Contemplation

as a practice of peacemaking

A black and white photo of a man and a woman standing inside a room, next to a patterned rug on the floor.
A black-and-white illustration of two individuals, a young man and a young woman, engaged in a conversation. The young man on the left is wearing glasses and a jacket, while the young woman on the right is wearing glasses and a striped shirt. They are standing in front of a table with a document or paper between them.

René Girard’s mimetic theory says violence doesn’t start “out there” in other people’s actions. It starts in the way desire gets inspired, reflected, and escalated within us, beneath our conscious awareness. So any aspiring peacemaker must ask: what could possibly counteract something so unavoidably unconscious?

Contemplative practice builds the muscle of fundamental awareness that helps us reconnect with our own — and our enemy’s — humanity.

Black and white photo of a woman with short hair and glasses, holding a tablet and reaching for a chess piece on a chessboard.

  1. Contemplative practice slows us down. Scapegoating depends on our unconscious participation. When we practice returning to awareness, we train our minds to step back from artificial urgency so we’re free to make choices that align with our values.

  2. It interrupts the escalation cycle of rivalry. Mimetic conflict thrives on reactivity — the tightening loop of imitation where each person intensifies the other. Contemplative practice equips us to consciously choose our response instead of to react.

  3. It gives us an experience of nonviolent identity. Who would you be, without an enemy to be against? Many of us have no idea. The practice of contemplation shows us the beginning of an answer. By returning our attention to awareness, we get an embodied experience of an “I” that exists peacefully, without any need to be against anything at all.

Contemplative practice doesn’t make you “nicer.” It makes you harder to recruit.

Brian D. Robinette explores the doctrine of “creatio ex nihilo” (creation out of nothing) to shine light on how contemplative prayer reshapes human desire away from rivalry and fragmentation toward communion with God and others. His writing emphasizes that contemplation is not an escape from the world but a disciplined attentiveness that reorients perception, enabling practitioners to recognize and resist patterns of violence, illusion, and disordered longing.

Brian has presented at our conferences and for our Quarterly Speaker Series. You can watch the full recording of his presentation here.

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“Peaceful identity lies at the heart of violent identity as its most secret possibility.”

René Girard