Christian Peace Research Articles

„Diplomaţia conferinţelor” sau intelectualizarea politicii externe a RPR sub regimul lui Gheorghiu-Dej

Once Romania came under the influence of the Soviet Union, the new regime established in 1948 was integrated into the diplomatic system created by the Kremlin. The party-state in Bucharest participated in youth festivals, the world women's movement, intellectuals' conferences, the Christian Peace Movement, and particularly the World Peace Congress. All of these events served as propaganda instruments to discourage a more assertive Western anti-Sovietism. Since 1954, Khrushchev initiated a shift in Soviet policy, one focused on peaceful coexistence rather than confrontation between the two formerly irreconcilable political camps. The Romanian People's Republic, along with other state socialist countries, emulated this novel approach in Moscow. The article explores the impact of the new course on Romania’s cultural diplomacy in the late 1950s and the early 1960s. To establish credible diplomatic efforts, there was a need to rethink socialist culture and revalue the pre-communist heritage. This new culture was based on the Leninist principle of “the new culture, national in form, socialist in content”. It signaled that the regime had moved beyond de-Stalinization, and now possessed internal legitimacy that no longer relied on the presence of Soviet troops in the country. However, this socialist culture drew inspiration from postwar autochthonized Bolshevik (Stalinist) nationalism. The medieval tradition rediscovered by Soviet cultural studies (such as Dmitry Likhachev, Viktor Lazarev, or Boris Rybakov) fueled anti-Soviet sentiments in Bucharest, leading, by 1964, to a significant distancing from Moscow. This article traces the diplomatic efforts of the Romanian People's Republic during this period of latent learning of the new rules of the political game within the socialist camp.

Participation of the Russian Orthodox Church in the activities of the Christian Peace Conference in 1960–1972

The article aims to describe and analyse the experience of the active participation of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Christian peace movement, which had as its main task consolidation of Churches and Christian figures in the struggle for peaceful relations between peoples, against the arms race and the nuclear threat. In the context of the global confrontation between the USSR and the USA, the “Cold war”, the activities of the Christian Peace Conference (CPC) were the integral part of the international policy of socialist countries. The departments for church affairs of the socialist camp states monitored the work of the peacekeeping organization and the direction of their development. Attempts by Western Christian figures to distract the organization from practical efforts to fight for peace came into conflict with the interests of socialist states and gave rise to divisions within the organization and crises. The events of the Prague Spring and the entry of Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia brought the CPC to the brink of collapse. On the basis of the church and state archival sources, the author of the article outlines the sequence of actions of the Chairman of the Department of External Church Relations, Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) of Leningrad and Novgorod, aimed to overcome internal discord in the Conference. The hierarch held senior positions in the СPС, including the post of president, which allowed him to have a significant influence on the course of peacekeeping work.

The peace of Westphalia and religion in the context of the evolution of public law in Europe

The article describes the consequences of the «post-secular turn» in social sciences, in particular, in the history of law and the theory of international relations as applied to the study of the Congress of Westphalia and the Peace Treaty of 1648. The author shows how new approaches in the international theory (from realism to constructivism and neorealism) contributed to the criticism of the «secular myth of Westphalia». The author considers new perspectives on the religious issue at the Westphalian Peace Congress in terms of the evolution of public law in Europe. Westphalia is seen as a set of religion ideas, which caused a revolution in the concept and practice of sovereignty and Westphalia as the last Christian Peace. The article discusses the role of the legal principles of religious freedom and the confessional truce of the XVII century in the formation of the Westphalian system of security guarantees in Europe. The changes in the role of the Pope in international law during and after the Westphalian negotiations and the consequences of the Treaty for protestant and catholic conditions are indicated. The study reveals how various Christian denominations participated (ideologically and politically) in the Westphalian negotiations, while discussing the «special case» of Orthodoxy, taking into account the diplomatic rapprochement of Moscow, Stockholm and Paris before the Westphalian Peace Congress.

1910년대 한국 기독교인의 평화에 대한 인식과 실천: 대부흥운동과 3.1운동을 중심으로

The primary purpose of this study is to prove that the nonviolent peace spirit of the 3.1 Movement originated from the Great Revival Movement. For this purpose, the first data and previous research results of domestic and foreign journals, newspaper articles, letters, reports, and interrogation papers were analyzed, focusing on Christian national activists and Christian leaders from the Great Revival Movement to the 3.1 Movement.<BR> Christians before the Great Revival Movement did not clearly establish the concept of Christian peace and absorbed the ideological tradition of the existing national movement as it was, showing contradictory aspects that affirmed the armed resistance against Japanese imperialism while being Christian. However, the perception of ‘Christian Peace’ formed among Korean church members through the Great revival movement gave the national movement a philanthropic identity. It also became the ideological basis for the creation of the methodology of the 3.1 Movement called the “nonviolent movement”.<BR> The findings of this study are as follows: First, the characteristic non-violence of the 3.1 Movement is closely related to the re-perception of violence through religious awakening during the Great Revival Movement. Second, the 3.1 Movement was developed as a peaceful way to prioritize the value of human dignity through a universal sense of community for humans created by God. Third, the awakening of Christian women’s ideas of human equality and the non-resistance to imperial and masculine violence of Japan greatly affected the peaceful characteristics of the 3.1 Movement.

Tahuri: The Model of Christian and Muslim Peace in the Tehoru and Telutih Districts

This research aims to establish a model of peace between Christians and Moslems in Telutih and Tehoru district based on the local culture. According to the qualitative analysis, the result showed that the model of peace after the conflict in January 19 th , 1999, done by the Christians and Moslems in Telutih and Tehoru district was strengthened and revived the symbols of local culture which became the norm for living together in a society. One of them was tahuri . This symbol was taken from the symbol of Souupaa Maraina which means the mandate to the descendants of Nusa Ina (Christians and Moslems) to deliver the message of brotherhood/sisterhood toward the others in order to create and to concrete the peaceful life. Through the symbol of tahuri , the peace can be brought among the Christians and Moslems in Telutih and Tehoru district after the conflict in January 19 th , 1999 and can be preserved until now. Hence, the local culture is totally relevant and operational to be used as an alternative model to create and to concrete peace in the life of plural society in the Maluku Province and in The Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. Keywords: Tahuri ; Model; Peace; Christian; Moslem DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-10-05 Publication date: May 31 st 2020

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Letter to Mahatma Gandhi

This first publication of the newly-found letter to Gandhi from Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a window into his thinking in the early 1930s, a time of personal formation and of resistance to National Socialism. Western Christianity needed ‘a Christian peace movement’, and Bonhoeffer wanted to learn from Gandhi's movement ‘the meaning of Christian life, of real community life, of truth and love in reality’. The letter includes Bonhoeffer's critique of Western culture and the Church in Europe and America, his hopes for a Church regenerated by the Sermon on the Mount, and his appreciation and critique of Karl Barth

Shoots of equal marriage and partnership in the Church of England: a harvest rooted and nurtured through practical theology

ABSTRACT From 2020 in England, civil marriage and civil partnership are legal for all couples. The Church of England is protected in civil law from change to its traditional theology of marriage between one man and one woman, so that only mixed-sex couples may marry in Church of England churches. A service is permitted for mixed-sex couples after a civil marriage, but no services are provided for same-sex couples or after civil partnerships. In this paper, qualitative research with practising members of the Church of England interrogates a widening gap in pastoral practice, between participants’ desire to welcome couples seeking a service with blessing and the lack of provision of liturgies by the Church. Interpretation of participants’ narratives of their own marriage or civil partnership as embodying mutuality and fidelity lead to consideration of liturgies of blessing for two people from the premodern era. I propose that contemporary marriage and civil partnership may be interpreted as unions of Christian harmony and peace which can be celebrated with blessing in church. I interpret emerging theologies of marriage and vowed friendship (expressed in civil partnership) within the Church of England as renewing the Church’s traditional three benefits of marriage: mutuality, fidelity, and choices for parenting and nurture, in ‘pro/creative’ relationships.

Erasmus’ ethnological hierarchy of peoples and races

ABSTRACTNo comprehensive research of Erasmus’ ethnological mind has been published, so far. Erasmus’ attitudes toward Turks and Jews were discussed analytically but not synthetically or comparatively. An attempt to widen the ethnological scope and to define and classify Erasmus’ attitudes toward different non-Christian groups is presented here. Christian Europeans (populus Christianus) were at the top of Erasmus’ echelon. Second to them were ‘half-Christians’, i.e. Turks, or Muslims in general. Below them were Jews, and lower in the hierarchy were black Africans (Aethiopes). Yet, no one was unworthy of conversion to Christianity, even barbarians of the third kind – according to Bartolomé Las Casas’ sort – the most inferior barbarians, slaves by nature, as defined by Aristotle. According to Las Casas, these barbarians were too low to ask for God and were not candidates for conversion to Christianity. Erasmus’ believed that Barbarians of any kind deserved Christianity without being brutally forced to accept it. Yet, in practice, converts from Judaism to Christianity were rated, even by Erasmus, as lower than Christians. This, in addition to the principle that Christian peace excludes war against the Turks, is the very essence of Erasmus’ pax et concordia.

Zu Wasser und zu Land

Abstract The paper lines up with studies that discuss the impact of the Jewish War and Vespasian’s advancement on the composition of the Gospel According toMark. Its topic is to show that Mk 4,35-41 and Mk 5,1-20 form a structural unity that insinuates the idea of a Christian peace, distinguished from Roman warfare and peace. Following those scholars who read Mk 5,1-20 as an allusion to the legio X Fretensis it is argued that Mk 4,35-41 and Mk 5,1-20 are tied together in light of the Roman peace propaganda that claimed apeace by land and by sea - as did Vespasian after the civil war, when he reminded the Romans of Octavian’s victory at fretum Siculum.

Trends in Modern Christian Peace Education and Future Prospect

Trends in Modern Christian Peace Education and Future Prospect

Westphalia: The Last Christian Peace, by Derek Croxton

Westphalia: The Last Christian Peace, by Derek Croxton

Christian Peace Education for Northeast Asian Community Building

Christian Peace Education for Northeast Asian Community Building

The Research Trends of Christian Peace Education in Korea and the Future Tasks

The Research Trends of Christian Peace Education in Korea and the Future Tasks

Multicultural Circumstances of Korean Society and Facing Problems to Practice Christian Peace Education among the Christian Community

Multicultural Circumstances of Korean Society and Facing Problems to Practice Christian Peace Education among the Christian Community

The Korean Peninsular Reunification and Christian Peace Education

The Korean Peninsular Reunification and Christian Peace Education

The Devil's Perspective in El Greco's Alegoría de la Liga Santa , San Juan de la Cruz's Cántico espiritual , and Cervantes's La Numancia

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth... Philippians 2.9-10 This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah.... and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. Luke 11.29-32 El Greco's famous portrait of Philip II, also known as the Alegoria de la Liga Santa [fig. 1], San Juan de la Cruz's lyrical masterpiece the Cantico espiritual, and Cervantes's first play, the epic tragedy La Numancia, are all presumed to have been composed within about fifty miles of each other, the first two in Toledo, the latter in Madrid, and all more or less around the year 1580. Therefore, it should not surprise us that they have many thematic and structural similarities. Most importantly, they all signal a kind of purposeful manifest destiny of Spain as the culmination of Christian Empire exhibiting grand, overarching designs that express moral and apocalyptic visions of Hapsburg rule as the final arrival of Christian peace on earth after centuries of human conflict. In this sense, they may be deemed idealistic, even apologetic compositions which pull up far short of the disillusionment of the baroque period to follow. Nevertheless, we should not mistake idealism for simplicity, for they are also anxious, self-consciously critical meditations on the possibly sinful nature of Spanish Empire at the peak of its expansion. As such they are not without disorienting political implications for Philip II as well as the Spanish viewing or reading public. One way of approaching the problematic nature of these pieces is to consider the key roles played in each certain malevolent intruders: the gaping hellmouth that threatens Philip II in El Greco's painting; the ominously diabolical Aminadab who lurks in the final stanza of San Juan's poem; and the disruptive devil that ruins the Numantian sacrificial ceremony in act two of Cervantes's play. In this essay, I will review the ways in which the Alegoria de la Liga Santa, the Cantico espiritual, and La Numancia all allude to Christian Empire, centering their respective apocalyptic visions on Philip II; then I will consider the problematic perspectives that diabolical transgressors bring to each work. At first glance, El Greco's painting is perhaps the most straightforward here due to its overt representation of Christian Empire. It portrays a fantastical meeting among the leaders of the Catholic alliance formed Spain, Rome, and Venice, who were victorious over Turkish forces at the great naval battle of Lepanto in 1571 (Blunt). In truth, the painting indicates the entire history of Catholic Empire: the principal kneeling figures, Philip II, the Pope, the Doge of Venice, and Don Juan of Austria, form a kind of Eucharistic communion beneath the initials IHS, representing the words In hoc signo vinces, a Latin translation of the phrase by this sign you will conquer, which for its part alludes to the cross that the first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, claimed to have seen in the sky prior to his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD. El Greco here mixes the historical allusion and political significance of Raphael and Romano's Vision of Constantine [fig. 2] with the cosmic design and theological significance of famous Last Judgment compositions like those Fra Angelico, Marten de Vos, and most especially Giovanni Battista Fontana (Davies) [fig. 3]. In this way the painting sets up an organic and moral universe that revolves around Philip II as the problematically militant agent of Christian Empire. Significantly, he is the subject in the painting whose perspective does not allow him to perceive the diabolical threat behind him due to his steady focus on the black sword held Don Juan of Austria. Allusions to the violence of empire are arguably more difficult to perceive in San Juan's great love poem. …

An integral investigation into the phenomenology and neurophysiology of Christian Trinity meditation

This integral investigation explored phenomenological and neurophysiologic, individual and collective dimensions of Christian Trinitarian meditation experiences in a volunteer, convenience sample of 10 practicing Christians, 6 men and 4 women, with a mean age of 48 years and an age range from 21 to 85 years. Participants meditated for a minimum period of 15 minutes, during which neurophysiologic data in the form of electroencephalographic (EEG), electromyographic (EMG), blood volume pulse (BVP) and respiratory activity were recorded. A phenomenological analysis indicated that the meditation process generally involved a movement from body to mind to spirit as evident in reports of an increasingly relaxed, contented and focused state of consciousness characterised by Christian Trinitarian imagery, wonder, surrender, peace, bliss, openness and formlessness. The neuropsychological findings indicated significant increases, from baseline to meditation recordings, in the alpha and beta range, accompanied by increasing mean trends in the theta and gamma range, and decreasing mean trends in the delta range, EMG, BVP and respiration. Integrative findings indicated the practical theological value of small doses of Christian Trinity meditation to enhance spiritual life for those forms of waking, thinking, conscious behaviour needed in everyday world involvement and healing. Findings were discussed in relation to further integrative investigations and interventions with practical theological implications.

Michael G. Long (ed), Review Christian Peace and Nonviolence, A Documentary History

Michael G. Long (ed), Review Christian Peace and Nonviolence, A Documentary History

Christian peace and nonviolence: a documentary history

Christian peace and nonviolence: a documentary history

The Thirty Years War: Europe's tragedy

* List of Illustrations * List of Maps and Battle Plans * List of Tables * Note on Form * The Habsburg Family Tree 1500-1665 * Note on Currencies * Preface Part one: Beginnings * Introduction Three Men and a Window Interpretations The Argument * Trouble in the Heart of Christendom The Empire Confessionalization Religion and Imperial Law * Casa d'Austria Lands and Dynasty Estates and Confession The Catholic Revival * The Turkish War and its Consequences The Turkish Menace The Ways of War The Long Turkish War The Brothers' Quarrel * Pax Hispanica The Spanish Monarchy The Dutch Revolt 1568-1609 The Spanish Road Spanish Peace-making 161 * Dominium Maris Baltici Denmark The Divided House of Vasa Poland-Lithuania * From Rudolf to Matthias 1582-1612 Religion and the German Princes Confession and Imperial Politics to 1608 Union and Liga 1608-9 The Ju lich-Cleves Crisis 1609-10 * On the Brink? Emperor Matthias The Uskok War and the Habsburg Succession 1615-17 255 Palatine Brinkmanship Part Two: Conflict * The Bohemian Revolt 1618-20 For Liberty and Privilege A King for a Crown Ferdinand Gathers his Forces White Mountain Accounting for Failure * Ferdinand Triumphant 1621-4 The Palatine Cause Protestant Paladins The Catholic Ascendancy 1621-9 * Olivares and Richelieu Olivares Richelieu The Valtellina * Denmark's War against the Emperor 1625-9 Trouble in Lower Saxony Wallenstein Denmark's Defeat 1626-9 * The Threat of European War 1628-30 The Baltic The Netherlands Mantua and La Rochelle The Edict of Restitution The Regensburg Electoral Congress 1630 * The Lion of the North 1630-2 Swedish Intervention Between the Lion and the Eagle The Swedish Empire Calls for Assistance Zenith * Without Gustavus 1633-4 The Heilbronn League Tension along the Rhine Spain Intervenes Wallenstein: the Final Act The Two Ferdinands * For the Liberty of Germany 1635-6 Richelieu Resolves on War The War in the West 1635-6 The Peace of Prague 1635 Appeals to Patriotism Renewed Efforts for Peace * Habsburg High Tide 1637-40 Stalemate Resolution on the Rhine Peace for North Germany? * In the Balance 1641-3 The Franco-Swedish Alliance 1641 The War in the Empire 1642-3 Spain's Growing Crisis 1635-43 From Breda to Rocroi 1637-43 * Pressure to Negotiate 1644-5 The Westphalian Congress France in Germany 1644 The Baltic Becomes Swedish 1643-5 1645: Annus horribilis et mirabilis * War or Peace 1646-8 A Crisis of Confidence 1646 Towards Consensus Spain's Peace with the Dutch The Final Round 1648 Part Three: Aftermath * The Westphalian Settlement The International Dimension A Christian Peace Demobilization The Imperial Recovery * The Human and Material Cost An All-destructive Fury? The Demographic Impact The Economic Impact The Crisis of the Territorial State Cultural Impact * Experiencing War The Nature of Experience Military-Civil Relations Perceptions Commemoration * Abbreviations * Notes * Index