Berkley Center

A new Brookings Institution blog recaps a January 8 panel featuring Berkley Center Senior Research Fellow Peter Mandaville with Shadi Hamid, Geneive Abdo, and Indira Lakshmanan. They discussed a new report connected to a joint Brookings-Berkley Center project on the geopolitics of religious soft power.

A panel of experts on global peacemaking and international security debated the complex role religion and religious leaders play in causing or preventing violent extremism, starting with two critical questions: firstly, how important religion is as a factor in violent extremism, and secondly, what kind of role religion and religious leaders can play in countering these groups.

Writing in Emergence Magazine, Berkley Center Senior Fellow Paul Elie is struck by the thought that the Catholic Church and the natural world have traded places as sources of transcendence and wonders how religion and the natural world might come together for shared renewal.

The National Catholic Reporter recaps "Beyond the Wall," an event sponsored by Georgetown's Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life which featured Berkley Center Senior Fellow Rev. David Hollenbach, S.J., on a panel discussing the human costs and moral principles that should shape our policy choices regarding a border wall.

related | Catholic News Service article