Megan Shore, Religion and Conflict Resolution: Christianity and South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), pp. xv+211. ISBN 978-0-7546-6757-9.

摘要

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (TRC) is widely acclaimed for its contribution to the relatively smooth shift from the violent, non-democratic apartheid regime to the democratic rainbow nation. But in recent years the positive perception of the TRC is increasingly being challenged for its lack of focus on social justice, brought about in part by the growing frustration with the inability of the current democratically elected governments to narrow the extreme gap between rich and poor in South Africa. Some observers blame the Christian influence for this omission of justice as a key issue to be addressed. The argument goes that the chairperson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, dressed in his clerical robes, and the other Christian members of the Commission, redirected this legal procedure into a Christian framework with prayers, candles, and the vocabulary of confessing, forgiving and reconciliation, so that the focus on justice got lost. They see this as a confirmation of their conviction that religion should be kept far away from conflict resolution.