JESUS’ PRINCIPLES FOR PEACEBUILDING
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59865/prajn.2024.5Keywords:
first-century Palestine, Jesus of Nazareth, peacebuilding.Abstract
This study explores Jesus’ ideas about peacebuilding in their historical context. The study considers Jesus’ teaching within the context of the conflict of first-century Palestine at its center. Jesus conceptualizes peace in the context of the kingdom of God and prioritizes peace over justice. The principles for Jesus’ strategy for peacebuilding are motivated by compassion, love, identity, forgiveness, and peace itself as a superior reality. The practical implications of these include reset of conflict realities, recognition of ambivalence of conflict and peace, building a culture of peace in the presence of conflict, reconciliation, repentance, and forgiveness, and human free will. The study identifies four conflict barriers that contribute to present-day conflict perpetuation: a destructive emotional orientation, a compromised vision for peace, compromised pragmatic ethics, and an ethnocentric view of peace.
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