Published in the Tangaza Journal of Theology & Mission (2011/1)
This article addresses religion as a concept and its role in fueling and healing conflict. The broad parameters of what we mean by religion and its relationship to conceptual understandings of conflict, particularly behavioral and structural[1], are critiqued. The realism and implications of different religions justifying conflict interventions or not is appraised. Building on this basis, dangers confronting religion regarding its relevance to society, human dignity and rights, and religious freedom are elaborated on, in order to enhance understanding of the role of religion as a catalyst in fueling and healing conflict. The paper concludes with a variety of caveats and suggestions for further exploratory research to assist religion to constructively promote peace and mitigate the negative aspects of behavioral and structural conflict.
Introduction
Conflict and religion are inseparable realities, which have been profoundly intermingled throughout the history of humanity’s evolution. There is an extensive literature available on the subject of religion and its definition, particularly from the theological, philosophical, psychological and sociological perspectives.[2]Religions hold the potential for conflict primarily because of differences based on profound divergences in their central tenets of core values and absolute truths.[3] These facets can become more conflictual when a religion’s belief structure demands their universal implementation.
While extensive research already exists on various aspects of the relationship between religion and conflict, the following three aspects require ongoing investigation. First, the question of whether there is something inherent in religion’s innate essence that mandates or legitimizes conflict is subject to debate and needs to be appraised further/in greater detail. Second, whether to consider analyzing religion as a distinct independent variable, or one of many variables, contributing to the intractable nature of conflict, is also open to discussion. Finally, another matter that necessitates careful consideration is clarity of the conceptual and existential parameters of what constitutes different forms of conflict in relation to religion.
Threaded throughout all these perspectives are the questions of whether and how religion is capable of supporting universal human rights; an area crucial to equality and freedom both in and outside a religious framework. In modern society, rarely a day passes that the issue of religion is not implicitly or explicitly linked to the exacerbation of inter-group conflict in some part of the world. It is vital to understand why is this the case, and to try to distinguish the underlying root causes of conflict.
[1] Makumi Mwagiru, Conflict in Africa: Theory, Processes and Institutions of Management (Nairobi: Centre for Conflict Research, 2006), 24-25
[2] Ezekiel M. Kasiera, “The Scope of Comparative Religion,” in A Comparative Study of Religions, ed. J.N.K. Mugambi, (Nairobi: Nairobi University Press, 1993), 3-10.
[3] Joshua S. Goldstein, and Jon C. Pevehouse, International Relations, 8th Edition (United States of America: Pearson Longman, 2008), 164.
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