Secularism, Religion and Peace: What role for contemporary Catholic Peacebuilding?

Doctoral Programme: International Politics and Conflict Resolution

The Catholic Church made significant contributions to the theoretical framework of peace and war throughout centuries. Following the Second Vatican Council, these focused on peacebuilding theories and practices far-flung from the secular focus of International Relations. Peacebuilding concepts and models have emerged from religious and secular fields with little mutual enrichment. In the turn of the millennium a post-secularized approach attempted to overcome the incapacity of religious and secular thinkers to debate beyond their own traditions. In the field of International Relations, a 'religious turn' brings religious beliefs, discourses and actors into its realm. What can be the impact of this 'religious turn' on existing conceptions of peacebuilding, currently in a process of academic and operational revision, merits deeper enquiry. This research aims to fill this gap by focusing specifically on Catholic views on peace and peacebuilding, exploring their theoretical contribution to the dominant models from the last decades.

FCT Funding: 2020.04671.BD