Lisa Sharon Harper, founder and president of Freedom Road, preaches Sunday in the Amphitheater. Image from The Chautauqua Daily.
This call is hosted by the Christian Peacebuilding Network (CPN), a multi-org group we helped found, and is part of a series of monthly conversations to help connect Christian peacebuilders and discuss themes related to peacebuilding and the Christian faith.
In our globalized, hyper-diverse, and polarized world, many Christians have seen the great need for peacebuilding and justice work and are curious or interested to learn more about how peacebuilding is connected to the Christian faith. Even more Christians are already on board, actively building relationships across divisions and working for justice and peace in their communities.
Yet for both of these groups, theological questions and tensions often emerge. Various expressions of Christian theology actively prevent some Christians from fully embracing the work for holistic and just peace (shalom/eirene) as the center of God’s mission. Even many who are fully committed to the work of peacebuilding are finding that they have inherited theological baggage that must be unlearned in order to bring a sense of spiritual coherence to their lives as Christians and peacebuilders.
During this CPN meeting, Lisa Sharon Harper, founder and president of Freedom Road, will offer insights from her work about primary theological obstacles that she sees preventing Christians from fully embracing the work for peace and justice. She will also share some guidance and encouragement about how we might overcome those obstacles both personally and within our spiritual communities as we remember God as our liberator, healer, and the one first and foremost working for justice and peace in our lives and world.
If you’re a Christian peacebuilder, join us for this online discussion to talk and process together about the following questions.
Discussion questions:
What liberative moments have you personally experienced or seen in your community when people were freed from oppressive theologies that were doing harm personally, interpersonally, or communally?
How are you attentive to theological unlearning and relearning in your peacebuilding formation work with Christians? How have you worked effectively to overcome theological barriers that prevent Christians from engaging in peacebuilding?
Time:
3:00pm Central Europe / Central Africa (4:00pm East Africa Time / Jerusalem, 2:00pm UK, 9:00am USA Eastern, 6:30pm India Time)
Facilitator:
Lisa Sharon Harper
Lisa Sharon Harper is the founder and president of Freedom Road, a groundbreaking consulting group that crafts experiences that bring common understanding and common commitments that lead to common action toward a more just world. Lisa is a public theologian whose writing, speaking, activism, and training has sparked and fed the fires of re-formation in the church from Ferguson and Charlottesville to South Africa, Brazil, Australia, and Ireland. Lisa’s book, Fortune: How Race Broke My Family And The World--And How To Repair It All was named one of the “Best Books of 2022” and The Very Good Gospel was named 2016 “Book of the Year” by Englewood Review of Books. The Huffington Post identified Lisa as one of 50 Women Religious Leaders to Celebrate on International Women’s Day. Lisa is host of the Freedom Road Podcast, cohost of The FOUR Podcast and author of her weekly column on Substack, “The Truth Is...”.