Towards a Just and Ecologically Sustainable Peace: Navigating the Great Transition

365 Pages·2020·4.079 MB·English

by  Joseph Camilleri, Deborah Guess

Towards a
Just and Ecologically
Sustainable Peace
Navigating the Great Transition
Edited by Joseph Camilleri · Deborah Guess
Towards a Just and Ecologically Sustainable Peace
·
Joseph Camilleri Deborah Guess
Editors
Towards a Just
and Ecologically
Sustainable Peace
Navigating the Great Transition
Editors
Joseph Camilleri Deborah Guess
La Trobe University University of Divinity
Melbourne, VIC, Australia Melbourne, VIC, Australia
ISBN 978-981-15-5020-1 ISBN 978-981-15-5021-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5021-8
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Preface
This volume is part of a wider project which has gathered momentum
over a number of years. It began with a Symposium Ecological Aspects of
War held on September 2015 at Trinity College, Melbourne, in which
scholarsfromAustraliaconsideredcriticallytheintersectionsbetweenwar
and ecology. From this symposium emerged two scholarly books: Ecolog-
ical Aspects of War: Engagements with Biblical Texts, edited by Keith
Dyer and Anne Elvey, with Deborah Guess, (Bloomsbury T&T Clark,
2017),andEcologicalAspectsofWar:ReligiousandTheologicalPerspectives
from Australia, edited by Anne Elvey, Deborah Guess and Keith Dyer.
(Adelaide, ATF Press: A Forum for Theology in the World, 2017), and
a journal article: Anne Elvey, Keith Dyer and Deborah Guess, ‘Ecolog-
ical Aspects of War—Imagining Creaturely Mission’, Australian Journal
of Mission Studies 10, no. 2 (December 2016): 40–48.
Subsequently, the project more intentionally incorporated the theme
‘TowardsaJustandEcologicallySustainablePeace’withProfessorJoseph
Camilleri as Chair. The project gave rise to several events, the first of
whichwasareflectivepublicforumheldattheIslamicCouncilofVictoria
in Melbourne on Remembrance Day 2018 titled A World at Peace with
Itself: Elusive Dream or Achievable Goal? attended by 100 people. It was
followed by the centrepiece of the project, a major two-day conference
EarthatPeace heldatPilgrimTheologicalCollege,Parkville,Melbourne,
in April 2019 attended by 140 people.
v
vi PREFACE
The 2019 conference was unique and significant. It intentionally
sought to make connections between scholarly and practical dimensions,
with many of its presenters encompassing the worlds of academia and
civic engagement. It had the usual components of a conference program
(with keynote presentations and a number of panels) but also more
dynamic aspects, including seven working groups tasked with recom-
mendingspecificcoursesofaction,aplenaryinteractivesessionwithinter-
national speakers, and a hypothetical scenario on how Australia might
handleamassinfluxofclimatechangerefugeesfromneighbouringPacific
Islands in line with the principles of a just and ecologically sustainable
peace. Another highlight of the conference was a public forum (which
attracted an audience of 200 people) with interactive involvement from
keynote speakers including Behrouz Boochani, a refugee then held in
detention by the Australian Government, an Iranian-Kurdish journalist
and writer of the award-winning book No Friend But the Mountains:
Writing from Manus Prison.
Another notable dimension of the Earth at Peace project was the
emphasis on linking thought, action, poetry and art. The conference
venue hosted a major six-week exhibition titled Just Art by the noted
peace artist William Kelly as well as a cultural evening of live music and
poetry performanceswhich respondedboth to the conference theme and
to Kelly’s artwork.
This volume is an integral part of the Earth at Peace project and a
directoutcomeoftheconference.Itincludescontributionsfromkeynote
speakerHeatherEatonandothersinvolvedintheconference.Asubsidiary
volume focusing on the project’s art and poetry component is currently
in preparation.
Two organisations were integral in planning and funding the confer-
ence:theCentreforResearchinReligionandSocialPolicyattheUniver-
sityofDivinity,andPaxChristiAustralia.Inaddition,weareindebtedto
a number of organisations which either financially sponsored or in some
other way supported the conference. These include: Australian Associa-
tion of the Study of Religions; Australian Research Theology Founda-
tion Inc.; Borderlands Co-operative; Christian Brothers; Ethos—Centre
for Christianity and Society; Faith Communities Council of Victoria;
Global Reconciliation; Islamic Council of Victoria; Journeys for Climate
Justice; Loreto Sisters; Medical Association for the Prevention of War;
MelbourneUnitarianPeaceMemorialChurch;PeaceandConflictStudies
Institute Australia (PaCSIA); Pilgrim Theological College, University
PREFACE vii
of Divinity; Social Policy Connections; Society of Friends, Victorian
Regional Meeting; Redemptorist Congregation; Religions for Peace;
Trinity College Theological School, University of Divinity; Victorian
CouncilofChurches.Weexpressourappreciationtothemanyindividual
donors, with special thanks to the generous contribution by Elizabeth
Proust and Brian Lawrence. We are also grateful to this volume’s two
anonymous peer reviewers whose insights provided valuable feedback to
our contributors.
Melbourne, Australia Joseph Camilleri
January 2020 Deborah Guess
Contents
1 Introduction 1
Deborah Guess
Part I In Search of a Holistic Approach
2 A Just and Ecologically Sustainable Peace:
The Policy Imperative of Our Time 17
Joseph Camilleri
3 Crossroads and Crosshairs: Violence, Nonviolence,
Critique, Vision and Wonder 49
Heather Eaton
4 ‘Holding’ a Just and Ecological Peace 73
Ariel Salleh
5 ‘Walking the Land’: An Alternative to Discourse
as a Path to Ecological Consciousness and Peace 97
Freya Mathews
ix
x CONTENTS
Part II Cosmological and Religious Perspectives
6 An Islamic Approach to Environmental Protection
and Ecologically Sustainable Peace in the Age
of the Anthropocene 119
Zuleyha Keskin and Mehmet Ozalp
7 Islamic Ethics and Truth Commissions in the Muslim
World: Towards a Just and Ecologically Sustainable
Peace? 135
Salim Farrar
8 Innate Wisdom—Peace on/in/with Earth 165
Norman Habel
9 Pope Francis’s Moral Compass for Climate Change
and Global Justice 183
Bruce Duncan
10 Restoring Our Interconnected Spiritual and Ecological
Integrity: Imperative for a Just and Ecologically
Sustainable Peace 207
Shelini Harris
11 Breathing the Others, Seeing the Lives: A Reflection
on Twenty-First-Century Nonviolence 229
Chaiwat Satha-Anand
Part III Questioning the Colonial Mindset
12 ‘We’ve Seen the End of the World and We Don’t Accept
It’: Protection of Indigenous Country and Climate
Justice 251
Tony Birch
CONTENTS xi
13 Reimagining Decolonising Praxis for a Just and
Ecologically Sustainable Peace in an Australian Context 275
Anne Elvey
14 From Mendicant Nation to Global Citizen: Towards
a New Australian Foreign Policy for the Twenty-First
Century 297
Allan Patience
Part IV Concluding Reflections
15 Response: Utopian Versus Prophetic Visions 323
Mark G. Brett
16 TheWinterofOurDiscontentandthePromiseofSpring 335
Joseph Camilleri
Appendices 347
Index 351