Abstract
Drawing on research about Presbyterian experiences of Northern Ireland’s Troubles, we argue that the religion and peacebuilding literature’s emphasis on prophetic leadership has meant that the field has overlooked the significance of the roles of clergy as “first responders” to violence and as providers of long-term pastoral care. These roles can be conceptualized as contributing, albeit indirectly, to everyday peacebuilding by facilitating (in some cases) personal healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation. The wider field of religion and peacebuilding would benefit from including the pastoral role of first responder in its conceptualizations of religious leadership in violent contexts.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 31-43 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | The Review of Faith & International Affairs |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 24 May 2023 |
Keywords
- clergy
- peacebuilding
- first responders
- prophetic
- priestly
- pastoral care
- Northern Ireland
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Arts and Humanities
- General Social Sciences
Access to Document
- Clergy as first responders: rethinking leadership in religion and peacebuilding
Copyright 2023 the authors. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits distribution and reproduction for non-commercial purposes, provided the author and source are cited.