The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict by Ken SandeMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Sande has dedicated his life to the ministry of resolving conflict. However, his passion is at times is lost in the excessively long introductions and round-about elaboration. Future revisions hopefully would come with more diagrams, art and highlights of key quotations. A large dose of brevity would also do it much good; I believe that if Sande (or his editor) would shrink the excess material and cut the number of pages from 300 to 150-200, this would be a masterpiece without compare. After 6 reprints since 1991, perhaps it is time for a heavy treatment of a seasoned editor's pen to resonate with today's readers from the digital age.
I wonder how many people undergoing conflict in their lives would have the discipline to force themselves to keep reading to the end - given the unexciting factual material that perhaps is better consumed over a multi-day workshop (I completed the read only because it was a requirement for a course). His target audience would probably not have the emotional state of mind to get to the useful parts of the book (which come around the middle to end).
Furthermore, while most of the dramatised illustrative narratives were in point in introducing the abstract topics, I found “Gently Restore” (p139-41) to be cringe-worthy in that the magical change in the character of the antagonist (and happy ending) made it hard to believe. If Sande could get in touch with the Dan Allender, perhaps the illustrations could have a touch of believability and realism added.
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