Featured Book: Understanding Peace Holistically


Understanding Peace Holistically: From the Spiritual to the Political argues that spiritually rooted and morally oriented peacefulness is relevant to the socio-economic–political structures that provide the conditions for a culture of peace. GHFP’s Scherto Gill and Garrett Thomson are the co-authors of this book.

Through developing a theory of positive and holistic peace, from the spiritual to the relational, and from communal towards the socio-political, this book identifies key principles that characterise international and institutional processes that nurture peace. The innovative conception of peace developed in this book may guide and inspire individuals, institutions, and international organisations with regards to how to make peace.

International Symposium on Relational Process as Governance held online 6-7 May 2021

relational process as governance

If relational process is the overarching connection that unites emergent approaches to governance, thus opening new vistas of theory and practice, further exploration is vital. To this end, the GHFP Research Institute invites scholars and practitioners whose work centrally bears on these issues to explore the implications and potentials of relational process in governance.

The following are among the questions to be considered during the two-day International Symposium held on 6-7 May 2021:

  1. What does a relational orientation offer for the future development of governance, from the local, regional, to the national, international and trans-national level?
  2. Bearing on issues in governance, are there significant differences among theories of relational process, with implications for governance?
  3. What particular practices of relating might be recognized as positive contributions to governance? How can we best understand their functioning? How might governance be enriched by practices of relating?
  4. What are the major impediments to effective relational process? How are they overcome?
  5. With relational process as a centre-piece, how are we to conceive of leadership? What practices would be invited?

SOH Forum 2017

The Spirit of Humanity Forum (SoH) offers a global platform for leaders and change-makers seeking to contribute towards a lasting transformation in the world in which core human values such as love, respect, solidarity and compassion become integrated in our decision-making and relational processes, enabling systemic change in organizations, communities and nations. This is part of our ‘duty of care’ for the Earth and for Humanity at large.

The Forum focuses on spirituality in leadership, and explores new forms of governance underpinned by care, respect, trust, dialogue and relationships.

The third SoH Forum, held on 26-29 April 2017 in Reykjavik, will focus attention on the urgent necessity of building and strengthening our global societies and communities as part of our duty to care for and support a world in transition, including caring for ourselves, for each other and for the planet Earth.

Project page: Spirit of Humanity Forum