The Role of Spirituality in Peacebuilding: Conceptualizing Human Dignity and Transcendent Value

The social mobilizing effect of religion is well documented, and where religious identity has been leveraged as a resource in peacebuilding, the results have been significant and impactful on many levels of analysis. The subject of my research concerns the origins of this powerful social bond and the nature of the identity factors which comprise it. In this essay, I propose a hermeneutic phenomenology for understanding and conceptualizing the inner source of value with which religion connects `self' with `other'; the depth and strength of this connection; and the way in which it motivates and guides action toward either peaceful ends, or their violent alternatives. This essay explores the social mobilizing effect of religion within an analytical framework that considers what is essential to the practice of peacebuilding to be formative also of one's deepest sense of dignity- an a priori value contained wholly within oneself- while at the same time transcending the boundary between self and other. The epistemology that I employ is experientially grounded in the awareness, or consciousness of this value- what I term `transcendent value'- which cannot be reduced to a social or cultural factor, but rather is the fabric out of which culture is woven. My thesis is as follows: The role of spirituality in peacebuilding is to reconnect and identify the human being with this core or transcendent value, giving depth to consciousness of one's own and the other's dignity. Because of the deep sense of interconnectedness which spirituality naturally fosters within and between self and other, it transcends religious and cultural boundaries, and therefore is a resource for peacebuilding across what might otherwise present as intractable religious or cultural divisions.