Fuller Seminary to Establish Peacebuilding Center

Fuller Theological Seminary is pleased to announce  that it will establish a new Center for Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation to  equip church leaders, educators, community builders, and institutional decision-makers  to faithfully navigate conflict and division.

Fuller is partnering with Ideos Institute—renowned for its empathy-based peacebuilding  frameworks—to form this new center. Ideos has become a recognized leader in both  Christian and secular efforts to address political polarization and violence, social unrest,  and inter-group conflict. In this process, Ideos will sunset its independent operations  and re-emerge as the foundation for the center’s work. Christy Vines, Ideos’s founder  and president, will lead the center as its inaugural executive director, bringing her  decades of expertise in faith-based peacebuilding to the role.

“It is an honor to partner with Fuller Theological Seminary in the creation of the Center  for Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation,” she said. “This initiative not only  reflects our mutual commitment to Christ-centered reconciliation but also comes at a  critical moment when the global church must respond to deepening division and conflict  with faithful leadership, academic rigor, and spiritual conviction. I am grateful to [Fuller  President] Dr. Goatley and the Fuller Board of Trustees for their leadership and vision  in establishing this timely initiative.”

This new center will focus on integrating peacebuilding into Fuller’s existing academic  programs and will seek to engage others—including businesses, government agencies,  and nonprofits—as opportunities arise. It will provide a space for theological reflection,  research, and practical training grounded in biblical principles.

The center will also  build on the seminal leadership of Richard J. Mouw, Fuller President Emeritus and  Senior Professor of Faith and Public Life, whose decades of research and teaching  included a focus on civility in public discourse and interfaith dialogue.

Over the course of its first three years, the Fuller Center for Peacebuilding and Conflict  Transformation will launch a range of initiatives designed to equip Christian leaders for

transformative engagement in conflict and reconciliation, the Fuller announcement said.

These activities will include  public convenings, online learning experiences, development of new academic offerings,  digital storytelling projects, and formation of a global network of practitioners and  fellows.

Fuller President David Emmanuel Goatley expressed appreciation for the establishment  of the center: “The toxicity of hostility and proliferation of polarization will not simply  subside. Disciples of Jesus around the world must answer the call to transform conflict  and build peace. Fuller Seminary is blessed to enter a new era of bringing together  multiecclesial, multicultural, multinational, and multidisciplinary resources to help  people, congregations, and organizations develop the competences needed for this  critical ministry.”