Of religion in conflict

Particularly salient for policymakers are his suggestions that there 
is a need: to support religious leaders and those with important 
standing to move towards peace in the face of criticisms of heresy; for 
policymakers to understand the fears of religious groups, both actual 
and remembered ones, and develop policies that confront them; to 
become familiar with the potential effects of polices on the religious 
lives of communities; and, to allow religious constructs as well as 
religious groups needing to be part of the process of conflict resolution 
to guide policies, without giving them overwhelming power. 
As Fox (2000b) noted, despite his insightful contributions, Gopin (2000) 
unfortunately centres his study on the monotheistic religions, thus 
overlooking the potential contributions of other religions. Furthermore, 
much of Gopin’s book is focused on the internal conflict between 
religious and secular Jews in Israel and on the ways to overcome 
this, rather than on interreligious conflict. Gopin did suggest applying 
to interreligious conflict the ‘Mahoket’
 
concept, a traditional form of 
conflict resolution within Judaism, in which there is mutual respect 
between conflicting parties who ‘agree-to-disagree’. Yet this does not 

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The Role of Religion in Conflict and Peacebuilding
// British Academy
seem to comply with his own emphasis on the need to treat each 
conflictual context separately and approach each situation according to 
its unique nature and the particular hermeneutical engagement of the 
religious actors involved.
Gopin’s concluding remarks, unlike his practically grounded and broad 
recommendations, provide an overly idealistic world view, in which he 
argues that militant religion will only disappear once ‘global civilisation 
develops into a serious human community with a set of high ideals that 
are perceived and actually are substantive and attractive from a spiritual 
and ethical point of view’ (2000, 223). Whether or when this will happen 
is impossible to say, but his theological observations and practical rec-
ommendations do show the potential for the successful incorporation of 
religion into conflict resolution.
In another work, Gopin (2001) examines the role of forgiveness in 
conflict resolution (as opposed to justice) and approaches this question 
by studying the concept of forgiveness in several religions, a theme 
also covered by Helmick and Petersen (2001) in an edited volume. They 
argue that forgiveness as a tool in conflict resolution can be effective 
only if it is used to cross religious boundaries and is transferred from the 
individual to the political arena. Hadley (2001) expanded on this analysis 
by examining how restorative justice finds expression in religious 
traditions worldwide. 
Religious leaders and religious organisations
A rich strand of research – including a number of works commis-
sioned by DFID – has examined the role of faith-based organisations 
and religious leaders in promoting the peaceful resolution of conflicts 
through mediation. Faith-based mediation is seen as an important 
contributor to conflict resolution and peace. However, no work sees this 
as a complete substitute to traditional diplomatic avenues. The pioneer-
ing work of Johnston and Sampson (1994) brought together scholars 
emphasising the comparative advantage of religious actors. Basing their 
findings on case studies from East Germany, Philippines, South Africa 
and Zimbabwe, they argued that individuals that based their work on 
either religious or spiritual thinking were in a better place to reach out to 
regional and local actors than were politicians that did not. Similarly, Cox 
et al. (1994) argued that religion can be well suited for resolving particu-
larly prolonged, stalemated or intractable conflicts. The key characteris-
tics associated with (typically local) religious leaders that enable them to 
help in situations of conflict include authority, trust, professionalism and 

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The Role of Religion in Conflict and Peacebuilding
35
also cultural and practical/experiential closeness to the people involved 
(see among others: Lederach 1996; 1997; Smock 2002). 
On a pragmatic level, especially when conflict resolution and peace-
keeping are proceeding in collaboration with development programmes, 
religious organisations and leaders have also proven particularly effec-
tive in delivering aid and effective development projects. This is because 
faith communities, in addition to being trusted, are inexpensive and they 
work rapidly, relying on wide networks of volunteers that are fervently 
devoted to the cause and ready to put their lives on the line. This has 
proven to be more effective than the work of the salaried staff of large 
and bureaucratic international organisations and secular NGOs (Barnett 
and Stein 2012).
Bercovitch and Kadayifci-Orellana (2009) focus on the conditions condu-
cive to the success of faith-based mediation, finding that the legitimacy 
and leverage of religious actors can be powerful factors in promoting 
successful mediation processes. Aroua (2010) makes a case for media-
tors who have a deep understanding of religious beliefs and ideals, 
which enables them to promote interreligious dialogue by translating 
codes from one value system to another (‘mediators as translators’). 
Funk and Woolner (2001) emphasise the role of inter-faith dialogue in 
promoting conflict resolution. 
Even when peace processes do not lead to a sustainable peace, 
religion is nonetheless thought to positively contribute to peace as it 
can help build trust between and among social groups and individuals. 
Scholars have also noted that many conflicts do not have a religious 
component, but that even when that is the case religious leaders can 
often play a beneficial role in promoting peace (Aroua 2010).