Potentials for Peace and Violence

Janez Juhant, Bojan Zalec (Eds.)
Which Religion, What Ideology?
The (religious) potentials for peace and violence
Reihe: Theologie Ost-West
Bd. 19, 2016, 208 S., 29.90 EUR, 29.90 CHF, br., ISBN 978-3-643-90664-9

This new book is one of many books that deal with religion, peace and violence. The relations between religion, ideology, violence and peace are as complex as obvious. The 22 authors (5 women)

examine and discuss these topics and related phenomena as

• religious (in)tolerance,
• religious pluralism,
• political terror and
• postsecular culture

from different aspects. The authors work mainly in theologic academic institutions.

The aspects of education, marriage, culture of memory, business ethics etc., in different concrete national societal contexts. Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Taiwan … are in the focus of the Contributors. There background roots in different academic disciplinces

• philosophy,
• theology,
• science of religion,
• sociology,
• intellectual history,
• psychology,
• science of education and
• legal science.

Thus the book trys to offer an integral and inter-disciplinary insight into the nature, origins, function and connections of the phenomenas in the center of the volume.

The editors are Professors of Philosophy at facultiys of Theology

Janez Juhant is Professor of Philosophy at the Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana, and a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Salzburg.

Bojan Zalec is Associate Professor of Philosophy, Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Institute of Philosophy and Social Ethics at the Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana.

… there are some important common characteristics, stresses and conclusions that wecan shell out …

• importance of dialogue
• empathy
• forgiveness
• awareness and memory of suffering
• compassion
• openess
• inclusivity
• pluralism
• respecting of human rights
• care
• mutual tolerance and respect
• peace and personalist attitude and culture

All these features should characterize the right and authentic religiosity as key moment of an „appropriate (post-secular) culture“ from the point of view of the editors.

Refreshing in this mainly catholic writings is the contribution of Ana Martinjak Ratej on the „Conception of Power, Violence an Terror According To Hannah Arendt“. We learn Arendt like Walter Benjamin were some of the few thinkers who thought that „Power is indeed of the essence of all government, but violence is not.“