Faith and Practice in Conflict Resolution

FAITH AND PRACTICE IN CONFLICT RESOLUTION Edited by Rachel M Goldberg Kumarian Press, Lynne Rienner, 2016 Hardcover, 227 pp., $65.00.This book makes the case for inclusion of faith and spirituality in a multidimensional approach to conflict resolution (CR) and illustrates how different practitioners have in practice found this to be helpful. The case is premised on the observation that the early stages of the evolution of the CR field was heavily influenced by a search for legitimacy through standards like those that seemed to validate the legal profession. The search for professional credibility relied on expert neutrality and objectivism. The idea that legitimacy comes from objectivity is, of course, rooted in the long history of the separation of mind and body: reason and emotion and science and faith. Anchored in modernism and the work of its founding fathers Newton, Descartes, and Bacon, reductionism and determinism became the hallmarks of the scientific approach to gathering objective knowledge. "The key was keeping body, mind, heart and spirit separate and it was believed, this process led to the truth."In the field of CR the use of outside (separated) mediators who are neutral (have set aside their emotions and values) was required for them to be considered trustworthy and fair. However Faith and Practice in Conflict Resolution presents credible arguments which show that these original separations are being refuted by many disciplines which now conclude that the human mind is inherently embodied and no separate and objective reasoning facility exists. Further, human systems are complex, adaptive, non-linear and non-determinative so that cause and effect are not uniquely coupled. They are integrated wholes which cannot be understood by breaking them down into essential elements.The authors then proceed to show that what allows real transformative work in CR includes but goes beyond rational cognitive skills and responses. They propose a multidimensional framework in which the goal is to access multiple dimensions of knowledge or wisdom in a way that engages our whole selves and seeks to engage the somatic, emotional, cognitive and spiritual dimensions of our being. They support the validity of the framework by drawing from several relevant authoritative sources such as the work of Howard Gardener on multiple intelligences, Daniel Goleman and Daniel Kahneman, on emotional intelligence, Donald Schon on the reflective practitioner, and others. After presenting and rationalising the framework, several chapters of the book are written by practitioners who illustrate how this more holistic multidimensional approach has been used in their work and experience. What comes through clearly is that the practitioners own spirituality, emotional intelligence, and somatic intelligence had to be transformed in the process and it was not a matter of just using a new framework as a tool. Two chapters then focus on how to train and teach multidimensional practice. Novel techniques such poetic listening, walking and talking, and the vocational pause are presented by John Paul Lederach and followed by testimony from several apprentices on how they engaged with such training. …