Why Conflict is a Given.

John Paul Lederach is one of my favourite teachers relative to conflict and peace building.  His ideas around peace building flow out of a non violent Anabaptist tradition.  The more I study non violence in all it's forms - from the obvious (war) to the not so obvious (how we perceive and name those who get in our way or fail to meet our expectations - idiot, fool, selfish, jerk, loser, and much worse - and those we blame for our own feelings of upset, anger and frustration)  - the more it's principles and ideals take hold in my heart.

So, I was reading Lederach's "Reconcile" for notes on a course I'm giving on high conflict persons, and was fascinated by his particular theory of the foundation for conflict.  While I've read many theories on conflict, including theological ones relative to human conflict starting in the garden, Lederach's take synthesizes them with profoundly simple clarity.

Essentially, at Creation, God gave mankind three monumental gifts that none of the rest of His creation received.

  1. His image.  He gifted man with that which is a part of God, His own ability to create - to think, feel, make meaning, envision a future and an outcome, and act towards that vision.
  2. Diversity.  The range of diversity in Creation is beyond comprehension, from birds to animals, to trees, to everything in the sea.  He made two of a kind of everything - but you - He made one of a kind.  Out of the 7 billion people on this planet right now, not one of them is even close to being like you.  Moreover, of all the billions that lived before you, none of them was even close either.  Your complexity is too complex to be put into words - fearfully and wonderfully made is going to have to suffice.
  3. Freedom.  Unlike the rest of Creation which lives and moves and has it's being in the rhythms of pre-determined life cycles and instinct, we human have the freedom to choose.  We humans were the only beings in Creation given the freedom to choose - and  unfortunately, we chose badly.
Lederach says these three gifts make conflict inevitable, because our ability to think, feel, make meaning, project a future or outcome and act, coupled with our diversity, married to our freedom makes conflict inevitable. 

This is where my pondering the ramifications begins...

Had there been no fall, human kind would never have forgotten that each holds that which is a part of God in them.  While, even after the fall, humans indeed remain image-bearers, without the fall our image bearing would have been "manifested" in that we would have always seen Him in others. The legacy is that we became blind to seeing God's image in others. 

When Jacob and Esau were in the midst of their conflict, Esau saw Jacob through eyes of revenge and vowed to kill him while Jacob saw Esau through eyes of fear and ran away.  After Jacob's struggle with God, and at the point of their reconciliation, Jacob said he saw the face of the God in Esau.  His eyes were opened to see that which was of God in Esau and by Esau's response (he did not kill his brother) it is apparent that something happened to open his eyes as well.  When we see God's image in our opponent everything changes.

Had their been no fall, because we would have retained our sense of God image, we would have valued and honoured what God values and honours, which is the diversity and freedom in the other.   As it stands, after the fall, we value and even fight for our own freedom and right to be different, but begrudge it in others.

Here's how I see it mapped out:

God's Gifts                                                                                 The Legacy of the Fall
God image                                                                                  self image

Diversity                                                                                    conformity

Freedom                                                                                      control

Because we have forgotten our God image, and are desirous at all costs to protect self image; because we value those who are most like us, and objectify those who are not (particularly if they don't do as we demand); and because we need to control how others see us, in addition to our worlds, and those around us - conflict now has the propensity to become grievously harming.



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