Measurement’, Journal of Conflict Resolution 24, no. 1 (1980): 27–54.
Aung San Suu Kyi, ‘In Quest of Democracy’, Journal of Democracy 3, no. 1 (1992): 7.
Stanley Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom (Notre Dame: The University of Notre Dame Press, 1983).
Jean Bethke Elshtain, Who Are We? Critical Reflections and Hopeful Possibilities (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003).
John R. W. Stott, Christian Counter-Culture: The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 1978).
Oliver P. Richmond, Peace in International Relations (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 8–9.
Stanley Hauerwas and Romand Coles, Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary: Conversations between A Radical Democrat and a Christian (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2008), 7.
Caron E. Gentry, Offering Hospitality: Questioning Christian Approaches to War (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), 90.
Maria J. Stephen and Erica Chenoweth, ‘Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Non-Violent Conflict’, International Security 33, no. 1 (2008): 7–44.
Anthony J. Parel, Gandhi’s Philosophy and the Quest for Harmony (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), x.
John H. Yoder, The Politics of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978); Hauerwas and Coles, Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary, 21.
Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom; Hauerwas and Coles, Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary; Stanley Hauerwas and Jean Vanier, Living Gently in a Violent World: The Prophetic Witness of Weakness (Downer’s Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 2008).
Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Non-Violence and Peacebuilding in Islam: Theory and Practice (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2003), 49.
Chaiwat Satha-Anand, ‘The Non-Violent Crescent: Eight Theses on Muslim NonViolent Actions’, in Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam: Precept and Practice, eds Abdul Aziz Said, Nathan C. Funk and Ayse Kadayifci (Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1990), 10.
Abu-Nimer, Non-Violence and Peacebuilding in Islam; R. Islam Ahmad, ‘Non-Violence, and Global Transformation’, in Islam and Non-Violence, eds Glenn D. Paige, Chaiwat Satha-Anand and Sarah Gilliat (Honolulu: Centre for Global Nonviolence, 2001), 39.
Laura Sjoberg, Gender, Justice, and the Wars in Iraq: A Feminist Reformulation of Just War Theory (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006), 8.
Anantanand Rambachan, ‘The Co-Existence of Violence and Non-Violence in Hinduism’, The Ecumenical Review 55, no. 2 (2003): 117.
Juliane Schober, ‘Buddhism, Violence, and the State in Burma (Myanmar) and Sri Lanka’, in Religion and Conflict in South and Southeast Asia: Disrupting Violence, eds Linell E. Cady and Sheldon W. Simon (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007).
Daniel M. Bell, Jr, Just War as Christian Discipleship: Recentering the Tradition in the Church rather than the State (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2009).
James T. Johnson, Just War Tradition and the Restraint of War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), pp. xxxi, 31.
Majid Khadduri, ‘Islam and the Modern Law of Nations’, American Journal of International Law 50, no. 2 (1956): 359;
Bassam Tibi, ‘War and Peace in Islam’, in The Ethics of War and Peace: Religious and Secular Perspectives, ed. Terry Nardin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 176.
Tibi, ‘War and Peace in Islam’; John Kelsay, Arguing the Just War in Islam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 Caron E. Gentry
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gentry, C.E. (2016). Religion: Peace through Non-Violence in Four Religious Traditions. In: Richmond, O.P., Pogodda, S., Ramović, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Disciplinary and Regional Approaches to Peace. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-40761-0_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-40761-0_13
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-40760-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-40761-0
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)