An Anabaptist paradigm for conflict transformation : critical reflections on peacemaking in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This thesis outlines a proposal from an explicitly religious standpoint of the key dimensions of peacebuilding, focusing particularly on mediation and facilitation as a primary task. What is the value of such a study? My initial responses in the paragraphs which follow are made at the broadest possible level: the desperate need for effective peacebuilders in a world torn by violence and the potential for religiously-based peacebuilders to fill that need. I then support this response by examining other reasons for the study: the current inadequacy of religious response to conflicts, the danger of manipulation of religious leadership by other actors, and potential for the insights of religiously-based actors to contribute to the over-all practice of peacebuilding and diplomacy. In addressing the latter question I outline my own understanding of the meaning of "religion", an understanding whose impact on the broad question of peacebuilding I explore throughout the chapters which follow.