Definitions
The religious meanings of peace, as in the New Catholic Encyclopedia, are where peace also has internal and external meanings but where these meanings are tied to positive virtues, such as love, and to the personal and social works of justice. Peace as justice is mentioned in a religious context.
The New Testament Greek meanings for peace, contained in the word eirene, evolved over the course of Greco-Roman civilization from such agricultural meanings as prosperity, fertility, and security of home contained in Hesiod’s Works and Days, to more internal meanings of peace formulated by the Stoics, such as Epictetus. In his Meditations, or To Himself, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius expresses peace as a state of unperturbed tranquility.
The English word "peace" derives ultimately from its root, the Latin "pax". For the earliest Romans, pax meant to live in a state of agreement, where discord and war were absent. Shalom (Hebrew: שלום) is the word for peace in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh or Hebrew: תנ"ך), and has other meanings also pertaining to well being, including use as a greeting.
Read more about this topic: Catholic Peace Traditions
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