Fuller Seminary to Establish Peacebuilding Center

Fuller Theological Seminary is pleased to announce that it will establish the Fuller 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.

Christy Vines, Ideos president and CEO

“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. 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.”