Caring Enough to Confront: How to Transform Conflict with Compassion and Grace

by David Augsburger

Conflict simply is. Believing that we can somehow avoid it only damages our relationships. But when we learn to integrate our needs and wants with those of others, conflict can be a catalyst in our relationships for deeper loving care. Caring Enough to Confront is a classic in Christian peacemaking. It teaches the reader how to build trust, cope with blame and prejudice, and be honest about anger and frustration. David Augsburger challenges readers to keep in mind that the important issue is not what the conflict is about but how the conflict is handled. He offers a constructive model for dealing with conflict that is guided by the Sermon on the Mount to show Christians how to confront with compassion and resolve issues in a healthy and healing way.

Caring Enough to Confront gives readers the tools to make the most of every conflict, whether in family, church, or work relationships.

192 pages, Paperback

Published January 2, 2018

Reviews

[Kipi (the academic stitcher) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of this book is excellent, and I chose it as a textbook in a graduate course that I developed recently. The reader with a heart open to learning about him/herself will find Augsburger's approach to conflict and reconciliation very helpful and enlightening. The second half of the book is less useful to me as an instructor as the author seems to promote his pacifist convictions through much of it. I have no problem with a person having these convictions, but the very nature of conflict resolution/management says that there can be (and usually is) more than one perspective, but he seems to promote his views as more righteous than someone else's who would choose to defend his/her country, and this apparent bias was disappointing which is why I only gave the book four stars.

[Michael Schmid · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the title somewhat misleading. I was expecting more something on how to confront someone regarding sin in their life, but this was more about interpersonal disagreement and conflict. The approach recommended to "live and let live" or to "be yourself and let others be theirselves". This is certainly very necessary in many cases, but not when dealing with sin, which this book does not really address. The author also seems to want to pursuade others that participation in any kind of war is morally wrong. But I found this to be unnecessary content for a book dealing with interpersonal conflict.