Advance Comment
Fractured Dance


"How often is compelling and life-changing dialogue invited or engaged in Christian communities? Far too often we evaluate, assess, and pontificate without developing the theoretical, let alone personal, capacity to truly hear and receive a perspective that differs from ours. Fractured Dance steps into the cacophony of a divisive issue with profound sensitivity and invites us to hear nuances and ambiguity in light of a tender and broken-hearted hermeneutics. Michael King's reading of community, division, and a playful engagement with meaning offers not an end point to conflict but a waypoint toward truthful love. What a joy that theologically Reformed psychologist can deeply profit from a Mennonite pastor who courageously engages a raw conflict with the playful hopefulness of a postmodern, Gadamerian hermeneutic. Gadamer would be thrilled. Far more, Jesus is delighted in this compelling, life-changing dialogue."
—Dan B. Allender, President, Mars Hill Graduate School, Seattle, Washington

"An engaging and well-written book, Fractured Dance will provide insights to all who have an interest in exploring creative ways of negotiating through conflict."
—Anita Pomerantz, Communication Department Director, University at Albany, SUNY

"The issue of homosexuality runs like a fault-line through most Christian denominations and the dominant society. Polemical positioning on both sides precludes the mere possibility of dialogue, much less nuanced stances. That is why we all need Michael King’s Fractured Dance. Drawing on the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer, King argues for genuine dialogue not as a path to a mealy-mouthed compromise but to interpersonal transformation. While showing that such dialogue has so far proved elusive, King also holds out hope that traditional Mennonite commitments to community, humility, and gelassenheit (yieldedness) may yet make it possible. Fractured Dance may provide the beginning of the dialogue it calls for, if only it finds the partners who accept its invitation to dance."
—Gregory A. Clark, Associate Professor of Philosophy, North Park University and member, Reba Place Fellowship

"This book is a resource for all who seek to assist the church in witnessing through its communication practices to the unity and love amidst conflict that Jesus said was the sign of true discipleship. Furthermore, the book exemplifies scholarship that maintains academic integrity while remaining accessible to the church on whose behalf it has, at least in part, been written.

"Finally, by addressing forthrightly yet openly the critics of Gadamerian communication theory, Michael King demonstrates how academic argument can incorporate both commitment and grace. In so doing, King offers an embracing and constructive approach to theoretical discussion that illustrates how the Gadamerian conversational practices he advocates throughout the book might reshape not only the public sphere of the church, but also the argumentation styles of intellectuals."
—Gerald J. Biesecker-Mast, Associate Professor of Communication, Bluffton College

"Having read Fractured Dance, my spirit yearns once again for a church that exudes grace. My heart longs for those sacred places where both truth and love prevail. My mind reaches to understand a world beyond my experience, out there on the horizons of God's universe. Behind and sometimes through the scholarly overlay of Michael King's book, one feels the passion of a Jeremiah who cares deeply for the welfare of his people in the midst of a tragic era. This is a book for all those who care deeply about the church we are now creating. This is a book for those who need to ponder the ways in which diverse peoples must learn to joyfully live together. This is a book for those who are called to work at issues of polity - ways in which we communicate within the church. This is a book for those who will cast their vision for the church with the pulse of hope."
—John A. Esau, Columnist, Mennonite Weekly Review

"Just as many traditional Mennonites have historically eschewed dancing, so have many eschewed "risking our prejudices" for truth larger than our own. In the context of a history of fractures, King utilizes Gadamer to redeem the dance of relating and growing and changing around and within our differences. Through careful analysis of a key situation in the Mennonite Church, he has both highlighted the failings and provided us with hope for the dances of the future."
—Carolyn Schrock-Shenk, Associate Professor of Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies, Goshen College

"In a controversy like that over homosexuality, when opinions among Mennonites often polarize, the dispassionate analysis of Fractured Dance is a welcome and necessary addition. Through his use of insights from historian and philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer, King reminds readers of underlying values commonly held by Mennonites which makes dialogue possible. Even readers with little or no previous knowledge of Gadamer can be drawn in by the specific application of his concepts to the struggle within the Franconia Conference over Germantown Mennonite Church's policy toward gays and lesbians.

"As one who loves a lively debate with dissenters far more than a tacit refusal to discuss controversial topics, this book encourages me to continue the dance, fractured though it may be at times!"
—Reta Halteman Finger, Assistant Professor of New Testament, Messiah College


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11/15/07