Religion and peacebuilding

Posted on October 22nd, 2008

Archived in Hot topics, Peace movement, Religion in American life, Webinars

Why it matters

War today is often fought within rather than between countries, calling for new strategies for prevention and intervention. Peacebuilding can be a key to a culture’s development.

People of faith certainly know that the world’s religions teach and value peace, and those teachings are central to sacred texts. Yet a challenge to people of faith throughout history, and the subject of endless writing and debate, is how to apply religious teachings about peacemaking to group relations among peoples and nations. Ease of global communication and travel and the presence of ethnic or religious minorities in many countries make social stability and peaceful co-existence among diverse groups more important than ever.

Angles for reporters

Although this topic is connected to foreign affairs, here are some ways to bring the story home:

Many universities have programs in conflict resolution or peace studies, as well as international affairs. Check with your local institutions. Graduates and instructors may have interesting experiences to report or may be offering training to people of faith. What do international affairs specialists say about trends in their field? Are they seeing more emphasis on the role of religion in conflict and peacemaking?

Relief and development agencies are involved in peacebuilding in the foreign areas in which they work. If you have such an agency or chapter in your area, check whether it is involved in such efforts.

Peacebuilding is a way of working with groups with diverse and conflicting interests. Have local religious leaders taken part in peacebuilding or received training to do so?

Congregations that support mission work overseas may also have some experience with peacebuilding. Many sponsor youth or work groups doing building and development overseas. Check with them about their work.

Communities with immigrants from the world’s trouble spots have residents who can speak from experience about the cost of conflict, prospects for resolution or their experience with peacebuilding programs in their home countries.

Have any local congregations sent delegations to the Middle East?

National sources

SCHOLARS OF RELIGION

R. Scott Appleby is a history professor and John M. Regan Jr. Director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Ind. His many publications include The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation. Contact 574-631-5665, appleby.3@nd.edu.
Judith A. Berling is a professor of Chinese and comparative religions at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. She is interested in Chinese spiritualities and has written “Confucianism and Peacebuilding,” in Religion and Peacebuilding. Contact 510-649-2455, jberling@gtu.edu.
Suheil Bushrui held the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace from 1992-2005 at the University of Maryland’s Center for International Development and Conflict Management and is currently a senior research scholar there. He holds several other positions at the College Park university as well, including senior scholar at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership. Contact 301-405-6391, sbushrui@anth.umd.edu.
Michael K. Duffey is an associate professor of ethics at Marquette University in Milwaukee. He specializes in peace and justice issues, and his publications include Sowing Justice, Reaping Peace: Case Studies of Racial, Religious and Ethnic Healing Around the World. Contact 414-288-3748, michael.duffey@marquette.edu.
Robert Eisen is a religion professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and director of its Judaic studies program. He has served as a consultant on matters of religion and international conflict and is especially interested in bettering relations between the West and the Islamic world. Eisen helped arrange an unprecedented meeting in 2005 between Jordan’s King Abdullah II and 80 U.S. rabbis. Contact 202-994-6327, eisen@gwu.edu.
Khaled Abou El Fadl is the Alfi Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a leading authority on Islamic law and has written extensively on Islamic values. His publications include The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam From the Extremists. Contact 310-206-5401 or through his office executive director, Grace Song, 310-426-0205, song@law.ucla.edu.
Jean Bethke Elshtain is Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics in the divinity school of the University of Chicago. She has written extensively about just-war theory and is frequently quoted in the media about politics, ethics and culture. Contact 773-702-7252, jbelshta@midway.uchicago.edu.
John L. Esposito is a University Professor, professor of religion and international affairs and professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he is also founding director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. He is a leading authority on Islam and political Islam. Among his publications are The Oxford Dictionary of Islam; Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam; What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam; and Who Speaks for Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think. Contact 202-687-8375, jle2@georgetown.edu.
Joseph J. Fahey is professor of religious studies at Manhattan College in Riverdale, N.Y. He specializes in Christian social ethics and peace studies, and his publications include War and the Christian Conscience: Where Do You Stand? Contact 718-862-7305, joseph.fahey@manhattan.edu.
Marc H. Gopin is James H. Laue Professor of World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution and director of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University in Arlington, Va. He is frequently quoted on conflict resolution, and his publications include Holy War, Holy Peace: How Religion Can Bring Peace to the Middle East. Contact 703-993-1308, mgopin@gmu.edu.
David P. Gushee is president of Evangelicals for Human Rights and Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University in Atlanta. He is frequently quoted about evangelical perspectives on ethics and was the principal drafter of the Evangelical Declaration Against Torture. Contact 678-547-6457, gushee_dp@mercer.edu.
David Hollenbach holds the University Chair in Human Rights and International Justice and is director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass. He specializes in Christian social ethics and Catholic social teaching and has written extensively about justice, ethics and world affairs. Contact 617-552-8855, david.hollenbach@bc.edu.
James Turner Johnson is a religion professor at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick. His specialties include just-war theory. He wrote The War to Oust Saddam Hussein: Just War and the New Face of Conflict. Contact 732-932-9637, jtj@rci.rutgers.edu.
John Kelsay is Distinguished Research Professor and Richard L. Rubenstein Professor of Religion at Florida State University in Tallahassee. He specializes in comparative religious ethics, religion and war, and peace and has written extensively about Islam and war. His publications include Arguing the Just War in Islam. Contact 850-644-0209, jkelsay@garnet.acns.fsu.edu.
Sallie B. King is a professor of philosophy and religion at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. A specialist in Buddhism, she has written extensively about engaged Buddhism, the activist and peacemaking branch of contemporary Buddhism. Major publications include Being Benevolence: The Social Ethics of Engaged Buddhism and Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia, which she co-edited with Christopher Queen. Contact 540-568-6956, kingsb@jmu.edu.
Gayle Gerber Koontz is a professor of theology and ethics at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind. She has written about women and peacemaking; her publications include “Peace Theology in Transition: North American Mennonite Peace Studies and Theology 1906-2006,” in the January 2007 Mennonite Quarterly Review. Contact 574-296-6232, ggkoontz@ambs.edu.
Yehezkel Landau is a faculty associate in interfaith relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn. His interests include religion, conflict and peacemaking; his publications include “Healing the Holy Land: Interreligious Peacebuilding in Israel/Palestine” (August 2003), posted by the United States Institute of Peace. At the seminary, he coordinates Building Abrahamic Partnerships, an interfaith training program for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Contact 860-509-9538 ylandau@hartsem.edu.
John Paul Lederach is a professor of international peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Ind., and Distinguished Scholar, Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va. He has done international conciliation work for more than 20 years. His publications include The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace. Contact 574-631-6970, jplbus@gmail.com.
Joseph Liechty is editor of the Journal of Religion, Conflict and Peace. The journal began publication in fall 2007 as a project of Plowshares, a collaboration by Manchester, Earlham and Goshen colleges, three institutions of higher education in Indiana associated with the historic peace churches. Liechty, who is Plowshares Associate Professor of Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies at Goshen, said in an introductory note that the journal would address the comparatively neglected topic of religion, conflict and peace. Contact 574-535-7802.
Steven M. Nolt is a history professor at Goshen College in Goshen, Ind. An Anabaptist specialist, he has written extensively about Mennonites, Amish and peace. His publications include, as co-author, Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. He is teaching in China in fall 2008 but available via email. Contact stevemn@goshen.edu.
Michelene E. Pesantubbee is an associate professor of religious studies and American Indian and native studies at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Her publications include “In Search of the White Path: American Indian Peacebuilding” in Religion and Peacebuilding. Contact 319-335-2116, michelene-pesantubbe@uiowa.edu.
Christopher S. Queen is a lecturer at Harvard University. He specializes in engaged Buddhism, an application of Buddhist beliefs to social responsibility, and has written extensively on the subject. Contact 617-495-3481, queen@hudce.harvard.edu.
Abdul Aziz Said is Mohammed Said Farsi Professor of Islamic Peace at American University in Washington, D.C. His publications include Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam: Precept and Practice (as co-editor), Cultural Diversity and Islam (also as co-editor) and the forthcoming Islam and Peacemaking in the Middle East. Contact 202-885-1632, asaid@american.edu.
Lisa Schirch is a professor of peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. She is program director of the university’s 3D Security Initiative. The university hosted a summer Peacebuilding Institute with representatives from the U.S. military and a wide variety of civil groups interested in peacemaking. Contact Schirch, 540-432-4497, schirchl@emu.edu.
Gary M. Simpson is a professor of systematic theology at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., and director of the seminary’s God-in-Global-Civil-Society Project. He wrote the 2007 book War, Peace and God: Rethinking the Just-War Tradition. Contact 651-641-3253, gsimpson@luthersem.edu.
Glen Harold Stassen is the Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. One of his areas of expertise is peacemaking, and his publications include Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War, Second Edition. Contact 626-304-3733, gstassen@fuller.edu.
J. Dudley Woodberry is professor of Islamic studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. He co-edited Muslim and Christian Reflections on Peace: Divine and Human Dimensions. Contact 626-584-5286,dudley@fuller.edu.

SCHOLARS – OTHER DISCIPLINES

Mohammed Abu-Nimer is a professor of international peace and conflict resolution and director of the Peacebuilding & Development Institute at American University in Washington, D.C. His extensive publications on the subject include Nonviolence and Peace Building in Islam: Theory and Practice. Contact 202-885-1656, abunimer@american.edu.
Kevin Avruch is professor of conflict resolution and anthropology at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Arlington, Va. He is an expert on culture and conflict, and his publications include (as co-author) Information Campaigns for Peace Operations. Contact 703-993-3607, kavruch@gmu.edu.
Andrea Bartoli holds the Drucie French Cumbie Chair of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Arlington, Va. His publications include “Christianity and Peacebuilding” in Religion and Peacebuilding. He has been involved in many conflict resolution activities as a member of the Community of Sant’Egidio. Contact 703- 993-9716, abartoli@gmu.edu.
Mark Juergensmeyer is a professor of sociology and religious studies and director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His publications include the acclaimed Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence and Gandhi’s Way: A Handbook of Conflict Resolution. Contact 805-893-7898, juergens@global.ucsb.edu.
David Perry is a professor of ethics and holds the Gen. Maxwell Taylor Chair of the Profession of Arms at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. He teaches courses on ethics and warfare and on world religions in strategic context, and he writes core-course lessons on ethical reasoning and ethics of the military profession. His publications include “Why Hearts and Minds Matter: Chivalry and Humanity, Even in Counterinsurgency, Are Not Obsolete,” in the September 2006 Armed Forces Journal, and “Ethics and War in Comparative Religious Perspective,” in U.S. Army War College Guide to National Security Issues, 2008. His book Partly Cloudy: Ethics in War, Espionage and Covert Action will be published in 2009. Contact DavidLPerry@earthlink.net.
Daniel Philpott is an associate professor in the political science department and the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He is involved in a major Harvard University-based study on religion and global politics and is at work on a book on reconciliation in global politics tentatively titled Just and Unjust Peace: An Ethic of Political Reconciliation. Contact 574-631-7667, Philpott.1@nd.edu.
Mark Tessler is the Samuel J. Eldersveld Collegiate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He also directs the university’s International Institute. He has done extensive research on public opinion in the Arab world and is the author of A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, among other publications. Contact him through his secretary, Heather Johnson, hdilla@umich.edu; or his assistant, Sarah Goletz, sgoletz@umich.edu.

OTHERS OF NOTE

Former Secretary of State and U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright wrote The Mighty & The Almighty: Reflections on America , God and World Affairs to draw attention to the role of religion in international affairs and specifically in the Middle East. Read a 2006 Beliefnet interview with her about the book. She is the Mortara Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s Mortara Center for International Studies. Contact 202-687-0804, Albright@georgetown.edu.
David Cortright is president of the Fourth Freedom Forum and a research fellow at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He has served as a consultant or adviser to agencies of the United Nations, international think tanks and the foreign ministries of Canada, Japan and several European countries. Cortright has written widely on nuclear disarmament, multilateral counterterrorism, the use of incentives and sanctions as tools of international peacemaking, and nonviolent social change. He is the author or editor of 16 books, including the newly published Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas. Contact 800-233-6786 ext. 14, dcortright@fourthfreedom.org.
Susan Hayward is program officer of the Religion and Peacemaking program at the United States Institute of Peace, an independent and nonpartisan institution funded by Congress. Before joining the institute, she worked as a religious peacemaking consultant in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Contact 202-429-3817, shayward@usip.org.
Douglas Johnston is president and founder of the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy in Washington, D.C. His books include Religion, The Missing Dimension of Statecraft (as co-editor) and Faith-Based Diplomacy: Trumping Realpolitik. View an Oct. 4, 2007, presentation by Johnston on faith-based diplomacy at the multimedia Web site FORA.tv. Contact 202-331-9404, sdh@icrd.org.

U.S.-based organizations / programs

The Alliance for Peacebuilding coalition in Washington, D.C., includes many faith-based members. Contact 202-822-2047.
The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., focuses on the role of religion in global affairs and development. A Religious Perspectives Database offers comparative religious views on peace and violence. Thomas Banchoff directs the center. Contact 202-687-5117, banchoff@georgetown.edu.
The Catholic Peacebuilding Network connects practitioners and scholars to strengthen Catholic peacebuilding in areas of conflict. Contact Jerry Powers at the University of Notre Dame, 574-631-3765, gpowers1@nd.edu.
The Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion at Columbia University in New York researches the impact of religion on toleration and governance in cultures throughout the world. Alfred C. Stepan is director, and he is also the Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government. Contact 212-854-5264, as48@columbia.edu.
Christian Peacemaker Teams send groups of people trained in nonviolence to the world’s trouble spots. Members of a CPT team were kidnapped in Iraq in late 2005, and one of them was subsequently murdered. The group has offices in Chicago and Canada . Contact in Chicago, 773-277-0253; in Toronto, 416-423-5525.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is an interfaith organization that has been working for peace since 1915. Mark C. Johnson is executive director. Contact him in Nyack, N.Y., 845-358-4601.
Interfaith Peace-Builders was begun by the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 2000 in response to the second Palestinian intifada. It has organized 28 delegations to the Middle East to observe conditions in Israel and Palestine. Delegation members can be made available to speak to the press. Contact program coordinator Mike Daly or communications and grant coordinator Jake Pace in Washington, 202-244-0821.
The Peace and Justice Studies Association promotes peace studies in schools, colleges and universities. Its 2008 conference, held in September at Portland State University in Oregon, included a “faith and peace” track. Atalia Omer, an assistant professor of sociology at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, spoke on religion and peacebuilding. Contact the association at Prescott College in Prescott, Ariz., 928-350-2008. Contact Omer, 574-631-7121.
The Plowshares Institute has been working on conflict transformation for almost 25 years. It is located in the annex of the United Methodist Church in Simsbury, Conn. Bob and Alice Evans are directors. Read a July 28, 2008, Hartford Courant article about the couple. Contact 860-651-4304.
Religion, Identity and Global Governance is a project of the University of Southern California drawing on a number of the school’s centers to enhance understanding of the role of religion and religious identity as a force in global affairs. International relations specialists Steven Lamy and Patrick James are principal investigators for the project. Contact the project office, 213-740-7794.
Religion, Media and International Affairs is a program at Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., to research and offer training on the role of religion in international affairs, with an emphasis on the influence of media. Principal investigators are political scientist Mehrzad Boroujerdi and religion specialists Gustav Niebuhr and Tazim R. Kassam. Contact Boroujerdi, 315-443-5877; Niebuhr, 315-443-5723; and Kassam, 315-443-5722.
Religions for Peace – USA includes more than 60 religious communities and promotes multireligious cooperation toward peace. Contact interim executive director Lucinda Mosher at 212-338-9140, lmosher@rfpusa.org.
The Salam Institute for Peace and Justice in Washington, D.C., seeks to bridge differences between Muslims and non-Muslims, both in the West and elsewhere. Its activities include a peacebuilding intervention and training program. Mohammed Abu-Nimer is director and co-founder. Contact 202-558-4026, info@salaminstitute.org.
The United States Institute of Peace, an independent and nonpartisan institution funded by Congress, offers religion and peacemaking resources. David Smock is associate vice president of the Religion and Peacemaking program, and Susan Hayward is program officer. Contact Smock at 202-429-3843, dsmock@usip.org. Contact Hayward at 202-429-3817, shayward@usip.org.
The U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., does research and training on peacekeeping. Contact deputy director Col. Stephen Smith, 717-245-3740, stephent.smith@us.army.mil.
The World Conference of Religions for Peace recently launched the Middle East and North Africa/Religions for Peace program, involving 20 nations from the region. The international nongovernmental organization has headquarters in New York. William F. Vendley is secretary-general. Contact 212-687-2163.
The World Council of Religious Leaders supports United Nations peacekeeping efforts and works on interfaith dialogue to promote conflict reduction. The council convened the Millennium World Peace Summit. Bawa P. Jain is secretary-general. Contact through the New York headquarters, 212-967-2891.

Programs based elsewhere

The African Great Lakes Initiative of Friends Peace Teams — a Quaker program – supports and promotes grass-roots peace activities in the Great Lakes region of Africa. One effort brings together genocide survivors and perpetrators in Rwanda and Burundi for reconciliation and healing. The program is based in the Great Lakes region of Africa, with an office in St. Louis. Contact Dawn Rubbert, 314-647-1287, Dawn@aglionline.org; or David Zarembka in Kenya, dave@aglionline.org.
In addition to the African Great Lakes Initiative (above), Friends Peace Teams are also working in Indonesia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Contact in St. Louis is Kathy Wright, 614-621-7262.
The Carnegie Middle East Center, which is in Beirut, is part of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The center’s director, Paul Salem, is an expert on peacekeeping. Contact psalem@carnegie-mec.org.
The Community of Sant’Egidio is an international Catholic organization that has been involved in peacebuilding. Contact info@santegidio.org.
The International Peace Research Association is an international nongovernmental organization of scholars and practitioners studying issues related to sustainable peace. “Building Sustainable Futures: Enacting Peace and Development,” a biennial conference, was held July 15-19, 2008, in Leuven, Belgium. Linda Groff, a professor of political science and future studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills, in Carson, is the U.S.-based convener of the association’s Religion and Peace Commission. Contact her, 310-243-3470.
The Life & Peace Institute, based in Uppsala, Sweden, is an international ecumenical research and practice institute focused on conflict transformation. Jérôme Gouzou directs the conflict transformation programs. Contact jerome.gouzou@life-peace.org.

Relief and development agencies

Catholic Relief Services, based in Baltimore, has a peacebuilding unit that has been working worldwide since the mid-1990s through development, education, advocacy, diplomacy and a variety of other means. Elizabeth Griffin is CRS director of communications, 410-951-7361.
Church World Service, the All Africa Conference of Churches and the World Council of Churches launched an Africa peacebuilding initiative in 2005. Contact Lesley Crosson at CWS’ New York office, 212-870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org.
Lutheran World Relief, also based in Baltimore, does peacebuilding as part of its overseas work. Emily Sollie is director of communication and media relations. Contact 410-230-2802, esollie@lwr.org.
World Vision’s peacebuilding work focuses on strengthening civil society to stabilize areas of conflict. Contact Geraldine Ryerson-Cruz in Washington, 202-572-6302.

Background

The U.S. Institute of Peace offers an online certificate-granting course in interfaith conflict resolution.
Sept. 21 is the annual International Day of Peace, established by the United Nations in 1981. A vigil is held to encourage spiritual practices for peace. Groups in America and around the world participated in the 2008 observance. George D’Angelo, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, founded the vigil in 2002. Contact him, 412-849-3600, dangelo@idpvigil.com.
Read a July 14, 2008, USA Today op-ed, “Religion can help end wars, too.”
Read a February 2008 special report from the U.S. Institute of Peace, “Religion in World Affairs: Its Role in Conflict and Peace.”
View “Jewish and Christian Responses to Peacemaking,” a Nov. 7, 2007, presentation at Boston College, online at FORA.tv, a multimedia public affairs Web site.
See a Feb. 27, 2007, ReligionLink, “The war in Iraq turns 4: religion and ethics resources.”
See Religion Link’s source guide to experts on love and forgiveness, especially sections on international affairs and organizations dealing with reconciliation.

Regional sources

NORTHEAST

Raymond G. Helmick teaches theology at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass. He co-edited Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Religion, Public Policy and Conflict Transformation and wrote Negotiating Outside the Law: Why Camp David Failed. Contact 617-552-8215, raymond.helmick.1@bc.edu.
Kenneth R. Himes is a professor of theology at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass. His specialties include the ethics of warfare, and he has written extensively on just war and peace. Contact 617-552-0681, kenneth.himes@bc.edu.
The Karuna Center for Peacebuilding in Amherst, Mass., draws on Buddhist and other religious principles in its peacebuilding work. Paula Green is director. Contact 413-256-3800.
Bernard LaFayette Jr. is director of the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston. He is a veteran of the civil rights movement and an ordained minister. Contact 401-874-2875.
Sharon Erickson Nepstad is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. Her research interests include religion and peace studies, and she chaired the Peace, War and Social Conflict section of the American Sociological Association. Contact 207-228-8341, snepstad@usm.maine.edu.

EAST

Georgette F. Bennett is president and founder of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding in New York. Conflict resolution is one focus of the center, which published Peacemakers in Action: Profiles of Religion in Conflict Resolution. Contact 212-967-7707 ext. 105.
Lucinda Joy Peach is an associate professor of philosophy and religion at American University in Washington, D.C. Her specialties include women’s studies and religion and politics; her publications include Women at War: The Ethics of Women in Combat. Contact 202-885-2926, lpeach@american.edu.

SOUTHEAST

G. Scott Davis is Lewis T. Booker Professor of Religion and Ethics, and he chairs the religion department at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Va. He has written about justice, war and peace, and his publications include Religion and Justice in the War Over Bosnia. Contact 804-289-8331, sdavis@richmond.edu.
Charles T. Mathewes is an associate professor of religious ethics and the history of Christian thought at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He is also a member of the Episcopal Church House of Bishops Theology Committee, which is developing a report on just war and war and peace issues for the 21st-century church. His publications include (as co-editor) Religion, Law and the Role of Force: A Study of Their Influence on Conflict and on Conflict Resolution. Contact 434-924-3741 (department), CTMathewes@virginia.edu.
Donald Musser is a professor of religious studies at Stetson University in DeLand, Fla. He co-edited War or Words?: Interreligious Dialogue as an Instrument of Peace. Contact 386-822-8934, dmusser@stetson.edu.
N. Gerald Shenk is a professor of church and society at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va. His specialties include Christian peacemaking, and he has resided for nine years in the Balkans, becoming fluent in Croatian. His publications include “Bosnia: Case Study in Religious and Ethnic Conflict,” in Religion and the War in Bosnia. Contact 540-432-4264, shenkng@emu.edu.

SOUTH

Lewis V. Baldwin is a professor of religious studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. He has written or edited several books about Martin Luther King Jr. Contact 615-322-6339.
Jim Deitrick is an associate professor and director of the Humanities and World Cultures Institute at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. His specialties include religion and social ethics and comparative religions. Contact 501-450-5592.

MIDWEST

Patrick G. Coy is an associate professor of political science and director of the Center for Applied Conflict Management at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. His specialties include religion and politics. Among his current research projects are the philosophy of nonviolence of the Catholic monk, Thomas Merton, and a comparative analysis of the religious rhetoric used by President Bush to support war and the religious rhetoric of the U.S. peace movement to oppose war. He serves on the council of the International Peace Research Association. Contact 330-672-2875, pcoy@kent.edu.
Tim McElwee is Plowshares Associate Professor of Peace Studies and Political Science and director of the Peace Studies Institute & Program in Conflict Resolution at Manchester College in North Manchester, Ind., the oldest undergraduate peace studies program in the United States. Contact 260-982-4151, TAMcElwee@manchester.edu.
Richard B. Miller is a professor of religious studies and director of the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions at Indiana University in Bloomington. He has written extensively about the ethics of war and peace, and is working on a book to be called 9/11, Radical Islam and the Disquiet of Equal Liberty. Contact 812-855-1431, miller3@indiana.edu.
Tobias Lee Winright is an assistant professor of theology at St. Louis University. His interests include just war, just peacemaking, just policing and the responsibility to protect (R2P), and he has written extensively about the topics. Contact 314-977-2888, twinrigh@slu.edu.

SOUTHWEST

Arizona State University’s Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict launched a three-year Initiative in Religion, Conflict and Peace Studies in 2005. Contact Carolyn Forbes, assistant director of the center, 480-965-1096, carolyn.forbes@asu.edu.
Ira R. Chernus is a professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is interested in religion, war and peace and the connection between politics and faith. Among his publications are “Religion, War and Peace” in the forthcoming Columbia Guide to Religion in American History; American Nonviolence: The History of an Idea; and Monsters to Destroy: The Neoconservative War on Terror and Sin. Contact 303-818-6491 (cell, preferred), chernus@colorado.edu.
Lester R. Kurtz is a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Austin. His fields of study include peace and conflict. Works in progress include Gods and Bombs: An Anthology on Religion and Violence. Contact 512-232-6316, lkurtz@mail.la.utexas.edu.
Michael J. Nojeim is an associate professor of political science at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas. His publications include Gandhi and King: The Power of Nonviolent Resistance. Contact 936-261-3213, mjnojeim@pvamu.edu.

WEST/NORTHWEST

The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice at the University of San Diego draws on Catholic social teachings about peace and justice. The institute was recognized for its peacebuilding work in Nepal. Former head Joyce Neu left to head a United Nations mediation team; interim executive director is Dee Aker. Contact 619-260-7509, daker@sandiego.edu.
Joseph Prabhu is a philosophy professor at California State University, Los Angeles. His interests include comparative religion and social and political theory. He is working on a book to be called Liberating Gandhi: Community, Empire and a Culture of Peace. Contact 323-343-4177, jprabhu@calstatela.edu.
Daniel Smith-Christopher is professor of theological studies and director of peace studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He served for two years in volunteer peace research in Israel/Palestine in the late 1980s. His publications include Subverting Hatred: The Challenge of Nonviolence in Religious Traditions and Jonah, Jesus and Other Good Coyotes: Speaking Peace to Power in the Bible. Contact 310-338-2875, dchristopher@lmu.edu.