This volume provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary account of the scholarship on religion, conflict, and peacebuilding. Looking far beyond the traditional parameters of the field, the contributors engage deeply with the legacies of colonialism, missionary activism, secularism, orientalism, and liberalism as they relate to the discussion of religion, violence, and nonviolent transformation and resistance.Featuring numerous case studies from various contexts and traditions, the volume is organized thematically into five different parts. It begins with an up-to-date mapping of scholarship on religion and violence, and religion and peace. The second part explores the challenges related to developing secularist theories on peace and nationalism, broadening the discussion of violence to include an analysis of cultural and structural forms. In the third section, the chapters explore controversial topics such as religion and development, religious militancy, and the freedom of religion as a keystone of peacebuilding. The fourth part locates notions of peacebuilding in spiritual practice by focusing on constructive resources within various traditions, the transformative role of rituals, youth and interfaith activism in American university campuses, religion and solidarity activism, scriptural reasoning as a peacebuilding practice, and an extended reflection on the history and legacy of missionary peacebuilding. The volume concludes by looking to the future of peacebuilding scholarship and the possibilities for new growth and progress.Bringing together a diverse array of scholars, this innovative handbook grapples with the tension between theory and practice, cultural theory, and the legacy of the liberal peace paradigm, offering provocative, elastic, and context-specific insights for strategic peacebuilding processes.

PrefaceAtalia OmerPart One: Mapping the Field1. Atalia Omer, "Religious Peacebuilding: The Exotic, the Good, and the Theatrical"2. R. Scott Appleby, "Religious Violence: The Strong, the Weak, and the Pathological"Part Two: The Historical and the Historicist3. David Little, "Religion, Peace, and the Origins of Nationalism"4. Scott Hibbard, "Religion, Nationalism, and the Politics of Secularism"5. Slavica Jakelic, "Secular-Religious Encounters as Peacebuilding"6. Jason Springs, "Structural and Cultural Violence in Religion and Peacebuilding"Part Three: Contested Issues7. R. Scott Appleby, "The New Name for Peace? Religion and Development as Partners in Strategic Peacebuilding"8. Patrick Mason, "Violent and Nonviolent Religious Militancy"9. Rashied Omar, "Religious Violence and State Violence"10. John Kelsay, "Peacebuilding and the Comparative Study of Ethics"11. W. Cole Durham, Jr. and Elizabeth A. Clark, "The Place of Religious Freedom in the Structure of Peacebuilding"12. Susan Hayward, "Women, Religion, and Peacebuilding"Part Four: Peacebuilding in Practice: Strategies, Resources, Critique13. Daniel Philpott, "Reconciliation, Politics, and Transitional Justice"14. Marc Gopin, "Negotiating Secular and Religious Contributions to Social Change and Peacebuilding"15. Tim Shah, "Secular Militancy as an Obstacle to Peacebuilding"16. Peter van der Veer, Tam Ngo, and Dan Smyer Yu, "Religion and Peace in Asia"17. S. Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana, "Peacebuilding in the Muslim World"18. Eboo Patel and Cassie Meyer, "Youth and Interfaith Conflict Transformation"19. Peter Ochs, "The Possibilities and Limits of Interreligious Dialogue"20. Lisa Schirch, "Ritual, Religion, and Peacebuilding"21. John Paul Lederach, "Spirituality and Religious Peacebuilding"22. Heather M. DuBois and Janna Hunter-Bowman, "The Intersection of Christian Theology and Peacebuilding"23. Cecilia Lynch, "Religious Communities and Possibilities for Justpeace"24. Atalia Omer, "Religion, Nationalism, and Solidarity Activism"Part Five: The Growing Edge of the Conversation25. Atalia Omer "Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding: Synthetic Remarks"Index