The new book Exiting Violence: The Role of Religion (2024) explores the complex web of religion, politics, and conflict and shows how faith can ignite bloodshed and inspire peace. Resulting from an international collaboration between the Fondazione Bruno Kessler, RESET-Dialogues Among Civilizations, and the Berkley Center, this collection assesses the state of scholarship and explores the differing ways in which religion can contribute to societies and communities exiting situations of violence and hatred. From Biblical hermeneutics to Buddhism, from secularism to legal systems, Exiting Violence offers a nuanced and thought-provoking exploration of the multifaceted role religion plays in the human struggle for peace and justice.
At this virtual book launch event, four Georgetown scholars involved in the project discussed Exiting Violence.
This event was convened by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the Georgetown University Representative Office in Rome.
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Debora Tonelli is a permanent researcher at the Center for Religious Studies (Centro per le Scienze Religiose) at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler. She is the Georgetown representative in Rome and a research fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University. Tonelli is also a lecturer in religion and violence at Gregorian University and lecturer in political philosophy and philosophy and religion at Pontifical Atheneum S. Anselmo. Her research and teaching focus on the interaction between politics and religion, particularly in the context of interreligious dialogue and religious violence. Since 2013, Tonelli has coordinated an interdisciplinary project on "Religions and Violence." She holds a Ph.D. in political philosophy and in theology.
Judd Birdsall is assistant professor of the practice in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University, where he is also a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the project director of the Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion and Diplomacy (TPNRD). In addition, he is a senior advisor religion and inclusive societies at the United States Institute of Peace. From 2011 to 2020 Birdsall was based at Cambridge University, where he earned his Ph.D., founded a research center on religion and international studies, and served as an affiliated lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies. Prior to his time at Cambridge, he served in the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom and on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff. Birdsall is the editor of Religion & Diplomacy, and his work has appeared in the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Guardian, Huffington Post, Christianity Today, and Religion & Politics. He is also a senior editor and a frequent contributor at the Review of Faith & International Affairs.
Jocelyne Cesari holds the Chair of Religion and Politics and is director of research at the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom; she is a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, where she previously was an associate professor of the practice of religion, peace, and conflict resolution in the Department of Government. She is the T. J. Dermot Dunphy Visiting Professor of Religion, Violence, and Peacebuilding at Harvard Divinity School. Former president of the European Academy of Religion, her work on religion, political violence, and conflict resolution has garnered recognition and awards from numerous international organizations such as the Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs and the Royal Society for Arts in the United Kingdom. She is a Professorial Fellow at Australian Catholic University's Institute for Religion, Politics and Society. She teaches on contemporary Islam and politics at Harvard Divinity School and directs the Islam in the West program. Cesari is a member of the Working Group on Displaced Persons and Hospitality to the Stranger, part of the Culture of Encounter Project.
Leo D. Lefebure is the Matteo Ricci, S.J., Professor of Theology at Georgetown University and a Berkley Center faculty fellow. He is also a former Long Room Hub Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago. His books include, among others, Transforming Interreligious Relations: Catholic Responses to Religious Pluralism in the United States (2020); Religion, Authority, and the State: From Constantine to the Contemporary World (2016, editor); True and Holy: Christian Scripture and Other Religions (2014); The Path of Wisdom: A Christian Commentary on the Dhammapada (2011, with Peter Feldmeier); Revelation, the Religions, and Violence (2000); and The Buddha and the Christ (1993). Lefebure is a research fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, a trustee emeritus of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and a former president of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies. He has previously taught classes supported through the Berkley Center's Doyle Seminars project. He obtained his STL from St. Mary of the Lake Seminary and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School.