on peace

…All humans hope for something that may be called peace. But most societies have interpreted peace as the success of violence – in the ideology of Western states, as a “security” to be established by “defence”. Just so the hope for peace becomes itself the constant occasion of conflict. The gospel promises the actual advent of peace and invites us to its anticipation in the Eucharist. The gospel makes peace a possibility by telling us that we do not have to defend ourselves, by telling us that our lives are hid with God in Christ. Just so, the gospel interprets peace as what Christ brings, as the fruit of his self-surrender.

Robert Jenson in Systematic Theology II, p. 210