On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda and coinciding with the intensification of violent attacks on the civilian population in the East Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo scholars and students from Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenia, Cameroon, South Africa, Germany, Austria, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Switzerland joined together in Rwanda to discuss the topic "Overcoming violence". This volume is a documentation of the lectures of this conference, organised by the Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences (PIASS) in Butare, the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda (EPR) and the Faculty of Protestant Theology of the Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB).