Tensions Between Truth, Justice, Peace, and Reconciliation in Post-Conflict Societies: The Mediating Role of Religious Actors

This study explores the tangled interaction between truth, justice, peace, and reconciliation in post-conflict societies, highlighting the often delicate and contested processes through which communities attempt to heal and rebuild after episodes of mass violence and systemic injustice. Central to this investigation is the role played by religious leaders, faith-based organizations, and religiously rooted communities in navigating and mediating these tensions. Drawing on comparative case studies from South Africa’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the post-war reconciliation efforts in the former Yugoslavia, the paper analyzes how religious actors have contributed to transitional justice mechanisms, often operating within and alongside state-led initiatives. The study demonstrates that religious institutions, with their deep moral authority and grassroots presence, are uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between retributive justice, which focuses on accountability and punishment, and restorative justice, which emphasizes healing, forgiveness, and the restoration of broken relationships. Through rituals of truth-telling, communal acts of confession, symbolic reparations, and liturgies of forgiveness, religious actors offer alternative avenues for addressing historical injustices that legal and political institutions alone may be ill-equipped to resolve. Furthermore, the use of interreligious dialogue and theological frameworks rooted in concepts such as mercy, repentance, and human dignity enables faith-based actors to transcend ethnic and ideological divisions, fostering inclusive narratives of national healing and moral renewal. Key findings reveal that when religious institutions align their spiritual resources with structured transitional justice processes, they can play a transformative role in promoting moral accountability, community resilience, and sustainable peace. However, the study also acknowledges the limitations and potential biases of religious actors, particularly when their involvement is shaped by political allegiances or exclusionary theologies. The paper concludes by advocating for a sequenced and context-sensitive approach to post-conflict recovery, where religious actors are intentionally integrated into reconciliation frameworks. It emphasizes that such an approach must balance the imperatives of justice and forgiveness, and calls for a collaborative model in which religious, civil, and political institutions work together to institutionalize peace, rebuild trust, and foster long-term social cohesion in divided societies.