Rising tensions in communities around the world have created contexts of conflict to which the church has been challenged to respond with a theology of reconciliation. This, however, raises the question: What kind of communities do we need in order to create such a theology amid so much conflict? Drawing on an Anabaptist vision of the church as an “alternative community,” this article demonstrates how dislocation amid conflict allows the church to become an arena for reconciliation by creating neutral social space, crafting new social narratives, and exercising creative freedom.
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