The just peace movement offers a critical shift in focus and imagination. Recognizing that all life is sacred and seeking peace through violence is unsustainable, the just peace approach turns our attention to rehumanization, participatory processes, nonviolent resistance, restorative justice, reconciliation, racial justice, and creative strategies of active nonviolence to build sustainable peace, transform conflict, and end cycles of violence. A Just Peace Ethic Primer illuminates a moral framework behind this praxis and proves its versatility in global contexts.

With essays by a diverse group of scholars, A Just Peace Ethic Primer outlines the ethical, theological, and activist underpinnings of a just peace ethic.These essays also demonstrate and revise the norms of a just peace ethic through conflict cases involving US immigration, racial and environmental justice, and the death penalty, as well as gang violence in El Salvador, civil war in South Sudan, ISIS in Iraq, gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, women-led activism in the Philippines, and ethnic violence in Kenya.

A Just Peace Ethic Primer exemplifies the ecumenical, interfaith, and multicultural aspects of a nonviolent approach to preventing and transforming violent conflict. Scholars, advocates, and activists working in politics, history, international law, philosophy, theology, and conflict resolution will find this resource vital for providing a fruitful framework and implementing a creative vision of sustainable peace.

Eli S. McCarthy teaches justice and peace studies at Georgetown University and coordinates the DC Peace Team. He is the author of Becoming Nonviolent Peacemakers: A Virtue Ethic for Catholic Social Teaching and U.S. Policy and regularly engages in strategic advocacy for federal policy as the Director of Justice and Peace for the Conference of Major Superiors of Men.

A Fertile Moment: Context and ScopeEli S. McCarthy

Part I. Framing Essays

1. A "Manual" for Escaping Our Vicious Cycles: Practical Guidance from the Sermon on the Mount for a Just Peace EthicGerald W. Schlabach

2. Catholic Tradition on Peace, War, and Just PeaceLisa Sowle Cahill

3. Just Peace Ethic: A Virtue-Based ApproachEli S. McCarthy

Part II. US Domestic Cases

4. Just Peace, Just Sanctuary: Immigration and Ecclesial NonviolenceLeo Guardado

5. Environmental Justice: May Justice and Peace Flow Like a RiverNancy M. Rourke

6. Becoming Authentically Catholic and Truly Black: On the Condition of the Possibility of a Just Peace Approach to Anti-Black ViolenceAlex Mikulich

7. Ending the Death Penalty in the United States: One Step toward a Just PeaceDaniel Cosacchi

Part III. International Cases

8. Making Just Peace Possible: How the Church Can Bridge People Power and Peace BuildingMaria J. Stephan

9. Living Just Peace in South Sudan: Protecting People Nonviolently in the Midst of WarMel Duncan and John Ashworth

10. Addressing Gang Violence in El Salvador: Envisioning a Just Peace ApproachJosé Henríquez Leiva

11. ISIS and Ezidis: Using Just Peace ApproachesPeggy Faw Gish

12. Making Just Peace a Reality in Kenya: A New "Flavor" to PeacebuildingTeresia Wamũyũ Wachira

13. Virtue-Based Just Peace Approach and the Challenges of Rape as a Weapon of War: The Case of the Democratic Republic of CongoLéocadie Lushombo

14. Women Count for Peace: Women's Engagement in Track II Diplomacy of the Mindanao Peace ProcessJasmin Nario-Galace

Conclusion and Next StepsEli S. McCarthy

About the Contributors

Index