How Evangelical Religion Contributed to Peace in Northern Ireland -and what we can learn from it

Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilisations emphasised the destructive capacities of religion, contributing to a popular consciousness that religion is simply unable to contribute to peace.
Others have recognised that religion can be both a source of conflict and of peace, with Northern Ireland considered a case where religion has played these ambivalent roles.
But the most effective faith-based peacebuilders in Northern Ireland were not the ‘ecumenical’ activists who sought to downplay religious differences between Catholics and Protestants. Rather, the most effective faith-based peacebuilders were evangelical Protestants.