Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Reconciliation

The ending of enmity between God and humanity — enemies made friends, the relationship restored, through the death of Christ.

Latin reconciliare, 'to bring together again'; renders Greek katallassō / katallagē.

Romans 5:10–11; 2 Corinthians 5:18–21; Ephesians 2:13–16; Colossians 1:19–22.

Emphasised in Pauline theology; recovered as a central category in twentieth-century theology (e.g. Barth, 'The Doctrine of Reconciliation').

Reconciliation is God's initiative ('God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself') and includes both a changed status and a call to be changed people ('be reconciled to God').

Whether reconciliation presupposes propitiation (a real enmity on God's side toward sin) or only humanity's hostility toward God.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.