Can History Bring Reconciliation in Divided Christian Communities?

Abstract

As Elazar Barkan, the founding president of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation, pointed out, the recounting of history has been exploited to provoke conflict, incite war, and inflame genocides. Can it also be drawn upon to facilitate reconciliation? Indeed, many conflicts have an ideological component which is based on contested views of history. This applies to the Christian churches, starting with the Reformation. Using four case studies, the article argues that “good” history, based on reliable archival and oral evidence, can lay the foundation for a more serene view of the past and lead to reconciliation. It is essential to consider all points of view. The historian must navigate between diverse opinions and emotions, deepening the analysis when there are conflicts of interpretation. The article examines four recent memory debates in the Christian churches: the painful closure of the Federal Theological Seminary in 1993; the silence of the Rwandan churches during the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994; the brutal transfer of a group of black sisters from Newcastle to Montebello in 1939; and race relations and the search for unity in the history of the Lutheran churches of Southern Africa.