scholarly journals Perceptions about civil war in Central Africa: Can war be justified or solve problems?

2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kitambala Lumbu ◽  
Peet Van Dyk ◽  
Alta Van Dyk
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Ethnic Violence ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Tertiary Institutions ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
The Church ◽  
Structured Questionnaire

Civil war and ethnic violence are major problems in Central Africa and have caused the death and displacement of millions of people over the years. The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions of religious leaders, lecturers and students in theology at various tertiary institutions in Central Africa with regard to civil war in the region. A structured questionnaire was used to investigate participants� perceptions about and attitudes towards civil war. The questionnaire was completed by 1 364 participants who originated or lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda. The results of the study illustrated the severe effect that civil wars had on the participants or their families and further indicated that Rwandans, Tutsis and males were more inclined toward justifying wars and seeing them as solutions for problems. The role of the Church in countering these perceptions is discussed.

scholarly journals The Role of Religious Leaders in Religious Heritage Tourism Development: The Case of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 256
Author(s):  
Daniel H. Olsen ◽  
Scott C. Esplin
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Heritage Tourism ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Sacred Sites ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
The Church

For centuries, people have traveled to sacred sites for multiple reasons, ranging from the performance of religious rituals to curiosity. As the numbers of visitors to religious heritage sites have increased, so has the integration of religious heritage into tourism supply offerings. There is a growing research agenda focusing on the growth and management of this tourism niche market. However, little research has focused on the role that religious institutions and leadership play in the development of religious heritage tourism. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of religious leaders and the impacts their decisions have on the development of religious heritage tourism through a consideration of three case studies related to recent decisions made by the leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Desertion, Terrain, and Control of the Home Front in Civil Wars

2014 ◽  
Vol 58 (8) ◽  
pp. 1419-1444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore McLauchlin
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Home Front ◽  
Rough Terrain ◽  
Hill Country ◽  
Structural Variables ◽  
And Control

This article examines desertion in civil wars, focusing on the role of combatants’ hometowns in facilitating desertion. Analyzing data from the Spanish Civil War, the article demonstrates that combatants who come from hill country are considerably more likely to desert than combatants whose hometowns are on flat ground. This is because evasion is easier in rough terrain. The finding implies that the cohesion of armed groups depends on control, not just positive incentives, and that control of territory in civil wars goes beyond rebel–government contestation, and consists also of control behind the lines. The article bridges micro and macro approaches to civil wars by indicating the multiple uses to which individuals can put structural conditions like rough terrain. This helps to clarify the macro-level link between rough terrain and civil war. It also shows that micro-level research can profitably examine structural variables alongside individual characteristics and endogenous conflict dynamics.

scholarly journals Ethnonationalist Triads: Assessing the Influence of Kin Groups on Civil Wars

2009 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars-Erik Cederman ◽  
Luc Girardin ◽  
Kristian Skrede Gleditsch
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Quantitative Studies ◽  
Kin Support ◽  
Geocoded Data ◽  
The Empirical Analysis

Although the case-based literature suggests that kin groups are prominent in ethnonationalist conflicts, quantitative studies of civil war onset have both overaggregated and underaggregated the role of ethnicity, by looking at civil war at the country level instead of among specific groups and by treating individual countries as closed units, ignoring groups' transnational links. In this article the authors integrate transnational links into a dyadic perspective on conflict between marginalized ethnic groups and governments. They argue that transnational links can increase the risk of conflict as transnational kin support can facilitate insurgencies and are difficult for governments to target or deter. The empirical analysis, using new geocoded data on ethnic groups on a transnational basis, indicates that the risk of conflict is high when large, excluded ethnic groups have transnational kin in neighboring countries, and it provides strong support for the authors' propositions on the importance of transnational ties in ethnonationalist conflict.

Moderate Radical

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosamund Oates
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Great Power ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Stuart England ◽  
To Come ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
The Church ◽  
Insight Into

This book explores Puritanism in Elizabethan and Early Stuart religious politics. Tobie Matthew (c. 1544–1628) was a religious radical at the start of Elizabeth’s reign, yet ended up in a position of great power within the English Church during the tumultuous years leading up to the British Civil Wars. Moderate Radical work provides a new perspective on this period and an insight into the power of conforming Puritanism as a political and cultural force. Matthew’s vision of conformity and godly magistracy brought many Puritans into the Church, but also furnished them with a justification for rebellion when Puritanism was seriously threatened. Through new sources, including Matthew’s annotations of his extensive library and newly discovered sermons, this book explores the guiding principles of Puritanism and explains why the godly promoted the national Church, even when it seemed corrupt. As Archbishop of York, Matthew protected Puritans, but his protection meant there was a rich seam of dissent at the heart of the Church that emerged when the godly found themselves under attack in the 1620s and 1630s. This is a story about the evolution of conforming Puritanism and its significance for the politics of Tudor and Stuart England; it also examines the influence of Puritan cultural practices, in particular the rich culture derived from sermons. This study is also a biography of a leading figure in the Church who struggled to come to terms with his own son’s Catholicism and the disappointments of his family. It provides new insight into tensions of the pre-Civil War Church.

An Exilic Church

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse A. Zink
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Church Growth ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
South Sudan ◽  
Episcopal Church ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Church Missionary Society ◽  
Peace And Reconciliation ◽  
The Church

The Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan (ECSSS) has been shaped by the experience of exile. A half-century of Anglican mission by the Church Missionary Society produced a Church that was of varied strength across the region. Two lengthy civil wars since Sudan’s independence displaced hundreds of thousands of southern Sudanese and led to Church growth, as refugees turned to Christianity in new ways. This was particularly true of the Dinka, southern Sudan’s largest ethnic group, who had long been uninterested in Christianity. In the midst of civil war in the 1980s and 1990s, Dinka showed new interest in Christianity and the Church exploded with growth. Church hierarchies have been tested by civil war, managing relations with rebel armies and governments, while also working for peace and reconciliation. The challenge for the ECSSS is to move from being a Church of the exiled to a Church of the returned.

scholarly journals The ministry of women among early Calvinistic Baptists

2016 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 402-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Birch
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
English Civil War ◽  
The Public ◽  
Good Works ◽  
Women Preachers ◽  
Role Of Women ◽  
Congregational Participation ◽  
The Church

AbstractAlthough there is considerable documentation of women preachers during the English Civil War period and the Interregnum, it is clear that such activities were not encouraged among English Calvinistic Baptists, and most especially among Particular Baptists. Yet there was a tension in even the most restrictive Baptist teaching on this subject. For since Baptists had opened the door to congregational participation in the public ministry of the church, they were faced with the problem of partially closing that door in order to restrict the ministry of women to that ofdiakonia, and good works. Nevertheless, a small number of women have been identified as both prophets and Particular Baptists, and the nature and context of their ministry illustrates the role of women in early Baptist communities.

scholarly journals The Church and Constitutional Reforms in Kenya, 1992-2002: A Retrospective-Historical Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 216
Author(s):  
Stephen Asol Kapinde
Keyword(s):  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Constitutional Reforms ◽  
The Church

Religious leaders have played a leading role in the struggle for constitutional reforms in Kenya since 1990s.Significantly, they have argued over time that the constitution is the covenant of the nation and the ‘moral placenta’ of any meaningful democratic governance. This article therefore sets out to examine the mid-wifery role of religious leaders in negotiating for constitutional reforms in an attempt at consolidating democratic gains achieved following the repeal of section 2A of the then constitution on 19th December, 1991. The article is alive to the fact that the struggle for constitutional change in Kenya was an ‘hybrid enterprise’ which empirically cannot be analyzed by a single actor, entity or factor since many groups whether religious or civil society contributed in their own way in fighting for civil liberties and human rights. Methodologically, this is a retrospectivehistorical analysis of the contribution of the Church in the wider debate of constitutional making process between 1992 and 2002. The central question being addressed is on how the Church played out its activism in the glamour for constitutional reforms. It sets out on the premise that their activism towards constitutional reforms was undergirded by reconstruction paradigm as articulated by African Theo-philosophers such as Jesse Ndwiga Mugambi. Reconstruction paradigm is a theological trajectory that builds on the Ezra- Nehemiah motif. The article relies on archival sources as well as seven indepth oral interviews with key informants.

Pathways to Violence in Civil Wars: Combatant Socialization and the Drivers of Participation in Civilian Targeting

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc-Olivier Cantin
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Civil War Literature ◽  
Violence Against Civilians ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Key Pathways ◽  
Individual Participation

Abstract Recent research has drawn attention to the role of socialization in shaping the behaviors of rebel combatants during civil wars. In particular, scholars have highlighted how vertical and horizontal socialization dynamics can bring combatants to engage in a range of wartime practices, including the use of violence against civilians. This article synthesizes existing theories of combatant socialization and combines them into an integrated framework, which casts the focus on individual pathways toward civilian targeting and specifies the underlying sociopsychological mechanisms through which socializing influences motivate participation in violence. Specifically, the article charts five key pathways that operate through different mechanisms and that are based upon varying degrees of internalization regarding the legitimacy of civilian targeting. In each case, I also identify a number of unit-level factors that are likely to make a given pathway particularly prevalent among combatants. The article then illustrates how these pathways map onto the actual experiences of civil war combatants by examining the drivers of individual participation in violence against civilians among low-ranking members of the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone. The case study evidence highlights the equifinal nature of violence perpetration during civil wars, shedding light on the different social needs, influences, sanctions, and constraints that may motivate involvement in violence. By analyzing rebel behavior through the prism of perpetrator studies, this article thus seeks to establish the civil war literature on firmer theoretical grounds, providing a synthetic account of the individual experiences, motives, and trajectories that are often left unaddressed in this body of research.

Everyday Practices of Toleration: The Interfaith Foundations of Peace Accords in Sierra Leone

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Joel Day
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Peace Accord ◽  
Cultural Foundations ◽  
Faith Leaders ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
Peace Accords ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis

Abstract Under what conditions can faith leaders influence peace in civil wars? The ongoing conflict in Congo, Syria, and Yemen indicate that faith leaders can fuel sectarian divide, but also intervene on the side of peace. Drawing on experiences in Sierra Leone's civil war, this paper highlights the role of faith leaders as moral guarantors of peace processes, with respondent former rebels indicating that without interfaith delegations personally bringing the peace accord to their remote jungle camps, they would not have trusted the UN-led process. Ethnographic analysis and over 60 field interviews with former combatants and religious leaders, presents a model for answering why faith leaders were central in terminating this conflict. Combatant's personal experience with a diverse mixture of Christian, Traditional, and Islamic leaders contributed to high confidence in peace accords, due to interfaith practices deeply embedded within the culture and shows the dispositions, rituals, and interfaith practices that provided the cultural foundations for successful interfaith intervention. The paper ends with generalizations for other interfaith groups seeking to intervene in conflict.

Getting Religion? The Puzzling Case of Islam and Civil War

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 97-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Duffy Toft
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
Petroleum Reserves ◽  
Religious Obligation

From 1940 to 2000, Islam was involved in a disproportionately high number of civil wars compared with other religions, such as Christianity or Hinduism. To help explain the overrepresentation of Islam in these wars, this article introduces a theory of “religious outbidding.” The theory holds that embattled political elites will tender religious bids when they calculate that increasing their religious legitimacy will strengthen their chances of survival. In combination with three overlapping factors—the historical absence of an internecine religious civil war similar to the Thirty Years’ War in Europe, proximity of Islam's holiest sites to Israel and large petroleum reserves, and jihad (i.e., defense of Islam as a religious obligation), religious outbidding accounts for Islam's higher representation in religious civil wars. The article includes a statistical analysis of the role of religion in civil wars and tests the logic of the argument of religious outbidding in the case of Sudan's two civil wars.

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