Spiritual forces in international politics.

Spiritual Forces in International Politics by RC Mowat New Cherwell Press, Oxford, UK, 1998 [pounds sterling] 9.99. ISBN: 1 900312 25 5

Robin Mowat's book provides a rich resource for students and professionals who study history and politics and seek the elusive formulas for non-violence and peacebuilding among tribes and nations.

I know of no other book, that deals with the issues of religion--or spirituality--as the missing dimension of statecraft, that offers so many references from ancient and modern literature. Thus we have citations from Thucydides, Josephus, Saints Augustine, Jerome, Bonaventure, Benedict and--my favourite--Francis of Assisi, among others, and modern day references to Henry Kissinger, Paul Johnson, Francis Fukuyama, Gertrude Himmelfarb and the poetry of TS Eliot. Much more than food for thought, Mowat has provided a banquet.

In a chapter entitled Streams of Faith, Mowat recounts the efforts of Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christians over the centuries in Europe to inject spiritual principle into the thinking of kings, princes, politicians and ordinary people. I found the story of the evolution toward peacebuilding of German Quietists and English Quakers starting in the 17th century very interesting. As one might expect, Mowat refers extensively to Religion: the Missing Dimension of Statecraft (Oxford, 1994), edited by Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson, which among other things documents the critical contributions to conflict resolution of MRA activists in the Franco-German case, Zimbabwe-Rhodesia and elsewhere.

One emerging theme of the book leaves the greatest impression on this reviewer. In the author's historical retrospective, the emphasis on Christian actors and Christian peacebuilders--including MRA founder Frank Buchman--is dominant. Putting oneself in the place of a Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist or Hindu reader, one could ask if there is any redeeming virtue in the non-Christian faiths. But Mowat addresses this question in later chapters and some intriguing appendices.

In chapter 13, Action for the coming age, Mowat recalls that Caliph Al-Hakam II asked and received the help of Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus Phocas in decorating the mihrab (pulpit) in the great mosque in Cordoba. Fast forward to today: the author reports that the Orthodox Bishop of Bosnia and the Catholic Archbishop attended the ceremony installing the new Muslim Reisul-elema, the chief cleric of the Bosnian Muslim community.

In an appendix, Andre Chouraqui, a North African Jew who emigrated to Israel, writes of his personal journey to gain faith, referring to `the shock of discovering God by way of Christian and Muslim spirituality'. And Mowat cites Mahatma Gandhi, by origin a Hindu, as being `overjoyed' on first hearing the Sermon on the Mount.

These brief snippets may help to illustrate the challenge evangelical Christian peacemakers face in a world of a billion Muslims, hundreds of millions of Hindus, and countless people of other faiths who need recognition, respect, spiritual succour and love, but who do not seek conversion. In this environment which will be the signature of the 21st century, we might best be guided by the Quaker conciliator, Adam Curie, whom Mowat quotes saying, `virtually the sole dogma ... of Friends concerns "that of God in every one". This "divine spark" in each person [is] the bond between us all.'