Christianity, Violence, and Peace

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

“Peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of justice,” Salvadoran peacemaker and archbishop Oscar Romero’s statement is echoed by many other peacemakers from within and beyond the Christian tradition. Given this definition of peace, what does it mean for us to be peacemakers and justice-seekers in the world today? In this course, we will explore many issues of violence in our world, from the context of Palestine and Israel, military violence in Latin America, racism in the United States, to gender-based violence in our campus and society. We will also look at figures throughout Christian history, from early Christian martyrs for peace to proponents of just war theory to contemporary peacemakers, who offer us insights on what it means to build peace and justice in a violent world. In this course, we will both wrestle with the histories of violence found in scripture and church history, and consider what it means for us to take up the Christian call to be peacemakers in our own context.