Impact

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.4 Impact

This review set out to answer the following question:

Since conflict studies are a modern construct (but with ancient roots), what is currently understood and communicated, by biblical scholars, about:

293 Bradshaw has an appropriate observation on this; she writes: “Conflict may, in fact, be a sign of the Holy Spirit’s activity. The Holy Spirit is a guide, a teacher, and a provoker. The Holy Spirit serves to inspire, nudge, and push us as individuals and congregations to think and act differently” (2015:loc. 723).

1. conflict and its role in the study of Scripture – a hermeneutical/theoretical focus 2. conflict and its role in the life of a believer – an ethical/practical focus

3. a BTOC – theological focus?

The results are summarised according to these categories, and the potential impact of this study of developing a BTOC is demonstrated.

2.4.1 Hermeneutical/theoretical

If one is going to understand the biblical text as it was composed, and for whom it was written, then a conflict understanding, derived from the biblical text itself, must be considered as part of that exegetical study. This notion comports with both a consideration of the role of conflict within the narrative genre (micro level) and with conflict’s role in the metanarrative of Scripture (macro level). This conclusion was supported by the words, goals, and purposes of the scholars themselves, even though there is little call for a BTOC by direct statement. The choice of Romans for this exercise was supported by the observations of scholars regarding its significant role in God’s communication of His use and view of conflict from a NT perspective. For these reasons, the development of a BTOC, based on the conflict principles of Romans 12-16 is a worthwhile pursuit from a hermeneutical or theoretical standpoint.²⁹⁴

The words of Poythress (2001:122) provide a fitting perspective on what needs to be implemented with the insights gained so far. He writes:

These insights challenge us (1) to reexamine the possibility that our own reading of the Bible has been influenced by assumptions that in fact are alien to the Word of God and (2) to ask whether we can advance in our understanding of the Bible by attending to the impact of such assumptions.

However, that willingness to re-examine and explore other ideas contains inherent risk to one’s suppositions.²⁹⁵ Humility is essential to such an undertaking, especially as the Scriptures are searched in the pursuit of a BTOC. Sometimes it grows wearisome to mention again the forgotten or ignored perspective of theologians of decades ago, but the words of Goldsmith (1969:58-59) are vital to this pursuit. He states that “we may know it in our innermost being, but have we the

294 An added, essential enterprise at this juncture of using Romans 12-16 is to remember Merrill’s (2006:640) observation that “the nature of biblical theology is such that ideas introduced only in kernel form in early texts can and do find fuller meaning in light of subsequent revelation”. As this NT pericope is explored, this counsel is remembered and applied.

295 Greidanus (1988:96) states that “even in a critical or post-critical age, a valid requirement of the hermeneutical circle is that, in the interest of a genuine hearing of the biblical text, one must be willing to risk one’s presuppositions in dialogue with the text”.

humility to accept that a positive grasp of conflict may lead us into truths, into situations that we had not reckoned with, or do we press on arrogantly after our own ends?”²⁹⁶ That question must be considered by all who examine the Word of God – always!

2.4.2 Ethical/practical

Since, for the vast majority of people, conflict is viewed as an ever-present or obligatory aspect of life (regardless of one’s view of its value), it is a worthwhile task to discover God’s view of how best to respond to conflict.²⁹⁷ Many instances were shown, in this review, of the integral value of conflict in the Christ-like development of believers.²⁹⁸ Therefore, the development of a BTOC would help to address²⁹⁹ the deficient thinking and defective choices that accompany a misguided or uninformed understanding of conflict, often influenced by secular or unapprised, integrationist approaches to conflict. ³⁰⁰ The study of Romans 12-16 would provide at least an aspect of God’s

296 Hamilton (2014:loc. 191) too references this requirement that “it does mean that we should hold our conclusions with humility … and allow the Bible to correct us”. And his goal for the reader is adopted here as well: “I hope that you will adopt the perspective of the biblical authors and that you will read the world from the Bible’s perspective, rather than reading the Bible from the world’s” (2014:loc. 191). As has been mentioned, too much of believer’s understanding of conflict has been influenced by secular concepts, and this is a call to allow God’s narrative to bring believers back in line with His Word.

297 For example, Oppenshaw et al. (2018:9) promote the idea “that congregants be encouraged to approach everyday life as a journey of discipleship where conflict is normal and necessary. Furthermore, that spiritual maturity be developed and evidenced through the way conflict is handled … within congregations and not the absence thereof.” The converse to this promotion is to view conflict as unique.

Bounds (2016:129) has a wise response; he writes that “conflict is a normal part of everyday life. Treating it as exceptional and therefore deserving of extra attention, or running away from conflict and misunderstanding it as evil, prevents real understanding of conflict and the capacity to deal with it positively.” Distilled to its essence, his words reflect the practical goal of this study. And, to put this notion in the vernacular: “Embracing conflict when you’re prepared trumps encountering it when you’re cornered”, writes Roeleveld (2019:148).

298 An interesting summation of the challenge as well as the potential is provided by Forster (2017:112) who writes: “Faithful discipleship applied to everyday life produces opposition from worldly powers, but it attracts many of the lost. Diligent efforts by the church to put God’s holy love into action in the unholy world create conflict, as they did in the Reformation; but they tend to culminate, as they did in the Reformation, in new formulas of peace that co-opt the fruit of the church’s labor and make it part of the social order.”

299 Walker (1996:53) provides a salient depiction of this result as one speaks of God’s story: “Of course, in the act of telling the story, modern theologians cannot make people believe it. What they can do, however, is to stand up for the story, and learn again to tell it in the way it was meant to be told. This means allowing the story to speak for itself. The gospel is not anything we choose, or the bits we enjoy, or those elements that affirm modern sensibility. It is the Church’s grand narrative, which is essential not only for its own identity but for the salvation of the world. However, to insist on this is to risk the wrath of contemporary thinking. One of the features of life in an advanced industrial society is that absolute claims of any kind are anathema. This is why Christianity is tolerated by secularists as private opinion, but not as what Lesslie Newbigin has called ‘public truth’.”

300 When practice is not persistently evaluated by God’s Word, then what Kato (1985:26) observed will continue to be found all over the world; he writes: “The legitimate desire to make Christianity truly African has not been matched with the discernment not to tamper with the inspired inerrant content of the revealed Word of God”. This example is not used to belittle the work of others in conflict studies but to present what can happen (even unintentionally) when the living Word of God takes second chair to assumptions and presumptions. There must continue to be an assessment performed by the Scriptures and that is the essence of a BTOC regarding conflict. A further example of this expressed by the

view and use of conflict in order to appraise these modern, oft-used approaches, and to provide informed teaching for believers in the pursuit of obedience to God’s Word in transformational living as regards conflict.³⁰¹

The words of Portaro (1996:128) are quintessential for one encountering conflict. His instruction is:

Conflict, crisis, fear. They have been, they are, and they likely shall be with us always.

Like everything in God’s creation entrusted to freedom, they hold potential for evil. But they also hold potential for good. Like everything God has made, they are redeemed and made whole in Christ. They are gifts.

And we are stewards of these gifts. What, then, shall we do? Shall we deny these gifts, or spurn them? Shall we use these gifts to our own selfish ends, as the means for gaining power or advantage over others? Shall we submit to their tyranny, bowing down before them in subjection? Or shall we accept them with gratitude, honor and respect them, share and confess them? Shall we let God work in and through them to turn us around, to reorient us?

Blessed conflict, happy revolution, that turns us toward one another and brings us face to face with God.

How will believers respond to this stewardship? Will the reality be remembered that one day God will hold all mankind accountable, even as Jones (2012:39) describes it, “accountable for our conduct amid conflict”?

That remains to be seen, but the call for better equipping to face conflict in a way that honours and glorifies God is established, and that equipping is best accomplished through a BTOC.

reflection of Fant (2010:169) who says that “when we write stories that are happy, with little conflict or inference about sin, then we are creating portraits of the world that perpetuate a sort of ‘soft universalism,’ the idea that no one is truly lost but rather that all are really saved”. A BTOC can address this breakdown.

301 Oppenshaw et al. (2018:1) make this observation: “Despite the seemingly high presence of conflict within congregations, no specified education on the understanding, appreciation and handling of conflict in commonly used discipleship resources or dedicated programme was found. The article concludes with a view towards a future praxis of discipleship and leadership, which incorporates the theological understanding and handling of conflict. Broader means of assisting congregations in or post conflict to recovery are also presented.” While the breadth of material presented in this review would seem to countermand that statement, the reality is that discipleship material is largely missing the component of instruction on God’s view and use of conflict – at least in a comprehensive way. It is one of the goals of this research to begin delivering that missing component for discipleship.

2.4.3 Biblical theology of conflict

Fifteen examples or models of either declared or undeclared BTOCs were considered, to establish if they qualified as BTOCs; that scrutiny was based on the understanding that intrinsic to a BTOC is a focus on what God’s Word reveals about conflict (as opposed to an integrationist approach), in addition to a holistic or principled exploration that would be pertinent to conflict in all settings. The conclusion was that no BTOCs were discovered to date, although it was demonstrated that the work of Bell (1987) and Christensen and Johnson (2015) could be considered at least preliminary or partial BTOCs. What this examination validated was that enough interest and effort was seen to warrant the effort to begin developing a BTOC that would provide clarity, consistency, comprehensiveness, definition, and development of biblical principles to address these missing components to assist believers in responding to conflict in a way that honours and glorifies God.³⁰²