DESCRIPTION
This course prepares a spiritual leader to add a set of biblical peace and reconciliation (PAR) principles in his or her total discipleship ministry. PAR is a key aspect of holistic disciplemaking. In this peace theological framework, we see the disciple’s life and ministry in four quadrants — spiritual, psycho-social, socio-political, and economic-ecological. The unifying, energizing, and sustaining center of these quadrants is the Cross of Jesus Christ.
OBJECTIVES
After this course, the student should be able to:
- Understand and articulate a biblical theology of Peace and Reconciliation
- Analyze the nature of conflict and how it can be transformed towards peacebuilding and genuine reconciliation
- Apply a biblical theology of Peace and Reconciliation in various aspects of transformation—spiritual, psycho-social, socio-political, and economic-ecological
- Develop a church-based Peace and Reconciliation ministry for the healing of the individual, family, local church, barangay, city or municipality, province, and our beloved nation from the wounds of injustices and various forms of violence
Requirements: This is an advanced leadership development program for those who have completed PAR Seminars 1, 2, & 3.
Learning Resources:
- A leadership training based on Peace Theology and a set of Social Ethical Values
- Has a well-established field experience in peace-building and conflict transformation in the context of Philippine realities
- Facilitators are immersed, on a continuing basis, in various levels of conflict transformation processes in many provinces in our country
- Enriched by its national and international interns who bring to each class a rich mix of experiences and knowledge
- A learning program whose learning facilitators are actual practitioners who have gone through academic disciplines in biblical peacemaking and social ethics
- Participants are connected and actively working with local and global networks of peace-building practitioners
Program: For both the Seminar Facilitator’s Diploma and Leadership Mentor’s Diploma, the student will be given one month to do the required readings and other class preparation. There will be a whole week — Monday to Friday, 8 hours per day — for class sessions. The student will be given one month to write a course paper.
PAR SEMINAR FACILITATOR’S DIPLOMA
SF 1: Introduction to Peace Theology. This is a biblical-theological discussion on peace, centered on Jesus, with emphasis on active non-violence. This course will help the students to appreciate and to evaluate a biblical understanding and contemporary practice of Peace Theology. Such evaluation will be done within the framework of social sciences and informed from the perspective of biblical theology. The students will be intellectually involved in the current discussions on the meanings, proposals, and tasks of Peace Theology.
SF 2: Peace and Peacemaking in the Old Testament. This is a survey of war and warfare in the Hebrew Bible. The class will be exposed, through a series of lectures, to the OT texts that have been used to justify colonialism, conquest, occupation, and ethnic cleansing. The class will read these passages from the perspective of the poor, the oppressed and the powerless, rather than the perspective of the rich, the oppressors and the powerful.
SF 3: Peace and Peacemaking in the New Testament. The class will be exposed, through a series of lectures, on the NT theology of peace and the related emphases of love for enemies, non-retaliation, and reconciliation.
SF 4: Peace and Reconciliation (PAR) Principles and Practices. This will be a review of PAR Seminars 1, 2, & 3. Specific materials will be selected based on its contextual significance. Students will go through a workshop to master the contents of the selected materials. A special emphasis will be given on the Theology of PAR Leadership.
SF 5: PAR Facilitating Skills. This will be a workshop on various learning facilitation techniques that have been proven effective in the various historical, social, and cultural contexts in the Philippines based on PBCI’s 10-year experience of conducting PAR Seminars.
Upon successfully completing all the class requirements and passing an actual teaching demonstration using PAR 1-3, a PAR Seminar Facilitator’s Diploma will be issued to the candidate.
PAR LEADERSHIP MENTOR’S DIPLOMA
LM 1: Introduction to Social Ethics. This course will examine the sources for values that underlie our personal ethics. It will also introduce the learners to some of the significant ethical theories in Western and Southeast Asian traditions, theories that we will apply to social and political issues in current Philippine society.
LM 2: Culture, History, and Social Ethics in the Philippine Context. A survey and analysis of the cultural and historical factors affecting our social ethics as Filipinos. The class will discuss case studies of corruption and transformation from the lenses of spiritual, psycho-social, socio-political, and economic-ecological aspects of our realities.
LM 3: Roots of Conflict, Violence, and Peace in the Philippines. An examination of influential theories about the sources and nature of conflict, violence, and peace. The class will discuss various levels of conflict — personal, family, community, society — and how Peace Theology is applied in the conflict transformation processes needed for the healing of our land.
LM 4: PAR Leadership Ethics and Community Organizing. An in-depth study of the Theology of PAR Leadership and its implication to various aspects of radical transformation — spiritual, psycho-social, socio-political, and economic-ecological. A special focus on various leadership behaviors of known Filipino religious and political leaders, past and present, will be discussed.
LM 5: Integrated Peacebuilding Framework. This is a strategic workshop to establish PAR Communities in all the provinces of the Philippines. PAR Communities would be the backbone of a PAR Movement with an integrated framework for peace-building, who are organized in partnership with various parts of the People of God, who are mobilized to do ministries of justice and peace in the name of Jesus, and who will lovingly serve all the peoples of our land unconditionally regardless of religion, ethnicity, or political ideology, to the end that our land will experience holistic, radical transformation!
Upon successfully completing all the class requirements and passing an actual “PAR Provincial Strategic Plan”, a PAR Leadership Mentor’s Diploma will be issued to the candidate.
For more information, including program fees and other costs, please contact learn@peacebuilderscommunity.org.
