Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled: Perspectives on Peace

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. ~ John 14:27

‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace. ~ Jeremiah 6:14

What is “peace”—shalom, εἰρήνη, pax? In every age it is worth returning to Christ’s promise of peace—“my peace I give you”—and questioning what it means for us here and now, as persons, as the Church, as the human race. Peace is something we all desire yet is apparently absent at multiple levels of human existence: internationally, politically, ecclesially, relationally, and personally. This class examines “peace” from various perspectives: Biblical, theological, philosophical, and inter-religious. We will examine various forms of false peace and ask what peace is positively, its metaphysical and religious status as a concept and as a lived reality. Is peace possible? How is it characterized? How does Jesus make peace? Can difference be understood, lived, and resolved, not in violence and victory but in cooperation and mutuality? We will be guided into such questions by voices past and present, including Augustine, Thomas Merton, Raimon Panikkar, William Desmond, Rowan Williams, and more.