Is Reconciliation Possible? The Meaning of Justice After Massive Injustice

• Miroslav Volf, Wright Professor of Systematic Theology, Yale University
• Emmanuel Katongole, associate research professor of theology and world christianity, Duke University (soon to be associate professor of theology and peace studies at the Kroc Institute)
• Regina Schwartz, professor of English, Northwestern University
  

   

What is the meaning of justice in the wake of massive injustice? Religious traditions have delivered a unique and promising answer in the concept of reconciliation. This way of thinking about justice contrasts with the “liberal peace” that dominates current thinking in the international community.

This panel, responding to Daniel Philpott’s recently published book Just and Unjust Peace: An Ethic of Political Reconciliation, will assess the argument for reconciliation at the theological and philosophical levels and in its application to political orders like South Africa, Germany, and Guatemala.

Miroslav Volf is a leading theologian on issue of reconciliation and forgiveness and a pioneer in Christian-Muslim dialogue. Emmanuel Katongole is a theologian who has thought creatively about the role of the Church in promoting reconciliation in societies riven by violence and injustice, particularly in Africa. Regina Schwartz is a scholar of religious studies who has written provocatively about religion and violence and about the relationship between love and justice.

Originally published at al.nd.edu.