Reconciling Places. Paul A. Hoffman

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СКАЧАТЬ as an identity and way of being. It seems you are reading this book because you care deeply about the challenges besetting us, like globalization, political rancor, war, climate change, wealth and income inequality, and the many “isms” we face—classism, racism, sexism, etc. And rather than contributing to our problems, you want to work for solutions.

      The importance of refreshing an ancient narrative during troubled times

As a pastor and practical theologian, I believe we gain insight into our divides and discover constructive solutions to our problems by returning to a biblical narrative. If used as a lens, it could help Christians like you and me (and perhaps others) comprehend our world through a frame that faithfully aligns with some of the ways the triune God views and acts within the created order. More to the point, theologians have suggested, “the Bible as a whole tells a story, in some sense a single story.”7 Missiologist Tim Tennent and Pastor Timothy Keller indicate the Bible depicts a story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.8 While this is good so far as it goes, I think it’s more complete when presented in five movements: Creator, first creation, alienation, reconciliation, and final creation. If fully understood, this account provides several enlightening perspectives, including these two:

•Reminding people of faith, it’s best—and biblically accurate, I would argue—to view their lives, and history itself, through the lens of a single story: that through Jesus Christ, God the Father seeks to “reconcile to himself all things”9 by the power of the Holy Spirit.10 This challenges Christians to enter into some uncomfortable tensions. While the triune God is superintending the reconciling process, for us, it appears messy and alinear. In the face of sin and brokenness, however, followers of Jesus can maintain a sense of purpose, agency, and responsibility because we are joining God on his mission, which thankfully is not entirely dependent on us.

•We start to comprehend and appreciate the profound relationality of God and interconnectedness with his world. After all, the triune God is a relational being interacting within himself11 and outside himself with creation.12

      If you are willing to embrace the theology of reconciliation offered here, I believe you will be equipped to act as reconcilers who build bridges in your context, whether you inhabit cities, suburbs, exurbs, or rural areas. This book, then, aims to help Christian leaders and students act as peacemakers by providing several tools. One is helping them exegete and reflect on the promises and perils of their communities (their unique “places”). Another is to identify the particular ways race, class, and sex (gender) are flash points in their locales, owing, in no small measure, to partisan politics’ and social media’s magnifying and warping difference (which is God-given and beautiful) and turning it into divides.

      These ideas and practices are worth the fight. I know, because I am living this reconciling places model in my current home of Newport County, Rhode Island. Alongside the church I lead, Evangelical Friends Church of Newport, I regularly forge local partnerships with people across racial (ethnic), class, and sex (gender) chasms—you’ll hear more about these as we go. I believe our community is slowly but surely coming together in the process—that is, if the feedback I am receiving from civic, nonprofit, and religious sources is correct. Indeed life cannot be reduced to neat and tidy boxes, encapsulated by statistics, results, and upward or downward line graphs. Pragmatic and technocratic approaches to life, those that presume impersonal progress leading to never-ceasing prosperity, do not ring true for many of us. These methods are discordant with the messiness we are experiencing as we adventure into the twenty-first century.

      In fact, I believe God is raising up a new generation. Many younger Christians are deeply concerned about the polarizing debates in American society. They have soured on partisan rancor, religious polemics, materialistic greed, and wasteful consumption. However, they are hopeful activists with a sensitive social conscience who care passionately about unity without uniformity, respect for diversity, social justice, wise stewardship, and reconciliation. They desire to foster authentic, meaningful, and constructive conversations that lead to practical solutions. This book exists partly to offer a framework for putting their passions and efforts to good use.

      Scouting the journey ahead

      Let’s map out the path going forward. Chapter 1, “Your Place,” challenges the reader to recognize the uniqueness and importance of her setting. This motivates her to view and interpret her community with fresh eyes to see its brokenness and beauty. It is helpful to analyze one’s location by appropriating a dialectical theology of place. That is, each place reveals aspects of Babylon (alienation) and the New Jerusalem (reconciliation)—both are present and must be identified to obtain a clear understanding. Furthermore, chances are that politics and social media exploit ethnicity, class, and sex to further the existing divisions in each community. With this in mind, the Christian, and her faith family can identity their place’s painful rifts in order to collaborate with others to build bridges. Along the way, I will include reflections on these dynamics based on the places I have lived: Portland (Maine), Boston, Jerusalem, Denver, Newport, and Manchester (UK).

Chapter 2 is called “The Foundation: The Relational Nature of the Trinity.” As the book’s subtitle is “How to Bridge the Chasms in our Communities,” in this chapter I will start unpacking the crowning analogy of reconciling as building bridges across difference. Engineers tell us most bridges are composed of three major sections: the foundation, substructure, and superstructure.13 All three areas are interconnected and necessary for a bridge to function properly. Likewise, each section represents a vital theological category required to construct a reconciling place: the relational nature of the Trinity (foundation), reconciling theology (substructure), and reconciling practices (superstructure).

      Reconciliation starts with the foundation of the character of the Trinity. One way Christians can better comprehend the triune God is if they read Scripture through a particular lens, what I call a “relational narrative.” This lens helps us recognize the reconciling DNA inherent in God’s being. I suggest it opens our eyes to see the relational nature of God: both the way God relates facing inward (to himself internally) and facing outward (externally to the world). Reconciling is rooted in the character and personhood of the triune God and his relationship with the created order.

      In chapter 3, “The Substructure: Reconciling Theology,” I outline the four great theological equalizers: the imago Dei, human sinfulness and the brokenness of creation, the vast atoning love of Jesus Christ, and his final judgment. The equality among the persons of God lays the foundation for human equality. With these commitments established, I highlight a few key bonding agents that are needed to hold the reconciling bridge together.

Chapter 4, “The Superstructure: Reconciling Practices,” offers the reader actionable ways she can apply the reconciling places model. I challenge Christians to engage in reconciling prayer, reconciling rhetoric, and reconciling communities/coalitions. Because reconciling is so hard, Christians need to be connected to the heart and priorities of God. Prayer is their power source. Prayer shapes a repentant rhetoric. Christians forgo strident language amidst the blare of Twitter rants and political sound bites. Reconcilers pursue face-to-face (incarnational) conversations rather than Facade-Book (disembodied through social media) ones. Moreover, reconcilers “speak the truth in love” (Eph 4:15) while avoiding “two particularly destructive forms of speech: the hurtful insult and the conversation stopper.”14 Our words and tone matter when it comes to reconciling. Finally, the person (and community) committed to reconciling will construct diverse coalitions that focus more on common goals than differences when engaging social issues. This entails embracing two overlapping convictions: “Unity is not uniformity” and “We are better together.” These three concepts lead reconcilers to work toward the total flourishing of all our places.

      In the concluding chapter, I recount organizing another prayer rally in the face of national unrest, then recast Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Beloved Community” for our day and age. I end with a reconciling СКАЧАТЬ