Living Without Enemies: Being Present in the Midst of Violence

by Samuel Wells

Publisher:

InterVarsity Press

, 2011

Overview

With senseless violence occurring throughout society, people are suffering and communities are groaning. Fear and not knowing where to begin hold many back from doing anything at all. But is "doing something" really what is most needed?

Marcia Owen and Samuel Wells come together to tell the story of a community's journey through four different dimensions of social engagement. After attempts to seek legislative solutions led nowhere, a religious coalition began holding prayer vigils for local victims of gun violence. It was then that Owen discovered the beauty of simply being present. Through her friendships with both victims and offenders, Owen learned that being with was precisely the opposite of violence--it was love. And to truly love others as God loves us meant living without enemies and taking small steps toward reconciliation.

Owen and Wells offer deep insights into what it takes to overcome powerlessness, transcend fear and engage in radical acceptance in our dangerous world. Your view of ministry will be altered by this poignant tale of coming face-to-face with our God who loves boundlessly and has no enemies.

The book is part of the Resources for Reconciliation series that pair leading theologians with on-the-ground practitioners to produce fresh literature to energize and sustain Christian life and mission in a broken and divided world. This series of brief books works in the intersection between theology and practice to help professionals, leaders and everyday Christians life as ambassadors of reconciliation.

Product Details

• Title: Living Without Enemies: Being Present in the Midst of Violence
• Author: Samuel Wells
• Series: Resources for reconciliation.
• Publisher: InterVarsity Press
• Print Publication Date: 2011
• Logos Release Date: 2021
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Christian Living; Church work; Love › Religious aspects--Christianity; Nonviolence › Religious aspects--Christianity; North Carolina › Durham; Violence; Violence › North Carolina--Durham; Violence › North Carolina--Durham--Prevention; Violence › Prevention
• ISBNs: 9780830868711, 9780830834563, 0830868712, 0830834567
• Resource ID: LLS:WS_2AC94817B4DA425DA3C2F0B5ACA22EFE
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-02-07T17:01:52Z

About Samuel Wells

Sam Wells graduated from Merton College, Oxford, with an MA in Modern History, from Edinburgh University with a BD in Systematic Theology, and from Durham University with a PhD in Christian Ethics. Before training for ordination, Sam was a community worker in inner-city Liverpool. From 1991–2005 he served in parish ministry in the Church of England. He was assistant curate in Wallsend, North Tyneside and in Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, before being incumbent at St. Elizabeth’s, North Earlham, Norwich, and then St. Mark’s, Newnham, Cambridge. While in Norwich he helped to establish—and was for several years vice chair of—the North Earlham, Larkman and Marlpit Development Trust, the first organization in the East of England devoted to community-led urban regeneration. He also established a non-profit organization offering disadvantaged children opportunities to discover wonder and joy through creative play.

In the summer of 2005, Wells became dean of Duke University Chapel and research professor of Christian ethics at The Divinity School. Sam’s responsibilities include preaching at the majority of the 11 a.m. Sunday services, leading worship, interacting with and praying for all levels of the university—leaders, faculty, administrators, students and staff. His work also entails lifting up the connections between Christian faith and theology and the pressing issues of the day, and making the Chapel and the poorest neighborhoods of Durham visible to one another. He is married to Jo Bailey Wells, who is a former dean of Clare College, Cambridge and is now director of Anglican Studies at Duke Divinity School, and they have two children.