accompaniment

Starting with experiences in Central America in the 1980s, John Paul began to work closely with the thought and strategies of Latin American authors like Paolo Freire, Gustavo Gutierrez, and Orlando Fals Borda. These approaches articulated the basis of participatory action research and accompaniment of people often on the front lines of facing direct and structural violence. Accompaniment articulates the approach of leading from alongside the experiences, insights, and innovations of people with deep experience in their own context. These ideas became second nature in many of the books and writing over the years from Preparing for Peace to the engagements in Nepal 35 years later.

Practicing Peace: Psychological Roots of Transforming Conflicts

An article that links psychosocial theories with the social energies of reconciliation, then applies this framework to the case of Guatemala, emphasizing the value of linking the literatures of peace psychology and conflict transformation.

Supporting Creative, Whole Peacebuilders: An Apprenticeship Program

A chapter weaving reflections emergent from the apprenticeship program that includes narratives from each of the four apprentices.

Spirituality and Religious Peacebuilding

A chapter exploring the meaning of quality of presence rising from spiritual resources that facilitate the practice of religious peacebuilding in protracted conflict.

The Long Journey Back to Humanity: Catholic Peacebuilding with Armed Actors

An inquiry into experiences of Catholic leadership with armed groups and actors that overviews the types of experiences, approaches, and challenges church leaders face in contexts of open violence, and secondly proposes and explores a theology of peacebuilding.

Cultivating Peace: A Practitioner’s View of Deadly Conflict and Negotiation

A chapter weaving reflections emergent from practitioner experience that offer an alternative view to the metaphor of ripeness and provide a re-orientation to the practice of developing negotiated peaces.

Five Qualities of Practice in Support of Reconciliation Processes

A practitioner’s view of attitudes and approaches for supporting reconciliation that have proven useful, cautioning against reducing reconciliation to a formula or technique-based methodology.

Journey from Resolution to Transformative Peacebuilding

A chapter reflecting on three specific experiences that marked important evolutions in John Paul's thinking and practice.

For Our Healing

A preface discussing the challenges of healing in the aftermath of violence and the need for authenticity of approach that respects each individual while recognizing several important guideposts common to all.

Making a Difference: Putting Peacebuilding in Context

An exploration of generative questions for philanthropy and peacebuilding shared at the Social Change Initiative’s 2024 conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland.