Peace Talks--Who Will Listen? - by Fred Dallmayr (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In his Complaint of Peace, the great sixteenth-century humanist Erasmus allows "Peace" to talk. Peace speaks as a plaintiff, protesting her shabby treatment at the hands of humankind and our ever-ready inclination to launch wars. Against this lure of warfare, Erasmus pits the higher task of peace-building, which can only succeed through the cultivation of justice and respect for all human life.

First articulated in 1517, the complaint of peace has echoed through subsequent centuries and down to our age--an age convulsed by world wars, holocausts, and ethnic cleansings. Distinguished political scientist Fred Dallmayr traces this complaint from the writings of Erasmus through the evolution of the "law of nations" to recent and contemporary co-plaintiffs in the West. He also highlights the role of non-Western thinkers and teachings in giving voice to "Peace." In addition to Erasmus, Dallmayr engages major thinkers such as Francisco de Vitoria, Hugo Grotius, Immanuel Kant, Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger, Mahatma Ghandi, the Dalai Lama, John Rawls, and Martha Nussbaum.

This timely book urgently pleads for greater attentiveness to peace's complaint as an antidote to the prevailing culture of violence and the escalating danger of nuclear catastrophe. Dallmayr offers not only a compelling historical narrative, but powerful ethical and religious arguments vindicating the primacy of peace over violence and war.

Review Quotes

"A vibrant contemporary voice in the proliferating multicultural conversation of mankind, Professor Dallmayr makes the strongest case yet for a peace-making culture that would be able to restrain the war machine mentality of our present age. The debt that we all owe Professor Dallmayr has increased immeasurably with the publication of this his most recent volume." --Calvin O. Schrag, Purdue University

"Dallmayr... intends for this study to be a call for peace in this age of strife, destruction, and desolation. ...the scope of Dallmayr's erudition here is a tour de force." --Cistercian Studies Quarterly

"Fred Dallmayr has made another important contribution to comparative philosophical and religious studies from his well-known--and well-established--continental philosophical perspective." --Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"This book has great strength.... The most important service it offers is that it gives both general readers and scholars a sense of the tremendous powers for peacemaking contained in the world's philosophical and religious traditions. ...the book is extremely interesting and useful. It is a helpful guide through the resources of peacemaking found throughout the world's cultural traditions." --Perspectives on Politics

"With gripping multicultural sensitivity, Professor Dallmayr opens our minds and hearts to an urgent, timely message of how to think about making peace. With penetrating insights and fascinating exploration, he shows that this message, which must be heeded if our species is to survive with dignity, has timeless roots that he vividly brings to light while drawing deftly on traditions at once ancient and modern, Western and Eastern, and from the global North and South." --Robert C. Johansen, Professor of Peace Studies and Political Science, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame

About the Author

Fred Dallmayr is Packey J. Dee Professor of Political Theory at the University of Notre Dame.