Religion and peacebuilding refer to the study of religion's role in the development of peace.

Nathan C. Funk and Christina J. Woolner categorize these approaches into three models. The first is “peace through religion alone”. This proposes to attain world peace through devotion to a given religion. Opponents claim that advocates generally want to attain peace through their particular religion only and have little tolerance of other ideologies. The second model, a response to the first, is “peace without religion”. Critics claim that it is overly simplistic and fails to address other causes of conflict as well as the peace potential of religion. It is also said that this model excludes the many contributions of religious people in the development of peace. Another critique claims that both approaches require bringing everyone into their own ideology.

The third and final approach is known as “peace with religion”. This approach focuses on the importance of coexistence and interfaith dialogue.^[1] Gerrie ter Haar suggests that religion is neither inherently good nor bad for peace, and that its influence is undeniable.^[2] Peace with religion, then, emphasises promoting the common principles present in every major religion.

A major component of religion and peacebuilding is faith-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Douglas Johnston points out that faith-based NGOs offer two distinct advantages. The first is that since faith-based NGOs are very often locally based, they have immediate influence within that community. He argues that “it is important to promote indigenous ownership of conflict prevention and peacebuilding initiatives as early in the process as possible.” The second advantage Johnston presents is that faith-based NGOs carry moral authority that contributes to the receptivity of negotiations and policies for peace.^[3]

The Baháʼí Faith requires believers to avoid prejudice in daily life, to be friendly to people of all religions, social statuses, nationalities or various cultural traditions. At the nation's level, it calls for negotiation and dialogue between country leaders, to promote the process of world peace. For world peace, the Baháʼí Faith has the notion of "the Lesser Peace" and "the Great Peace". The previous one is considered the level of political peace, that a peace treaty is signed, and wars are eliminated; the latter refers to God's kingdom on earth, the world reaches its unity and in cooperation, all world's people uses an auxiliary language, a unified currency system, achieves economic justice, a world tribunal is available, and massive disarmament of all countries.

Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, discouraged all forms of violence, including religious violence, writing that his aim was to: ``quench the flame of hate and enmity" and that the ``religion of God is for love and unity; make it not the cause of enmity or dissension."^[8] He warned of the dangers of religious fanaticism describing it as a ``world devouring fire",^[9] prohibited holy war,^[10] and condemned the shedding of blood, the burning of books, the shunning of the followers of other religions and the extermination of communities and groups.^[11] Bahá'u'lláh promoted the concept of the oneness of the world and human beings describing the Earth as "but one country, and mankind its citizens".^[12] Bahá'u'lláh identified the elimination of disunity as a necessary pre-requisite to peace. "The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established."^[13]

In 1985, as a contribution to the 1986 International Year of Peace, the international governing body of the Baháʼí Faith, the Universal House of Justice, released a major statement on the promotion of peace, that was distributed worldwide by the Baháʼí community. The statement sets out an analysis and strategy for creation of a more peaceful world. It identifies the following barriers to peace: racism, economic injustice, uncontrolled nationalism, religious strife, inequality between man and women, an absence of universal education, and the need for an international auxiliary language. The statement concludes with a call for establishment of the "oneness of humanity", a call which implies "no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world — a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units."^[14]

• Pacifism § Religious attitudes
  • Christian pacifism
  • Pacifism in Islam
• Judaism and peace
• Islam and humanity
• Morality in Islam
• Religion
• Nontheistic religion
• Religious naturalism