Compassionate Presence

Faith-based Peacebuilding in the Face of Violence

Compassionate Presence: Faith-based Peacebuilding in the Face of Violence
“Compassion suggests a commitment to alongsideness that provides a different quality of presence. This quality of presence I think requires open vulnerability, but not gullible weakness; boundless love with clarity of boundaries; and listening for the fragile voice of Truth, and choosing to live by that Truth without arrogance or imposition."

Reflecting back on three decades of peacebuilding, John Paul Lederach traces the faith-based resources that contribute to what he calls “compassionate presence” in conflict-ridden areas. Building from his book The Moral Imagination, Lederach explores the disciplines of a practitioner-scholar committed to non-violent social change. Presented at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego

Lederach, John Paul. “Compassionate Presence: Faith-Based Peacebuilding in the Face of Violence.” Lecture presented at the Joan B. Kroc Distinguished Lecture Series, San Diego, California, February 16, 2012.

Recorded at and shared with the permission of the University of San Diego.

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