Peacebuilding Lec Notes + Daskon & Lee (2019) & Omer & Tarusaria (2023)

Neo-liberalist & Modernist

Despite being framed as a paradigm shift that disrupts secularist myopia, religious peacebuilding still relies heavily on _____ rationalist

Good vs. Bad Religion Binary

Policy frameworks scrutinize one religion while mobilizing another as an asset. Rarely do they interrogate for whom are these religions good/bad for.

2016 Marrakesh Declaration

This formal declaration (or more so extractive hermeneutic) seeks to demonstrate consistency between religious traditions and liberal human rights, but often reduces complex, living traditions to static, elite-prescribed scripts

Functionalist Utility vs. Historical Reality

Mainstream development and peacebuilding treats religious institutions as functional service providers, ignoring how ecclesiastical infrastructures were historically implicated under colonial violence and cultural erasure

Demystifying Modern Secular Neutrality

Secularism is not a neutral value-free space. It is a politico-theological Western arrangement designed to police public boundaries

Attributing violence solely to religious doctrine

(such as 9/11 or suicide attacks) conceals geopolitical histories, material conditions, and foreign interventions

Critique of Appleby’s "Ambivalence of the Sacred"

Recognized that the sacred can spur both violent and non-violent militancy. However, its reliance on a sui generis experience of the sacred (mysterium tremendum) bypasses systemic structural analysis and ideology

Institutional Triumphalism

Global networks (e.g., Religions for Peace) and religious institutions (e.g., the Catholic Church) often celebrate their "special key" to peace, which can obscure their historical or ongoing complicity in violence against marginalized groups

“Local Turn” as Neoliberal devolution

Shift towards engaging “local” religious actions still functions as a neoliberal strategy to cultivate local “buy-in” and shift responsibilities, while leaving top-down international funding and power structures intact.

Weaponization of Religious Freedom

Religious freedom and freedom of speech agendas are frequently co-opted by conservative or right-wing forces to restrict reproductive rights, deny LGBTQI+ dignity, and enforce anti-Muslim racism under the guise of defending democratic liberties

Religious Resources for Peace-building

• Theological & Hermeneutical evaluation of peace-promoting motifs

  • Not necessarily peaceful or violent. Extracting peaceful motifs may overlook religions’ complicity in violence itself

Examples of Religious resources for Peacebuilding Agendas

• Constitution of Medina

• Sources from Dhammapada

• Religions for Peace (NGO)

• Deradical Activities

• Inter-religous exercises

• Concepts of reconciliation & Forgiveness (i.e, Nelson Mandela)

Key Issues of Religion in Peacebuilding EOOOOO

• “Expert religion”

• Obscuring racism, sexism & homophobia

• Obscuring process of cooperation and prevent alt. democratic possibilities

“Expert” Religion

• Treating religion as form of capital or resource to mobilize (neoliberal)

Wendy Brown’s Neoliberal Critique

Human life and religious engagement are economized into “capital” to be leverge for policy outcomes rather than fostering robust democratic virtues

Secular peace

If secular peace means limiting religion, aren’t we still worshipping secularism in that sense? Whose peace are we protecting? Whose religion do we prioritize & respect more? (Post-modernist thinking)

(Daskon & Lee, 2019) Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement

Operates under Theravada Buddhist tradition as a massive grassroots movement across 15,000+ villages, focusing on domestic “self-help”, community empowerment, and local awakening

(Daskon & Lee, 2019) Join Together Society in SK

Established under Mahayana Buddhist tradition to operate as an international aid agency that relies on a small core of dedicated field practitioners to integrate personal spiritual practice with social transformation

Shramadadana

• Sharing or gifting of time, energy, and labor without monetary reward

• A necessary spiritual practice Buddhist philosophy that brings peace of mind, generates good karma, and builds community self-esteem and collective ownership

• Integrated in all-village plenary meetings where residents articulate local needs or in building foreign aid projects which require the local beneficiary to donate their land and physicial labor (but practically, how can u do that if ur already poor)

Buddhist “righteous way of living”

• Distinguishes essential human needs from boundless “earthly desires” or greed. True happiness is achieved by recognizing and curbing material desire rather than continuously accumulating wealth

• Once community needs are met, surplus resources are redirected to other poorer communities, instead of generating affluence in current proces sites

• Sarvodaya: Village consultations wherein poor identify their own problems

• Join Together Society: Enforces strict local living standards to prevent dependency or greed

Pratityasamutpada

• Nothing exists in isolation; all beings and phenomena exist in relation to others.

• Establishes links between the self, society, spiritual and material progress, and humans and their natural environment

• Sarvodaya: Minutes of metta (loving-kindness) meditation before meetings and prioritizing minority ethnic groups during resource distribution

• JTS: “Mindsharing” reflection sessions for staffs”

Daskon & Lee, 2019 Risks & Cultural Misunderstandings

• Imposing Buddhist concepts or terminology on non-Buddhist communities can cause alienation

• Ex: Muslims in post-war Sri Lanka felt uncomfortable with Sarvodaya’s Buddhist terminology—demonstrating the need for pluralistic, shared frameworks rather than assuming Buddhist concepts are universal