Journal of Moral Theology 7.2 (June 2018)
Click here for entire issue.
Click here for Schlabach article.
This paper was first presented as part of a panel on “just peace” at the Society of Christian Ethics annual meeting in Portland, OR, in January 2018. Other panelists were Lisa Sowle Cahill and Eli McCarthy. Their presentations were published in the June 2018 issue of The Journal of Moral Theology.
Description of the SCE panel:
While just war approaches receive ample attention and analysis by scholars, the just peace approach is still relatively underdeveloped and appreciated. There are ecumenical, interfaith, and multicultural expressions and recent developments of just peace. There is also movement in the Catholic community, including a Vatican conference that called for official development of a just peace approach and Pope Francis’ 2017 World Day of Peace message. Some governments are starting to draw on the basic elements of a just peace approach. Thus, we may be at a tipping point for norm change.
Contemporary theological scholarship has offered an increasing variety of developments such as normative practices in a just peacemaking theory (Stassen, etc.), just peace criteria or principles (Cusimano Love), justpeace ethics (Sawatsky), virtue-based just peace approach (McCarthy), just peace churches (Thistlethwaite) and an ecumenical call to just peace (World Council of Churches and Enns).
Each of the three panelists are working on distinct books to address the issues of peacemaking, theology, and ethical method. Gerald Schlabach will present on how a just peace approach arises from the Gospels, survey ecumenical work to develop a just peace framework, and anticipate some of theoretical and practical challenges that will need facing in order to elicit wide reception as an approach not only for civil resistance but for governance. Lisa Sowle Cahill will present on how a just peace approach fits with the trajectory of Catholic social teaching and her view of next steps for official development. Eli McCarthy will present on a virtue-based just peace approach and his view of next steps for development.