Running head: ARTICLE REVIEW TWO: CHAPTER TEN STOKES 1
Article Review Two: Chapter Ten
Brittany Stokes
Liberty University
ARTICLE REVIEW TWO: CHAPTER TEN
STOKES 2
Problem Area Overview
John Paul Lederach has been in the field of conflict transformation and peacebuilding as
a student, practitioner, researcher, and teacher for twenty five years (Helmick, 2001). In Chapter
ten, called “Five Qualities of Practice in Support of Reconcilation Processe” John Lederach
discusses his ideas on reconcilation and how the processes should be managed to be successful
with reconcilation from a conflict of parties. Lederach discusses how there is no set formula for
how to achieve reconcilation but he belives it comes from within and everyone must put effort
into making it possible (Helmick, 2001). Lederach poses the question “ What qualities of
process appear to have been pivotal in supporting the practive of reconcilation in settings of deep
rooted and violent contexts?” (Helmick, 2001, pg.194). Throughout the article Lederach
answeres this question from what he belives will help achieve reconcilation for parties.
Author’s Theories and Conclusions
Lederach starts with the topic of “Reconcilation as Relationship-Centric” and he explains
how the parties must start the process of reconcilation by first understanind the relataionship
itself (Helmick, 2001). Lederach disusses how instead of the parties focusing so much on the
actual conflict itself that they should focus more on the relationship and how it was built. Once
the parties understand the relationship they can start to process and analyze what needs to be
done to actually rebuild that relationship (Helmick, 2001). He encourages the parties to look at
the other parties feelings and issues with the conflict because understanding of these issues will
start to build trust between the two parties. Lederach says something really powerful within this
topic about how when a violent conflict takes place trust is lost on both sides. He explains how
this can take a very long time to rebuild and it requires purity and commitment (Helmick, 2001).
ARTICLE REVIEW TWO: CHAPTER TEN
STOKES 3
The next topic that Lederach talks about is “Reconcilation As Accompaniment”
and in this section he really hits home on support and how it takes more than the parties coming
together (Helmick, 2001). Lederach explains how when someone is going throught the process
of reconcilation and rebuilding a once broken relationship they need support. He suggest that
any third parties should be very supportive of the parties going throught the process of
reconcilation (Helmick, 2001).
Humility is the word that Lederach really speaks on in the third section which is called “
Reconcilation and Humility” (Helmick, 2001). Lederach describes his truth of humilty which is
to understand views and beliefs. He relates the word humilty to the word truth and describes it
as truth seeking (Helmick, 2001). Lederach comfirms that the opposite of humility is arrogance
and how this will backfire if used in conflict or the rebuilding stages (Helmick, 2001). Lederach
talks about how one can always learn and no one understands everything about the other side of
the conflict so suggest that one should remain open and be willing to learn (Helmick, 2001).
“Reconcilation: Restoring the Fabric of Community” is a great section where Lederach
describes how communites, no matter how big or small, must come together for a chance of
reconcilation on a higher level (Helmick, 2001). This may be hard for communites because
when so many people are involved not everyone will be on the same page for resolving the
conflict. Lederach talks about energy and how communities feed off of energy that is going
around (Helmick, 2001). An important thing that Lederach mentions is that communies must not
“forgive and forget” but instead they need to “remember and change” (Helmick, 2001, pg. 201).
The final section relates to a metaphor and is titled “ Reconcilation As A Wandering In A
Desert” (Helmick, 2001). In this section Lederach talks about the biblical metaphor associated
with the title and how it can take a very long time to resolve and move on from a major conflict.
ARTICLE REVIEW TWO: CHAPTER TEN
STOKES 4
Lederach encourgaes parties and supports to think in longer terms such as decades when
planning and rebuilding (Helmick, 2001).
Lederach summarizes his best advice for the process of reconcilation with a few tips. He
suggest that parties should be seeking a genuine relationship over results (Helmick, 2001, pg.
203). He encourages parties to look at long term goals and to be patient to rebuilding and to be
open with the other parties and not to assume you know everything (Helmick, 2001).
Personal Assessment
I thought that the article written by John Lederach was phenominal and it has by far been
my favorit in the Forgiveness and Reconcilation book. I took away one word from each topic
that he provided and the five words that I came away with are trust, support, learning, justice,
and patience. In my opinion, this is the process that Lederach is reaching for and I think it makes
perfect sense. Reconcilation is not easy and it definitely takes all of these things to accomplish.
I would have liked to read more about the last section “ Reconcilation As A Wandering In The
Desert” because it was a very breif review and I would have liked to see more biblical references
in this section since he refers to it coming from the bible. I did like how he gave the biblical
example of Jacob and Esau in the section “Reconcilation As Accompaniment” because it made
the topic very easy to understand. Overall, Lederach did a great job explaining each of his
qualities to the process of reconcilation.
Relationship to Conflict Management
This article was by far one of the best related to conflict management. The reason I say
this is because Lederach is explaining a process and giving tools on how to start the process of
reconcilation between parties. Another great thing is that Lederach is basing this off deep-rooted
issues and gives examples of how to get past the conflict and move into a phase of rebuilding. At
ARTICLE REVIEW TWO: CHAPTER TEN
STOKES 5
the end of his article he gives very concrete advice on how to stay focused and remain in the
game for reconcilation. Conflict management focuses on how to properly manage and resolve
conflict so this article was extremly relatable to the field.
ARTICLE REVIEW TWO: CHAPTER TEN
STOKES 6
References
Helmick, R. (2001). Five Qualities Of Practice in Support of Reconcilation Processes by John
Paul Lederach In Helmick, R. & Petersen, R. (Eds), Forgiveness and reconciliation (pp.
193-203). West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Foundation Press
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