the Reconciled Church: Rethinking Race, Reconciliation, Bible, and Church

What if reconciliation is not a secondary issue in the gospel, but at its very heart?Churches divide, marriages fracture, and new congregations are planted not out of vision, but out of unresolved conflict. This raises a deeper question: have we lacked a robust theology of reconciliation, and without it struggled to face the realities of race, history, and deep relational wounds?The Reconciled Church argues that reconciliation is not an optional extra or a future heavenly hope, but a present, costly, and deeply biblical calling. Tracing the theme of reconciliation through Scripture - from Genesis to the early Church - Owen Hylton shows that God is, by nature, a reconciling God: restoring broken relationships with Himself and calling His people to do the same with one another.Written through the lens of race, but never limited to it, this book invites those in the Church to move beyond avoidance, sentimentality, or quick fixes, and instead to engage honestly with the past, come face to face with ourselves, others, and ultimately with Jesus - discovering in reconciliation the hope of unity, peace, and a renewed witness to the world.