"To move from the reality of devastation to a shared future will require both a design for transformation and the building of an infrastructure to make such transformation possible."
I now realize that my early work and thinking emerged principally out of the intermixing of three tributaries of ideas: the Mennonite theological discourse on pacifism, the social-change orientation of active nonviolence, and the practical perspectives proposed by the conflict resolution field. I have always considered myself a practitioner more than a theoretician. Where theory has emerged, it has done so through short, intensive bursts of writing in which I reflected on recent experiences. I have always been reluctant to call it theory.
While it is the wide variety of activities at so many different levels and in diverse contexts that has ultimately shaped my analytical contributions, I would like to reflect on three specific experiences that mark important evolutions in my thinking and practice. These experiences, I believe, both reflect and have contributed to Mennonite international peacebuilding work in the recent years…
Lederach, John Paul. “Journey from Resolution to Transformative Peacebuilding.” In From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacebuilding, edited by Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach, 45–57. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
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An article describing the emergence and transformative impact of a community mediation program in Nepal.
Thoughts about the challenge of to all of us as leaders when we live in settings of social fragmentation and at the same time are committed to pursue justice and healing in our relationships.
