Interrogating Religion and Peacebuilding : Global Perspectives on Power, Conflict, and Liberation (Religion in the Modern World)

Challenges the dominant narratives that frame peace as a civilizational ideal. At a time when millions demand an end to war, occupation, and systemic oppression, this volume gathers diverse voices in a transnational and decolonial conversation. The contributors interrogate how “peace” is too often deployed as a mirage—reproducing systems of exclusion and violence under the guise of stability, order, and reform. Exposing the coloniality embedded within hegemonic peace discourses, contributors reveal how imperial power configurations transform freedom into occupation, democracy into exclusion, and security into violence. Through critically self-reflective engagement with both religious and secular worldviews, contributors propose that peace is not an abstract ideal, but a deeply political construct shaped by empire, enforced through intervention, and justified by a faith in modernity’s civilizing mission. Rejecting both reformist inclusion and idealized neutrality, these essays embody a political commitment to the tormented, the resisting, and the marginalized. From “post-conflict” pacification to imperial “peace deals,” contributors unmask peacebuilding as often war by other means—while advancing liberative spiritualities that reimagine peace as justice from below. This book is not merely critique—it is a call to transformation.