Religious Peacebuilding: Forgiveness as a Peacebuilding Tool within the Five Major World Religions
In: Forgiveness: Philosophy, Psychology and the ArtsSearch for other papers by Charlotte Bruun Thingholm in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Martin Bak Jørgensen in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Religion is an important part of everyday life for millions of people around the world, many of whom are engaged in conflict. The employment of religion in conflict has led to the general perception in the West that religion and conflict is a dangerous cocktail. The September 11th incident in the United States only served to strengthen this perception and Samuel Huntington’s thesis on the ‘clash of civilisations’ added to the idea of religions’ inalienability across the globe. This chapter contests this perception by claiming that even though religion has been used to justify war and mobilise for warfare, religion can be used equally well for peacebuilding purposes. We argue that peacebuilding tools lie dormant within any religion and that enormous resources are being wasted when religion is not drawn upon for peacebuilding purposes. To substantiate this argument, we aim to analyse five examples - one example from each of the five major world religions - of religious leaders’ employment of forgiveness for peacebuilding purposes. Thus, forgiveness is the central element of comparison throughout the chapter.