I recently heard that Frideswide, as in the patron Saint of Oxford, means ‘strong peace’. Ever since I have been reflecting on what this term means for us in the 21st Century. There is no doubt that we need robust peace in the Middle East as the ancient enmities between Israel and Arab remain unresolved, and as the conflict between Shia and Sunni Muslims is bringing devastation to people, their social structures, their homes and their cities.

It is arguable that the involvement of the United States brings a ‘Christian’ dimension to the conflicts. Such conflicts are supposedly ‘faith based’. They are supposedly caused by religion but deeper analysis shows that these kind of conflicts are in opposition to the core values of the faiths they claim to represent.

What we can say is that they are caused by ‘bad religion’ and ‘bad faith’.

Bad faith and bad religion are used to justify wars which are about imposing different cultures upon people who resist those cultures.

As I age I become more and more anti-war. I cannot see how violence in any form can solve the problems of the world. My faith tells me that it is wrong to kill another human being, who, like me is created in the image of God. However, I am not quite a pacifist because I think we have a moral duty to resist evil.

Whilst powerful armed forces and a nuclear deterrent served well in the last half of the 20th Century in maintaining a ‘Pax Romana’ type of peace, it was not a strong peace because it has not lasted or been universal.

The reality is that despite secularisation and despite the denials of the atheists, this problem is a spiritual one. It is at the heart of the human condition. We have freedom to choose between good and evil. Peace cannot be imposed by force as in the ‘Pax Romana’ because it is not a strong peace.

It is a temporary and weak peace because it is imposed paradoxically by the threat of violence. Strong peace is only achieved when human beings are at peace with God and each other which to my mind is what Jesus of Nazareth taught which is why faith matters and I am a Christian.