Interreligious Dialogue and Conflict

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 January 2025 | Viewed by 1353

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Religion and Culture, VID Specialized University, NO-0319 Oslo, Norway
Interests: religioscapes, migration, diasporas; international relations, politics of religion and culture, cultural diplomacy, soft power; identity, belonging, European integration (Europeanisation); interreligious dialogue, conflict, reconciliation; balkans, eastern mediterranean, middle east

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to our Special Issue with an article which explores the intersection and interrelation of politics and religion, with a particular focus on the aspects of hostility, threat of aggression, conflict and reconciliation. The international political landscape is rife with types of engagement, as mentioned above. Geopolitical tensions, often drawn from historical perceptions of enmity, antitheses, belonging and sovereignty over territory, are not devoid of the religious element and soft power that it entails. As advocates of war or mediators of peace, religious actors have a significant role in swaying popular views and ultimately offering political legitimacy.

This Special Issue aims to inform scholarship through various disciplines and case studies that fit the intentionally broad description above. To that end, we welcome submissions that deal with issues such as conflict justification (just war), religious spatial/territorial ownership, as well as mediation, interreligious dialogue and conflict resolution.

Case studies may (non-exclusively) focus on the Arab–Israeli conflict, the Yugoslav wars, or the Russian–Ukrainian war, whereby emergent patterns, overlaps and differences may be identified through the juxtaposition of cases, and the extension parallels between religious actors may be drawn on the basis of their attitudes and rhetoric comparatively.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: religious studies and theology, politics and international relations, anthropology and ethnography, sociology and social sciences. Interdisciplinarity is desirable and strongly encouraged. 

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Georgios Trantas
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • religion
  • war
  • conflict
  • reconciliation
  • religioscapes
  • soft power
  • Europe
  • Middle East
  • Balkans
  • Russia

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

14 pages, 238 KiB  
Article
Religion Against Violence: Insights of Contemporary Philosophy and Eastern Patristics
by Olga Vasilievna Chistyakova
Religions 2024, 15(11), 1360; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15111360 - 8 Nov 2024
Viewed by 618
Abstract
This article examines the concepts of violence and religion as social phenomena of modernity. Religion and the church are presented not as specific organizations or denominations, but as important social institutions and are reflected in philosophical and anthropological terms. I carry out the [...] Read more.
This article examines the concepts of violence and religion as social phenomena of modernity. Religion and the church are presented not as specific organizations or denominations, but as important social institutions and are reflected in philosophical and anthropological terms. I carry out the idea that religion as a modern social institute in cooperation with other social communities can resist violence, especially its aggressive forms. Based on some philosophical theories, the causes of the emergence of the different forms of social violence, as well as definitions of violence, are explored. In this context, the article presents the ideas of Hanna Arendt, Carl von Clausewitz, Bertrand de Jouvenel, James Mill, and Max Weber. Special attention is paid to the conception of the mimetic origin of aggression and violence in “primitive” or “archaic religions” elaborated by the French philosopher René Girard. He compares the social roots of aggression and violence in these religions with the Biblical ones and prefers the latter for their potential in preventing and overcoming the imitation types of violence. Girard’s anthropological justification of the mentioned historical religious traditions is presented. A significant part of the paper is devoted to the views of the Eastern Church Fathers of Early Christianity, considered in the concurrence of their humanistic ideas with those of noted contemporary philosophers. I see meaningful ideas for preventing extreme forms of violence and aggression in the contemporary world in the doctrines of the Early Eastern and Byzantine Fathers, especially those of the classical patristic period. In this regard, this article presents the anthropological and humanistic teachings of Athanasius the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, Maximus the Confessor, and John of Damascus. The Early Church Fathers’ ideas are analyzed from a philosophical point of view, as having rational and anthropological grounds which are relevant for the present day’s human existence. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interreligious Dialogue and Conflict)
Back to TopTop