University of Notre Dame Press Politics of Past Evil, The: Religion, Reconciliation, and the Dilemmas of Transitional Justice (From the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International ... on Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding)

Over the past two or three decades, all over the world, a formidable number of societies has sought to confront past evil - the injustices of communism, military dictatorship, apartheid, or civil war. Emergent is the concept of reconciliation, whose meaning philosophers and social scientists now debate in the context of political transitions in countries as diverse as South Africa, East Timor, Guatemala, and the Czech Republic. Most of these debates, though, share a secularism that is at variance with the beliefs of many of the participants in these transitions. What unfolds in this volume, in contrast, is a conversation about reconciliation whose common denominator is theology. Theologians, philosophers, and political scientists explore the meaning of reconciliation for the politics of transition. Alan Torrance, David Burrell, C.S.C., Nicholas Wolterstorff, and Daniel Philpott draw on theology for their theoretical perspectives; A. James McAdams, Mark R. Amstutz, and Ronald Wells chart the path of reconciliation in Germany, Argentina, South Africa, and Northern Ireland. R. Scott Appleby offers a concluding essay. Their insights will interest a wide variety of readers, both scholars and generalists, both with and without theological commitments. Review " The Politics of Past Evil sheds light on an important question: How do newly established democratic governments--in countries that previously lived under Communism, military dictatorship, or apartheid--address the crimes and injustices committed by the previous regime?. . . The book as a whole is both innovative and provocative. It enriches the literature on democratization by introducing theological as well as political and philosophical reasoning into the transitional logic."--Journal of Cold War Studies About the Author DANIEL PHILPOTT is associate professor in the department of political science and a Faculty Fellow, Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame.