Faith, Hope and Love: A Theological Approach to Reconciliation within Evangelicalism

Abstract

Evangelicalism in South Africa does not have the luxury of operating according to a modernistic epistemology if it is to be relevant in a secular, post-Christian South African context. People want to live in peace, and the issue is how the Evangelical Church can contribute to nation-building. This article attempts to reframe the theological understanding of reconciliation by adding to Western Evangelicalism's presuppositions that focus predominately on divine-human reconciliation -the proclamation of the gospel at the expense of human-human reconciliation – the demonstration of the gospel, namely social/racial reconciliation. In this paper, it is argued that using faith, hope, and love will aid in a biblical and holistic understanding of reconciliation by deconstructing how this term is understood within Evangelicalism. This approach will hopefully free evangelicals from individualism, fundamentalism and fideism. Using Vorster’s sense of reconciliation, this paper adds a fourth aspect that is negated within Evangelicalism, namely social reconciliation. This paper thus seeks to ask the important question, how do Evangelicals understand restitution in relation to reconciliation?