Co-editor: Rosalind Hackett
Editor info: Professor of Religious Studies
Publication Date: December 2011
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
Synopsis: In colonial Africa, Christianity has often supported, sustained, and legitimated a violent process of governance. More recently, however, following decades of violence and oppression, churches and religious organizations have mobilized African publics against corrupt and abusive regimes and facilitated new forms of reconciliation and cooperation. This book illustrates the nature of religion’s ambivalent power in Africa while suggesting new directions in the study of religion, conflict, and peace studies, with a specific focus on sub-Saharan Africa. It shows how peace is conceptualized and negotiated in daily life, often in ways that are counter intuitive and anything but peaceful. It also uses African case studies to confront assumptions about the nature of the relationships among religion, conflict, and peace.