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 present 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. " Living Without Enemies is a useful read as we reflect on how churches responded and might in the future respond to the violence we saw on our streets last august, and which is ongoing in different ways elsewhere." -- Andy Goodliff, Belle Vue Baptist Church, Regents Reviews, April 2012 " Living Without Enemies is an amazing story of love and reconciliation. It is a powerful portrayal of how God loves us and inspires us all to love each other more deeply." -- Leroy Barber, president of Mission Year " Living Without Enemies is a deeply human book that is disarming in its ability to illustrate the ironic turn of tragic yet restorative stories of victims who became perpetrators only to find themselves victimized by an inhuman system that fails to affirm human dignity and our need for grace. Striking in its honest, real-life accounts, Living Without Enemies is inviting, inspiring and illuminating. This volume is one of the most important and most urgent in the Resources for Reconciliation series. It is truly a timely plea for the urgent need for peace in a time when humanity is crying out for hope." -- Chris Heuertz, international director of Word Made Flesh and author of Simple Spirituality and Friendship at the Margins "Living Without Enemies is exactly and perfectly what reconciliation literature should be. Informative, certainly. Moving beyond anything I would or could have ever expected. And above all, instructive of my soul and my own Christian practice. I am much in the authors' debt for their retelling of these stories and experiences." -- Phyllis Tickle, author, The Words of Jesus: A Gospel of the Sayings of Our Lord "To rightly serve those in need is no small challenge. Helping can be unintentionally hurtful if done inappropriately. Samuel Wells and Marcia Owen offer a clear, carefully conceived road map into the sometimes confusing environment of crosscultural interpersonal relationships. Living Without Enemies is an excellent practical guide for forging redemptive relationships." -- Bob Lupton, FCS Urban Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, author of Renewing the City "To rightly serve those in need is no small challenge. Helping can be unintentionally hurtful if done inappropriately. Samuel Wells and Marcia Owen offer a clear, carefully conceived road map into the sometimes confusing environment of crosscultural interpersonal relationships. Living Without Enemies is an excellent practical guide for forging redemptive relationships." -- Bob Lupton, FCS Urban Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, author of Renewing the City Samuel Wells (Ph.D., Durham University) is dean of Duke University Chapel and research professor of Christian ethics at Duke Divinity School. He is the author of several books, including Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics and Speaking the Truth: Preaching in a Pluralistic Culture. Marcia A. Owen is executive director of the Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham (nonviolentdurham.org), a nonprofit organization actively seeking an end to violence in its community.