Theology of Peacebuilding
Many have called for a theology of peace that is comparable in sophistication to the Church’s teaching on war. CPN stimulates further reflection on peacebuilding as a conceptually coherent, theologically accurate, spiritually enlivening, and practically effective contribution to the Church’s broader teaching on justice and peace. This effort helps to deepen the religious dimension of the practice of peacebuilding, discover and articulate theological resources to support peacebuilding, and make the language and idea of peace more prominent in the mainstream life of the Church.
The 2010 publication of Peacebuilding: Catholic Theology, Ethics, and Practice, edited by Robert J. Schreiter, R. Scott Appleby, and Gerard F. Powers (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis), represents a concrete contribution to this area. And CPN continues to support reflection on the theology, ethics and praxis of peacebuilding in other ways. One is through participation in and sponsorship of academic conferences on peacebuilding. Another is by partnering with Catholic Relief Services on a fellowship program whereby CRS peacebuilders are welcomed at Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies to complete academic projects. CPN is also currently working on a research project on applying the lens of the Catholic theology of peacebuilding to issues of natural resource extraction and helping to renew Catholic theological engagement on nuclear disarmament. In addition, through efforts to make available academic resources on peacebuilding on this website, CPN works to encourage the ongoing development of a theology of peacebuilding.
Research Resources and Documents