Just Peace Companion

Book excerpt: The Just Peace Companion is a guide for individuals and groups to come together around the notion and practice of 'Just Peace,' a holistic approach to peacemaking and social justice. Adopting a fully global perspective, the book elaborates on the insights and convictions of An Ecumenical Call to Just Peace (text also included), which is the culminating statement of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) decade-long effort to understand and address conflict, violence, and injustice. This second edition expands on the key biblical, theological, and ethical considerations of Just Peace. The book invites further exploration and critique, and it offers examples of best practices for building peace with justice. Like the Call itself, the Just Peace Companion centers on four crucial venues of Just Peace, focusing on peace in the community, in the marketplace, with the Earth, and among peoples. The project - and this new edition, which includes learnings from the landmark "International Ecumenical Peace Convocation" in Jamaica in May 2011 - was coordinated by former WCC general secretary Konrad Raiser. The book is divided into five sections, and includes the following: Vision for Just Peace * Signposts for Just Peace * Contexts of Just Peace * Just Peace Challenges * Just Peace Practices