Supernatural Belief and the Evaluation of Faith-Based Peacebuilding

Authors: David Steele & Ricardo Wilson-Grau for the Peacebuilding Evaluation Consortium

Publisher: CDA Collaborative Learning

Publication date: December 2016

Abstract: There is very little research on professional evaluation of faith-based peacebuilding, despite the existence of a variety of efforts over centuries to promote peace within many faith traditions. Therefore, this briefing paper will first address pertinent concepts and principles related to belief in the supernatural that, to varying degrees, influence all faith-based actors. Secondly, it will address the application of these conceptions to evaluation practice. This will inform guidance for peacebuilders and evaluators, both religious and secular, working in faith-based contexts, which we refer to synonymously as “faith-based peacebuilding” or “religious peacebuilding.”

Contents:

1        Introduction 1

2        Principal Features of Faith-based Peacebuilding and Evaluation 2

3        Three Common Components within Religious and Secular Peacebuilding Experience 5

4        A Framework for Evaluation of Faith-based Peacebuilding 6

5        Selecting a Religious Peacebuilding Evaluation Methodology 9

6        Design of Faith-based Peacebuilding Evaluation Questions 11

7        Illustration of an Evaluation Process Within a Faith-based Context 15

8        Conclusion 21

9        Bibliography 22

About the Authors:

David Steele is an ordained Christian pastor and Adjunct Lecturer at the Heller School's Graduate Program in Coexistence and Conflict at Brandeis University.

Ricardo Wilson-Grau is an independent, non-theist, areligious evaluator with experience evaluating Jewish, Lutheran, Quaker and Catholic, as well as secular, peacebuilding.

The Peacebuilding Evaluation Consortium (PEC) is a project of Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP) in partnership with CDA Collaborative Learning Projects, Mercy Corps and Search for Common Ground (SFCG). The project is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY) and is field-wide effort to address the unique challenges to measuring and learning from peacebuilding programs.