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.

Prelude, The Edge of a Cry

The prelude to Oumar Farouk Sesay's book of poetry entitled The Edge of a Cry.

Forewords, Navigating the Nexus of Art and Peace

A foreword authored for the book Navigating the Nexus of Art and Peace: A reflective guide for peacebuilding practitioners and artists working together to transform conflict and inspire creativity published by Women Peace Makers in Cambodia.

Foreword, The Cooperative Solution

The foreword to the book The Cooperative Solution, which offers local examples of cooperative economics that provide a vision of true globalization from below, a vision of a just and sustainable world.

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.