Religion and conflict

In many so-called "new wars" - Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lebanon, Palestine, etc. - religious actors are involved in both escalating and de-escalating ways. As a sociological topic, the relationship between religion and conflict is therefore multidimensional, and with Harpviken and Røislien (2005), four perspectives of analysis can be identified: First, the study of religion as a cause or catalyst of armed violence; second, the impact of a bellicose milieu on religious praxis; third, religious actors engaged in conflict prevention and peace building; fourth, peace building during or after religious conflicts. In our research we try to do justice to this multiperspectivity and to grasp the connection between religion and conflict under the conditions of multiple social differentiation. We focus on (post-) conflict areas and violent milieus in Central America and Southeastern Europe.

Sociological analyses of religion also inform our reflections on peace ethics. Ethics

 

Selected Publications:

• Religion in New Wars: "The Janus face of religion" (2004). HW Schäfer.
• Statistical report on the first phase of the project "The Ethos of Religious Peacebuilders" by G. Kauermann and N. Stricker. StatBeCe Report, The Ethos of Religious Peacebuilders (2009). https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/fakultaeten/theologie/cirrus/downloads/StatBeCe-Bericht.pdf
• Final Report of the DFG Project The Ethos of Religious Peacebuilders (2015). HW Schäfer , Leif Seibert, Z Štimac.  
• Religious credibility in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina: Religious Credibility under Fire (2013). Leif Seibert.  

Further literature can be found under "Publications Schäfer and Team"