New Paths in Spirituality and Peacemaking

Source: (2007) In Emmanuel Clapsis, ed., Violence and Christian Spirituality An Ecumenical Conversation. Geneva, Switzerland: World Council of Churches. Pp. 32-46.

“I would like to conclude by submitting that each religious tradition has within it a certain kind of genius in its history of ritual and ethics as a way of reaching out to the hearts of other human beings. The key challenge is how to take that genius and move it towards reaching out to people who are well beyond the boundaries of a traditional group, strangers who have never been part of the ethical calculus of that religious tradition. That is the key shift hermeneutically and spiritually, and it is a tough shift for most conservative traditions, both East and West. You risk becoming inauthentic in your religious tradition as you venture beyond the boundaries and experience of previous generations of interpreters. But this is precisely what authentic students of religious traditions have to work on in concert with peace activists. We need authentic moves of the religious tradition which are also strategically and politically effective in challenging destructive ethnic, political and military wars around the world. Each religious tradition needs to rise to this unprecedented challenge, each on its own terms, but in such a way that it allows its practitioners to cross over a bridge to longtime enemies or long-lost brothers and sisters in faith.” (Abstract)