From Violence to Hope

Since the Columbine horror in Colorado, the problem of violence in our society and its roots in human evolution have evoked deep soul-searching in sensitive people. We in the behavioral sciences and theology are asking what we can do to slow or stop the downward spiral of killing and brutality. How inevitable is it? What new factors impinge on this age-old problem of our species? What help is available from research in criminology, child-development, brain studies and modern psychiatry? There are scientifically established ways of reinforcing in the human subject the reality of empathic love which Chistianity has so long proclaimed to be God's answer to our human dilemma. This paper speaks to these issues.