Melbourne Rabbi Fred Morgan will be giving this year's Dunedin Abrahamic Interfaith Group peace lecture.
The group was formed in Dunedin in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, after expressions of solidarity and goodwill between leaders of the three faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Mr Morgan, a Professorial Fellow in the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy at the Australian Catholic University, researches Judaism and interfaith dialogue.
He said yesterday his lecture would be on pursuing peace in times of peace and war.
Mr Morgan said his view was not idealistic, but looked at the conditions that flowed from a person's understanding of the world.
Some saw life in the world as ''nasty, brutish and short'', which for many, it was.
''That's like always living in a time of war.
''What I'm trying to say is we need to think in terms of times of peace, rather than in terms of times of war.''
But he was not optimistic about an eventual achievement of peace.
''I believe war will always be with us.
''And by the way, I believe that's a biblical view.''
The Jewish view was there would be a time of peace, but that was the Messianic time, not a time to be lived by humans in the current situation.
However, it was possible to mitigate some of the effects of war.
The New Zealand response to the refugee crisis was an example.
The peace lecture will start at 5.30pm today at the St David lecture theatre.
