Customer Reviews

The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace

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"John Paul Lederach, a theorist of great insight who also happens to be a practitioner of high skill, brings us deep into his own process of learning . . . "
So said the well-known author William Ury

In The Moral Imagination I learned to look for the important web of relationships that lies hidden behind the violence of a conflict. Such webs contain spaces that may become starting places for reconciliation. Even before violence abates, in such spaces a peace-builder can get started.

A skilled and engaging storyteller, Mr. Lederach offers instances from his own experience to illustrate the theories he lays out. For example, he tells how mothers, wives, and daughters built peace in a formerly violent marketplace where all parties needed to shop for necessities.

In the arena of workplace reconciliation where I work, Mr. Lederach has helped me assign meaning to much I have observed but not always recognized as important.

This is a metaphorically rich book about conflict resolution and preparing the essential infrastructure for dialogue. Anyone interested in resolving conflict at whatever level would benefit from the experiences Prof. Lederach shares.

This is a wonderful book, beautiful and thoughtful. One of the best books I have read this year. The concepts here have many applications beyond peacemaking. Hopeful and helpful.

I am only half way through right now. But this book is really helping me to see the heart of conflict resolution and peace building.

I am naturally a very emotional person, but all during my undergrad I had to put on a very serious/fact finding hat to get through. Now during my graduate studies of Peace and Conflict Resolution I was having a hard time adjusting. Words like "love", "harmony", and "imagination" were really throwing me off.

I am reading this book for my class and it is really helping me to put my heart and imagination into what I am learning which is helping me to internalize what I am learning. After all, I believe that to want to resolve the conflict of others, you have to have a little love and imagination in your heart.

This book puts the heart back into peace building. It reminds us that it is ok to use your heart and intuition in your work. Everything is not always about technical methods and theories.

A hooked reader.