oa Hope for Peace in a Broken World: 1 Chronicles, Exile and Building Walls

The world abounds in clash of cultures, religions and beliefs today, as it has for millennia. In such contexts, how do we try to live peaceably with those who have differing opinions on how to live, worship, and believe. Such situations, in addition to the more mundane reasons based on wealth and land, often lead to wars, destroying each other’s religions and building walls to separate one another. We see this in the division of Korea into North and South Koreas and the devastating consequences for a divided country. Today, our American context of immigration is resulting in a clash of cultures between various world religions as well as the difference in relations between religions and state, where, in Jewish and Muslim societies, the two are intertwined, while in American Christian societies, the two are, in principle, separated. This article will examine the Book of 1 Chronicles to see how people in exile experienced sojourning, settlement, return and rebuilding and what its implications are for us are today. This paper will work towards how different religions, cultures and societies can peacefully coexist.