ASSESSING THEORIES FOR ANALYZING AND ATTENDING TO RELIGIOUS-BASED CONFLICT ...

197 Pages·2015·4.16 MB·English

PREPARING FOR THE STRANGER;
ASSESSING THEORIES FOR ANALYZING AND ATTENDING TO
RELIGIOUS-BASED CONFLICT

by

J. Nathan Kline
A Thesis
Submitted to the
Graduate Faculty
of
George Mason University
in Partial Fulfillment of
The Requirements for the Degree
of
Master of Science
Conflict Analysis and Resolution

Committee:

___________________________________________ Chair of Committee

___________________________________________

___________________________________________

___________________________________________ Graduate Program Director

___________________________________________ Dean, School for Conflict
Analysis and Resolution

Date: _____________________________________ Summer Semester 2015
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA
Preparing for the Stranger:
Assessing Theories for Analyzing and Attending to
Religious-Based Conflict

A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Science at George Mason University

By

J. Nathan Kline
Master of Divinity
Divinity School, University of Chicago, 2003
Bachelor of Arts
Florida Southern College, 1998

Director: Marc Gopin, Professor
School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution

Summer Semester 2015
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA
Copyright: 2015 J. Nathan Kline
All Rights Reserved

ii
DEDICATION

I remain indebted to my loving wife, Dawn Marie Kline. Her support and
encouragement—whether during my long absences on deployments to combat zones,
attending military schools, late nights at the office, or responding to middle-of-the-night
emergencies—help sustain me. Ours is a shared ministry. As such, she joins me in
dedicating this work—to include the research, writing, and especially the lived and
professional experience informing it—to our children Benjamin, Jared, and Sophia.
Because we believe all parents love their children as we love ours, we remain convinced
there is always hope for peace.

iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to acknowledge my thesis chair, Professor Marc Gopin, and my thesis committee
members, Professor Daniel Rothbart and Professor Karina Korostelina for their guidance
and expertise and for reminding me that we can never understand the world too precisely
nor listen too well. For infecting me with a love of learning and a respect for people from
every walk of life as much as they have grounded me in my own religious tradition, I
thank my parents, Jim and Vickie Kline. My professional and personal journey has
frequently intersected with that of my dear friend and fellow chaplain, Jason Unsworth.
Our many shared interests and experiences, within the context of a life-long dialogue, are
essential components to my personal process of discovering life’s meaning and value.
For approving my study at George Mason’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution
I thank the United States Army and Chaplain Corps, and for funding my research and
degree program I remain accountable to the U.S. Taxpayers. My respect for the religious
Other began to take on distinct form during my interreligious ministry in metropolitan
Chicago working alongside legendary religious leaders including, Rev. Stanley L. Davis,
Jr., Rev. Paul H. Rutgers, Rabbi Ira Youdovin, Bishop Dimitri Kantzavelous, Sister Joan
McGuire, and Kareem M. Irfan. I acknowledge former supervisory chaplains, Chaplain
Mark Nordstrom and Chaplain Bobby Whitlock, for their mentorship and for
exemplifying a proper balance between serving as religious leaders and excelling as staff
officers, and also Chaplain David Colwell who humanely and intelligently exemplifies
the need to reexamine one’s prejudices against new experiences if one hopes to remain
faithful. Similarly, I wish to thank my combat commanders, Douglas Victor and Michael
Silverman, and those brigade commanders whose friendship I cherished in garrison:
William “Bill” Stacey and Michael Simley. Finally, I remain indebted to my chaplain
assistants, both those who risked their lives keeping me safe in the line of duty—Dave
Lee and Eric Tremain—and those who tirelessly sustained Soldier and Family ministry in
garrison and training environments: Jarrith Johnson, Tramaine Cohen, Michael Hall,
Delores Hatcher, and Devin Shaw. No chaplain has had finer “battle buddies”.

iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………..vi
List of Abbreviations………...……………………………………………………….. vii
Abstract..................................................................................................................……viii
Chapter 1.......................................................................................................................…1
Chapter 2.........................................................................................................................19
Chapter 3.........................................................................................................................80
Chapter 4 ......................................................................................................................106
Chapter 5.......................................................................................................................126
Chapter 6.......................................................................................................................162
Chapter 7.......................................................................................................................176
Bibliography.………….………………………………………………………………179

v
LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page
Figure 1.1 Meeting Sheikh Heiss ..............................................................................…14
Figure 1.2 Dialogue with Imam and Sheikh Abdullah Jalal al Faraji............................15
Figure 2.1 Knitter’s Models for Interreligious Activity [spheres] ................................37
Figure 2.2 Knitter’s Models for Interreligious Activity [continuum] ...........................37
Figure 3.1 Fowler’s Stages of Faith ..............................................................................85
Figure 4.1 Rothbart & Korostelina’s Teliomorphic Model ........................................117
Figure 4.2 Rothbart & Korostelina’s Four Types of Axiological Difference .............120

vi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AG Ad Gentes
AQI al-Qaeda in Iraq
CSI Conflict Strategies Inventory
DI Dominus Iesus
DP Dialogue and Proclamation
FDS Faith Development Scale
IED Improvised Explosive Device
IG Ingroup
IP Iraqi Police
ISIS/ISIL Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/Islamic State in the Levant
NA Nostra Aetate
OG Outgroup
USACHCS United States Army Chaplain Center and School
VBIED Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Devise

vii
ABSTRACT

PREPARING FOR THE STRANGER:
ASSESSING THEORIES FOR ANALYZING AND ATTENDING TO
RELIGIOUS-BASED CONFLICT

J. Nathan Kline, MS

George Mason University, 2015

Thesis Director: Dr. Marc Gopin

This thesis will address two related questions: one regarding conflict analysis and the
other conflict resolution. As instruments for analyzing religious-based conflict, what are
the possibilities and limitations of: 1.) Theologies of the Other and the ethical grounds for
interreligious dialogue, 2.) Fowler's theory of faith development for individuals, and 3.)
Rothbart & Korostelina's theory of axiological difference for groups? As a theory
informing interreligious dialogue as a means of addressing religious-based conflict, what
are the possibilities and limitations for hermeneutical theory in the tradition of Hans-
Georg Gadamer? This study will conclude by identifying opportunities for incorporating
the findings of this research and possibilities for future research during the author's
follow-on assignment as the World Religions Instructor at the United States Army
Chaplain Center and School.
viii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

“It is the will of God that we be tolerant with those who disagree with us about
the will of God”—quipped Richard John Neuhaus.1 If this strikes the reader as humorous
it is likely the ironic type, for while many would agree such a principle or maxim is the
ideal, far too few of us practice it. Why is this ideal so difficult to practice? Does a
realization of the ideal come only at the expense of ultimate truth claims? Is there more
implied here than a simple live-and-let-live or agreeing-to-disagree mentality? Why is it
that religion and conflict seem existentially tied to one another? These and many other
questions related to religious-based conflict are relevant to the present study. The study
concerns the military chaplain as a practitioner attending to religious-based conflict on
the battlefield. The study will introduce and examine theories and their models as
instruments for both analyzing and transforming conflict. It is hoped the examination
will help determine these instruments’ possibilities and limitations for utilization in
practice. And yet it seems helpful to first say a bit about religious-based conflict in
general and the types of conflict a military chaplain is likely to encounter. Looking
briefly at some of the latest ideas about conflict can help set the stage for the present
study.

1 Cox, Harvey, et al. “World Religions and Conflict Resolution,” in Religion, the
Missing Dimension of Statecraft. Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson, eds. (New
York: Oxford UP) 1994, 266.
1