The classical just war criteria were helpful in a world of soldiers in uniforms with negotiated holidays. But just war no longer proves helpful in a world where small bands of terrorists with modest bundles of cash can do unspeakable terror to unarmed civilians. In this new world, war itself has become dysfunctional. What are the theological, political, and programmatic bases needed to become a peacemaking church? A Just Peace Church seeks to locate a position between pacifism and just war.

Contributions by leading peacemakers such as Lisa Sowle Cahill, Terrence J. Rynne, John Dear and Ken Utican, Rose Marie Berger, and Maria J. Stephan advance the conversation about the practice of nonviolence in a violent world, Jesus and nonviolence, traditional Catholic teaching on nonviolence, and reflections on the future of Catholic teaching. The book concludes with Pope Francis's historic Message for World Peace Day in 2017.

Christian theology and ethics have wrestled with the challenge to apply Jesus's central message of nonviolence to the injustices of this world. Is it not right to defend the persecuted by using violence? Is it unjust if the oppressed defend themselves--if necessary by the use of violence--in order to liberate themselves and to create a more just society? Can we leave the doctrine of the just war behind and shift all our attention toward the way of a just peace? In 2011 the World Council of Churches brought to a close the Decade to Overcome Violence, to which the churches committed themselves at the beginning of the century. Just peace has evolved as the new ecumenical paradigm for contemporary Christian ethics. Just peace signals a realistic vision of holistic peace, with justice, which in the concept of shalom is central in the Hebrew Bible as well as in the gospel message of the New Testament. This paradigm needs further elaboration. VU University gathered peacebuilding practitioners and experts from different parts of the world (Africa, Latin America, North America, Asia, and Europe) and from different disciplines (anthropology, psychology, social sciences, law, and theology)--voices from across generations and Christian traditions--to promote discussion about the different dimensions of building peace with justice.

Believing Christians should direct their energies toward finding a set of criteria and a model for a "just peace" instead of "just war", Stassen bases his peace theory on the new reality of our world, recent Biblical interpretation, and on the experiences of people who lived in the face of oppression and nuclear threat.

Despite their largely pacifist origins, Christianity and Christian traditions can claim only limited success in their efforts to conciliate conflict, avoid violence, and stop war. Perhaps it is time, say the eminent contributors to this deeply reflective volume, to look at Eastern and Oriental traditions to the very different perspectives of Orthodox Christian on issues of war, peace, and the justice that must undergird peace. Writing from Europe and Russia, as well as the Middle East and Asia, two dozen Orthodox theologians and church people cast the classic dilemmas of war and peace, military service, just war, and religious nationalism into a deeper theological framework. Contents include historical characterizations of Orthodox in a variety of settings and nations (Greece, Oriental Christianity, Bulgaria, Armenia, Western Europe, etc.), dilemmas of nationalism for the churches, the invasion of Iraq, globalization, fundamentalisms, interreligious tensions, the ecclesial vocation of peacemaking. PART ONE: Orthodox Peace Ethics in Eastern and Oriental Christianity PART TWO: Orthodox Contribution to a Theology of Just Peace: Developing the Principles of Just Peace Semegnish Asfaw is Research Associate in the World Council of Churches program The Decade to Overcome Violence. Alexios Chehadeh is Exarchos of the Antiochian Church and the Institute for Theology and Peace, Hamburg, Germany. Marian Gh. Simion is Associate Director of the Boston Theological Institute and founder of the Institute for Peace Studies in Eastern Christianity, Boston.

Interfaith Just Peacemaking is a collected work by 27 Jewish, Muslim and Christian scholars and religious leaders on the ten 'practice norms' of the peacemaking paradigm called 'Just Peace.'Just Peace theory, like the paradigm it most resembles, Just War theory, is a list of specific practices that are applied to concrete contexts.

The Just Peace Companion is a guide for individuals and groups to come together around the notion and practice of 'Just Peace,' a holistic approach to peacemaking and social justice. Adopting a fully global perspective, the book elaborates on the insights and convictions of An Ecumenical Call to Just Peace (text also included), which is the culminating statement of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) decade-long effort to understand and address conflict, violence, and injustice. This second edition expands on the key biblical, theological, and ethical considerations of Just Peace. The book invites further exploration and critique, and it offers examples of best practices for building peace with justice. Like the Call itself, the Just Peace Companion centers on four crucial venues of Just Peace, focusing on peace in the community, in the marketplace, with the Earth, and among peoples. The project - and this new edition, which includes learnings from the landmark "International Ecumenical Peace Convocation" in Jamaica in May 2011 - was coordinated by former WCC general secretary Konrad Raiser. The book is divided into five sections, and includes the following: Vision for Just Peace * Signposts for Just Peace * Contexts of Just Peace * Just Peace Challenges * Just Peace Practices