To say we are for peace can mean many things to different people. I don't know anyone who is against peace. Someone may be against particular philosophies of peace, political policies or military actions that are intended to bring peace, but rare is the person who is "anti-peace." So when we talk about peace, we have to define what we mean. This is particularly true among Christians. "Peace" means different things to different Christians.

It might be helpful to list a range of Christian understandings to clarify what we might mean by "peace." Within each of these perspectives, I assume that all are Christian viewpoints grounded in faith in the God of Jesus Christ. Also, these varying perspectives should not be considered mutually exclusive. A Christian may hold a number of these viewpoints at the same time. I take it for granted that, in reality, these perspectives are far more nuanced than my generalizations. Yet they may help to clarify where Christians are coming from when they talk about "peace."

Here are a few of the diverse Christian perspectives on the meaning of "peace":

• Peace with God-For some Christians, this is the primary-or the only-understanding of peace of any significance. Peace is understood as being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. We are no longer "enemies of God" and "at war" with the divine. In this view, peace with God may or may not be necessarily linked to peace with others. There are Christians who would claim that unless we first and foremost work to get others to be at peace with God, trying to make peace between people is really in vain. For other Christians, peace with God and others are bound together.

• Peace within-When some Christians talk about peace, inner peace is what they mean. Peace is understood as an inward reality before it is an outward one. Inner peace may be seen as the direct result of peace with God and as a continuing experience through the Christian disciplines of forgiveness, confession, prayer or meditation. For some Christians, inward peace is their central concern and may be their primary means for working at peace in the world, such as in praying for people in conflict. Others who focus on inward peace view it as a necessary prerequisite for achieving outward peace or peacemaking in the world. In other words, a person cannot authentically work at peace around them unless they first have peace within them. On the other hand, there are those who would say that inner peace cannot be a prerequisite to outward peace, since it is a reality that varies over time and within personal experience and can never be attained in all its fullness, at least in this life.

• Peace with others-This view focuses on being at peace with those around us. Even when the focus of peace is upon greater harmony between people, it can take varied forms. Some Christians will think of peace with others primarily in interpersonal terms. Peacemaking will have more to do with how a person gets along with family, friends and neighbors than with their views on, let's say, the war with Iraq. For other Christians, peace will concentrate on a wider community, including communities and nations as the objects of peacemaking. Within this broad category of peace with others, we may find even more diverse views on the meaning of peace, such as:

• Peace as the absence of war-In this perspective, the emphasis is on preventing or ending armed combat within or between nation-states. Peace is understood primarily as the opposite of war. Traditional Christian pacifism has tended to be characterized as an "anti-war" stance. To be for peace is to be against war. Some within the Christian "Just War" tradition may understand peace in terms of being the opposite of war, but accept a "justified" use of force or violence in order to prevent or end armed conflict, thus bringing peace. Within these two Christian perspectives, peace may be connected to the absence of war, but the means of achieving peace is clearly different. And for some Christians, the means of achieving peace can change its very definition.

• Peace as nonviolence-For some Christians, peace is more than avoiding, preventing or ending war. Peace has more to do with a comprehensive way of life that seeks to avoid injury or harm to others. And for some Christians, this includes avoiding harm to other creatures and creation itself. For some, nonviolence may mean the rejection of any type of force or coercion. It may take more passive forms, such as not striking back when encountering personal violence or non-involvement in the military, a view found among Quakers, Amish and Mennonites. Or it may be understood as involving resistance or force as a means of creating peace, while avoiding physical harm to others, as in some forms of Christian political activism.

• Peace with justice-This perspective seeks to understand peace and justice as inextricably linked to one another. As the saying goes, "There is no peace without justice." In this view, violence is understood as a systemic reality-that is, it does injury and harm to people through systems and institutions, such as educational, judicial, economic and political systems. Within this understanding of peace, a nation may not be at war, but injustice within that nation negates real peace. Poverty, oppression, racism, sexism, inequitable rights and economic injustices are understood as forms of violence and may give rise to reactive forms of violence, such as riots, armed resistance or terrorism. In this view, peacemaking is more than changing individuals or offering charity. It seeks to redress injustices embedded within systems, thus making peace.