This book looks at the process of cultural enlightenment in the context of Pakistan. It undertakes an interesting and in-depth research focusing on how the world’s second largest Muslim state can learn from Europe’s heritage of enlightenment. It studies why Pakistan lacks a process of awakening and what the scope of cultural enlightenment in Pakistan is against the backdrop of militant Islam. The author argues that cultural enlightenment can help promote positive conflict transformation in Pakistan and discusses the ways in which challenges to establishing a culture of reasoning, tolerance, accommodation, social justice and peace can be dealt with. A unique contribution, this book will be of interest to students and researchers of philosophy, political science, history, international relations, South Asian studies and religious studies. It will also appeal to think tanks, policymakers and general readers interested in these topics.
This major new Handbook provides a cutting-edge and transdisciplinary overview of the main issues, debates, state-of-the-art methods, and key concepts in peace and conflict studies today. The fields of peace and conflict studies have grown exponentially since being initiated by Professor Johan Galtung half a century ago. They have forged a transdisciplinary and professional identity distinct from security studies, political science, and international relations. The volume is divided into four sections: understanding and transforming conflict creating peace supporting peace peace across the disciplines. Each section features new essays by distinguished international scholars and professionals working in peace studies and conflict resolution and transformation. Drawing from a wide range of theoretical, methodological, and political positions, the editors and contributors offer topical and enduring approaches to peace and conflict studies. The Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies will be essential reading for students of peace studies, conflict studies and conflict resolution. It will also be of interest and use to practitioners in conflict resolution and NGOs, as well as policy makers and diplomats.
The end of the Cold War has changed the shape of organized violence in the world and the ways in which governments and others try to set its limits. Even the concept of international conflict is broadening to include ethnic conflicts and other kinds of violence within national borders that may affect international peace and security. What is not yet clear is whether or how these changes alter the way actors on the world scene should deal with conflict: Do the old methods still work? Are there new tools that could work better? How do old and new methods relate to each other? International Conflict Resolution After the Cold War critically examines evidence on the effectiveness of a dozen approaches to managing or resolving conflict in the world to develop insights for conflict resolution practitioners. It considers recent applications of familiar conflict management strategies, such as the use of threats of force, economic sanctions, and negotiation. It presents the first systematic assessments of the usefulness of some less familiar approaches to conflict resolution, including truth commissions, "engineered" electoral systems, autonomy arrangements, and regional organizations. It also opens up analysis of emerging issues, such as the dilemmas facing humanitarian organizations in complex emergencies. This book offers numerous practical insights and raises key questions for research on conflict resolution in a transforming world system.
A brief meeting with a Buddhist nun in India made a deep impression on Christine Toomey. It sent her on a two-year, 60,000-mile odyssey to learn more about the contemporary women choosing in their thousands to become part of a long tradition of female spirituality that stretches back through the centuries and now embraces the radical possibility that the next Dalai Lama could be female. In The Saffron Road, Toomey follows in the footsteps of earlier generations of Buddhist nuns to trace the routes by which the philosophy has spread from a solitary order in a remote area of India in the 5th century BC, via 1950s San Francisco where Zen was popularised by the Beat generation, to the globally-renowned practitioners of mindfulness of today. Beginning her journey in the Himalayas, close to the birthplace of the Buddha, Toomey travels from Nepal, to India, through Burma, Japan and on to North America and Europe, along the way visiting contemporary nunneries to meet the women who practise there. Amongst those she talks to are a group of "kung fu" nuns, an acclaimed novelist, a princess, a concert violinist, a former BBC journalist, and a one-time Washington political aide. Through these conversations, the daily reality of the Buddhist existence is gradually revealed, together with the diverse spiritual paths leading these women towards nirvana. Combining travelogue, history, interviews and personal reflection, The Saffron Road opens the door to a rarely glimpsed world of ritual, discipline and enlightenment.
Five specialists examine the historical relationship of culture and conflict in various regional societies. The authors use Adda B. Bozeman's theories on conflict and culture as the basis for their analyses of the causes, nature, and conduct of war and conflict in the Soviet Union, the Middle East, Sinic Asia (China, Japan, and Vietnam), Latin America, and Africa. Drs. Blank, Lawrence Grinter, Karl P. Magyar, Lewis B. Ware, and Bynum E. Weathers conclude that non-Western cultures and societies do not reject war but look at violence and conflict as a normal and legitimate aspect of sociopolitical behavior.
書介 本書論文出於2020年12月10-11日的以Dialogue on Religions and Cultures for Peace in Asia為主題的國際會議。 目錄 7 Introduction to Dreaming Shalom ◆Huang Po Ho 9 Opening Elucidation: Shalom as an Imperative Thrust of Theology ◆Huang Po Ho 13 Religious nationalism: an ideological construct to protect predatory capitalism ◆M. P. Joseph 20 Liberation or Assimilation: Is this Peace? ◆Wati Longchar Section I Pluriform Communities in Asia: Promise and Challenge 27 Pluriform communities: A Biblical Enquiry(Genesis 11:1-9 and Acts 2) ◆Gloria Lita D. Mapangdol 40 Toward a Gendered, Happy, and Pluriform Community: a Reflection of a Feminist Muslim Woman ◆Dewi Candraningrum 50 Small as a Mustard Seed Yet Moving Mountains: the Faith of Pakistani Christian Women and its Role in the Witness of our Community in Pakistan ◆Sheba Sultan Section II Struggling for Reconciliation 67 Victims of War as Agents of Peace: Narratives of War and Peace from Kebithigollawa ◆Shirley Lal Wijesinghe 88 A Political Theologian Looks at the Issue of the Reunification of Korea ◆Jin Kwan Kwon 95 Kairos Palestine: Struggle to be the People of God ◆Ranjan Solomon 105 Violence and Cultural Alienation of Kachin Indigenous People ◆Layang Seng Ja 116 Burmanization ◆Pum Za Mang Section III Inter–faith/ Religious Relations 129 Revisit Interfaith Relations from the Perspective of God’s Creation ◆Huang Po Ho 142 Enlightenment of the Peace from the Interreligious Dialogue of Raimundo Panikkar ◆Jacob Lee Mao-Jung 154 A Critical Review of John Cobb’s Mutual Transformation ◆Jin Cheol Oh 174 Asian Biblical Theology And Filial Piety (Xiao) ◆Marvin A. Sweeney 196 Categorical Engagement in Christianity: Confucian Dialogue for Peace ◆K. James Wu 219 Takaki Senemon’s Faith in Eschatology in the 19th Century Japanese Society ◆Mariko Yakiyama 238 Closing Message ◆Limala Longchar 242 Book Review: Knitter, Paul R. 1985. No Other Name? A Critical Survey of Christian Attitudes Toward the World Religions ◆Marc Grenier Appendix 258 Appendix 1. Conference Agenda 263 Appendix 2. Introduction to Institutes/Organizations 269 Appendix 3. Introduction to Contributors 276 Appendix 4. List of Participants 278 Appendix 5. Pictures 序 The Asian continent is different from other continents. Its nations are spread over the Pacific Ocean and segregated by the waters. Its lands gave birth to almost all world religions, and lead to the creation of a multitude cultures with splendid spiritual and material recourses. It is a continent containing countries who have commonly experienced colonization, poverty, and threats from hegemonic neighbors as well as coercion by world empires. Asian people are religious people, and they have been shaped by different religions to become peace–loving peoples despite having had very little time to truly enjoy authentic peace along their histories. Recent political and military experts have predicted that Asia, particularly Eastern Asia (Korean Peninsula, Taiwan strait, and the Southern Sea area), is the likely hot zone for military conflicts that may indeed become the spark that ignites the third world war. The United States has announced deployment of two thirds of its naval forces to this area to counter potential threats from China’s hegemonic ambitions and activities. Thus dreaming peace for Asian people is not simply a theoretical consideration, but a concrete life–and–death reality. Yet, how do we realize that dream and how to dream it from different religious and theological perspectives are urgent issues to be dealt with. The contents of this collection are papers borne out of the hard labors of many theological scholars from over thirteen Asian countries and beyond which were presented at our international theological conference on December 10-11, 2020. The actual participants stretch over many more countries. It was a hybrid virtual conference held via Internet on site at the campus of Chang Jung Christian University, Taiwan. It was held cooperatively by 5 Asian theological movements and institutions: Asian Forum for Theological Movement (AFTM), Programme for Theology and Cultures in Asia (PTCA), Asian Theological Academy (ATA), Chang Jung Christian University (CJCU), and Academy for Contextual Theologies in Taiwan (ACTT). It was an unprecedented theological event that joined so many organizations as hosts, and attracted scholars from diverse background and so many countries. I am deeply thankful to the leadership of all these organizations for their support and cooperation. The hybrid style of online and on–site virtual conferencing may be considered a peculiar contribution of the Covid Virus pandemic. It certainly will be a new normal to be practiced continually even after the virus pandemic is over. Besides all these, the product of this book is a contribution and salute of ACTT to all those churches and Christian fellows in Asia who have done tremendous efforts to materialize the Shalom dream to our people and our land. Glory be to God. Huang Po Ho Director, Academy for Contextual Theologies in Taiwan March 10, 2021
Hailed in The New York Times Book Review as "the doyen of Middle Eastern studies," Bernard Lewis has been for half a century one of the West's foremost scholars of Islamic history and culture, the author of over two dozen books, most notably The Arabs in History, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, The Political Language of Islam, and The Muslim Discovery of Europe. Eminent French historian Robert Mantran has written of Lewis's work: "How could one resist being attracted to the books of an author who opens for you the doors of an unknown or misunderstood universe, who leads you within to its innermost domains: religion, ways of thinking, conceptions of power, culture--an author who upsets notions too often fixed, fallacious, or partisan." In Islam and the West, Bernard Lewis brings together in one volume eleven essays that indeed open doors to the innermost domains of Islam. Lewis ranges far and wide in these essays. He includes long pieces, such as his capsule history of the interaction--in war and peace, in commerce and culture--between Europe and its Islamic neighbors, and shorter ones, such as his deft study of the Arabic word watan and what its linguistic history reveals about the introduction of the idea of patriotism from the West. Lewis offers a revealing look at Edward Gibbon's portrait of Muhammad in Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (unlike previous writers, Gibbon saw the rise of Islam not as something separate and isolated, nor as a regrettable aberration from the onward march of the church, but simply as a part of human history); he offers a devastating critique of Edward Said's controversial book, Orientalism; and he gives an account of the impediments to translating from classic Arabic to other languages (the old dictionaries, for one, are packed with scribal errors, misreadings, false analogies, and etymological deductions that pay little attention to the evolution of the language). And he concludes with an astute commentary on the Islamic world today, examining revivalism, fundamentalism, the role of the Shi'a, and the larger question of religious co-existence between Muslims, Christians, and Jews. A matchless guide to the background of Middle East conflicts today, Islam and the West presents the seasoned reflections of an eminent authority on one of the most intriguing and little understood regions in the world.
This book examines the transformation of the discourse and praxis of peace, from its early beginnings in the literature on war and power, to the development of intellectual and theoretical discourses of peace, contrasting this with the development of practical approaches to peace, and examining the intellectual and policy evolution regarding peace.
