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S i d e b a r
Beyond the Slogans
Seven Meanings of Peace
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This Rock
Volume 18, Number 3
 March 2007 
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An old Thomistic adage observes that the role of a theologian is to "seldom affirm, never deny, always distinguish." This often sound advice is most appropriate when dealing with complex concepts such as peace. One must distinguish between different meanings and uses of the term.
Today we use the term "peace" in at least seven different ways. Three relate to the individual. Three have to do with society. The seventh pertains to both.
1. Inner Peace
The idea of inner peace speaks of the absence of internal conflicts. "Are you at peace about your decision?" we might ask a friend. This type of peace can reflect psychological health for a person with a well-formed conscience, or conversely, serious problems for the person who is "at peace" with doing something that is morally depraved. The latter is a false peace—the type of delusion that the prophet Jeremiah denounced when he wrote, "‘Peace, peace!’ they say, though there is no peace" (Jer. 6:14; 8:11).
2. Peace in the Community
The individual is at peace with his family, friends, and neighbors. Harmony with those whom we love and live with is vital to human flourishing and happiness. It also takes much hard work. The Scriptures praise friendship as an essential part of a full life: "A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth. A faithful friend is a lifesaving remedy, such as he who fears God finds; for he that fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself" (Sir. 6:14-17).
3. Peace with God
By the grace of God, a person is placed into right relationship with him. God freely gives this peace of soul. Jesus spoke of this peace to his disciples: "Peace I leave with you, my own peace I give to you; a peace the world cannot give, this is my gift to you. Let not your hearts be troubled or afraid…" (John 14:27). Because this peace is God’s gift of reconciliation that he offers to all, we need only accept his offer of friendship.
4. Civil Order
A community is said to be at peace if it is not engaged in civil war or unrest, strife or rebellion. Some disharmony will always exist in any society. We speak of wars against crime and drugs, poverty and disease. But in an obvious way, Costa Rica’s civil society is at peace while Somalia’s and Sudan’s are not.
5. Absence of War
Any society that is not actively engaged in military action can be said to be at peace. Nonetheless, history and the present day offer us plenty of examples where this use of the term falls well short of what one would hope. The German occupation of France and the Japanese conquest of the Philippines in World War II created a "peace" of sorts, but use of the word in this context would be a very limited understanding of the fullness of peace between nations.
6. Tranquility of Order
St. Augustine’s classic The City of God gives us a more complete way of talking about peace between people and nation-states. Augustine writes that "peace is the calm that comes from order" (XIX:13). In Latin this reads, in part, pax omnium rerum tranquillitas ordinis (Peace is a result of a tranquility of order). Twenty years ago, George Weigel defined tranquillitas ordinis as "the peace of public order in a dynamic political community" (Tranquillitas Ordinis: The Present Failure and Future Promise of American Catholic Thought on War and Peace, 31). The most complete way of discussing peace between nations is to talk of the goal of a dynamic order that is based upon justice and respect for human rights.
7. Eschatological Peace
Finally, peace will come at the end of time, when Christ establishes once and for all the Kingdom. This is the eschatological peace of the end times when all things will be renewed in Christ and "every knee will bow… and every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father that Jesus Christ is Lord" (Phil. 2:10-11). This will be peace in the complete sense, shalôm in its fullness. It is the peace described by the prophet Isaiah when he says that we "shall beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again" (Is. 2:4). At the end time, in the fullness of the Kingdom, the lion will lie with the lamb and the child play at the cobra’s den (cf. Is. 11).
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